It has only been a few weeks, but already it is clear that FDR’s legacy of the famous first 100 days is in no jeopardy. Of course, given the anti-constitutional regime the Roosevelt administration turned out to be, this is probably a good thing. And in the first month of the Obama administration, four things have become readily apparent about its nature.
First, Obama not only has a lack of executive experience, he also possesses no natural talent for management or executive decision making. While a large segment of the American electorate clearly believes that a mellifluous baritone and an ability to read from teleprompter is tantamount to executive excellence, the numerous nomination scandals and the bungling of the $827 billion stimulus bill indicate that the Obama administration will soon make even the disastrous Bush and Clinton administrations look like paragons of competence.
The second thing is that Obama has clarified what was never seriously in doubt: All of his grand promises of inspiration were nothing more than campaign rhetoric designed to appeal to the young, the naïve and the stupid. He promised hope and change, but what he has done instead is prey upon the widespread fear of national catastrophe to engage in the usual legislative bullying so often seen in past Democratic Congresses. Ironically, the objective measure of House and Senate vote tallies will almost certainly prove that both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton governed in a far more bipartisan manner than Obama will.
Yes, he did win, but then, so did almost every single president before him. And so did every Republican senator and congressman whom that argument is supposed to impress.
Third is the insane level of expectations that have arisen on the part of his supporters … or perhaps devotees would be a more accurate term. Obama’s more sober supporters should be alarmed, not amused, by the bizarre celebrity pledges, the quasi-cultish kitsch, and the overheated jungle fever that we are informed is now raging among liberal women of a certain age.
I launched an e-mail inquiry. Many women – not too surprisingly – were dreaming about sex with the president. In these dreams, the women replaced Michelle with greater or lesser guilt or, in the case of a 62-year-old woman in North Florida, whose dream was reported to me by her daughter, found a fully above-board solution: “Michelle had divorced Barack because he had become ‘too much of a star.’ He then married my mother, who was oh so proud to be the first lady,” the daughter wrote me.
– The New York Times, Feb. 5, 2009
No, unfortunately, it isn’t surprising at all. It’s not exactly new for women to openly fantasize about sex with a president, or otherwise servicing him, but this phenomenon has not historically been an indicator of a successful presidency. It has instead been precisely the opposite. And even if Obama were more than the glib, empty-suited mediocrity that he is, he could not possibly live up to the irrational ideals being projected upon him.
The fourth and most interesting thing about the launch of the Obama administration is that the man appears to have the makings of a genuine populist streak in him. His announcement of executive compensation caps on corporations requesting government bailout money was a brilliant move with an appeal so broad that even die-hard libertarian capitalists can enthusiastically embrace it. The fact that Barney Frank failed to grasp why Obama’s popping a cap in the oversized backsides of banking fat cats is so popular and sought to transform the plan from a perfectly sensible means of dissuading corporate welfare into pure socialist spite doesn’t detract from the insight evident behind the administration’s action. It will be intriguing to see if Obama manages to learn that following the will of the people rather than the will of the party leaders is the way to become a successful president, as this would have significant implications for vital matters such as immigration and foreign policy.
This is more than a little unlikely, but because Obama is clearly a survivor, it should not be completely discounted at this early stage. The probability, of course, is that Obama will simply continue where Bush left off, desperately expanding government in a futile attempt to stave off the inexorable economic forces that were set into motion over the last decade. One need only note that Obama’s first priority has been to attempt fixing years of credit inflation and massive spending by spending even more money to know that his presidency is likely to end up as a failed one.
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Wayne Allyn Root