From Charles Krauthammer's Lips
Before you get too worked up about all the ways Obama is selling out (before he's moved into the White House) read this from Dick Cheney's favorite columnist and leap:
Obama was quite serious when he said he was going to change the world. And now he has a national crisis, a personal mandate, a pliant Congress, a desperate public -- and, at his disposal, the greatest pot of money in galactic history. (I include here the extrasolar planets.)It begins with a near $1 trillion stimulus package. This is where Obama will show himself ideologically. It is his one great opportunity to plant the seeds for everything he cares about: a new green economy, universal health care, a labor resurgence, government as benevolent private-sector "partner." The first hint came yesterday, when Obama claimed, "If we want to overcome our economic challenges, we must also finally address our health care challenge" -- the perfect non sequitur that gives carte blanche to whatever health-care reform and spending the Obama team dreams up. It is the community organizer's ultimate dream....
With the country clamoring for action and with all psychological barriers to government intervention obliterated (by the conservative party, no less), the stage is set for a young, ambitious, supremely confident president -- who sees himself as a world-historical figure before even having been sworn in -- to begin a restructuring of the American economy and the forging of a new relationship between government and people.
Don't be fooled by Bob Gates staying on. Obama didn't get elected to manage Afghanistan. He intends to transform America. And he has the money, the mandate and the moxie to go for it.
[H/t: Dean Baker]
Well, Todd, off-hand, it sounds pretty good to me.
I heard that David Frum has just launched a new Web site with the word "majority" in it with a view to strategizing about how Republicans can regain the majority.
The two keys: fiscal conservatism and strong national security.
One of Obama's biggest challenges will be handling another attack on the US, if one should come. Really is enough to make you paranoid about who's pulling the strings.
December 12, 2008 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama's Liberal Shock Doctrine. Ironic!
December 12, 2008 12:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...who's pulling the strings" I take to mean what better way to pull off a coup d'etat than launching another attack on the US and convincing the populous that it was of foreign origin. (It's been done before in other places and times.)
Whoever thinks that Republican zealots are going to ride off quietly into the sunset are dead above the neck.
December 12, 2008 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ride off quietly? No. Stage a "coup"? Also, no.
December 12, 2008 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Some false flag examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD_I-KTGT3M
December 12, 2008 1:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
What do you mean, "paranoid about who's pulling the strings?"
Any President's biggest challenge would be handling an attack on the US, so that's no big revelation.
December 12, 2008 12:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
What kind of attack? Is the current crisis already one result of an economic attack?
I don't see how any old military or terrorist attack is necessarily "biggest". Dealing with the economy as it is, this is already a huge challenge because of its complexity if not also its complications. Detecting and preventing terrorist attacks is also complex and complicated. Dealing with an actual attack isn't remotely as hard.
We don't have to create conspiracy theories about fanatical right wing extremists repeating a 9/11 scenario to damage Obama, there are plenty of ordinary challenges already on the table.
From the K quote since I'm posting here: "young, ambitious, supremely confident president"
What I don't find supported so far is "supremely confident". Obama does not exude confidence to me, rather I think people project their desire for confidence on his image.
And if Obama is essentially a pragmatist, then his ambition is not ideological but practical so he would lack specific visions of how the USA should be what it could become.
But I support him. You can be confident of that!
December 12, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
What the hell has Kraut been drinking. I have never read anything from him that did not give me heartburn. Thank you. This is a good post.
I think he will wake up in the morning and start calling Obama a communist, though.
December 12, 2008 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's a trap!
\Admiral Ackbar
December 12, 2008 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Todd
Is it true that your favorite conservative Pat Buchanan is fast becoming and FDR Republican? Well maybe not "favorite".
December 12, 2008 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
The right wing whines that since health care is 1/7 of the economy, that is, health care company profits comprise a large portion of corporate profits, that we cannot afford for liberal democrats to socialize that much of the economy.
Yet when it comes time to offer up yet another atavistic dig at health care as a right, the connection between health care and the economy is disavowed in the same breaths where they bash unions for bankrupting Detroit with legacy health care costs.
Socializing health care costs makes American business more competitive unless you're a leech in the health insurance bureaucracy, of course.
-marc
December 12, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
And he has the money, the mandate and the moxie to go for it.
"And I Charles Krauthammer, promise to do everything I can to obstruct, denigrate and subvert him."
You left out the last line.
December 13, 2008 9:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Seen through a Republican's eyes, all that Krauthammer said would be negative. It doesn't enrich government contractors much, who may have their business snatched away and placed again in the hands of civil service. It spreads the benefits more evenly by design, whereas they hate it when that happens even by accident.
You can see Bill Kristol's latest column to prove that they think of building infrastructure as nice, but basically pointless ("fanciful green technology") when private industry and the free market will always do that for you. At least in theory.
They fear that Obama will realize that long-term security is about an infrastructure and employee population so promising to employers, that the best and brightest will always want to work here for the biggest and richest. They fear that people will look back on the last time that Republicans held the reins, and it will compare poorly to Obama's time in office. They fear their opponent being able to ask the question, "Are you better off now than you were under the opposition?" to a resounding chorus in the affirmative.
They're right to be afraid.
December 13, 2008 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love how Kraphammer scorns Obama's experience as a community organizer.
That community organizer kicked Grandpa Abe McCain's ass. In fact that's a big part of the reason Obama's campaign was so successful.
December 15, 2008 10:05 AM | Reply | Permalink