Barrack "He whose middle name may not be uttered" Obama has been elected the 44th president of the United States. Congratulations to the Democrats and have fun at the victory party.So what happens next? That's a good question and I wish I had an answer, but the fact of the matter is that it depends entirely who President Obama is and for the first time in thirty years I am faced with an international figure of whom I haven't the slightest inkling. From what I have seen, Obama may be one of several unpleasant alternatives:
- A paper messiah who can't possibly make good on his promises.
- An empty suit; a political Zelig thrown by circumstances far out of his depth.
- A Socialist Trojan horse who will shock those who didn't understand what "change" meant.
- An unprincipled cynic who is for no one but himself.
Fingers crossed.
7 comments:
I'm going with choice number 3. Bill Clinton was number 4 and it's a strange day when I'm feeling better disposed towards him.
I'd love to be proved wrong, but the prospect of a Red President is the most unpleasant of all.
Somehow watching all the festivities in Chicago tonight I keep expecting someone from the sidelines to yell; "it's a cookbook!"
What's a cookbook? Rules for Radicals? Yes, it's a cookbook.
I do not know who Pres. Middle-Nameless One is either. His education and instincts are clearly Marxist (damn! we moved away from the USSR, among other reasons, to get away from that!). He seems to have lots of confidence in his mental superiority, and appears happiest when he's proving that he's more clever than you or I; either he is going to rule as an autocrat or he will show himself to be a weak king, when he enters the big leagues, and then who knows who will really be running the country?
Consolation: the Long War is a long war. This is a setback for our side, but until one side or the other is defeated, the fight goes on. This is not a happy thought for me, particularly since I have relatives and general coreligionists in Israel, on the front lines of the war, but Chamberlain was followed by Churchill (pity about the Czechs, but after the war they got to live in the shadow of the Workers' Paradise---oh crap!). I hope we've got a Churchill in reserve somewhere.
Option Four is the most hopeful. A cynical opportunist may at least have sense enough to keep the goose alive, and will want to protect his own skin and comfort.
Next best would be Option Two. If he quickly demonstrates that he is totally incapable of doing the job, power will simply shift to the legislative leaders. (And despite the repellent nature of those current leaders, this could actually be a good thing, long term. The Presidency is too powerful.)
Option One is basically the same as Two. He'll be frustrated but harmless.
It's Option Three that scares me to the core, especially since I think it's the closest to the truth. For the first time in America's history we have a President who actively dislikes this country.
I don't think that option three is very likely. The really dangerous commies are the ones who read Gramsci before going to bed each night. Barry's (that was his name back then) pal the pedophile---Frank M. Davis---was a commie because he was promised free stuff. Barry's other pal Ayers is I think, an anarchist first, and calls himself a communist because it makes blowing things up seem respectable (yes, I know, but I'm talking about him, not myself).
I expect an Obama administration to jack up taxes and cut military spending in order to increase welfare benefits and give nice payments to all his political friends. Life on the dole will become a lifestyle option. Even if the economy doesn't pull a Carter, there will be fewer jobs to go around.
Obama is making a lot of noise about saving polar bears. I expect crippling taxes on gasoline and diesel, and probably indirect wrenches in the works: no new development of oil fields. The promise to break the coal industry is also troubling. Factories use electric motors, spot-welding, inductive furnaces, etc., and a lot of that energy comes from coal. I remember, when I worked at Chrysler in Michigan, what a big deal it was to retool an assembly line for a new component; retooling an entire factory to not be electric any more would be a lot worse.
Outside the borders, Israel and Eastern Europe should be very concerned. Taiwan, Colombia and South Korea should also be concerned, but maybe not as much. Iraq is a write-off: defeat from the jaws of victory. People will look at the Kurds, who trusted us---twice---and got a bad deal both times, and if we will want to do anything militarily in the future, we should not expect to find local allies.
Unless Israel gets its act together and does an Osirak, Iran will go nuclear, and the Arabs will dump billions into doing the same. Russia will become strong again under Putin, but its demographic collapse makes me wonder what will happen with it, long-term. China will continue to do the colonialism thing in Africa and Siberia.
My predictions. I have neither the gift nor the curse of Cassandra, so they're worth about what you paid for them.
On the contrary, i personally have a good feeling about this man. He is young and modern, has energy, intelligence and wisdom. I'm deeply convinced that he will be a very good president. Of coarse it's going to be hard no matter who is in the oval office but there is hope!
claude bartlett, I hope you're right. Despite all the text I wrote above (making an effort to put all the punctuation and spaces where they belong yet!), I would dearly like to be proven wrong.
If he takes care of Wal-Mart that's eating America from the inside, he deserves at least some gratitude.
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