Obama and His Advisors

You just have to wonder: what planet do these fools live on? recent news story reported that Obama and advisers were surprised by the course of the health care debate. Why would you admit to be that stupid or naive or both.

The strength of the Obama aura was it 's glow of calm confidence and competence. "Yes we can," was the short version of, " We are so smart and well meaning and cute that we can't be stopped. We have truth and justice on our side." Anyone who was watching as Obama's transition team started to play the old game of going to the same golden Rolodex for candidates for political appointments, saw the early signs of trouble in Camelot II.

The reality that now faces us is the following: There is no new Democratic coalition around any shared agenda. Obama has alienated his loyal liberal base and shown a total lack of understanding of how to drive a democratic agenda to reshape the nation after the chaos of the Bush years and the lawless plundering of financial system by Wall Street and it's Congressional helpers.

To say that there is an exhaustion of ideas is to miss the point; there is a pervasive fear of systemic change so strong that a minor reform needed to stabilize the health care system is seen as the road to socialism: when it is the road to reestablishing the legitimacy of the two party system; the political leadership on both sides are too stupid to see that; worse, they see it and can't make it happen.

What now? The irrationality of the debate around health care shows how fragmented and disorganized are the elites in this country; there are economic, national security and elites preservation issues here and there is nada in the way of focused and managed debate. If the Democrats fall apart over health care and the mob mentality created and managed by the Republicans fosters more anxiety and disorder to further destabilize Obama's Office, we will see citizen activism that may not be pretty...Just in case you need to have an image of not pretty, see clips of Congressional town meetings.

Currently, the press is hoping that the mini bubble of the stock market will make us all feel better and wish ourselves out of this depression we are in. There is absolutely nothing to the numbers that gives any indication that consumers will start any kind of rebound...ergo, there is no recovery on the horizon. The massive number of resets on home mortgages and commercial properties in distress make any "green shoots" argument sound just plain stupid. The Fed. Reserve has been manipulating the markets to prop up the faux rally and some financial journalists have actually noticed that fact.

So, go to your A/C machine and sit in front of it; try not to melt down with the empire.

love always