This roller coaster ride will lay you out flat and send chills up your legs

You remember in 2008 when MSNBC’s Chris Matthews explained to his viewers, after listening to Barack Obama speak, that he “felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often.” And before that, in 2004, you remember Matthews listened to another of Obama’s speeches at the Democratic National Convention, when he admitted to his viewers that “I have to tell ya, a little chill in my, in my legs now.”

Do you remember that women were also fainting at Obama’s rallies? His cadences and crescendos apparently triggered sudden, large surges of adrenaline and other stress hormones – and fainting is the body’s natural defense mechanism to restore blood flow to the brain by placing you in a horizontal position (and, apparently, flat on the floor). Seriously, this happened.

I have listened to and watched dozens of Obama’s speeches (without fainting), but the content of his speeches are more wishful than particular, more politically correct than practical.

Back then, in 2008, he said that he was “absolutely certain” that generations from now, “we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth.”

Instead, after nearly $2 trillion in spending, there are just 3 percent more Americans with health insurance today, and that number is now dropping every day – as many Americans simply can’t afford paying their premiums. That comes as little surprise considering insurance companies lost $2.7 billion in 2014 alone, and are now raising premiums on everyone by as much as 60 percent to keep from collapsing and going out of business altogether (as two-thirds of the government-funded health insurance exchanges have already done).

Instead of good jobs for the jobless, 94 million Americans are not even working right now – the highest ever in our country’s history. The number of those filing for unemployment benefits is at its highest in more than a year, and the number of layoffs planned this year is surging.

And instead of “healing our planet,” taxpayers are now shouldering more than $2.2 billion in expected loan guarantee defaults from companies like the bankrupt renewable energy company, Solyndra, and at least 36 other taxpayer-funded green energy projects that have vanished like the wind.

And instead of the “rise of the oceans slowing,” as Barack Obama predicted, some scientists say that the oceans have continued to rise. This year, in fact, the sea level rise in the northern Indian Ocean is reportedly twice as fast as the global average in over 10 years!

Yes, we “ended a war,” but the battle for peace in our world didn’t end. Obama began withdrawing our combat troops from Iraq in 2011, but our military advisors had warned that it was too soon to leave. In the end, this single decision to withdraw from Iraq left the door wide open for ISIS to flourish and expand their terror around the world.

... insurance companies lost $2.7 billion in 2014 alone, and are now raising premiums on everyone by as much as 60 percent to keep from collapsing ...”

And while America remains the “last, best hope on earth,” that part was established long ago, by our Declaration of Independence. Still, our image around the world has diminished, as ISIS overtook Iraq, after we spent billions training an Iraqi army that has all but disappeared, and even though Bashar al-Assad in Syria gassed his own citizens, we stood by silently and offered empty threats, instead. Hardly the image of past Americans, who liberated Europeans from the Nazis or defended freedom in the face of Communism.

So, with all of this said, if there are some of you are voting for Hillary Clinton because you believe you will be making history in electing the first woman president of the United States – you will be – but not the kind of history you may be thinking.

You will be voting for the longest period of Democratic Party rule since Franklin Delano Roosevelt (and the third term of Barack Obama), and if the brief summary above of the last eight years doesn’t make the point, then I’m just going to tell you what your mama told you about that girl you dated in high school, or almost married (or maybe did): She’s just not right for you, son.

No, this one isn’t for you … no matter what thrill, or chill, is running up your leg.

Louis R. Avallone is a Shreveport businessman and attorney. He is also a former aide to U.S. Representative Jim McCrery and editor of The Caddo Republican. His columns have appeared regularly in The Forum since 2007. Follow him on Facebook, on Twitter @louisravallone or by e-mail at [email protected].