Obama doesn’t need luck. He has guns and cash.
Oh, so much hand-wringing on either side over the fate of the Obama presidency. First, from Time:
While he negotiates his way through the lame-duck session of Congress, prepares for his State of the Union address and budget, and braces for the new normals of 2011, the President had better figure out how to react when the moment comes. Without that moment – whatever it is – and strong leadership in its wake, Obama may find his luck has run out.
Or, from the short bus wing:
No, Obama won’t run in 2012, although he’ll be coy about it for at least a year. He has no taste for compromise and his over-weaning narcissism won’t allow him to be the head of a devolving minority party. Besides, I think his handlers are not pleased with the thwacking he took in the midterms, and will be looking hard for another puppet. In fact, George Soros, Obama’s premier benefactor and perhaps even the puppet master pulling his strings, just told a group of Progressives: “We have just lost this Election, we need to draw a line. And if this president can’t do what we need, it is time to start looking somewhere else.”
So many people, expending so much effort on nothing. People are considering Obama a weak president, based on what, exactly? Let’s see what he’s accomplished in two years:
Removed actual health care reform from discussion for our lifetimes by giving the very people who ruined it to begin with a signing bonus, and an entire nation of new premium payers- at the point of a gun.
Escalated the illegal and unnecessary wars into Pakistan and Africa, effectively making them his, not Bush’s wars.
Cut off all domestic and international attempts at holding the Bush regime to any sort of rule of law, making torture and rendition an actual debatable point.
Stage-managed the entire financial crisis to put his backers on track to having the largest year of corporate profits ever seen, only a few years past bringing the world to the edge of economic collapse.
Tap-danced on the “third rail” of American politics, on route to tossing your social security payments into the 3 card monte scheme that is Wall Street.
Anyone who thinks Obama is weak is a fool. Or he may be, but it really doesn’t matter. Because Obama no more runs this country than my dog. Obama was elected by Goldman Sachs and the shadowy “military-industrial” complex that Ike warned us about a generation ago. His few feints in the direction of actual liberal ideas are nothing more than bread and circuses meant to keep the Volvo crowd in line. If he wanted to end DADT, he could do it with the stroke of a pen. If he wanted Net Neutrality, it would get done. But in nearly every case, you can accurately predict how Obama will react simply by determining who will benefit from any given action. If he has the ability to fuck the majority and enrich the minority, that will be the side he picks.
And if his handlers decide that he’s given a sufficient return on investment, he’ll be our next President. And if the little people get antsy, then the national media will simply give Palin another show, or Newt will write another book of gibberish, and “just this time” the left will rally to save us from faux, unelectable celebrities masquerading as candidates. And the glib Barry O will just smile that sickening smile, put his feet up on the desk, and wait for the phone to ring.
And it sure as shit ain’t gonna be democracy calling.
