Sorry, Mike: Barack is not like Ike

The usually erudite Michael Barone has lapsed into a bit too much holiday cheer, I fear.

He recently has expressed hope that the President-elect, Barack Obama, will resemble Dwight Eisenhower. 

Now, apart from the fact an infantry officer from West Point does not equate to a community organizer from Harvard Law School, let's look at the one resemblance:an interest in infrastructure  

Eisenhower's signature project was the Interstate Highway system . The program is still a major national asset and was constructed at current dollar price of less than $500 billion.It was paid by user fees, not deficit spending

During Eisenhower's years in office the federal debt burden as a percentage of GNP fell dramatically

Compare this with Obamanomics, a trillion dollar grab bag of odds and ends which are unlikely to make a lasting difference in our nation's economic future, like golf courses in resort communities. 

And remember the perennial Democrat pledge "to make America respected in the world". Well, our profligate fiscal policies are not winning friends across the pond.   As the UK's Financial Times pointed out

This is a dangerous tactic. America is already estimated to have a $12 trillion debt pile — roughly 70 per cent of gross domestic product. America’s annual deficit has now hit the highest level since the Second World War, running at an equivalent of about 7 per cent of GDP, surpassing the previous record in the early Reagan years of 6.5 per cent.

Having been born in 1959, I was an infant during the Eisenhower years, therefore I can't credibly do the Lloyd Bentsen speech. But even a cursory review can demonstrate Barack Obama is no Dwight Eisenhower.