Circling the Bases

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Not surprising that Joe Biden fell asleep. We’re in a holding pattern. Our plane has been circling the airport for two and a half years. With the air traffic controllers asleep, will the pilot figure out how to land this plane already? There is no indication of that. The passengers are divided. “Should we attempt this landing anyway, or should we go back and try again with a different (flight) crew?” It’s no wonder that some of the passengers have been dozing off.

There’s been round condemnation of the president’s speech this morning. And this too is not surprising. As soon as the president - of any party - utters a word, the sports fans arm themselves with tomatoes. Clinton, Bush, Obama - it’s been all the same: The incredible shrinking American presidency. Sure, there’s always the inevitable cheering from out in the bleachers, from those too drunk to know any better.

The rest of us are out for bear, thinking we matter; while all the action takes place in the club house - and not on the field.

“Dysfunctional?” you ask. Not dysfunctional at all. You do keep coming after all - to see the games - and paying through the nose for tickets, hot dogs, souvenirs, and beer.

Let’s think for a moment, what if the president actually were able to land this thing. Where would you think we’d be? Would we now be able to balance our budgets? Strengthen our dollar? Would we now love each other more? Would peace break out in the Middle East? Could we all go home now and get a good night’s sleep?

The answer, most would agree, is a resounding no. We now know enough of our president’s skills to not dare risk it. Every day we delay is a gift. Will we be able to last long enough till the weather clears? How much fuel do we have left anyway?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Blame America First

Frank Wisner speaks the obvious. But, it goes counter to what POTUS and Hillary are saying. It goes against reported public sentiment on the streets in Cairo. It goes against what most pundits in our media are saying - that Mubarak must go, YESTERDAY!

The ‘blame America first’ crowd has staged a significant comeback. There’s fresh wind in their sails. Throughout major media reporting, the narrative developing is that we are singularly responsible for maintaining Mubarak - a tyrannical dictator - for so many years; that we (America) have been in support of nasty tyrants all over the world who make their populations suffer; blah, blah, blah… It even cropped up on this mornings ‘Religion On The Line’ radio program and remained basically unchallenged.

We seem to feel totally comfortable with the notion of blaming ourselves for all that’s wrong everywhere. How narcissistic we are, believing that the whole world turns only around us! If we can take credit for every evil, it’s still about us - isn‘t it? And that’s the point: I, me, mine - us - America. We may be the ‘Great Satan’, but we’re still ‘great’ and that’s all that counts.

Besides, Barack Hussein Obama has promised to single-handedly turn us away from the dark side and into the light. That’s why we elected him.

Before the 2008 election VP Biden said at a fundraiser: “Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama… Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis - a generated crisis - to test the mettle of this guy (Obama)… And he’s gonna need you… to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially… that we’re right.”

Well, it took longer than six months (unless you want to count the post-election protests in Iran), but let's not quibble. And ever since, in my own humble estimation, we’ve been holding back or doing the wrong thing entirely. Biden warned us of that back when. He essentially said, “Trust us. We know what we’re doing.”

Well, the jury is still out on that. Not sure if the White House is as confused as we are about what’s happening in Egypt. At the end of the day, confusion is only a temporary smoke screen. It might well be that all will be revealed in due time. As one left-wing clairvoyant so aptly put it, "We have to pass our bill so that you can find out what is in it". Nice string of alliterations, but otherwise quite perplexing. Looks like, as in everything else Obama has tried, chaos is the goal.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Parallels

I don’t know why we continue to take anything Biden says seriously. The man is (and has always been) perfectly comfortable in spouting gaffes and contradictions. Ironically, he represents the only window of transparency the current administration has to offer. From this episode alone, we learn Obama’s political strategy going forward: blame Republicans.

Will it work? No. Still, it amounts to a strategy. As long as Republicans exist they can expect to perform the role of catchall for every Democrat failure past, present and future.

It is now quite obvious to most that current policies have sent our nation into a tailspin. Why would Democrats continue - not only to pursue such policies, but - to actually double down on same? One way to look at it is that the Dems are truly misguided. They see what their policies have done but refuse to take note. Therefore they propose even more poison as a cure for a man who has already been poisoned. The truth of the matter is that Republicans have been unable to do anything to stop the Dems because they have lacked the votes. Neither have they spoken out against, and even that very softly. Democrats have pretty much had free run of the political barnyard.

What has evolved from a nagging suspicion to utter conviction for many, is that the deficit, joblessness, the growing racial divide among other (what are commonly regarded as negative) seemingly permanent features that have emerged since Obama took office, are all part of a deliberate plan to reduce America’s power and influence on the world stage. This effort has been long underway, spearheaded by prominent organizations such as the UN and by a coalition of countries that have previously been regarded as America‘s ‘enemies’. Now, many observers believe, it’s also happening from the inside.

The ‘change’ [as in the now (in)famous 'remaking of America'] as promised by Obama during the campaign has taken on an ominous tone. Few still believe that Barack Hussein Obama is merely inept. The evidence now overwhelmingly shows that he is exceedingly cunning and singularly committed to a vision that the American people want no part of.

Read Mary O’Grady’s article on Nicaragua in the Wall Street Journal this morning. Substitute ‘America’ for ‘Nicaragua’ and ‘Obama’ for ‘Ortega’ and you will discover astounding parallels. Republicans appear to be happy just watching the poll numbers. They might just find that a year from now it no longer matters.