For some reason I always like to preface “patting myself on the back” with saying “I’m not trying to pat myself on my back” when it’s obvious I am.  I mean, why else would I leave all these posts in the “archive” if I didn’t want there to be evidence at the “I told you so” moments.  It didn’t take me long after President Obama was elected (let alone inaugurated) to start posting the “red flags.”  And, there’s been one BAD decision after another which should have – and slowly has – put the “progressives” on “red alert.”  (does that qualify as a pun?)  It all started, as far as I was concerned when I heard that Rahm Emanuel was hired to be Obama’s chief of staff.  What was Rahm Emanuel famous for?  He was famous, at least as far as I could tell, for being the consummate “Washington insider.”  Of course, he’s from Chicago so President Obama must have taken some solace from that and it must have given him a level of trust – which, in my mind, was totally MISGUIDED. 

How has Emanuel screwed up?  Well, you have to assume that many of the major decisions coming from the White House which put “getting anything” done above principle emanated from Emanuel.  It will be a long time until I forget that Emanuel called myself and those who think like me “f__king retards.”  Not really the way to win friends or INFLUENCE VOTERS!  (I said at the time that “time” could throw that statement right back at him) I don’t doubt for a minute that it was Emanuel behind the strategy on health care which threw the “public option” under the bus in return for something that NEVER MATERIALIZED – which was support from republicans.  The end result was a bill that benefits insurance companies FOR SURE, and MIGHT benefit the rest of us, although that verdict is yet to be rendered.  (Plus, the bill included lot’s of “deals” like the ones people are thoroughly sick of on “both sides of the isle”) The fact these people (Obama, Emanuel, the democrats in congress) are “promising” the bill is “just a starting point” and that they are going to make it better rings HOLLOW with millions more besides myself.  EVERYTHING it seems the Obama administration does, or so it looks to me, is predicated on looking “progressive” with the least possible political risk – that is at the same time placating the “right.”  Evidently, Rahm Emanuel hasn’t taken the course titled “if you try to make everyone happy you end up making no one happy.”

Kissing up to republicans is such a HORRIBLE strategy that I still can’t believe President Obama has allowed himself to be convinced to follow that for almost the first year and a half in office.  Now we have the Wall Street regulation which is sufficiently watered down to make sure the Wall Street bankers can tolerate it.  OK, I “get” that “Citizen’s United” has made these “moneychangers” even more powerful, but is indecisive action the solution to such a severe problem.  This leads me to the second “wave” of concern I had when President Obama started choosing his advisors and cabinet.  He surrounded himself with Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, and for good measure was taking advice from Robert Rubin.  Now, if you’re not too familiar with why those characters would raise “red flags” give me a moment.  Geithner was the head of the New York Fed as the Wall Street gluttony was hitting high gear – I can see no evidence he was attempting to put a stop to their excess GAMBLING.  And, the gambling with depositors money was literally enabled by Summers who was Clinton’s chief economic advisor when Clinton signed Gramm-Leach-Bliley – the bill which repealed Glass Steagall.  And, of course Rubin was Clinton’s Treasury Secretary at the time and he leveraged his support for the repeal of Glass Steagall into the CEO”ship” of Citicorp – one of the “too big to fail” mega financial institutions which became an investment bank, commercial bank, insurance company, et more – ALL WRAPPED IN ONE huge corporation – thanks to Glass Steagall’s repeal AND with the mega paydays that go with such a job!  These three at the top of the economic “food chain” in Obama’s administration didn’t come across to me as the “change I could believe in.”

Ah, but there’s more – MUCH MORE.  Let’s talk about Iraq and Afganistan.  I was predicting what ultimately would happen there long before it became “public knowledge.”  That’s not because I’m some kind of sixth grade teacher genius – but because I like to read and I read a bunch of books on Iraq and saw Obama’s unwillingness to “stand tall” against the American generals almost from day one.  (Also, Thomas Ricks pretty much predicted what was going to happen in “The Gamble”) It appeared to me that President Obama was bound and determined to prove that he’s qualified to be “commander in chief.”  One of the things that really bugs me is watching him climb down off of Air Force one with the same demeanor as George W Bush – with the same salute, that just seems too phony to me coming from someone who’s never served in the military.  Maybe this is just me still recovering from the eight long years of watching GW bungle everything he did – while our best young men and women were dying and getting maimed needlessly in Iraq and Afganistan for the same reason this happened years ago in Viet Nam – TO SAVE AMERICA’S “FACE.”  Makes me sick to even write this – and to think that President Obama has so MAJORLY violated his pledge (to me, a pledge is a promise) to bring ALL the troops home in 16 months.  Not only has he failed to do this, but he’s leaving something like 50 – 75,000 “non-combat” troops in Iraq for (at least) another 15 months from the end of this summer!  I guess his plan is to be finally getting them out right before the 2012 election thinking that will be a political plus for him.  This one has Rahm Emanuel written all over it as well!  WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?

What is it going to take for them to “get” that we’ll never kill all the “terrorists” by stationing our troops indefinitely in Iraq and Afganistan.  When are they going to understand that every month we still have more troops there, we’re helping al Qaeda recruit more fanatics to their cause.  Iraq was the “gift that keeps on giving” to Osama bin Laden, and I really thought that Obama understood that – which was one of the main reasons I voted for him.  Does he (Obama) really think that as we draw down our troop levels in Iraq that the violence is going to subside with the drawdown?  Here’s the deal.  Bin Laden hates the Shia.  Iraq is majority Shia and Iran is Shia and the two countries are close to being “joined at the hip.”  Bin Laden doesn’t want that to happen and he doesn’t want America to withdraw – he wants us mired in Iraq until we have bankrupted our government – just as the Soviet Union bankrupted themselves in Afganistan in the 1980’s.  However, Obama has given bin Laden a double bonus with the “surge” in Afganistan where we’re now BLOWING more resources each month than in Iraq.  Between the two fiasco’s we’re still WASTING something in the neighborhood of a couple hundred BILLION each year – and, that’s not counting the miserable treatment (the expense of it) that we’re providing for our wounded and damaged vets once they return (many from 6,7, or more deployments).  This is all DISGUSTING and Obama is taking ownership of both fiascos at this point in time – due to a total lack of leadership. (I call this Bush-lite) And, to bin Laden’s delight, there’s really NO END IN SIGHT!

And, speaking of “Bush-lite,” what about the warrantless eavesdropping?  Now, I  can’t prove that Obama’s still doing it, but I’ve heard people with close ties to his administration quoted as saying he didn’t want to give up this “power.”  Of course, any power that he’s talking about would be illegally usurped power which was the result of eight years of Dick Cheney and George W Bush.  The saying goes, it’s much easier to give our rights away than it is to get them back – and this is a good example of this.  The “red flag” on this one came when Obama voted for the “FISA” bill that gave “retroactive immunity” to ATT&T, Verizon, and any other “Telecom” who participated in this illegal wiretapping activity while he was a senator running for the presidency.  I actually wrote Obama after that vote (it almost cost him my vote) and got a response saying that once he was President he would work to “FIX” this bill as a top priority.  Well, not only has the bill not been “fixed,” but Obama and his attorney general Eric Holder have taken up the “torch” for Bush/Cheney in court trying to defend the legality of their illegal activity (they lost the case and I haven’t heard if they appealed – which would just tick me off more if they have)

So, why am I so busy patting myself on the back?  Well, when Obama committed the gravest sin of them all and pardoned (for all intents and purposes) George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Don Rumsfeld, and all the others I not only pointed out what a grave mistake that was for the future of our nation, but I pointed out that I could no longer support him.  There’s no way I can vote for a president who violates his pledge to defend the constitution.  I don’t know if that was a sign of cowardice, a total political maneuver (on advice from the likes of Emanuel), a general act of stupidity, or some kind of collusion – kind of like doctors don’t testify against doctors, etc – but, what I’m certain of is it was the one major blunder Obama made which energized the republican party into even thinking they could wrestle power back from the democrats in 2012.   It had “weakness” written all over it!

Not only is the political debate switched away from the torture, the illegal wars (of course, again, I was expecting Obama to actually bring the troops home), the politicization of the justice department, the outing of a CIA agent, the HUGE deficit and who REALLY is responsible for it, the deregulation which led to TARP, TARP itself (and Hank Paulsen’s role in creating the problem), the bludgeoning of virtually every government department (ie – the Minerals Management Service – who’s corruption contributed to the present BP oil disaster), the no-bid contracts in Iraq and Afganistan and the war profiterring by the highest of government officials – including Cheney and Rumsfeld, and the virtual ruination of our nation’s economy from the perspective of the blue collar worker, but Obama is turning OFF progressives by the droves.  The only way the “tea party” and the republican party has any chance of success is if Obama can encourage MILLIONS of voters to “opt out” of the next couple of elections because of their disappointment in his lack of leadership.  The great speeches only go so far!

I’ve heard it said that President Obama hates to be compared to President Bush – but, he’s brought this on himself.  While the idea of “bipartisanship” is a nice idealistic notion – NOT WITH THESE REPUBLICANS!  They’ve got to go – and, we elected President Obama because we thought he would have the GUTS to stand up to them.  The question becomes, why isn’t he doing this.  Now, the president has backed himself into a corner – and, I believe he’s going to have to get different advice to get out of it.  And, the transparency he promised us is going to have to be part of the solution.  LOTS OF MISTAKES HAVE BEEN MADE – and, one thing Bush/Cheney should have proved was the futility of refusing to admit to mistakes.  If you’re only goal is to stay in office – maybe that makes sense.  But, if you’re trying to mobilize this nation into returning to our “roots” (at least our post WW II roots – “New Deal roots”) then the course has got to change – and FAST!  Every day the oil from the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico creeps farther inland in the marshes, wetlands and estuaries of Louisiana – while Obama (and Emanuel) remain in Washington DC doing what appears to be business as usual – this disaster becomes closer to being Obama’s “Katrina.”  (and, all of the other blunders are magnified)  Well, what can he do? you might ask.  I’ll tell you what I think he should do.  Get his butt down to Louisiana and get his hands dirty helping to fight the fight.  Become part of the fight.  Show some guts in holding BP accountable – and the people in the MMS (Minerals Management Service) – for their blunders, mismanagement, and their lying.  Treat this as the national disaster which it is!  Show the people of Louisiana that the full force of our nation’s government is going to attempt to save their way of life.  Prove to these people who wanted nothing to do with the government stimulus money that the government is there for them FULL FORCE.  In other words, drop everything and make it look as if you REALLY CARE ABOUT THIS MONUMENTAL DISASTER!   There’s only a couple hundred people each day who read my blog (that, in itself, I find incredibly amazing because I have no idea how one of you found this) and, President Obama has proven to me that he cares little (or nothing) about what I think.  But, I do find it interesting that a sixth grade school teacher’s advice would have conceivably been better than Obama’s own advisors!  (OK, that is a bit arrogant, but, I can’t tell you how many people I’ve heard since last year – either in person, or “talkers” on the radio – saying there’s no way they are voting for either Obama or a republican in the next two elections – which is exactly what I’ve been predicting on and off for the past year and a half.  If the “tea party” actually succeeds, it will be Obama’s own fault)