I do not fault Barack Obama's eerie obsession with one of our great presidents, Abraham Lincoln. As role models go, he would be way up there. However, after his election, as most of you know, we were "treated" to the re-telling of the book "Team of Rivals" and how Obama would "reach across the aisle" and pick people for his cabinet with diverse viewpoints, ala his hero "Honest Abe." Then came Judd Gregg.
When Gregg was selected for Commerce Secretary, Washington was a buzz with praise for Obama. Here was a president, doing what he promised, appointing someone from the other party; a powerful conservative and budget hawk. Surely, a "rival" that would offer a different voice in the White House. Oh but wait, our president decided to allow the house to write a pork laden spending bill, and to add insult to injury, in an obvious political move, takes the census out of Gregg's hands, and puts it into Rahm Emanuel's. Hmmm, let's here it for bipartisanship. Well, Gregg decides to end the window dressing and withdraws his name for the post. So, what does the White House do? Well of course, Obama's spokespeople trash Gregg---"hey what did he expect?" Of course he was expected to embrace Obama's message---What?! No, that isn't how Abe would have done it, would he? "Team of Rivals" remember folks? Oh well, in a way we owe a debt of gratitude to Judd Gregg for exposing another Obama myth: He wants a team of "yes men" not a team of "rivals."
When Barack Obama puts his signature on this massive spending bill this Tuesday, he will take full ownership of this economy. He can also dispense with the notion of a "Lincolnesque" form of government. It will come clear to Obama in the coming months that instead of trying to impersonate Lincoln, he would have been better served studying the economic polices of FDR. Those spending policies kept us in the great depression for ten years until WW II bailed us out ( Uh, Barack, please don't pay attention to that last part, okay?). So Mr. President the next time you mention Lincoln's name, stop and listen very hard, I believe you will be able to hear him spinning in his grave.
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Comments: 28
But the thing you guys don't like to admit is that millions of American families were saved from starvation by the socialistic, hated WPA nad the rest of it, and never would have seen the dawning of whatever pulled us out of the depression, if it hadn't been for FDR.
In all truth, FDR often commented on the fact that the big industrialists, the elite, should have thanked him for what he was doing, because he SAVED the capitalist system. People were starving under Hoover, who turned a blind eye, and pretended that the market would pull us out. They didn't call them Hoovervilles for nothing, his policies put those people there, just has Bush policy put, and is still putting, a lot of folks out of their homes. If Roosevelt had not given the people hope, we might have suffered a historic uprising, and our present economic system might no longer exist. If you think, today, that the poor are going to starve passively, especially considering the culture of violence they now live in, you are delusional. All the fat cats better let Obama do the FDR thing, or they might find themselves in a world of hurt.
What bootstraps? If you mean create a new welfare state, that is hardly pulling us up Ron, it is making us dependent on big government.
Also re: FDR. Yes he was re-elected multiple times, free of a media that would have excoriated him. Can you just imagine Roosevelt running now? I bet he wouldn't have been nominated by his own party. A womanizing, wheel chair bound smoker who married a distant cousin. Uh, no.
This president was elected because of the illegal actions of investment bankers and those in congress. If the economy had not collapsed under the stress of this malfeasance we would have had President McCain. No intelligent person wanted to hand the keys to our democracy over to an unknown with barely a learners permit. Hopefully, during these four years we can deconstruct the myths surrounding the marketing of this man, and return what is left of this country back to more reasonable hands in 2012. The process begins in 2010.