Posted on 11/29/2008 5:21:17 AM PST by Kaslin
A funny thing happened on his way to the White House: that old, left-wing community organizer Barack Obama has suddenly veered toward the center, and his incoming administration is looking more and more like the Daley Machine in Chicago than Hugo Chavez's administration down in Venezuela.
It seems that reality has set in, instructing the soon-to-be president-elect (he won't be that until the presidential electors gather and vote for him next month) that it's easier to promise change then it is to change the way things are traditionally done in a democracy.
Watching him announce key appointments to cabinet and sub-cabinet posts makes one think that this is Bill Clinton redux. Mr. Obama has dug deep into the 1990s and resurrected much of the Clinton cast of characters, even to naming Hillary Clinton to be secretary of state.
That appointment, some have suggested, is Obama's way of emulating Lyndon Johnson. When LBJ named an old foe to a post in his administration, he explained that it was better to have the camel inside the tent urinating out, than outside the tent urinating in.
None of this satisfies the radical left that went bonkers trying to elect the man they thought would turn the White House into a new Kremlin and name all of them commissars of the new Socialist Republic of America.
Barack Obama, ardent disciple of the late Saul Alinsky, seems to have forgotten the iron-clad left-wing dictate -- "no enemies to the left." With every Clintonite or Wall Streeter appointment he makes a new enemy on the left.
What the Alinsky/Ayers crowd doesn't seem to understand is that Barack Obama's only acquaintanceship with government in action was his close relationship with Chicago's Daley machine, where its hallmark -- aside from its rampant corruption -- was devotion to pragmatism. If it works, do it; if it doesn't, don't.
Everything Mr. Obama has done in recent weeks since winning the election has been an exercise in pragmatism -- gone is all the heated rhetoric about change and reform. Everything is now measured by only one standard -- it must above all be practical.
What his disappointed leftist allies don't grasp is that many of those who voted for him thought he had a conservative message for them. Now with his appointments such as keeping Robert Gates at the Defense Department and naming Paul Volcker as a top economic advisor, he's delivering on what the voters saw as his conservative promises.
Unlike Bill Clinton, he's moving to the center before he takes office, and not two years afterwards as Clinton did. During the campaign I prayed he was lying when he unveiled his platform and promises of what he'd do as president.
I was hoping he lied about taxes. I was hoping he lied about ending the war in Iraq in 16 months. I was hoping he lied about all of those nutty left-wing programs he was promising.
It looks as if my prayers were answered.
I expect that he'll try to mollify his now-dejected left-wing supporters by tossing them a few bones. He'll push for the horrendous "Freedom of Choice" bill that would enshrine abortion as the supreme law of the land, overturning all restrictions on the grisly procedure previously enacted by the states; and trying to gag conservative talk radio hosts, for example.
I'm sure he knows that those attempts might be empty gestures if his party falls short of the 60 votes in the Senate they need to shut off debate on such measures, thereby allowing the Republican minority to use the filibusters to kill such measures so dear to the hearts of the so-called progressives.
What's happening is Obama's discovery that there is a big difference between running for president and being president. He is now up to date, up to speed, and getting all the information George Bush is getting -- and he having to make decisions based on that information.
As a result he and George Bush are now on the same wavelength. It's amazing what a little dose of reality will do to a man who dreamt dreams before he encountered the inescapable facts of life.
Welcome to Washington, Barack Obama.
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Liberal BILL CLINTON =
Forced to appear less Liberal by the election of a Republican controlled Congress just 2 years into his Administration
Liberal BARACK OBAMA =
Forced to appear less Liberal by the threat of his perhaps not being a Natural Born Citizen, as uncovered through the Courts prior to his election as President by the Electoral College
NOTE: Secretary of Defense GATES is being held over for just one year to train his newly OBAMA appointed Deputy Defense Secretary to take his place.
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.......He will “govern” from under his bed. ......
He will govern by looking around the table for advice and then vassilate. His advisors will govern After being told by the Prime Minister Nancy makes her demands.
Mr. Obama, I'd like to introduce you to someone you've never met before but who will have a profound impact on you in the future. Meet Mr. Reality.
There is no conspiracy here that is running all the Presidents once they get into office.
Get real. Even in the Wizard of Oz story, the wizard that freaked everybody out was just an ordinary man behind a curtain that people THOUGHT was powerful.
Farther down you mention George HW Bush. There’s no mystery why he failed to keep his “no new taxes” promise. The Democrats who controlled Congress then wouldn’t give him anything important he wanted UNLESS he agreed to a tax increase. In return for that they promised him they would control spending, but of course they broke their promise. I’m not defending HW Bush, I’m saying there’s no secret group or person somewhere who is in charge behind the scenes once a President gets in. What happened is politics, ordinary politics, and Democrats play that game well and Republicans don’t.
As for George W Bush, guess what...he kept many of his promises. Not all of them, but a lot. The record is clear on that. His administration didn’t have very many surprises. Those who claim they voted for him but he went back on his promises don’t know what he stood for when he was elected, apparently.
About the one major thing he changed was after 9-11 we did get into the nation-building business in Iraq. Whereas when he ran he criticized using our military for “nation-building”. Even there, he was talking about places we had no real interest in, like Bosnia. In Iraq we came to have a HUGH interest.
You say Obama seemed so sincere in his promises just like the two Bush Presidents.
But you think someone is now pulling his strings to make him change his mind.
No, it’s politics. We don’t know that he was sincere before, and we don’t know for certain why he’s doing things now nor where we are headed.
But my guess is we’re headed for an administration run by an old guard who will try to usher in a new era of socialism and government controls over every aspect of our lives, with the goal that conservatives never regain power or even have the chance to.
You got that exactly right.
“We will undermine the failed and illegitimate administration in washington”
At every step, we must not just protest, but ridicule the Marxist idiocy. No failure should be too small to point out, no broken promise uncriticized. A chorus of “I told you so”.
Obama needs to become the laughingstock of the world. Fortunately, he is dumber than a brick, so I am beginning to think this will be easier than I thought (though certainly not easy).
Michael Reagan must be piling someone’s chain, wonder whose chain?
“Zer0 knows he can’t keep Bill Clinton under control, so he’s hired Hitlery to do it for him.”
That seems to me to be a very astute comment. Right on target.
We have said from the outset that it was a triumph of Ci-cago, one in which radicals become like another ethnic group that is part of the machine.
"Than," Michael.
And, the difference is? What a choice!
LLS
>>>>Obama nor Bush runs this country there are other forces at work here. Who? I don’t know. <<<<<<
I’m prepared to accept the notion that no one is in charge.
Brilliant idea...needs fast implementation.
The only thorn in Daley's side, limiting corruption (Trucking union scandal, etc) has been the Feds....that is about to end!
Most are running small businesses after finding out that being a conservative lawyer is like being a liberal talk show host. A real Money loser! The real money is in liars cheats and thieves...liberals all. and liberals don't hire conservatives!
Thanks for the ping!
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