My friend in Vermont has a favorite expression. When he's incredulous he sends me these notes, in outrage: "Can you believe it!"

So President Obama in one of his rare press conferences yesterday (if you want to know why his conferences are "rare") stunned the country by opining that "the private sector is doing fine."

Mind you, 23 million people are unemployed, housing is under water, worth on average 30 to 35 percent less than when he came into office depending on where you live; businesses are petrified of the consequences of ObamaCare and Dodd/Frank and the continuing residue of, unarguably, the most anti-business administration to ever occupy the White House, and the president comes out with this beauty!

And here's the scary part: despite his hastily assertion to the contrary that he had "misspoken": he meant every word of it, just as Corey Booker meant it when he said, "It's nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough. Stop attacking private equity."

For this man not only disdains the private sector, but, as we speak, continues to implore more government spending (mind you we're already $16 trillion in debt) for teachers and firemen and police unions, despite states collapsing under the weight of bloated operating and pension obligations, despite the recent rejections of out of control entitlement spending in Wisconsin and the cities of San Jose and San Diego in California, despite the economic collapse of the welfare entitlement societies in Europe that Obama and his administration is striving to emulate!

Unbelievable. So before I get my buddy's predictable "Can you believe it!" exclamation, here's mine, equally incredulous, from this neck of the woods, which I'm sure echoes the sentiment of millions of `average' Americans:

"Are you kidding me!"
JOHN de CARVILLE

East Fallowfield