Well, folks, he did it again. He gave another one of his famous speeches, and all of the liberals (real or imagined) of one stripe or another have been reduced to the orgasmic state because Our President has finally turned the corner and is going to be tough with the opposition. He has finally realized that he has a set of gonads! Now, I ask you, how many times is he going to have to go through the motions of an oratorical genius that would put Roman Senators to shame before we realize that is his stock in trade. He gives a speech that has nothing to do with his real agenda. We are lulled into believing this guy is, finally, going to show us that he is a real Democrat. Then, what does he do? He goes back to the White House, meets behind closed doors or in secret with the very ones he vilified in his speech, and strikes a deal that is diametrically opposed to what he said he was going to do for the American people. The script is so old and tired that it wouldn’t take much talent for a minor actor to write it with his eyes closed.
How many times do we have to be led down this path before we come to the conclusion that only one thing can be said about him with any degree of certainty? He is consistently inconsistent! He is a lifelong student on the subject of elitism, with a solid base of support from those who are in the business of destroying the Middle Class and working people of this country. Those are his constituency, not those who want so desperately to believe that he is the real deal. He has played the Democrats for a bunch of fools for over two plus years and still gets away with it. They still give him a free pass, the cost of which is nothing more but well-crafted rhetoric and a teleprompter.
He has just come out with a real barn-burner. He has reassured us, once again, that he is there to serve the lesser of us “Americans,” knowing full well that he has no intentions of living up to the letter of what he is preaching. The real deal is what he has in mind for the powerbrokers who lace his pockets with enough “moola” to keep him in office.
Without wishing to belabor this matter, permit me to simply pose a few random questions based on his campaign promises in 2008 in order to illustrate my doubts about how credible he really is.
1. When he campaigned for the Presidency in 2008 we were assured that he would hold to account the members of the previous administration who were guilty of war crimes. That was dismissed soon after his election with words to the effect that “he preferred to look to the future rather than dwell on the past.” Just an empty promise to the memory of all those who suffered at their hands.
2. What happened to his promise to outlaw the warrantless wiretapping of American citizens?
3. What happened to his promise to close Guantanamo Bay?
4. What happened to his original timetable for exiting from Iraq and Afghanistan?
5. What happened to his support for a national health plan that would include a public option and reign in the obscene profits of health care providers and private insurance carriers?
6. What happened to his promise that pharmaceutical companies would be required to negotiate drug prices with the government?
7. What happened to the stringent controls that were going to be imposed on the financial institutions on Wall Street? The Dodd-Frank Bill is an impotent second-best, most of which is yet to become law.
8. What happened to the consumer protection laws that were to insulate consumers from the predatory lending practices of every huckster in the business of lending, credit card companies, mortgage companies, etc.? Full financial disclosure and all of the other means of reigning in the bandits that sold out this country was to be the order of the day. Why was Elizabeth Warren so hastily marginalized before she could even get her sea legs and begin to do something meaningful? You don’t suppose the big boys in high places who stood to lose their license to do whatever they wanted in the name of the almighty profit set their sights on her, do you?
9. What happened to his promise to hold to account British Petroleum and the other opportunists that precipitated the Gulf oil crisis? What was done to make whole the legions of hard-working people living along the Gulf Coast who depended on a healthy Gulf for their livelihood?
10. What happened to his promise to restore an level playing field for organized labor in dealing with management?
11. What happened to his promise to strengthen NAFTA and CAFTA so they would be more balanced in terms of ensuring the interests of American business and American workers were fairly served?
12. Why, as he rails on and on about creating jobs, is he quietly working to expand our “free” trade agreements with other countries around the world that will shift hundreds of thousands of jobs “overseas?” Think Columbia, Honduras and Korea.
13. Why did he so quickly phase out some of the best economic minds and trade specialists in the country in favor of the rogues that surrounded Bill Clinton and his happy band of thieves? Think Larry Summers, Robert Rubin, Rahm Emmanuel, Timothy Geithner and a whole host of lesser sharks? He has, also, fortified that bunch with an economic advisor from General Electric and a son of the infamous Mayor Daley of Chicago? Does the aura of William Jefferson Clinton still inhabit the halls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or is the President simply doing what he does best? Fronting for the real power brokers. Who said corporate power is not alive and well in this administration?
14. Why has Obama managed to steadfastly avoid any close association with disenfranchised labor organizations fighting for a fair shake in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, etc? Has he lost sight of the fact that the majority of those same people supported him in his run for President in 2008? Or worse yet, does he even care?
Perhaps, at the end of the day, this is the manifestation of someone who, long ago, sold his soul to vast wealth, and massive political and social power. Does he see one of his paramount responsibilities as playing to the institutions of government that are so powerful and so compromised they have become impervious to proper oversight and accountability to those who, ostensibly, represent the American people?
Is his folksy rhetoric at town hall meetings or manufacturing plants the real Obama, or is his imperial countenance that we saw in Berlin and in Grant Park in Chicago the elitist so many of us are predisposed to seeing. But you can hardly compare the inherent worth of a waitress at Denny’s in Poughkeepsie, New York to that of a grand and narcissistic billionairess that sees him as nothing less than the reincarnation of Adonis himself.
This guy, insofar as I am concerned, is no friend or advocate for the Middle Class and working people that made this county great. He never was and never will be. What we are witnessing (and which will only intensify in the months to come) is a very well honed and skilled attempt to seduce all of those people into voting him in for another term so he can continue to serve the vultures that feed on the rotting flesh of this country. What does he have in his bag of tricks that he will take from the working people of this country and offer it to the Teabaggers and Republicans in exchange for their “bi-partisan support?” How about Medicare and Medicaid for starters?
At the very least he needs to be challenged for the Democratic nomination in 2012 by a real Democrat with the leadership skills, the credibility and the integrity to bring strength and honor to that office once again. Let the incumbent make a dignified exit and take his time shopping for a summer home on Lake Cuomo, a winter retreat in the Caribbean and a secluded mansion on the North Shore of Chicago. Surely, the rewards for being a loyal and devoted steward to the rich and famous, coupled with his government retirement benefits, would provide him with the means to live in the manner which he has coveted for such a long time.
I wasted my vote in 2008. The next time around, if President Obama is the only choice, I think I will take a pass and let the chips fall where they may. It couldn’t get any worse.
Cowboy Bob
September 20, 2011
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