We all know about the Gore Effect. That’s the strange phenomenon that brings record-cold temperatures and snowfall to an area whenever Al Gore arrives to discuss global warming.
But is there also an Obama Effect? For example:
Cardinal Fastener & Specialty Co., a Cleveland-based manufacturer of screws and bolts for wind turbines, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday. … President Obama visited Cardinal, which is in Bedford Heights near Cleveland, in January 2009 before his inauguration.
When Barack Obama visited the struggling Allentown Metal Works in December 2009, the factory’s industrial landscape and its rugged workers made a perfect backdrop for the president to talk about his efforts to jump-start the economy.
On Thursday afternoon, its workers gone, its windows boarded up and its lot overgrown with weeds, the century-old building again made a perfect political backdrop.
And this one:
During a swing through Illinois to pitch the stimulus package, President Obama said that Caterpillar Inc. will be able to rehire employees it had laid off.
And the reality:
What infrastructure boom? If there is one, Caterpillar (CAT), whose CEO promised Obama that the stimulus would allow it to keep more employees, isn’t seeing one.
The company just announced another 2,454 layoffs in three states. This is the company’s third round of layoffs in just a few months.
Are there hundreds of CEOs out there praying that Obama never sets foot in one of their plants? Maybe. But, unfortunately, too many have embraced the phony capitalism of crony capitalism, and are too quick to go to the feds with hat in hand than try to build a business the old-fashioned way, by earning it.
UPDATE: The Obama Effect is more powerful than I thought. Apparently all it takes is a mere mention of your business from Obama:
An Ohio restaurant mentioned last week by President Barack Obama as an indirect beneficiary of the government’s Chrysler bailout will go out of business Sunday after a more than 70-year history.
