Hanson panders to Internet white noise

Columnist Victor Davis Hanson’s three-truths-salvo getting inside Donald Trump’s head feels more like hyperbolic fiction than fact (“Obama’s many failings … ,” Jan. 17).

In 1993, the 30-year mortgage rate was 8.43 percent not today’s 3.67 percent. Unemployment is at 5 percent versus 9 percent after the 2010-2011 sub-prime mortgage fallout. The $10 trillion principally entitlement debt is accurate, but Mr. Hanson forgets these successes or the president’s personal sufficiency efforts for those who want work – minimum wage increases from $5.75 to $10, universal health care and a sunset goal of two free years of upward mobility college education. Trump isn’t doing anything like it.

Barack Obama and Bill Clinton share similar ratings near exit, although Clinton almost never faced war, unlike Obama what with maniacal, U.S.-annihilating Osama bin Laden on the loose and the tauntings of nuclear weapons nations.

It’s true we have immigration and other challenges for which we need measured answers. Mr. Hanson’s fail is he panders to the white noise of the Internet. Politics is politics, but today we’re headed into a convergence of politics, entrepreneurialism and entertainment masquerading as worthy of analysis. It isn’t.

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 5:40 AM with the headline "Hanson panders to Internet white noise."