So Barack Obama's in Brasil today, I'm told. This is a good time for me to talk a little you-know-what about him behind his back.
Mr. President, I don't know why you held a press conference the day after last November's elections to whine about the GOP "shellacking" and pledge to capitulate until the cows came home. You didn't come across as a dignified public servant willing to compromise to get things done for the American people; you telegraphed weakness and a willingness to betray many of those who put you behind that podium with the presidential seal in the first place. The GOP only took the lower chamber of Congress. Why did you react as if they'd won the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, American Idol, the Indy 500 and the Triple Crown? I think you set the wrong tone.
Why did you appoint Timothy Geithner, a stooge from Wall Street, as your Treasury Secretary? Isn't he the biggest opponent of Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor and bailout oversight expert who's been pushing for the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?
Why did you retain Dubya's Defense Secretary, Bob Gates? The Iraq and Afghanistan wars have cost over a trillion dollars and countless human lives thus far. Do you really want your defense policy to be consistent with that of the worst president in American history?
Why did you renege on your promises to close Guantanamo Bay and march with union members when their right to organize was threatened? And why did you tell congressional Democrats to leave Senator Whore Lieberman (I-CT) alone and not strip him of his committee chairmanship even though he actively campaigned for your opponent and throws stones at you at every opportunity?
Why did you keep Dubya's civil liberties-stripping Patriot Act in place? Why did you refuse to fight for the public option and allow a health care "reform" measure to pass that, while politically groundbreaking, is essentially a boon to the insurance industry? And why, oh why did you betray your vow to end Dubya's tax cuts for the wealthy by agreeing with greedy Republicans on a "temporary" two-year extension of all cuts in order to obtain a measly 13-month extension of unemployment benefits?
And again, why are we still in Iraq and Afghanistan?
I concede that you achieved some significant goals and I admit you're one of the most charming, intelligent and eloquent politicians I've ever seen. But you weren't elected to charm people (especially not conservatives). You were elected to change our course and do the right thing. The right thing is not turning back the clock to the Dubya Years and further exploding the deficit, which in essence robs my children of their future so selfish, short-sighted politicians can enjoy their present.
Boa viagem, Senhor Obama. Um abraço...
Source: costofwar.com
It's sad that those of us who were wooed by the "winds of change" rhetoric and supported this candidacy have to think like this now. I mentioned in my own blog in the latest post (http://thoughtsfromthetuneosphere.blogspot.com/2011/03/few-nights-ago-we-tuned-into-pbs.html) that I had, at one time, actually been a member of the RNC, only to see President Reagan's "trickle down economics" strip my income by nearly 25% in a matter of years. Now it seems that I've made an error again, although I'm still not ready to admit total defeat. I still hold hope that, somewhere in the back of his head, Mister Obama has some evil plan to upend the GOP and turn our economy around.
ReplyDeleteI don't hold a lot of hope, though.