This is for OldSouth's friends from overseas who grace this page. Hopefully, some insight into life on the ground here can be gained for the minutes you spend here.
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OK. I watched The Speech. I tried to resist, but the same morbid curiosity that draws people to watch hotel fires and train wrecks worked its dark magic. I should have strapped myself to the mast, and resisted the song of the Sirens. Alas, woe is me.
Barack Obama is truly one of a kind. Never, ever in history has a sitting President scolded the assembled justices of the Supreme Court in front of the assembled Senate and House, and invited the legislators to cheer for his behavior. And cheer they did, the Democrats.
Not even FDR did that. Not Nixon. Not Reagan.
No one. Ever.
It is the surest indicator of a narcissism that knows no limits, of a profound ignorance of both the Constitution and basic polity of this nation. It's as if, well, he hails from some other place entirely, and never assimilated himself to life here. Even if he has a live birth certificate from Hawaii (and I assume he does, somewhere), that's not the real issue. It is a cast of mind, a way of being in the world that seems, well, alien to American culture. Even as we hear him sing its praises, it's like listening to Tony Blair paying compliments to America as he addresses an American audience. Always at one or two removes, always looking over the heads and never into the faces of the audience.
As always, he talked about Himself.
And Himself.
And Himself.
He simultaneously talks about expanding government spending (what he calls 'investment') while reducing the deficits of the Federal government. He truly believes he can walk both north and south at the same time.
He really believes he and his have been conciliatory in their behavior, that they have been open in their dealings, and that his word can be trusted.
He really believes He can re-inflate the housing bubble, although there was no mention of Fannie and Freddie (and the taxpayers' unlimited support of them, announced the afternoon of 12/24/2009). He believes the housing bubble should be re-inflated.
No mention of GM, Chrysler, AIG, the UAW...as if those events just did not happen.
He really believes that the government that runs all the above enterprises should take over the health-care system. That His solution is The Only Solution.
He really believes he has done a great job in protecting us from terrorists. You know, like Major Hassan, or the Underpants Bomber, sitting in a Detroit jail with a government-paid lawyer.
He really believes that printing money, and spending 250k per 'job created or saved' actually creates economic growth. His vision of the future requires that government and industry join irrevocably at the hip, so that the line between enterprise and governmental power eternally blur. And then he decries corporate influence upon the government.
That's the scary bit.
He really believes what he's saying. He's really not being cynical. He believes these things like the Pope believes the Credo.
I don't worry so much that Obama's followers have drunk the Kool-Aid; like Smilin' Joe Biden, nodding and grinning at every line, like the preacher's favorite deacon at Bugtussle Baptist Church, or Miss Nancy the Church Lady, scanning the audience constantly, ever vigilant for any outbreak of guffaws of laughter or cries of protest.
The problem is--he has.
1 comment:
He cut his political teeth in Chicago - need I say more. But, let me say this, I personally did not like the Supreme's ruling. All they need to do is put caps (low caps like Rally's Big Buford money - 2 Big Bufords for $4). Obama can send Biden out to pick them and up and do lunch while they talk about the corporate constituent's request. Biden looks like he digs Rally's food - don't know about O. I miss my local Rally's - it closed this past year.
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