Chaos In Egypt

The U.S media has been up front in its comparison of the Egypt situation with what happened in Iran back in the late seventies. But there’s a twist: Both the media and the government are using the occasion for U.S. bashing: All U.S. policy up to this point has been wrong, they say, and even immoral. There is practically no discussion about Israel or the fact that Egypt controls the Suez canal.

The view consistently promoted by the media is that Obama will either fix everything or that he is doing the best he can given the situation on the ground. In fact, Obama is doing neither. Rumors are circulating that the Obama administration itself actually encouraged the foment in Egypt. While only just rumor, it is to some extent believable as it has become clear that Obama is neither a friend to Israel nor of (big) oil. If the price of oil rises out of reach for Americans (due what’s happening now throughout the Middle East), so much the better. It fits right in with the Left’s agenda and will force America to get serious about developing a carbon-neutral energy strategies (to which the president devoted much of his State of the Union Address. Significantly, perhaps, no mention was made of Israel and the still unresolved conflict with its neighbors). Israel, as you must know by now, has already been given up as a lost cause.

While all eyes are turned to the chaos in Egypt (and throughout the Middle East), the real revolution is taking place in America. Obama came in with the promise of being a transformational president. As far as he is concerned, his vision for America is right on track. My best guess is that he will be re-elected in 2012.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Auras

I wish the president had been more specific. His continual use of the pronoun ‘we’ (was that a mouse in his pocket?) was startling to me. Who exactly was the ‘we’ he was referring to? Was it his team at the White House? Was it his party? Was it the government in general? Or was it, as should have been the case, all of us?

Therein lies the puzzle of the president’s State of the Union speech. Therein lies the answer as to whether he heard the American people speaking out during the midterm election. Therein is the clue we’ve all been waiting for that would give us some indication as to whether or not the president has shifted toward the center.

You would have to have been born yesterday to mark this as a substantive speech. Obama does not come without history, after all. He’s had two full years to weave his magic. Where are we now?

He pretty much glossed over the (self-inflicted) problems of the past two years. Perhaps these did not much matter. These could still be spun as Bush’s fault. Now we are going forward into an era of high-speed bullet trains (did I say ‘bullet’?) and mercury light bulbs, solar shingles and clean energy to boot. We will reach out to South America (after having reached out and touched China and India; Syria, Iran and Hamas). We’re making progress. We’ve adopted Soviet style terminology to explain ourselves. For the moment, at least, we’re sweeping the fires raging in the Middle East under the carpet.

So far so good. It’s the ‘we’ I can’t seem to wrap my brain around. If by it he meant just he, his appointees and supporters, nothing has essentially changed. If he includes Republicans in his schemes, it’s likely that he means to win them over by threatening to use them as a foil. Only if he meant ‘all of us’ (which I doubt), is he now on the right track.

To one capable of seeing auras, a live mouse shines brighter than a dead elephant. How does Obama see us?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/