Thinking about the next act.
This is the first post in which I entirely assume an Obama win. With 3 weeks left I see no reason to believe that McCain is anything but the fatted GOP calf being sacrificed so the Republicans can regroup after Bush. So be it. I want to start thinking about the next phase. If something drastic happens to change this theory we will all know it immediately.
As the latest round of rotten Obama ties have became clear - (I am speaking about Franklin Raines here) it now seems likely that the Bush legacy will be consolidated during an Obama Administration.
We can and should now look at how the combination of his corporate/corrupt Chicago ties and his high end radical roots will play out. It is an odd mix. But there are themes or values that each side has in common.
Where do the two streams of Obama's intellectual heritage merge?
Both work from a top down model. Power is centralized.
Daley's Chicago is a good example. Money flows in and is dispersed through a centralized power base. Fannie Mae worked the same way - money flowed in from banks and was redirected in an economically abnormal way. Graft, corruption and very little hilarity ensued.
On the radical side we have ACORN as a good example. Far from being a grass roots organization - it is a well organized machine intent on voter fraud - in the most recent case intent on getting Obama elected. The Ayres/Anneberg foundation ideology on education works the same way. "Education" (read "re-education") standards come from on high (with cash attached)- not the PTA and certainly not middle class parents.
The Obama media and his minions follow the top down model with glee and vengeance. Axelrod sends out a note through Kos or a fellow traveller blog and the media and Obama masses happily pick it up and run. We've seen this over and over again all year. From the "Clintons are racist" to "Palin wasn't really pregnant." If this propaganda machine was set up in any other country I would look on with awe - and gratitude that I wasn't there.
Centralized power ties into the second theme both sides of the Obama coin have in common:
Control.
Both the "corporatist" and "radical" elements of the Obama phenomenon are committed to control on all levels. Obama backed away from his FISA stance with good reason. We should never forget this. His brief mention last summer of a civilian force to be funded like the military was not a mistake. Moving the DNC to Chicago...and so on.
Almost all the banking power in the nation has now been focused in D.C. after the "bailout" passed. One financial institution after another has been nationalized. The Treasury Secretary now has almost unlimited and clearly unconstitutional authority over the government's money. (Our money).
Add this to the mix: Obama will have a compliant Congress for at least 2 years. And what a 2 years it will be. Which brings me to this: Congress will then have to face the people, as will President Bush and his Cabinet, and may God have mercy on our Republican form of government, because history shows that when government mismanages things to this degree and refuses to respond to the will of the people, a "messiah" generally appears with a "solution" - but there will be "compromises."
Like your freedom.
The mess is certainly not Obama's fault. But I see nothing in the BHO triangulation of corporatism, radicalism, and narcissism that will midwife a new birth of hope and freedom. I see no "new day" on the horizon. I wish with every fiber of my being that I did. I know of no one who wants to see a successful Democrat more than I do. But apparently one can only believe Obama is the one for the job through willful ignorance and a fantasia of denial and delusion.
Obama is being ushered into power not to change the Bush/Cheney legacy but to finalize it.
Obama and Axlerod have been brilliant in manipulating the hologram. Hope and Change are meaningless and they know it. Hope and Change will mean whatever the economic terror of the next few years allows. The government can't spend us back to economic health - there is no money. We can't consume our way back - there is no credit and no cash. American ingenuity? Okay. I hope so. But the country that hung that shingle out peaked with the moon landing. The energy, resources, and society that won WW2 and landed on the moon still exists - except for the energy and resources and manufacturing base...and I question whether the society that had faith in the individual can be resurrected without painful psychological dislocation. A country of distracted brats is not going to take kindly to pensions and 5 dollar coffee being forcibly removed.
As the idiotic false economy of the last 30 years continues to unwind what power will Obama have to stop it? And, like it or not, the fundamentals are not "sound". The fundamentals don't exist. Since at least Reagan, the economy has been fueled by one money laundering credit scheme after another - from deficit spending, to dot coms, to real estate hallucinations. We've gotten fat in reality on wealth that only existed in theory. That sucking sound you hear is the money lard being liposuctioned into the abyss. The Paulson/Bush power grab signed off on by the feckless "leadership" has had, and will have, no effect. Since Pelosi, Obama, McCain and the rest over road the will of the people last week the market is down 900 some odd points. I stopped looking after 700.
So where does this leave the leader of hope and change? He had better change his mantra to "trust and "faith" quickly. That is what he'll need to be selling. What spooks me is his track record. Obama's gut instinct is to control, blame and attack. He seems to show up and shine during the job interview then leave the heavy lifting to others - that is - when there is heavy lifting to be done. This is another area he is eerily like W. What he actually accomplished between "interviews" or while having gainful employment is either suspect, nonexistent, or reconstructed to his liking after the fact. The Presidency is not a good place to vote present - or to slog off responsibilities to ideologues and sycophants. (See Iraq invasion planning and Katrina aftermath for proof.)
A counter point to this is his time heading the Annenberg foundation. This should have been a prime example of his executive experience. Of course, they skip it since what he presided over would alarm most of us.
It is entirely possible he will be a fantastic chief executive. What is disturbing on this point is, again, where he comes from. None of his past associations indicate an ability or desire to rise above corruption and/or expediency. He has spent his time with radicals and crooks. This is fact. His entire upbringing through the system a populated by radicals and crooks. Will this suddenly stop?
Actually, I can see an eventuality in which it does. His narcissism may save him. He'll throw anyone under the bus. This much is clear. At present, history is opening the door for a great President. He's smart enough to rise above all of the radicals and crooks and financiers. He could want to be a great President badly enough to become one. I have seen none of this moral fiber in Obama thus far. That does not mean it is not there.
Then again - what is more likely is that those who made the investment will want a substantial return.
As the latest round of rotten Obama ties have became clear - (I am speaking about Franklin Raines here) it now seems likely that the Bush legacy will be consolidated during an Obama Administration.
We can and should now look at how the combination of his corporate/corrupt Chicago ties and his high end radical roots will play out. It is an odd mix. But there are themes or values that each side has in common.
Where do the two streams of Obama's intellectual heritage merge?
Both work from a top down model. Power is centralized.
Daley's Chicago is a good example. Money flows in and is dispersed through a centralized power base. Fannie Mae worked the same way - money flowed in from banks and was redirected in an economically abnormal way. Graft, corruption and very little hilarity ensued.
On the radical side we have ACORN as a good example. Far from being a grass roots organization - it is a well organized machine intent on voter fraud - in the most recent case intent on getting Obama elected. The Ayres/Anneberg foundation ideology on education works the same way. "Education" (read "re-education") standards come from on high (with cash attached)- not the PTA and certainly not middle class parents.
The Obama media and his minions follow the top down model with glee and vengeance. Axelrod sends out a note through Kos or a fellow traveller blog and the media and Obama masses happily pick it up and run. We've seen this over and over again all year. From the "Clintons are racist" to "Palin wasn't really pregnant." If this propaganda machine was set up in any other country I would look on with awe - and gratitude that I wasn't there.
Centralized power ties into the second theme both sides of the Obama coin have in common:
Control.
Both the "corporatist" and "radical" elements of the Obama phenomenon are committed to control on all levels. Obama backed away from his FISA stance with good reason. We should never forget this. His brief mention last summer of a civilian force to be funded like the military was not a mistake. Moving the DNC to Chicago...and so on.
Almost all the banking power in the nation has now been focused in D.C. after the "bailout" passed. One financial institution after another has been nationalized. The Treasury Secretary now has almost unlimited and clearly unconstitutional authority over the government's money. (Our money).
Add this to the mix: Obama will have a compliant Congress for at least 2 years. And what a 2 years it will be. Which brings me to this: Congress will then have to face the people, as will President Bush and his Cabinet, and may God have mercy on our Republican form of government, because history shows that when government mismanages things to this degree and refuses to respond to the will of the people, a "messiah" generally appears with a "solution" - but there will be "compromises."
Like your freedom.
The mess is certainly not Obama's fault. But I see nothing in the BHO triangulation of corporatism, radicalism, and narcissism that will midwife a new birth of hope and freedom. I see no "new day" on the horizon. I wish with every fiber of my being that I did. I know of no one who wants to see a successful Democrat more than I do. But apparently one can only believe Obama is the one for the job through willful ignorance and a fantasia of denial and delusion.
Obama is being ushered into power not to change the Bush/Cheney legacy but to finalize it.
Obama and Axlerod have been brilliant in manipulating the hologram. Hope and Change are meaningless and they know it. Hope and Change will mean whatever the economic terror of the next few years allows. The government can't spend us back to economic health - there is no money. We can't consume our way back - there is no credit and no cash. American ingenuity? Okay. I hope so. But the country that hung that shingle out peaked with the moon landing. The energy, resources, and society that won WW2 and landed on the moon still exists - except for the energy and resources and manufacturing base...and I question whether the society that had faith in the individual can be resurrected without painful psychological dislocation. A country of distracted brats is not going to take kindly to pensions and 5 dollar coffee being forcibly removed.
As the idiotic false economy of the last 30 years continues to unwind what power will Obama have to stop it? And, like it or not, the fundamentals are not "sound". The fundamentals don't exist. Since at least Reagan, the economy has been fueled by one money laundering credit scheme after another - from deficit spending, to dot coms, to real estate hallucinations. We've gotten fat in reality on wealth that only existed in theory. That sucking sound you hear is the money lard being liposuctioned into the abyss. The Paulson/Bush power grab signed off on by the feckless "leadership" has had, and will have, no effect. Since Pelosi, Obama, McCain and the rest over road the will of the people last week the market is down 900 some odd points. I stopped looking after 700.
So where does this leave the leader of hope and change? He had better change his mantra to "trust and "faith" quickly. That is what he'll need to be selling. What spooks me is his track record. Obama's gut instinct is to control, blame and attack. He seems to show up and shine during the job interview then leave the heavy lifting to others - that is - when there is heavy lifting to be done. This is another area he is eerily like W. What he actually accomplished between "interviews" or while having gainful employment is either suspect, nonexistent, or reconstructed to his liking after the fact. The Presidency is not a good place to vote present - or to slog off responsibilities to ideologues and sycophants. (See Iraq invasion planning and Katrina aftermath for proof.)
A counter point to this is his time heading the Annenberg foundation. This should have been a prime example of his executive experience. Of course, they skip it since what he presided over would alarm most of us.
It is entirely possible he will be a fantastic chief executive. What is disturbing on this point is, again, where he comes from. None of his past associations indicate an ability or desire to rise above corruption and/or expediency. He has spent his time with radicals and crooks. This is fact. His entire upbringing through the system a populated by radicals and crooks. Will this suddenly stop?
Actually, I can see an eventuality in which it does. His narcissism may save him. He'll throw anyone under the bus. This much is clear. At present, history is opening the door for a great President. He's smart enough to rise above all of the radicals and crooks and financiers. He could want to be a great President badly enough to become one. I have seen none of this moral fiber in Obama thus far. That does not mean it is not there.
Then again - what is more likely is that those who made the investment will want a substantial return.
posted by J -SOM at
Friday, October 10, 2008
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