The pendulum swings

I always thought of George Bush as a radical president. Radical in terms of foreign policy. According to one part of the Bush Doctrine, America wasn't going to stand around and support dictators who oppressed their people. We did that for so many years previously; supporting in the name of expediency governments that just kicked the shit out of their citizens. Obviously, there remain many governments out there that do this that get our support - Saudi Arabia, etc. But Iraq was a start. It was radical.

Democrats always blustered (and bridled) about the mess America was in because of George Bush and this radicalism. I would counter that things would be a lot worse if we weren't as proactive as we were.

And now we have Obama, a president who by all rights could very well be making the US an even bigger mess. This spending is crazy. Raising taxes during a recession? I can sort of get my arms around the spending, although I wish it were more thought out, more targeted, more timely and of course, less pork riddled and corn studded. But the taxes?

To me this is all change, but change from one extreme to the other. Whatever happened to the bipartisan spirit? His visit to Republicans priort to the stimulus was just window dressing. He knew they wouldn't bite but wanted to show the appearance of having gone to the enemy with a olive branch. Instead it was a sharp stick.

The whole premise of "change" has been tossed out the window. He's just a master of saying one thing but doing another -- letting go of childish things? C'mon. This past two weeks has shown he is far from ready to let go, blaming Republicans for this mess. Nice.

Unfortunately this is politically genius by a master or more accurately, a pathological dissimulator. He says things that sound good in words and delivery and seem rationaly as ideas. But the words are a front. A mask. When you drill down, they either unattributable, unverifiable, or unfalsifiable. He talks of bipartisanship, but yet creates a larger wedge than Bush could ever do. He polarizes without anyone knowing it. He can piss on your leg and you'll believe him when he tells you it's raining.

Talking about jobs saved (unmeasurable) and blathering on about unattractive stands that no one on the right has actually taken, i.e. all the statements in his speeches that say "we don't agree with those who say..." (Karl Rove had an excellent article on this in the WSJ yesterday). The truth is, there is no "those" and whoever they are, they never said it. But just saying them makes them true. They're too fuzzy or sound like something "those" (the oposition) might say. And in any case, the media remains in the tank for Obama so no one will bother checking. Talk about exploiting weaknesses.

Obama is the glib provocateur.