Tuesday, September 30, 2008
The Meta-Leader
When accused of having no prior executive experience at all, Obama retorted that his skill in managing his sizable campaign war-chest demonstrates his executive ability. I'm qualified to be President because I'm running for President...
It is perfectly Obama-esque. All questions are answered in the circular self-referential world-view of Obama. Obama is the hope we need because he hopes he'll be president. He'll lower the oceans, teach peace, and pen his third autobiography because this is his vision. It's like the bright charismatic little kid in class who gets so sucked-in to how to bright and charismatic he is that nothing outside this aura can possibly matter.
A white man of this caliber would be dismissed as a dilettante. Geraldine Ferraro was right. It is only out of America's desire to prove how super-duper over racism we are that Obama is in this position, the front-runner for leader of the free world. A rash of media snots laugh at the Governor of Alaska as ill-qualified and yet let the Chicago party-tool get a free ride. Every serious relationship in Obama's life is with someone who despises America: Ayers, Wright, his wife...
And yet we Republicans can blame no one but ourselves if we lose this race. Our party's actions belie any claim to be fiscally responsible. The failure to do anything serious about our borders or nuclear proliferation belie the claim to be the party of national security. Republicans lose on feelings, they win on principles. Without principles, they just lose.
It is sad that the Republicans let Pelosi's last-minute campaign speech become the perceived reason they voted down the bailout. Why didn't they stand-up en masse and say they voted it down because the government has absolutely no role in the mortgage business, no role in owning private debt securities? That the quasi-governmental agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are inherently corrupt, making private profit and lobbying congress with the money they make from the risk-guarantee provided by taxpayers. That these must be wound-down and closed out as the final act of government in the business of re-engineering the home loan market.
It is perfectly Obama-esque. All questions are answered in the circular self-referential world-view of Obama. Obama is the hope we need because he hopes he'll be president. He'll lower the oceans, teach peace, and pen his third autobiography because this is his vision. It's like the bright charismatic little kid in class who gets so sucked-in to how to bright and charismatic he is that nothing outside this aura can possibly matter.
A white man of this caliber would be dismissed as a dilettante. Geraldine Ferraro was right. It is only out of America's desire to prove how super-duper over racism we are that Obama is in this position, the front-runner for leader of the free world. A rash of media snots laugh at the Governor of Alaska as ill-qualified and yet let the Chicago party-tool get a free ride. Every serious relationship in Obama's life is with someone who despises America: Ayers, Wright, his wife...
And yet we Republicans can blame no one but ourselves if we lose this race. Our party's actions belie any claim to be fiscally responsible. The failure to do anything serious about our borders or nuclear proliferation belie the claim to be the party of national security. Republicans lose on feelings, they win on principles. Without principles, they just lose.
It is sad that the Republicans let Pelosi's last-minute campaign speech become the perceived reason they voted down the bailout. Why didn't they stand-up en masse and say they voted it down because the government has absolutely no role in the mortgage business, no role in owning private debt securities? That the quasi-governmental agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are inherently corrupt, making private profit and lobbying congress with the money they make from the risk-guarantee provided by taxpayers. That these must be wound-down and closed out as the final act of government in the business of re-engineering the home loan market.
