President Barack H. Obama

Note:  You might want to start at the Barack Obama Index Page, especially if you arrived here by using a search engine.  Mr. Obama won the election, but that doesn't mean that he is now qualified for the job, or that his earlier scandals are now immaterial.

This page contains news and commentary from the period between Election Day and Obama's inauguration.  For commentary about the Obama administration beginning with Inauguration Day, see this page.

Comparisons to previous leaders and political figures

What can we expect from the Obama administration?

The stock market's reaction and other economic issues

Obama made a lot of impossible promises

Remarks about the 2008 election itself

The unmitigated media favoritism continues

He's surrounded by Washington insiders -- So much for "change"

Obama carries the Clintons' baggage

In many ways, Obama is just another Democrat

Obama opposes school choice for you -- but not for him

Who's really happy about Obama's presidency?

Obama's cabinet, staff and other associates:
        Eric Holder, Tom Daschle, Hillary Clinton, Timothy Geithner, etc.

Prepare for four years of minor scandals

An inauguration is not an emergency



Comparisons to previous leaders and political figures

Is Obama the next John F. Kennedy?  Franklin D. Roosevelt?  Joseph Stalin?

Jimmy Carter

 Jimmy Carter's second coming.  Americans have not elected the next JFK.  The next Jimmy Carter, maybe.  For months now, Barack Obama and his handlers have done all they can to cultivate comparisons between their man and John Kennedy ... .  It's true both men share a rhetorical eloquence that makes idolatrous reporters go weak in the knees, and that Mr. Obama is the first incumbent U.S. Senator since Mr. Kennedy to be elected to the White House.  But the similarities end there.

'Jimmy Carter' tag has Obama wincing.  Less than two weeks into his administration, President Barack Obama is being portrayed by opponents as a new Jimmy Carter — weak at home and naive abroad — in an attempt to dim his post-election glow and ensure that he serves only one term.  The charge has stung because it was made privately by Hillary Clinton supporters during a hard-fought primary campaign and plays to fears about Obama's inexperience.

Obama Agonistes:  With the economy in crisis and American national security in the hands of a starry-eyed novice, one can argue that we are in for a reprise of the Carter years complete with the self-righteous pout.

Is Obama The Next Jimmy Carter?  The fact is that Barack Obama, while trying to meet a dire economic crisis, has fallen straight into the trap that led Jimmy Carter to defeat in his bid for reelection.  Obama has sought to promise and do too much in too short a period of time in a city where Congress, federal departments and agencies, and bureaucrats can and will eat a new president alive.

Obama is "Carter Redux".  We need to recall that, in terms of the votes cast in the 2008 election, President Obama did not win by a great majority.  It was not a landslide.  He had no real "mandate" to restructure the American government or its economy.  He offered only vague promises of "change" and "hope".  Now, barely three months into his administration, as a recent Wall Street Journal article headlined, "Obama's Poll Numbers Are Falling to Earth."  The reasons are too obvious.  He is a liar.  He is a Socialist.  He would bankrupt the economy and impose huge deficits unto the second or third generation.

Barack Obama and The Parallel to Jimmy Carter.  Both men ran against the evil Washington establishment.  Once elected, Carter filled his cabinet will luminaries of that establishment, guys like Cyrus Vance at State.  Once elected, Obama filled his cabinet with luminaries of that establishment, gals like Hillary Clinton at State.  Early on, Carter defended his budget chief, Bert Lance, long after scandals had caused Wall Street and Congress to lose confidence in him.  Obama defends his Treasury chief, Tim Geithner, long after scandals have caused Wall Street and Congress to lose confidence in him.

Barack Obama, the rabbit in North Korea's headlights, is Jimmy Carter II.  "Obama calls for action on North Korea" reported today's headlines — which is much like a chief constable demanding something should be done about crime.  If the President of the United States cannot bring the Pyongyang regime to heel, who does he expect to perform this task?

Welcome Back Carter.  If you will recall, President Obama early on was lamenting the dire circumstances our nation faced economically, to the point that his advisors pointedly suggested that he was putting the nation into a deeper funk.  It took Carter until two years into his presidency to tell Americans that the nation suffered from "a crisis of confidence," in a speech that later became dubbed the "American Malaise" address.  In a matter of days he, too, started backtracking from his gloomy pronouncement.

Is Obama Another Jimmy Carter?  During the U.S. Presidential primaries last year, I had expressed my misgivings that Barack Obama might turn out to be another Jimmy Carter, whose confused thinking and soft image paved the way for the success of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.  The subsequent Iranian defiance of the U.S. and Carter's inability to deal effectively with the crisis in which Iranian students raided the U.S. Embassy in Teheran...

The Second Coming of Jimmy Carter.  Remember the good old days of the Jimmy Carter presidency when the US saw the combination of high inflation and high unemployment?  We are sowing the seeds for a return to those days of national malaise.

Welcome Back, Carter.  Thirty years after Jimmy Carter's malaise speech, we return to the days of rising joblessness, an unresponsive economy, deference to dictators, gutting the military and an energy policy tilting at windmills.

A president grossly overplaying his hand.  What we're seeing in Washington these days is beginning to look like Jimmy Carter II.  Carter, like Barack Obama, started out with the idea of stimulating the economy.  His plan was to give every taxpayer $50, then throw in a few billion for tax cuts and public works programs. ... Like Carter, Obama looks increasingly like a president out of step with the times.

Obama, Clinton, and Carter:  Some have analogized Barack Obama's current situation with that of Bill Clinton, who pushed a wholesale revision of the country's health-care system in 1993 with results that should have served as a warning to Obama.  But the more relevant analogy is with Jimmy Carter in 1977.

America's next top role model.  According to the magazine covers, Barack Obama used to be Abraham Lincoln.  Now he's starting to sound like his uninvited defender Jimmy Carter.  President Obama isn't stupid enough to play the race card that Jimmy Carter dealt last week.  He wouldn't be president today if had presented himself as a victim.

The Editor says...
 Oh, I beg to differ.  Yes he is stupid enough, and yes he did portray himself as the victim of racism during the 2008 campaign, but the "mainstream" news media ignored those stories and showed us only his good side.

Barack Obama:  The Black Jimmy Carter.  Obama resembles Carter in virtually every way.  Carter handed over the Panama Canal, built by the United States, to leftist dictator Omar Torrijos; Obama is currently in the process of handing over Honduras to leftist would-be dictator Manuel Zelaya, and he has already kowtowed to Venezuelan leftist dictator Hugo Chavez, Nicaraguan communist dictator Daniel Ortega and Cuban communist dictator Fidel Castro.  Carter hated Israel, and along with his National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, sought to undermine it; Obama, along with covert foreign policy adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, hates Israel and seeks to undermine it.

Carteresque.  [Scroll down]  Though he shot to political stardom as a supposed "post-partisan," he has presided over the most ideologically dogged administration in memory.  Bill Clinton might have triangulated to please the electorate.  Barack Obama is more inclined to search for villains.  In this, he begins to resemble Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy Carter is insulted by the comparisons!
 Jimmy Carter Upset By Obama Comparison.  Former President Jimmy Carter is fuming.  Given his disastrous record in office you would think that he would be happy to be compared to the Anointed One, but apparently President Obama has made such a mess that even Carter is now distancing himself.

Bill Clinton

 Public distrust of government could hobble Obama.  Hold on to those clever caricatures of Barack Obama as Franklin D. Roosevelt for a bit.  This election could end up more 1992 than 1932.  Despite media-fed expectations of an FDR-like flood of legislation that would help Obama transform the country and its politics, there's also a real chance that he could face a Bill Clinton-like morass that would stymie some of his boldest promises and lead to a backlash against his party and him.

Obama as Clinton redux.  As he prepares to make history when inaugurated Tuesday as the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama reminds me more strikingly each day of one of his predecessors.  He may not like this.  It's not Abraham Lincoln or Franklin Delano Roosevelt, leading heroically in time of crisis.  It's not Ronald Reagan, whom Obama once called transformative.  It's his old nemesis from the presidential primary.  It's the 42nd president of the United States.

The Parallel Universe of Clinton and Obama.  Just as Barack Obama's campaign misled the public and ran against his own ultra liberal record, Clinton ran as a centrist and won.  Once in office however, his actions exposed his liberal bent and his allegiance to the left wing Democrats who laid low during his campaign.  The man who loathed the military immediately cut the defense budget and laid the background for future attacks on the U.S. and its interests.  Barack Obama has done the same in spite of the looming threats by Korea and Iran.

Slick Barry.  Barack Obama has little in common with presidential candidates of either political party, except for one:  Bill Clinton.  Both men transcended their humble roots by receiving elite education and succeeding in electoral politics.  Watch how "Barry" behaves.  Listen to his words.  Ignore the inflection in his voice, his body language, his facial expressions, the fawning media, and all the distractions of meaning:  listen to his words.  He says nothing, just as Bill Clinton said nothing, and if you aren't really paying attention, it sounds good.

Huey Long

 Barack Obama:  The Kingfish Reborn.  John McCain once referred to Barack Obama's upcoming presidency as the second term of Jimmy Carter.  Obama has provided plenty of support for this observation.  However, as this seemingly endless campaign progressed, and as domestic issues prevailed over those of foreign policy, it has become more accurate to say that Obama's election is the first term of the Huey Long administration.  Huey Long was Louisiana's wonder boy; a talented demagogue who regularly appealed to the basest instincts of voters.

FDR

 No New Deal on these cards.  Right now, as we loll among the heady effervescence of Obamamania, the favourite divertissement for gushing commentators seems to be:  which great American president is the new President-elect most going to resemble? ... [John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, or Franklin D. Roosevelt?]  Given how little we know about Obama, all three comparisons seem a little frivolous.  Presently, though, as credit markets totter and the US automobile industry hovers on the precipice, the FDR comparison seems the least far-fetched of the three.

Obama, FDR, the Constitution, and Rights.  FDR attended Harvard and Columbia Law School.  Obama attended Columbia and Harvard Law.  Both of these Democrats share the gift of inspiring people with their oratory. ... Obama, like FDR, chafes at the restrictions on government power imposed by the U.S. Constitution.  In Rooseveltian fashion, he views the Constitution as a nuisance that impedes the speedy expansion of government power.

Bridges to Nowhere.  Democrats are enjoying a New Deal reverie wherein a Democratic president solves an economic crisis with public-works projects.  The new issue of Time magazine features Obama on the cover decked out in the trappings of FDR.  This image would accurately capture the moment, (1) if Obama — president-elect for all of two weeks — had actually accomplished something, and (2) if Franklin Roosevelt's economic program had really ended the Great Depression.  Neither is true.

Obama's 100 Days: The Scariest Chart I've Ever Seen.  Much has been made of the comparison of Barrick Hussein Obama and Franklin Delano Roosevelt and need for quick action in the first 100 days.  Winning a popular election and enjoying heavy majorities in both houses of Congress, FDR declared a national bank holiday, took us off the gold standard and confiscated Americans gold coins, raised taxes on the rich, and began a series of anti-business measures.  Obama has acted quickly too...

On the other hand...
 He's No FDR.  Is Obama the new FDR?  The answer is no.  If Franklin Delano Roosevelt were president today, the [Obamacare] summit never would have happened.  As the top priority on his agenda, liberal health care reform would have been enacted already.  For Obama, the summit was a last-gasp attempt to revive his moribund legislation.  More than likely, it will fail.  The reason is tied to what is probably the greatest difference between FDR and Obama.  Roosevelt took command of Washington.  Obama hasn't.

Eisenhower

 The Left Bereft.  The left never grasped Obama's ruthlessness — not a bad quality in a president for times like these.  He uses supporters like toilet paper — and he's quick to flush.  Not yet inaugurated, he's already running for re-election. ... Surrender and socialism wouldn't play well at the ballot box.  So, despite an influx of Clinton-era retreads, the Obama administration's shaping up as more Eisenhower than Kennedy ... .

Obama May Be an Aloof President.  [Obama is] going to try to keep his distance from other politicians, including his fellow Democrats.  I see him trying to remain aloof from his party, much as Dwight Eisenhower did five decades ago.  Like Eisenhower, I think he's drawn the conclusion that his party needs him more than he needs his party.  What's my evidence for this?  Well, for one thing Obama didn't do a whole lot of campaigning for his fellow Democrats this year after he clinched the party's nomination in early June.

Abraham Lincoln

 Ego Trip:  Historians say Obama is no Lincoln.  Obama's frequent invocations of Abraham Lincoln — a man enshrined in myth and marble with his own temple on the National Mall — would not at first blush say much about his own instincts for modesty or self-effacement. ... Sean Wilentz, a scholar in American history at Princeton, said many presidents have sought to frame themselves in the historical legacies of illustrious predecessors, but he couldn't find any examples quite so brazen.

I'm sorry, Obama is no Lincoln.  Lincoln was his own man.  When, as an unknown, he ran for the presidency, he didn't model himself on anyone else.  He practised humility as well as mentioning the need for it.  When asked about his humble start in life, he didn't make a meal of it or write books about it, merely remarking that his story conformed to 'the simple annals of the poor'.

Obama 'Whistle Stop' train ride:  The whistle stop tour ... is meant to consciously evoke images of the Lincoln inaugural. ... The entire inaugural has been one long ad campaign to try and get people to believe that the new president is some kind of Abraham Lincoln character.

The Editor says...
 Obama's triumphal entry on the train also served as a publicity stunt for Amtrak, which is a boondoggle that can only stay afloat as long as the taxpayers keep supplying the money.  Thus, Amtrak suits Obama perfectly.

Unreal Expectations?  President Obama asked for them.  For nearly three months since the election, we have been warned by President Obama, his staff, and the media not to burden him with unreal expectations that no mere mortal could meet.  But why then consciously borrow from Abraham Lincoln's speeches?  And why re-create Lincoln's historic train ride to his inauguration — especially by flying back from Washington to Illinois to then return to D.C. by slow-moving railcar?  Lincoln took the train because it was the only feasible way to get to Washington in 1861, not to copy the grand arrival of some earlier American savior.

LBJ

 Obama Will be Bad News for Wealth Producers.  The more important economic effect of the electorate's decision to propel Barack Obama into the Oval Office will be the growth of government.  Now, those who put George W. Bush into the White House are not too well placed to complain, since their man presided over the largest and most expensive expansion of government since Lyndon Johnson created his Great Society.  Government will become a bigger presence in the health-care sector.  Workers will pay, but won't know it.

Lyndon Baines Obama.  Why did LBJ fail?  He overloaded the circuits.  He tried to do it all.  He misread a national desire for continuity after Kennedy's death as a mandate for a lunge to the left and a great leap forward with the largest expansion of government since the New Deal. ... History never repeats itself exactly.  But Barack Obama is making the same mistakes today that LBJ made in 1965.

Adolf Hitler

 Ex-Hitler youth's warning to America.  Because it has abandoned moral absolutes and its historic Christian faith, the U.S. is moving closer to a Nazi-style totalitarianism, warns a former German member of the Hitler Youth in a new book.  "Every day brings this nation closer to a Nazi-style totalitarian abyss," writes Hilmar von Campe, now a U.S. citizen, and author of "Defeating the Totalitarian Lie:  A Former Hitler Youth Warns America."

How the Great Depression brought Adolf Hitler to power:  The Great Depression certainly empowered FDR to make big changes in America over his four terms.  In spite of all the hoo-hah the country didn't get out of the long, long slump until 1940 or so, with the huge mobilization of men and industrial resources for World War II.  But FDR did get to play to his heart's content, through the NRA, the WPA, the AAA, the CCC, the TVA, the NLRB, the FDIC and the SEC.  By comparison all we've got is a measly TARP.  So far.

Forcing Out Obama:  There will always be true believers for whom reality never intrudes, but it has not escaped anyone's attention that even the worshipful media is beginning to ask why things are going so badly, so fast, and beginning to blame Obama.  The answer for the swift decline is that Obama is a pathological narcissist and dedicated socialist who has surrounded himself for the most part with former Clinton operatives.  Obama is, plainly speaking, a liar.  Increasingly, the adoration heaped upon him by his supporters is beginning to resemble the same as that in the 1930s which led the Germans down the path to war, ruin, and the abomination of the Holocaust.

Who's 'Hitler' now?  President Obama's crack about his bowling acumen being worthy of the Special Olympics has raised a few hackles.  Normally I'd say "lighten up," but this time some examination is in order.  George W. Bush was called "Hitler" virtually every day, with no real basis for the accusation other than that liberals said so — and liberals are like, really smart, so it must have been true.  But Obama's comment, for me anyway, means that we're just a few weeks into the new administration and the new president is already more worthy of a Hitler comparison than Bush ever was.

Obama:  Not The First Head Of State To Design Cars.  Sitting at a restaurant table in Munich in the summer of 1932, Hitler designed the prototype for what would become the immensely successful Beetle design for Volkswagen. ... I am not saying that Barack Obama is Hitler, just that they have a similar propensity for vehicular design.

Obama and the Spirit of Antichrist -- Part Two.  Evidently [making a speech at the Siegessäule] was not problematic for Obama, who stood in front of it and saluted the German audience in a way eerily similar to what Adolf Hitler used to do, followed by thousands returning the salute, which is against German law.  When Obama ended his speech in front of the war goddess, he said, "With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again."  This is exactly what Hitler had promised to do and exactly where he had planned to memorialize it.

The Hitler Factor:  Is It Fair To Compare?.  We need to be cautious when we see historical experiences, thought processes, behavior patterns, courses of action, belief structures, personality traits, and career goals in a candidate which are found to be strikingly similar to those of Hitler.  Combined with lack of transparency we have a serious red flag waving before us.  We absolutely cannot afford to be wrong about this.

Jim Jones

 Jim Jones' followers enthralled by his skills as a speaker.  The key to understanding the tragedy that was Jonestown lies in the oratory skills of the Peoples Temple founder, Jim Jones.  With the cadence and fervor of a Baptist preacher, the charm and folksiness of a country storyteller and the zeal and fury of a maniacal dictator, Jones exhorted his followers to a fever pitch, audiotapes recovered from Jonestown reveal.  As he spoke, they applauded, shouted, cheered. ... He also indoctrinated many young, idealistic liberal white people in progressive 1970s California with the themes of socialism, equality and political activism.

Orwell's Children:  November 18, 1978, three decades ago, 918 people drank Kool-Aid laced with cyanide.  Jim Jones, the communist leader of Jonestown, Guyana, had become "Big Brother."  Soviet and Communist Chinese propaganda films and condemnations of capitalist and imperialist America blared continually to the subjects of this island of Leftist Hell.  Jonestown ended in mass suicide, but the real horror was that ordinary people, Americans like you and I, had become so decoupled from reality and morality that they could be led to surrender everything, even their lives, intoxicated only with the venom of modern Leftism.  These were Orwell's Children.

Alexander the Great

 Obama the Great?  President Obama was compared favorably to Alexander the Great on Wednesday [3/25/2009] at a White House reception honoring Greek Independence Day.  The Greek Orthodox Church in America said the president should follow the example of the ancient military conqueror to help solve some of Greece's problems.  "I will tell Michelle that I've been compared to Alexander the Great," the president told 200 guests, many of them Greek-Americans from Chicago.

Vladimir Putin

 No. 2 House Republican compares Obama to Putin.  The No. 2 Republican in the House on Thursday [6/11/2009] compared President Barack Obama's plans for the auto industry to the policies of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, saying the White House has stripped credit holders of rights and given them to Democratic allies.  "They said, 'Set aside the rule of law, let's strip secured creditors, bondholders, of their rights.  Take them away outside of the bankruptcy process and give them to the political cronies and the auto workers' unions," Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Vladimir Lenin

 Obama as Leninoid:  It was Lenin, not Stalin, who first introduced the Cult of Personality to raise his profile to superhuman status after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.  Even today, some Leftists talk about Lenin as a Jesus figure, who only murdered four million people out of necessity. ... Obama's entire election campaign was based on a Cult of Personality, deliberately whipped up by PR honcho Axelrod and shamefully effective with many Americans.  The Obama-as-Jesus theme has been sounded by Obama himself, followed by his millions of acolytes.

Mikhail Gorbachev

 Lament for a nation.  It is, today, a little-known fact that Gorbachev did not bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union, on purpose.  Those who still detect a glint in his eye would do well to respect his persistent denials.  He was sincerely trying to reform the place.  He was walking a dog with powerful jaws, but rather loose teeth; he tried to adapt it to a vegetarian diet; it died.

Richard M. Nixon

 Barack Milhous Obama.  What prior administration does the Obama administration most resemble?  In its early days, there is a surprising contender:  that of Richard Nixon. ... The Nixonian note was sounded again in the Obama administration's response to Republicans who are pressing for information on the firing of AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin.  It appears that Obama's firing of Walpin was both illegal and politically motivated, and his aides are circling the wagons, hoping the issue will go away without their having to provide information to Congress.

Napoleon

 It's Time for Another Waterloo.  Napoleon might be long gone, but President Obama is doing his best to fill his boots.  Sure, he's taller.  And instead of hiding his hand in his shirt, it's either in our pockets or signing bills and spending money.  But his aims are very similar — power and control.

Mao Tse-Tung

 The Sayings Of Chairman Barack.  Great news.  Our leader will be addressing all schoolchildren on September 8th.  And the Department of Education has helpfully prepared a menu of activities for the day.  As you'll note above, 7-12th graders are to view quotations from Pres. Obama, discuss them, and strive to understand what "the president believes is important" for students to be successful in school.  Wonderful.  But why stop with students?  Shouldn't Americans of all ages have the benefit of the President's wisdom?  And why limit it to one day, and only to the topic of education?

Augustus Caesar

 Obama and the Plight of the Dancing Masquerade.  [Scroll down]  The bread & circuses playbook ... worked in Imperial Rome, but it will not work in America.  During the campaign, Obama liked to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln in order to convince Americans of his wisdom and innate abilities to govern despite his inexperience.  Well, it has now become all too obvious that the historical figure that Obama is most desperate to model himself after is not President Lincoln — it's Augustus Caesar.

Harry Hopkins

 Fearing Obama.  Obama appears to have an undergraduate's conception of how serious work is accomplished:  he has all the great ideas; somebody else does the heavy lifting. ... In truth, with his community organizer's view of the world, the figure that Obama most resembles is Harry Hopkins, right-hand man to FDR and New Deal figurehead.

Herbert Hoover

 Sign of the times:  Obamavilles.  While Obamaphiles love to compare B.O. to previous American presidents Abe Lincoln and FDR, events on the ground suggest that another comparison might be more appropriate.  A sign posted anonymously outside a tent city near Colorado Springs suggests that Obama's legacy is more likely to be akin to that of Herbert Hoover.

Linus van Pelt

 Barack's Blue Blanket.  [Scroll down slowly]  Yet while verbally exuding confidence, both Obama and Linus are a paradox.  Both flaunt self-perceived intellect while diametrically exhibiting a predilection to insecurity.  Linus rarely appears without a blanket tossed over one shoulder, and Barack refuses to leave Pennsylvania Avenue without the teleprompter ... Thus far, Barry seems unaware that a United States president setting up a teleprompter in a sixth-grade classroom is as pathetic as appearing at a lectern while sucking a plastic nipple.

More about Obama's teleprompter addiction.

Captain Ahab

 Barack Obama 'destroys first year in office'.  When Barack Obama took office last year he was compared to Superman, even joking at a dinner that he had been "born on Krypton and sent here ... to save the planet Earth".  Last January he appeared on the cover of Spider-Man.  Now, with his legislative agenda in tatters, the president has moved from comic-strip hero to comparisons to one of the great flawed figures of American literature.

Various composites

 Honestly, Another Abe?  In an attempt to dial down expectations for his administration, President-elect Barack Obama's supporters have dropped much of the "messiah" talk.  No more talk of him being The One (Oprah), or a Jedi Knight (George Lucas), or a "Lightworker" (the San Francisco Chronicle), or a "quantum leap in American consciousness" (Deepak Chopra).  Instead we have more humble and circumspect conversation about the man.  Now he's merely Abraham Lincoln and FDR and Martin Luther King, combined.  It's a step down from divine redeemer, but you have to start somewhere.

I hope Obama Fails, too.  To say it's always unpatriotic to hope for the failure of your leader is illogical.  It presupposes that a leader's success is synonymous with his nation's success, but this simply cannot be true in all cases. ... Would we have called a German who wished for Hitler's failure in 1934 unwise and unpatriotic? What about Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Pol Pot, Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein?

The Brainy Bunch.  Someone recently pointed out how much Barack Obama's style and strategies resemble those of Latin American charismatic despots — the takeover of industries by demagogues who never ran a business, the rousing rhetoric of resentment addressed to the masses and the personal cult of the leader promoted by the media.  But do we want to become the world's largest banana republic?

Hello, My Name Is...  When millions of people surrender their hearts and minds to one person, the result can be catastrophic.  This is what happened in Germany with Hitler, in China with Mao, in the Soviet Union with Stalin, in Cuba with Castro, in Iran with Khomeini, and so on and so forth.  Today, we think these men were monsters, but that was not what their millions of worshipers thought.  Those people loved them.  Dictators can't dictate unless people are willing to submit.



The stock market's reaction and other economic issues

This subsection has moved here.



Obama made a lot of impossible promises

Now Govern.  Democrats are itching to have their way after spending much of the last eight years doing little much more than shoot spitballs at President Bush while the man fought two conventional wars, as well as a couple monster hurricanes and the much thornier War on Terror.  Well, now the Democratic Party is for all practical purposes America's super-majority party.  It has complete control of the presidency and Congress.  It's time to put away childish things and govern.

Global man of mystery.  The people of the world await Barack Obama and, on the basis of exhaustive polls, they do believe he is the one.  In Obama's own words, millions of people see his election as the moment the planet began to heal, the oceans stopped rising.  Can he meet all their expectations?  Yes, he can, the masses believe.  Well, can he? ... Obama, for the moment at least, can embrace the world as a composite Mother Teresa, Princess Diana and secular pope.  He is all things to all men and all women.

A new Obama:  No we can't.  During CNN's broadcast of Barack Obama's first press conference yesterday [11/7/2008], a corner of the screen flickered with a live feed of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  As Obama spoke, the Dow average lost more than 100 points.  In his brief statement and question session, the president elect of the United States said next to nothing about anything.  There were no signs of the Yes We Can positivism of the campaign in his low-key, even halting manner.  What little he did say may well signal the beginning of a new phase in Obamamania:  No we can't.

Reuters:  Lowering Expectations for Obama.  Reuters ran a little flak for Barack Obama trying to help dull the outrageous expectations placed on The One by his irrationally exuberant adherents in theirs headlined "Congress faces historic challenges" — As if no other Congress has faced "historic challenges" before?  Reuters assures us, though, that times are so bad that we should not expect Obama to live up to any of his outlandish promises.

A Checklist Of Obama's Many Promises.  Few presidential candidates have made more specific promises to American voters than Barack Obama.  They came so fast and furious in the latter part of the campaign, you'd be excused for not keeping up.  So as a public service, we've put together a handy checklist of some of the biggest Obama promises — culled from his "Blueprint for Change," his campaign speeches and advertisements.  Clip it.  Save it.  And see how he did in four years.

He's literally a "limousine liberal."
 Barack Obama's car could fuel more problems.  President-elect Obama has stressed the need for energy independence — but he'll be chauffeured around in a gas-guzzling Cadillac SUV limo that could pose a symbolism problem similar to the car controversy that dogged his friend and ally, Gov. Deval Patrick.  Obama's presidential ride, dubbed "Cadillac One," will reportedly be a mammoth, custom-made Cadillac limo built like a GMC truck that sits on 19-inch wheels.

Hope and Change when choosing a car — not.  Remember when Obama, played car mechanic — the concerned everyman worrying about paying the high cost of fuel, and green candidate?  Well, that was before the election; this is now, the week after the election.  Barack Obama has won, his followers are in ecstasy, so no problem with violating campaign promises and themes.  Let's start with the First Car.

Despite Bells and Whistles, 'Office of President-Elect' Holds No Authority.  Under the Constitution, there is no such thing as the Office of the President-elect.  Technically, Obama will not even become the president-elect until the Electoral College convenes after the second Wednesday in December and elects him based on the results of the Nov. 4 general election, as stated in the Constitution.  So what is Obama's executive authority in the weeks leading to Jan. 20?

The Teflon President-Elect.  Candidate Obama maligned the Bush tax cuts for benefiting the rich.  But President-elect Obama now intends to retain all the tax cuts, keeping the lower rates on the "rich" until they expire in 2011 — a far cry from his campaign promises.  What about Bush's "stupid" Iraq war?  Obama now wants Bush's secretary of defense, Robert Gates, to stay.  Huh?  Gates supported the successful surge and the change in counterinsurgent strategy.  Sen. Obama opposed the surge, attempted to stop it, and predicted failure.

What the Obama Cult Factor Portends.  The cult mystique of Barack Obama continues while his fawning supporters blindly accept every move he makes, provingtheir support for him in the general election was not based as much on policy as personality.  This could play right into Obama's hands if, as I believe, he does have major change on his mind.


The campaign promises begin to evaporate...

Obama Ditches Oil Company Tax After Price Crash.  President-elect Barack Obama is not planning to implement a windfall profit tax on oil companies because prices have dropped below $80 a barrel, an aide said on Tuesday.  "President-elect Obama announced the policy during the campaign because oil prices were above $80 per barrel," an aide on Obama's transition team said.  "They are currently below that now and expected to stay below that."  Oil prices have fallen from a record $147 a barrel in July to under $50 this week.

Barack's Windfall Reversal.  One of Barack Obama's emerging political qualities is how casually he has been dumping the ballast of his campaign promises.  The latest lousy policy to go over the side is a windfall profits tax on U.S. oil companies.  Throughout his run for President, Mr. Obama argued the industry deserved special taxation on its "excess" earnings.

Will Media Report Obama Going Back On Campaign Promises?  When promises candidate Barack Obama made to voters during the campaign get tossed aside like so much rubbish, will media hold his feet to the fire?  Such is an important question given how many pledges Democrats and their leaders made to garner the public's support in 2006 which ended up being completely irrelevant once the 110th Congress was sworn in.  For the most part, as each campaign commitment was tossed on the trash heep, (sic) Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, and all their accomplices were given a pass by "journalists" from coast to coast.

Bursting Obama's Balloons.  No one has come to Washington draped in loftier expectations -- or facing a more challenging and ever-growing to-do list.  Obama and his aides are determined to send a jolt of electricity through the city, but the realities get more immobilizing by the minute.



Remarks about the election itself

Shame on You!  For those who value private property, free speech, unfettered competition, limited government and the principle of taxation with representation, Election Day 2008 was not only an historic event from the perspective of race relations in America, but also a shocking affirmation that a new generation of power-hungry socialists have surfaced from within that Trojan Horse called the The Democratic Party.

President-Elect Obama.  Mr. Obama becomes the first Democratic Presidential candidate since LBJ in 1964 to win more than 50.1% of the vote.  That was Jimmy Carter's share in 1976, and even Bill Clinton never matched that in his two victories.

Is America a racist nation after all?  If it's racism when an American refuses to vote for Obama because he is black, surely it is also racism when an American votes for Obama because he is black.  And can anyone deny that plenty of Americans did just that when they voted for him?  Back in June I met some of them in the US.  They included black cab drivers and white upper-class educated professionals who admitted they didn't care about Obama's policies, but would vote for him because he is black.  It's about time America had a black president, they said.  Is that not racism?

A Mandate?  A Landslide victory?  Really?  According to the US Census, there are 246 million Americans who are above the status of suffrage in the USA.  That means 246 million people are eligible to vote (excludes convicted felons, children, illegals, etc).  Of those 246 million people, approximately 130 million people voted in this election.  That means 116 million people DID NOT vote.  That translates to 53% voted and 47% did not.  Of those that voted, 64.1 million voted for Barrack Obama, and 65.9 million voted for someone else, and 116 million didn't vote at all.

That huge voter turnout? Didn't happen.  Despite widespread predictions of record turnout in this year's presidential election, roughly the same portion of eligible voters cast ballots in 2008 as in 2004.  Between 60.7 percent and 61.7 percent of the 208.3 million eligible voters cast ballots this year, compared with 60.6 percent of those eligible in 2004, according to a voting analysis by American University political scientist Curtis Gans, an authority on voter turnout.  He estimated that between 126.5 million and 128.5 million eligible voters cast ballots this year, versus 122.3 million four years ago.

The Road to Serfdom.  Obama promises:  "We will change the world ... There is nothing we can't do, nothing we can't accomplish if we are unified."  Who is this "we" politicians always cite?  We can change the world for the better if "we" means hundreds of millions of free people pursuing their interests, inventing, building, parenting, helping.  But the politicians' "we" is different.  It means government.  "We" will take your money by force and order you about.  A democracy can become the tyranny of the majority.  That's no way to create prosperity.

This Election Has Not 'Realigned' the Country.  The 2008 election was an important election.  But it can hardly be considered realigning.  Mr. Obama won by portraying the Bush presidency as a series of mistakes that need to be avoided in the future — essentially encouraging voters to think about the short-term past, not the long-term future.

Make a List: Lessons from the 2008 election.  The electorate really doesn't care about "experience."  Voting with a unpopular incumbent president most of the time resonates, and a relationship with a cast of vile characters doesn't, unless you can show why it matters.  The petty back-and-forth squabbles, the gotcha web ads, and the gaffe of the day are utterly lost on most voters.

Mourning In America.  The great Shelby Steele of the Hoover Institution wrote a terrific piece after the election about how President-elect Obama managed to tap into the stigma that many White Americans feel about race.  He opined that many people have been looking for something -- anything -- to relieve the burden felt by years of being blamed for racism.  What better solution than to elect a Black man president?

Church-Goers Did Not Support Obama.  On Tuesday, Obama defeated McCain in the nationwide popular vote, 52% to 46%.  Among voters who told the exit poll that they attend church once a week, however, McCain defeated Obama, 55% to 43%.  McCain also defeated Obama 55% to 43% among voters who said they attended church more than once a week.

5 Myths About an Election of Mythic Proportions:  [Myth #1]  The Republican Party suffered a death blow.  There's no question that losing six Senate seats and 24 House seats (not to mention the White House) wasn't a step forward for the Grand Old Party.  But there are two good reasons to believe that Republicans will be back on their feet sooner than many people expect.

Where's Obama's 'mandate'?  Now that the facts are in, it's clear that the pro-Obama mainstream media continued to get it wrong right through election night. ... In fact, despite the pictures of four-hour lines at the polls, American University's Center for the Study of the American Electorate reports that voter turnout in this year's election was the same in percentage terms as it was four years ago --- or at most had risen by less than 1 percent.

A defeat -- and yet, all is not lost.  American conservatives can celebrate one historic triumph:  The performance of the New Media in this election.  We can't lose sight of the fact that the New Media managed to expose Obama and his lifelong network.  We did the job of real journalism.  Any American who wanted to know the truth was able to find it out with a few clicks on a keyboard.  That is real journalism, not the phony imitation from the Old Media and its camp followers.  There is no secret any longer about the ideology of these people, or about their close alliances with Islamic radicals, destructive Leftist billionaires and Saudi influence buyers.  There is no doubt about their deep and entrenched roots in the Chicago Machine.  Chicago Mayor Daley is on the transition team, and Chicago hardball pol Rahm Emanuel is the White House Chief of Staff.  This is the dream team of demagogues like J-Wright, Bill Ayers, Louis Farrakhan, and our sworn enemies abroad.  About half the voters know it, and they will not forget it.

Conservative Nation.  One question surfaces repeatedly as the pundits obsess over the exit polls.  Have Americans lurched to the Left in any meaningful way?  If so, are they likely to sign long-term leases in Hotel Obama, or are they simply on loan until they experience the consequences of modern-day liberalism?  Some insist it's the latter.

Planet Obama:  Like it or not, the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States has done an immense amount to restore American prestige in the world.  Not since the destruction of the Twin Towers has there been dancing in the streets anywhere on the planet to celebrate events in America.  It is to be hoped, of course, that it is not the same people doing the dancing.

How He Did It:  A Diagrammatic Analysis of the Obama Campaign.  The audacity and speed with which Obama railroaded the stimulus bill through Congress took Republicans by surprise.  It shouldn't have; it was a logical extension of his campaign tactics.  Like the spear-carrying soldiers of Ethiopia, overwhelmed by Mussolini's tanks and poison gas in 1936, the Republicans simply don't know what hit them in last year's election.


The unmitigated media favoritism continues

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Mr. Obama is surrounding himself with Washington insiders

If you voted for him because he promised "change", you have to wonder if this is what you bargained for.  It looks like a third term for the Clinton administration.

Two-thirds of Obama staffers so far come from Clinton era.  Come back, Clintons, all is forgiven.  This seems to be Barack Obama's message as he draws up appointments for his administration — two thirds of which come from Bill Clinton's.  In a development unimaginable at the height of the primary battle, 31 of the 47 people so far appointed to the President-elect's transition and White House teams have ties to the Clinton administration.

Obama Stocks Economic Recovery Board with Business Chiefs and Labor Leaders.  President Barack Obama announced on Friday a new economic advisory board, filled with business executives — many of whom contributed heavily to Democratic campaigns in 2008 — and the two most politically active organized labor groups.  The president also insisted that Congress deliver an economic stimulus bill to his desk as quickly as possible ... .

Bush III.  I don't doubt that hope and change rhetoric, from a non-traditional charismatic leader, won't do some good abroad, but on key issues — Iraq, Afghanistan, probably the Middle East and Iran, NATO, missile defense, China, India, North Korea, etc. — Sec. Clinton won't be doing much differently from Sec. Rice.  Sec. Gates won't be different from Sec. Gates.

Four Traps for Obama.  Two fiascos punctuated the first Clinton years.  First, the Democrats' drive for openly practiced homosexuality in the military.  The voters didn't like the idea of US Marines openly sleeping together.  The second fiasco was HillaryCare, which looked like a massive power-grab, not a modest medical insurance program.  Barack Obama is preparing to step into those two hornets' nests even now.

Obama and Capgrass Syndrome.  How could Obama, who promised Change, assemble an administration virtually indistinguishable from that of Bill Clinton?  How could he add insult to injury by asking Bob Gates, George W. Bush's Secretary of Defense, to stay on?  How could he pick Lawrence Summers as his top economic advisor?

Is Obama recreating the Clinton era?  All in all, 31 of the 47 transition or staff posts that Mr Obama has filled so far have gone to people with ties to the Clinton administration, Politico has reported.  Eleven of the 12 members of his Transition Advisory Board are Clinton veterans.  And, according to officials quoted by a number of US media outlets, Mr Obama is even considering picking the biggest Clinton insider of them all — Hillary Clinton — as his Secretary of State.

What Went Wrong?  Someone like Jindal, Palin, and other fresh new faces will save the [Republican] party in 2012, especially as hope and change soon proves neither hopeful nor different.  Democrats, after all, just replaced their 91-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd as Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee with equally entrenched 84-year-old Sen. Daniel Inouye; and are now talking about re-empowering the big unions that helped ruin Detroit, are hiring all the Clinton retreads for a second try in the Obama administration, and seem to want to use the ancient Freddie/Fannie/postal service model to expand the government.

Familiar Faces.  Okay, it is starting to be a little bit too much.  Hillary Clinton, John Podesta, Rahm Emanuel, Eric Holder, Mona Sutphen, and Greg Craig, to name just a few.  What is this, a Clinton class reunion?  I get that the Obama team needs experience.  I get that some of these people are moderates and pragmatists, which is good if you want to keep the country from going over a cliff. ... But isn't this all sort of a bait and switch?

Is Obama Embarking On Bill Clinton's Third Term?  Let's not be so naïve.  The passionate Obama partisans aren't.  The polling data on these voters released last week by John Zogby may have confirmed what many of us had suspected for months — that millions of Americans who supported the Obama candidacy knew essentially nothing about him — but that doesn't dismiss the fact that Obama sold people on the idea of "change."  And based on the left-wing reaction to the Clinton re-emergence, "change" was taken to mean not merely a reversal of the past eight years, but an un-doing of the past couple of decades.

Obama's White House, Clinton's Team.  As President-elect Obama forms his administration, he's including a lot of familiar faces.  Many of Obama's picks — for his transition team, his staff, and his Cabinet — are people who worked in the Clinton administration.  Where else is a Democratic president going to find people with executive branch experience?

The Trouble With Obama's Energy Czar.  Yet another Clintonite has been wheeled out of the political morgue to serve in the Obama administration.  Carol Browner, a neon-green radical who headed the Environmental Protection Agency from 1993-2000, is widely rumored to be the president-elect's choice for "energy czar."  But an ethical cloud still hangs over Browner's EPA legacy.  It doesn't take a team of Ivy League lawyers to figure out that this is one more headache the Hope and Change crew doesn't need.

Merry Christmas, Carol.  Despite denials from her soon-to-be former employers, the Albright Group, former Clinton EPA head and soon-to-be climate change czar Carol Browner served as a de facto lobbyist for Dubai Ports World, owned by the United Arab Emirate of Dubai, which arranged to buy a company operating six major U.S. ports, including New York and New Jersey.  Browner told the Obama transition team that she never served as a lobbyist in her time in Washington ... .

Obama climate czar has socialist ties.  Until last week, Carol M. Browner, President-elect Barack Obama's pick as global warming czar, was listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which calls for "global governance" and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change.  By Thursday, Mrs. Browner's name and biography had been removed from Socialist International's Web page, though a photo of her speaking June 30 to the group's congress in Greece was still available.

Most Networks Skip Story of Obama's Socialist Global Warming Czar.  Fox News on Wednesday continued to be one of the very few media outlets covering the fact that Barack Obama's new "global warming czar" has ties to socialist groups.  While all three network morning shows ignored the story, "Fox News Live" host Megyn Kelly interviewed climate change skeptic Senator James Inhofe on the subject.

Barack Obama's aides believe he has made a mistake in hiring Hillary Clinton.  Mr Obama is expected to make a formal appointment after the coming week's Thanksgiving celebrations, but the leaking and briefing and media obsession with every twist and turn has left many wondering whether the Clinton psychodrama could overshadow Mr Obama's first term in office.

Hillary Nomination Would Be An Obama-Nation.  It is still hard to believe but, if Hillary Clinton's "confidantes" are to be trusted, Barack Obama is about to appoint her secretary of state and she is about to accept.  This appointment represents the capstone of betrayal of Obama's promise to be the "change we can believe in."

Summers Said to Be Obama Pick for Top Economic Post.  President-elect Barack Obama will name Lawrence Summers to head the National Economic Council, one of the three top economic jobs in the new administration, a Democratic aide said. ... Summers was President Bill Clinton's Treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001, when he became president of Harvard University.

Former Lobbyist Named Biden's Chief of Staff.  President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday named Ronald A. Klain, a former lobbyist and Clinton White House lawyer, as chief of staff to Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.  His selection is one of several early appointments to Mr. Obama's White House and transition staff that calls attention to the limits of Mr. Obama's sweeping self-imposed ethics rules, laid out to fulfill a campaign pledge to "wrest the federal government out of the hands of lobbyists."

Obama appoints lobbyist to head FCC transition, reports say.  Telecom policy circles are a buzz with the news of Barack Obama's pick to head the Federal Communications Commission transition team.  Obama is reported to have chosen lawyer and DC insider Henry Rivera, a former Democratic FCC commissioner, lobbyist, and currently a partner at communications law firm Wiley Rein.

Obama Spokesman Says 'Obama Ready to RULE on Day 1'.  The co-chair of Barack Obama's Transition Team, Valerie Jarrett, appeared on Meet the Press this weekend and used, shall we say, an interesting word to described what she thinks Barack Obama will be doing in January when he's officially sworn into office.  She told Tom Brokaw that Obama will be ready to "rule" on day one.  It's a word that reflects the worst fears that people have for Obama the "arrogant," the "messiah," that imagines he's here to "rule" instead of govern.

Transition Team Chock Full of Bundlers.  Though they worked behind the scenes in Barack Obama's campaign for president, bundlers who raised millions of dollars for his White House bid are starting to land significant posts on his transition team.

'Office of President Elect of the United States'.  I nearly busted a gut.  This is something straight out of Saturday Night Live.  The proud savior of the United States of America.  The new voice of the downtrodden minorities, the poor, and the oppressed.  He is surrounded by a bunch of rich white folks.

Former Lobbyist Named Biden's Chief of Staff.  President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday named Ronald A. Klain, a former lobbyist and Clinton White House lawyer, as chief of staff to Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.  His selection is one of several early appointments to Mr. Obama's White House and transition staff that calls attention to the limits of Mr. Obama's sweeping self-imposed ethics rules, laid out to fulfill a campaign pledge to "wrest the federal government out of the hands of lobbyists."

Barack Obama forced to deny abandoning 'change' amid insider appointments.  Barack Obama defended his decision to pack his new Cabinet with veteran Washington insiders and former Clinton officials yesterday after a campaign in which he promised change.

Has the Media Let Obama's Reversal Pass Unnoticed?  Obama is starting to feel a bit of pressure from members of the far left of his own party who are beginning to raise their eyebrows over the fact that he hasn't shown any desire to institute any "change" thus far with his staff and cabinet picks even though they had "hope" that he would.

Buyer's Remorse on the Left.  Clearly, Obama intends to be more than a one-term president; even before his Inauguration, he is already starting his next campaign.  He is putting his chief competition, Senator Hillary Clinton, safely inside his camp and working to dispel any evidence that he is an extremist.  Rather than come in and clean house, the President-elect seems to be embracing politics as usual.

Liberals Angry Over Obama Keeping Gates as Pentagon Chief.  More than a month before he takes the oath of office, President-elect Barack Obama already is testing the loyalty of his liberal base.  On Monday, he is expected to announce his national security team, which will include Robert Gates as his defense secretary, a carry-over from the Bush administration, and retired Gen. Jim Jones, who supported John McCain for president, as his national security adviser.

Change is Changing.  A funny thing happened on his way to the White House:  that old, left-wing community organizer Barack Obama has suddenly veered toward the center, and his incoming administration is looking more and more like the Daley Machine in Chicago than Hugo Chavez's administration down in Venezuela. ... Watching him announce key appointments to cabinet and subcabinet posts makes one think that this is Bill Clinton redux.  Mr. Obama has dug deep into the 1990s and resurrected much of the Clinton cast of characters, even to naming Hillary Clinton to be secretary of state.

Al Qaeda to Obama: 'Welcome aboard'.  One theme that has become noticeably absent from Barack Obama's recent press announcements, his weekly internet broadcasts, or his discussion of public policy from his imaginary "Office of the President Elect" (complete with its own seal) has been the discussion of immediately bringing the troops home.  The signs of Barack Obama going back on his biggest direct campaign promise are numerous.

The Obama Jolt:  So the scoreboard looks like this: Three of the four cabinet posts that matter most are going to those with views acceptable to the center-right of the Democratic party.  That's Geithner, Clinton, and Gates.  The fourth, attorney general, will provoke a confirmation fight if Obama chooses his buddy Eric Holder, famous as President Clinton's deputy attorney general for facilitating the pardon of Marc Rich.  Three out of four isn't bad.  Conservatives aren't jumping for joy.  But imagine how the left wing of the Democratic party -- the dominant wing, after all -- feels.  Let down would be an understatement.

Bush Through the Obama Prism:  I've collated the dozens of articles from liberal thinkers that explain why so far Obama -- the candidate of hope and change, and cleaning out the entrenched status quo that so warps our D.C. politics and ensures stasis in our policies -- has surrounded himself either with Clintonites, outright Bush people or those who worked closely with them, and centrists of ambiguous politics.  The explanations are quite creative and run the gamut ... Note that the most obvious and embarrassing explanation is taboo and blasphemous:  That Obama is a masterful politician who never has had any real ideology or persona other than his own diversity story and history, youth, and charisma that together allow him to be whatever is politically expedient at the time.

Brace for the change you do not believe in.  There is something degrading about serious, prominent political people of the left or right (to say nothing of the broader public) being forced to play policy hide and seek with the president-elect of the United States.  And there is something presumptive about a president elect who is very satisfied to keep the public guessing about what he stands for and what he plans to do.  It is redolent of the most cynical of 19th century European politics.

They're Ba-a-ack.  Is there any doubt we'll again be getting "two for the price of one?"  Billary is back.  The decision infuriates many Obama supporters.  Pulling the lever for Obama was supposed to usher out the Clinton era of baby-boomer entitlement and drama.  Shades of "The Godfather":  Just when you think they're out, someone pulls them back in.

Recent Musings:  Many people are questioning why Obama, the alleged agent of change, is filling his administration with a lot of Clinton re-treads.  I am reminded of what took place in Germany after World War II.  Suddenly, it seemed like all the mayors and bureaucrats were former Nazis.  The explanation was that after a dozen years of Hitler, only the Nazis had the necessary leadership experience.  Well, when you realize that since 1980, the only Democratic president was Bill Clinton, it figures that Obama would be forced to furnish his White House with second-hand goods from the Clinton thrift shop.

Hillary's Global Village.  Hillary Clinton has long made it clear that she considers [American] values passé, preferring the Brave New World ideology of the internationalist elite to the philosophy of America's founding.  If anything, the State Department gives her a powerful perch to advance UN-style propaganda at the expense of American values.  The striped-pants Strobe Talbotts she will select to work there find those values tiresome.

Left behind.  You almost have to feel sorry for the left.  President-elect Barack Obama was supposed to be their guy.  That woman, Hillary Clinton, was the centrist, reach-across-the-aisle type.  They picked Obama because he was going to be the "transformative" leader who didn't need to compromise with the right or even with reality.  Heck, Obama the Wise would magically change reality itself, right around the same moment he'd force those pesky oceans to recede.

Obama, steady there.  Mr. Obama is too savvy a marketer to have tried to make a campaign slogan out of practicality.  But who would have guessed that when he lit up the crowd at Iowa's 2007 Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner with his signature speech denouncing the ways of Washington and Democrats who accommodated Bush foreign policy, he harbored a secret desire to draw on experienced Republicans to manage his national-security policy?

This Wasn't Quite the Change We Pictured.  It's no surprise that many progressives are — depending on whom you ask — disappointed, irritated or fit to be tied.  Sure, Obama's appointments do represent change — that is, change from the widely unpopular Bush-Cheney status quo.  But do these appointments amount to the kind of change that progressives, who were an essential part of Obama's political base during the campaign, can really believe in?

Robber baron facilitators won't pull US economy out of recession.  President-elect Barack Obama is dreaming in technicolour in thinking former federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker can pull the U.S. economy out of recession.  Mainstream media comment was all but non-existent when Obama appointed big-name Volcker to his economic recovery team.  The last time Volcker was appointed to a high profile investigation into economic malaise, he blew it.

Change we need looks a lot like change we had.  Oh, there'll be change all right.  I predict that by the end of 2009, Barack Obama will have changed so much, you'll hardly recognize him.  Remember Obama 2008?  The guy who railed against our Iraq policy and wanted all our troops home by last March?  In 2009, that's all going to change. ... President-elect Obama's critics may snicker, but I think, in an odd way, he's keeping his fundamental promise of change.  He's changing everything he can.  Which isn't much.



Obama carries the Clintons' baggage

Exclusive:  Gregory Craig to be White House counsel.  Gregory B. Craig, a well-known Washington lawyer who quarterbacked President Bill Clinton's impeachment defense, has been chosen White House counsel by President-elect Barack Obama, according to Democratic officials.

Pardoning Terror.  During Barack Obama's presidential run, Eric Holder, Bill Clinton's Deputy Attorney General from 1997 to 2001, campaigned heavily for the then-Illinois senator.  This past summer, Obama tapped Holder to serve on the vice presidential selection team that ultimately chose Joe Biden to be Obama's running mate.  Now Holder may receive his own position in the Obama administration, for which he has been nominated to serve as Attorney General.  Holder brings a resume rich with titles to the job.  He also brings a history of aiding terrorists, foreign and domestic.

Obama's choice of Xavier Becerra revives 2001 clemency case.  President-elect Barack Obama's offer to make Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) the next U.S. trade representative makes him the second Cabinet-level candidate to have been involved in President Clinton's controversial 2001 commutation of a Los Angeles cocaine dealer's prison sentence.  The other is Eric H. Holder Jr., whom Obama has nominated to be attorney general.

Becerra's got some baggage.  Remember Carlos Vignali?  The dealer, Carlos Vignali, was convicted in 1994 for his role in a drug ring that delivered more than 800 pounds of cocaine — worth about $5 million at the time — from Los Angeles to Minneapolis.  He was released after serving less than half of his 14½-year sentence.  Becerra was one of a number of Southern California political leaders who urged Clinton to consider commuting Vignali's prison term in response to a campaign by Vignali's father, Horacio, a Los Angeles businessman and developer who contributed to Becerra's political campaigns.  The senior Vignali also paid Hillary Rodham Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham, $204,000 to lobby for his son's release.

Becerra's a bad choice for trade post.  Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) could become the administration's point person on international trade.  He's a terrible choice, and not just because of a history of unsavory behavior — such as his successful efforts to win a pardon from President Clinton for convicted cocaine kingpin Carlos Vignali, or the screamingly unethical robo-calls his campaign engineered during his run for Los Angeles mayor in 2001.

Trade him in.  While President-elect Barack Obama's choices for key leadership positions in the new administration have been mostly solid to date, his reported selection of U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra as U.S. trade representative is a step backward.

Obama Team Has Forged Another Link With Clintons.  It's official.  The old Clinton gang really is back together again.  Answering the phones these days for the co-chairman of President-elect Barack Obama's transition, John D. Podesta, is none other than Betty Currie.  Emerging from retirement in southern Maryland to volunteer at Obama headquarters, Ms. Currie was the personal secretary to President Bill Clinton, who became caught up in an independent counsel investigation into his trysts with the White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Hillary Clinton's Credibility Problems Will Hurt America.  With Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearings set to begin today, and the Obama-Biden Administration emerging as the third Hillary Clinton co-presidency, one warning that Linda Tripp of Lewinsky-Clinton fame told me continually was this:  "If you believe nothing else, believe this.  If the Clintons can do it to me they can do it to you," referring to the Clinton's alleged ability to pressure and influence people to lie for them -- under oath, in the media, on the steps of Congress, anywhere or face personal destruction.

Obama's New Commerce Secretary Nominee:  Not So "Squeaky Clean".  The glowing profiles of [Gary] Locke have largely glossed over his troubling ties to the Clinton-era Chinagate scandal.  As the nation's first Chinese-American governor, Locke aggressively raised cash from ethnic constituencies around the country.  Convicted campaign finance money-launderer John Huang helped grease the wheels and open doors. ... Huang also made personal contributions to Locke — as did another Clinton-Gore funny-money figure, Indonesian business mogul Ted Sioeng and his family and political operatives.  Sioeng, whom Justice Department and intelligence officials suspected of acting on behalf of the Chinese government, illegally donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to both Democratic and Republican coffers.

Whatever happened to Norman Hsu?


In many ways, Obama is just another Democrat

Unprecedented and Secretive.  Lost amid all of the jubilation of the Obama victory was the announcement by the Obama transition team that it had set up a separate transition program beyond the one that is paid for by the American taxpayer.  Called the "Obama/Biden Transition Project," it is a 501(c)4 tax-exempt organization, with no limits on the contributions it can receive and no requirements to divulge the names of individuals or organizations that give it money. ... No one is certain that any political organization has ever set up a tax-exempt entity that would be shrouded in such secrecy, particularly when Obama claimed he would be more transparent about the way things were done.

Saving America from Obama's Socialism.  He descended in an airplane pompously decked out with his very own logo to the next stopover where throngs asked no questions as they cried out his name.  But like a movie star's makeup and hairdo, Obama's rockstar image will start to lose its luster when the clock strikes midnight.  For up close with no groupies and adulating media, Barack Obama is only another crass politician.

Saul Alinsky Takes the White House.  Too many conservatives think we've seen all this before — in 1964 and 1974 and 1992 — and that we know how to handle it.  Fly, meet ointment:  We're not dealing with the same sorts of opponents.  These New Alinskyites who are taking over the White House, combined with the most leftist congressional leadership in memory, will not let us play by the same rules under which conservatives recovered from those earlier debacles.  They will try to drastically tilt the playing field, seed our side of the field with land mines and, in short, rig the process to make it next to impossible for the political right, or Republicans, to recover.  And they are likely to succeed in at least some of these designs.

Buyer's Remorse Already?  The fact that people are so nervously watching and waiting to see if Barack Obama intends to stay true to his campaign rhetoric tells you two disturbing things.  1), No one is quite sure who our President-elect is.  And 2), few are sure they even want him to be who he said he was.

False pride and the liberal imagination:  Is the election of Barack Obama a victory for racial tolerance and equality?  Or is Obama just a clever politician surfing the fathomless supply of white guilt, like the three famous Revs --- Jesse, Al and J-Rite?  Is Obama the bearer of post-racial forgiveness, or is he just good at the ole' slice and dice?  In a way it doesn't matter.  To liberals a black president equals goodness and virtue.

Obama serves Reid taste of Chicago Way.  So the Chicago Way hauled off and slapped the U.S. Senate in the face — one of those backhands with the knuckles to unsuspecting lips — and guess who blinked?  It wasn't Chicago.  It was the Senate.  Get used to it, America.  And it won't be the last time either. ... So much for transcending the old politics.


Obama opposes school choice for you -- but not for him

Send Your Children to D.C. Public Schools, Mr. President-Elect.  Barack and Michelle Obama are poised to commit a classic act of limousine-liberal hypocrisy — in this case, turning their backs on tens of thousands of inner-city kids in Washington, D.C. Public schools, it seems, are good enough for poor and middle-class families, but not for rich families like the Obamas.

Vanity School Fair.  The Obama era may be less than a week old, but denizens of the city's toniest neighborhoods have already fixated on the objects of greatest cachet:  for status-conscious parents and elite private-school headmasters, nothing is more coveted than the Obamas' young daughters. ... Indeed, the race to land Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, is already well underway and is one of the most closely watched contests in Washington.

Obama's School Choice:  Forget the Treasury shortlist or Inauguration Day plans.  What many Washingtonians are dying to know is where will Sasha and Malia enroll in school?  The choice made for and by the Obama girls, 10 and 7, will be personal — and political.  As public servant No. 1, Barack Obama may feel the heat to send his kids to public schools.

Which School Will Pass the Obamas' Test?  If the Obamas choose any of these three schools, they can expect a stiff price hike.  They currently send their girls to the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, where tuition goes up by grade — $18,492 a year for second-graders like Sasha and $20,286 for fifth-graders like Malia.  Meanwhile, merely enrolling one's child in pre-kindergarten at Sidwell, long the choice of many of Washington's most elite families, costs $28,442 a year.

The Sidwell Choice.  The Obamas are fortunate to have the means to send their daughters to private school, and no one begrudges them that choice given that Washington's public schools are among the worst in America.  Most D.C. parents would also love to be able to choose a better school for their child, but they lack the financial means to do so.  The Washington Opportunity Scholarship Program each year offers up to $7,500 to some 1,900 kids to attend private schools, but Democrats in Congress want to kill it.

The true school scandal.  The Obamas will send their two daughters to the expensive private school, Sidwell Friends.  Yes, that makes him something of a hypocrite because he is a vocal opponent of giving poor kids anything like the same option.  But you know what?  Who cares?  Personally, I would think less of the Obamas if they sent their kids to bad schools out of some ideological principle.  Parents' first obligation is to do right by their own kids. ... Most Washington public schools are hellholes.  So parents here — including the first family — find hypocrisy a small price to pay for fulfilling their parental obligations.

Washington's elite abuzz as Obamas settle on a school.  In a city where social status is conferred by proximity to political power, the Obamas' decision on where to educate their two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, seven, had assumed outsize importance — in no small part because of the potential social opportunities it offers to Washington's elite and wealthy parents.

Obamas Pick Sidwell Friends For Kids' School.  "A number of great schools were considered.  In the end, the Obamas selected the school that was the best fit for what their daughters need right now," said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama. ... Lelyveld said that while public schools were considered, the Obamas felt that a private school was in the best interest of their children.

The Editor says...
 No kidding.  That's a polite way of saying that the kids would not get an education at a public school in Washington, DC.



Who's really happy about Obama's presidency?

Trinity church rejoices:  'Yes, we did!'.  Hundreds of worshipers packed into the sanctuary for a joyous service that celebrated the church's role in the spiritual awakening of a future president.  Trinity's pastor, Rev. Otis Moss III, said history would note that Trinity was the holy place where "God stirred a young man's soul and put him on the path to the presidency."

White House Becomes Gay Rights Central.

Farrakhan:  Obama is 'America's blessing'.  Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan on Sunday [11/23/2008] called President-elect Barack Obama "America's blessing," and said he believes Obama's election came about by intervention from God.  But Farrakhan, speaking on the last day of the State of the Black World conference in New Orleans, said it would be a disservice to place unreal expectations on Obama and shirk personal responsibilities.

Farrakhan says Obama 'new beginning'.  Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said God's divine plan for the world is why President-elect Barack Obama won the election, and that God will make sure Obama has the vision needed to guide the country through current economic and social woes.

First Nation of Islam event since Obama election.  The Nation of Islam is holding its annual convention in Chicago in its first major gathering since the election of a black U.S. president.

Call to action issued to Farrakhan followers.  From a three-hour keynote address by Minister Louis Farrakhan to $10 T-shirts, mentions of President Obama were everywhere at the Nation of Islam's annual convention Sunday [3/1/2009] in this Chicago suburb.  The enthusiasm for Obama within the Chicago-based movement — which has embraced black nationalism since its founding in the 1930s — was used as a launching point for celebration, intellectual discussion and a call to action. ... In a speech days after the election, Farrakhan acknowledged that he then purposely laid low, keeping his praise quiet, so as not to affect Obama's chances at winning the presidency.

Farrakhan:  Don't let Obama energy die.  Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said President Barack Obama has ignited an unprecedented energy among people, and he urged followers to not let it die. ... References to the Obamas were everywhere at the two-day convention, from Farrakhan's keynote address to a session called the "Michelle Obama Effect" to a bazaar selling Obama T-shirts.

Communist Party Celebrates Democrat Wins.  The Communist Party USA is just ecstatic about the election of Barack Obama and the strengthening of Democrat majorities in Congress.  According to the People's Weekly World, "Communist Party USA leaders meeting here Nov. 15-16 celebrated the election of Barack Obama, the nation's first African American president, and of stronger Democratic majorities in Congress..."

Almost 90 Percent of Muslims Voted for Obama.  Nearly 90 percent of American Muslims supported Democrat Barack Obama on Election Day — and did so on the basis of economic and foreign policy concerns, top Muslim groups said in Washington, D.C., Friday [11/7/2008].

Jihadi Leader Says Radicals Share Obama Victory .  The leader of a jihadi group in Iraq argued Friday [11/7/2008] that the election of Barack Obama as president represented a victory for radical Islamic groups that had battled American forces since the invasion of Iraq.

U.N. looks for better times when Obama takes over.  Standing in the line of those hoping for a better deal from U.S. President-elect Barack Obama than they got from outgoing President George W. Bush is a body representing the entire world:  the United Nations.  Despite public protestations of neutrality in the November 4 presidential election, there has been thinly disguised glee at U.N. headquarters that Democrat Obama defeated Republican John McCain.

Congratulations pour in from all over the world -- from people like Muamar Gaddafi and Robert Mugabe.  The Muslims are happy and so is the Tehran Times.

Putin sees promise in Obama presidency.  Putin told reporters there were "positive signals" coming from Obama on the sore subject of a planned U.S. missile defense shield in Eastern Europe as well as on efforts by Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO, which Russia opposes.

The feeling is mutual, I'm sure.
 Castro Says He Has No Doubts About Obama's Honesty.  Former Cuban President Fidel Castro, in his first editorial in five weeks, said he has no doubt that U.S. President Barack Obama is honest and has "noble intentions."

Castro:  Obama, living symbol of American Dream.  Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has praised the new US President Barack Obama, calling him 'a living symbol of the American Dream'.

The Editor says...
 If Mr. Castro is so familiar with the American Dream, and seems to approve of it, why does he prevent Cuban citizens from experiencing it?

Communist Groups Support Card Check.  The labor policies of the Obama administration and the Democratic Party controlled Congress are being praised in certain quarters.  Some see this praise as an indication of the Democrats' true agenda.  The appointment of Hilda Solis as Labor Secretary was noted with accolades on the Web site of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). ... The CPUSA has also been a longtime supporter for the Employee Free Choice Act — also known as card check.

"Comrade" Obama Makes His Marx At G20.  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev may have confirmed that which conservatives, libertarians, and insightful independents have been shouting for over two years:  Barack Obama is a dedicated Marxist.  According to Medvedev, Barack Obama is his "new comrade," as the Russian president was apparently pleased with Obama's willingness to waffle on the US missile shield program, which Medvedev described as a "mistake" on the part of the Bush administration.

Pagans and Wiccans for Obama and Biden.  Apparently this artwork was designed for a web site somewhere, but I haven't located that site.  Nor do I want to.

Congressional Black Caucus Smitten With Castro.  Not since Ann Margaret's reaction to Conrad Birdie's kiss has anything been recorded to match these U.S. legislators' reaction to these meetings.  "He looked directly into my eyes!" gasped Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Ca.) "and then he asked:  how can we help President Obama?  Fidel Castro really wants President Obama to succeed."  (no doubt!)

Bam's New BFF Hugo.  It's springtime — and Hugo Chavez says love is in the air between himself and President Obama.  Left-wing wacko Chavez gave Obama his personal stamp of approval yesterday [4/18/2009], along with one of his favorite reads — a detailed look at Latin American politics through 500 years of what it says was US exploitation.  Chavez, a strident critic of George W. Bush's administration, said his meeting with Obama yesterday at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago was "extraordinary."  "I feel great optimism and the best of good will to advance.  We have started off on the right foot," Chavez said in a statement.

Hugo Chavez Says Venezuelan Socialism Has Begun to Reach U.S. under Obama.  Inspired by his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama at the Americas Summit, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared on Sunday [4/19/2009] that Venezuelan socialism has begun to reach the United States under the Obama administration.

President's Nontaxpaying Base Is Intact.  During the 2008 presidential campaign, for the first time, Zogby International and "The O'Leary Report" probed the differences of opinion between the 70% of the American electorate that pay federal income taxes and the 30% that have no federal income tax liability.  We found that nontaxpayers, as a voting bloc, were some of Obama's most enthusiastic supporters, whereas taxpayers generally disagreed with his economic vision and his craving for centralization and wealth redistribution.

Environmentalists happy with Obama; industry less so.  In the nearly four months since taking office, the Obama administration has moved quickly, relentlessly and without apology to roll back the natural resource and public lands policies of its predecessor.  Though they have yet to lay out their own vision in detail, Salazar and other administration officials have left no doubt that they consider the Bush approach misguided and unfairly weighted toward timber, mining, oil and other interests.

Venezuela Chavez says "Comrade" Obama more left-wing.  Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday [6/2/2009] that he and Cuban ally Fidel Castro risk being more conservative than U.S. President Barack Obama as Washington prepares to take control of General Motors Corp.  During one of Chavez's customary lectures on the "curse" of capitalism and the bonanzas of socialism, the Venezuelan leader made reference to GM's bankruptcy filing, which is expected to give the U.S. government a 60 percent stake in the 100-year-old former symbol of American might.

Obama's Cairo Speech Through the Lens of Islamists.  Only after the despotic governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, who are blind and intransigent to political and religious reform, expressed pleasure and approval of our president have our local domestic Islamist groups become jubilant.  Are the reformers in Egypt or the oppressed minorities of the "Muslim world" jubilant?  No one knows because their voices cannot be heard.

Obama's Red Chorus.  Rest assured, Venezuela's self-described Communist commandante does not wish us well.  But Obama's administration has managed to awe him with its takeover of General Motors.  "Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors.  Comrade Obama!" Chavez cheered on Venezuelan TV Tuesday [6/2/2009].  He gushingly added that he and Cuba's Fidel Castro would now have to work harder just to keep up.  It underlines two things: just how closely the Venezuelan strongman watches what's happening in the U.S and just how badly it resembles his own war on private property.

Obama's ties to the Nation of Islam:  Jeremiah Wright, Obama's esteemed pastor for 20 years, came out of a Nation background.  Recently he accepted protection from an NOI security detail, and has praised Louis Farrakhan, the NOI's leader, as one of the "giants of the African American religious experience."  Wright's church celebrated Farrakhan for his having "truly epitomized greatness."  Farrakhan himself endorsed Obama, calling him "the hope of the entire world," "one who can lift America from her fall," and even "the Messiah."

Obama and the Happy Dictator.  One thing to be said about Barack Obama's efforts at outreach in the Muslim world:  there's at least one dictator who is just delighted. ... We're talking about a potentate who imprisoned his only rival during the last election and locks up democracy activists and those who question the viability of a Mubarak dynasty.

Fidel Castro praises Obama on climate change.  Barack Obama's call for action on climate change and his admission that rich nations have a particular responsibility to lead has received strong praise from an unusual source — U.S. nemesis Fidel Castro.

100 minutes in the life of Muammar Gaddafi.  [Scroll down]  "Terrorism is not just al-Qaida, it takes many forms."  In case the point was lost on anyone, he tore up his copy of the UN rule book.  Having thus abused and alienated 99.99% of the world's top diplomats, he suddenly changed tack, heaping praise and devotion on the one man he appears to respect.  "Now the black man doesn't have to sit in the back of the bus, the American people made him president and we are proud of that.  We would be happy if Obama stayed president of America forever."

Gadhafi calls Obama his "son," hopes that he will remain president for life.  Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, declaring that "we'd be content and happy if Obama can stay president forever," launched into a rambling assault against the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday ... Referencing Obama as "my son," Qaddafi said:  "We are happy that a young African Kenyan was voted for and made president."

Obama Adored by Despots and Dictators Everywhere.  During his long, rambling, and largely incoherent diatribe Wednesday [9/23/2009] in front of the United Nations General Assembly Muammar Gadaffi made one point starkly clear.  He loves President Obama.  Thrown in between referrals to the Security Council as a "Terror Council" and demands of renewed investigations into the assassination of JFK, Gaddafi found time in the 95 minute rant to call Obama "our son," and "our Obama."

Dictators:  In Love with Obama.  Does anyone find it odd that so many evil dictators are head-over-heels in love with President Obama?  Take Cuba's Fidel Castro, for instance.

The Theological Virtue of Obama.  What struck me wasn't so much what Obama said at the UN as what others said about him.  I cannot recall any time, in the entire history of the United Nations, where nearly every single one of the world's worst rogue dictators came out of the woodwork to shower heaping praise on the president of the United States.

Marxism Goes Mainstream.  [Thorbjørn] Jagland loves Karl Marx.  And he loves Barack Obama.  In addition to heading the Nobel committee and the European Council, Jagland is a long-time leader of Socialist International, a worldwide organization of radical left groups and the occasional terrorist organization dedicated to establishing a world government that will rule through Marxist, collectivist principles.

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."
— Psalm 1:1    


Obama's cabinet, staff and other associates

This subsection has moved to a page of its own, located here.


An inauguration is not an emergency

The word "emergency" is not in the Constitution, partly because the founders of this country intentionally designed a system that reacts slowly to passing fads.  Over the last several decades, the Constitution has become more of a technicality than anything else, and the result is the massive and ill-advised spending we see every day.  If the Obama inauguration is going to be costly, let Mr. Obama pay for it from his own very deep pockets.

Inauguration declared 'emergency'.  President Bush on Tuesday declared the District a federal emergency area, clearing the way for the city to receive federal money to help cover the overwhelming cost of providing security for official inauguration events.  Officials said it was the first time the designation had ever been used for anything other than a national disaster, such as a hurricane or widespread flooding.

Obama's inauguration set to be the most expensive in US history.  President Barack Obama's inauguration next week is set to be the most expensive ever, predicted to reach over $150m (£102m).  This dwarfs the $42.3m spent on George Bush's inauguration in 2005 and the $33m spent on Bill Clinton's in 1993.  Part of the spending includes emergency funding announced by the White House on Tuesday [1/13/2009] to help with the soaring costs.  Most of this new federal funding will be to deal with the huge influx of people, estimated 1.5 million to 2 million.

Price Tag of Obama's Inauguration:  It is believed President-elect Obama's inauguration will be the costliest in history — around $50 million — despite the recession.  President Bush has declared a state of emergency to free up federal funds to help the district cope with the soaring cost of the event.

What Recession?  The $170 Million Inauguration.  The country is in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, which isn't stopping rich donors and the government from spending $170 million, or more, on the inauguration of Barack Obama.


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