I know most of you voted for Obama. In the process, you were hoping and praying for change. Unlike many of you, I had far less faith, but much hope. On January 18, I posted this about Obama. I would like to revisit this earlier post, as my fears are being confirmed. In it the deepest insight was that Obama was ratifying Bush’s failed policies and taking ownership of them. By choosing not be truthful with the American people, Obama is now rapidly on the way to failure. This is despite the fact that Michael Wells and others have argued that he has just been in office for four weeks, give him a chance.
The trouble is that the market and foreign policy are not giving him time and he is continuing nearly all of the failed policies of the past using advisors that are the architects of this failure.
On the economy, there is no reason to list the architects of failure he has appointed, but it is important to note that it is not only the top appointments, but also the lower-level appointments including an ex-lobbyist for Goldman Sachs, a new head of the SEC who formerly was the head of the securities industry self-regulatory (an oxymoron) organization, which did an excellent (snark) job with Messrs. Madoff and Stanford.) An aside, in my experience when one finds one large mother cockroach  [i.e., an enormous Ponzi scheme] under the refrigerator, much less two, be prepared for many baby cockroaches, small Ponzi schemes and frauds, and, God forbid, even larger ones to be exposed soon. The big ones are the signs of the infestation. In a similar vein, appointing a hedge fund manager to help with the automobile industry bailout, where the hedge funds have been involved in bankrupting not only the manufacturers, but also the parts suppliers, seems particularly tone deaf. Instead of change, Obama has taken ownership of the failed policies of the past and seems bound and determined to continue them.
In terms of the military adventures, he is going down a parallel path. He has not unilaterally declared that we will be completely out of Iraq in 16 months. In Afghanistan, he is taking the Lyndon Johnson path of only approving half of what the generals want. He has continued Bush’s policies on rendition, put the CIA dungeons in Afghanistan off limits to human rights rules, and not yet closed Guantanamo. Folks, let us be serious. These wars are not going to be won. Dungeons are not moral and cannot be defended. But, more important, we and Obama need to face the fact we CANNOT afford these wars and dungeons.
What is the biggest “tell” that Obama may not be serious about change? He is discouraging Congressional investigations of the Bush Administration and serious investigations as to the causes of and responsibilities for the financial meltdown. He is not demanding that the SEC prosecute CEOs lying about the financial condition of their firms, has not told his press secretary to stop attacking reporters who say things that he doesn’t like, or demanded that his cabinet officers including Geithner stop lying about the fact that our banks are insolvent.
If he represents change, then he needs to stop the lies, sleights to hand, and doubletalk. He needs to stop the surreptitious transfer of public funds to private firms. The bloggers, the stock market, and the economy will expose the corruption regardless. And, unfortunately for all of us, Obama will be discredited. Trust is so valuable for someone trying to change the system, once lies are exposed it is over. It is not too late, but it is very late. Yes, only four weeks into a new presidency and it is late. To begin with so much promise and so quickly plant the seeds of a collapsed Presidency is a tragedy for all of us.
Those who voted for Obama need to contact him and your Congresspersons every day saying you want something different. We did not vote for four more years of a more personable George Bush. Obama must be something different. He does not need to take ownership of the Bush Catastrophe.
February 25th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Martin,
I won’t go down the road of arguing points with you, except to say I don’t believe I’m any more naive than you in terms of faith and hope. Just see the possibilities differently.
But I want to echo your last paragraph. Obama needs to have an active constituency out here — supporting the things we support, pushing for things we want to happen, arguing against the things we don’t like. No politician or leader can make change, or even govern, without popular support. Real change comes from the bottom. If Obama is to be something different, he needs us to push.
February 26th, 2009 at 5:06 am
Quote: “If Obama is to be something different, he needs us to push.”
But he also needs to signal us where and when to push. What shall we push first? In what direction?
February 26th, 2009 at 6:57 am
I’m hoping we get more details soon.
February 26th, 2009 at 8:53 am
“and not yet closed Guantanamo”
Martin,
what do you propose we do with these terrorists? Put them back onto the battlefield? That’s what will happen. It sounds so easy to just close it up or completely leave. People suffering from BDS can’t possibly imagine that there was some thought given to these things,and yet the liberal messiah can’t come up with any better solutions.
No doubt this new administration has been a disaster, this will be a one-and-done presidency a la Jimmy Carter. You can’t be surprised though, he’s doing what he was elected to do – New Deal 2.0. With no meaningful accomplishments and lack of experience, empty suit obama is nothing more than the salesman for the left-wing perspective.
You can’t ignore that the start of the stock market collapse started when obama locked up the nomination June ‘08, and accelerated after he took office. The good news is at least we can’t go below zero.
Hopefully we can nominate a Libertarian President in ‘12 and get this country innovating and returning to a better standard of living. The dimocrats are not the party of creativity and are not the ones interested in moving the country in the right direction, only in increasing the populations dependence on them and keeping them in power.
February 26th, 2009 at 11:37 am
I tend to agree with this, Martin.
Obama was very vague about what “change” was during the campaign. And then some of his appointments were completely ridiculous (Geithner, Summers, Salazar, etc).
Also closing Gitmo but leaving Bagram as is so all they have to do is move the prisoners (w/o trial no less, something a law professor should consider ironic).
And still throwing money down the financial hole for investment houses no one needs (Citi, etc).
I sometimes wonder if he’s a smoother version of GWB.
Still waiting for “change” (whatever that is).
Dex
February 26th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Also, the problem is that when comparing Obama to Bush43, it’s not that the bar is set so low, it’s that GWB buried the bar, so that anyone looks good by comparison.