American politics has become a great mystery to me. There was a time when I thought I had a pretty good handle on what was going on with our neighbour’s politics but no more. I guess the high water mark of my play calling came when I predicted that the mid term elections after Bill Clinton’s “trouble” would not penalize the Democrats and I was right.
Now I’m truly puzzled starting when in 2004 a draft dodger Bush was able to paint much decorated John Kerry as a coward and get away with it. Bush denied that he had anything to d with the Swift Boat exercise but he can scarcely believed when he didn’t raise a finger, as Commander-in-Chief to come to Kerry’s rescue.
Now we have a very unpopular Barack Obama and I’m shaking my head.
He’s pilloried for bailing out banks and businesses that went mad under the de-regulation of business under the Bush II years. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. Had he done nothing the Republicans would have been screaming that he was against the business community etc. They certainly would have demanded that he bail out the people, all Republicans, who broke the economy in their ongoing orgy of greed. Of course, having saved all those jobs by a bail-out he has violated the basic capitalist notion of survival of the fittest which is devoutly believed by the business community until they look like they won’t survive.
He has taken a huge hit because he thought that 45 million citizens without health coverage was unacceptable. He forgot that the 45 million, and others who need the help, don’t vote in great numbers so wouldn’t help him politically.
Leaked documents show an appalling situation in Afghanistan and everyone is angry at Obama ignoring the fact that the leaked documents don’t cover 5 minutes of Obama’s presidency but end at the end of Bush’s term.
I don’t suppose any president since Franklin Roosevelt has inherited a mess quite like Mr. Obama did and it’s useful to remember that Roosevelt’s popularity half way through his first term was shockingly low.
Roosevelt used to single out the right-wing press but as time rolled on observed that he always had the press against him yet won four presidential elections. Truman was in a similar position when he won in 1948 against the shoo-in, Thomas Dewey who was characterized by Alice Longworth, Teddy Roosevelt’s daughter cruelly but devastatingly as “the man on the wedding cake.”
Neither FDR nor HST faced television. They had nothing to compare with Fox. And the Rush Limbaughs weren’t there either though Father Coughlin came close.
The Democrats will get slaughtered in the mid term elections this November with the only thing going for them is that Rafe Mair predicted it!
This happened to Truman in 1946 and it pushed him to a win in 1948 because he was able to call the 80th Congress, solidly Republican, the “do nothing Congress” and use them as a valuable foil. Whether President Obama will be able to do the same is the real question.
Ever the optimist, I hope so. The more of a grip Sarah Palin gets on the Republican Party, the better his chances will be.
Unlike most Americans, and I’m sure the Liberal Party of BC, I like Barack Obama, I think he’s done a great job mopping up the Republican mess and I hope for all of us that he wins in 2012.
If Sarah Palin wins, it will show us not that the truth of the adage whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.
First, I wouldn’t spend any time worrying about Palin getting elected to anything. She’s been protected from any hard questions from anyone since the 2008 election, and on those few occasions when she’s been called on the carpet for something, she has come across as the moron she is. Jon Stewart of The Daily Show nailed it in the early going: the Palins are grifters.
I predict that the 2010 election will be a disaster for the Repugnikans, not the Democrats. The Repugs have overplayed the racism card, they have way too many wingnut candidates, and they’ve lost credibility by defending BP, opposing the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. And, I think the turning point was when they opposed the extension of unemployment benefits.
Palin is done for because people have realized she is an Israeli apologist. Originally she was the outsider that would stop abortion, support traditional family values, and bring back the old apple pie issues of conservatism. That got her into Tea Party meetings where jaws dropped when she took the opportunity to defend Israeli policies… it was all over for her from that time forward and she will not recover.
Americans know they are an occupied country politically and they desperately want a leader to take them back to American sovereignty of the people.. they threw their hope behind Sara Palin because they couldn’t see any other sovereign leaders on the horizon. As far as I can tell they are still searching with rumblings of Petreaus or Backman, but who knows at this point and I don’t think anyone worth their salt will show up on the scene until after the November elections.
And the Repugnikans definitely stepped in it when they started talking about raising the age for collecting Social Security to 70 so they could give tax cuts to their buddies.