(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)Obama will meet his personal Waterloo this Wednesday: his Teleprompter.
From his Teleprompter he will read a speech. It will be full of flowery words and soothing language. It will try to recapture the empty magic of his campaign.
And it will be an unmitigated disaster.
It will be an unmitigated disaster because the President has already sold out on healthcare reform.
No, let me expand that: the President has sold out on every major legislative initiative he has yet faced.
Bailout money that should have gone directly to the American people instead went to big banks and car companies. The banks have refused to lend it. Any President worth his salt would have predicted this.
Not Obama. He trusted Wall Street to regulate itself. He trusted them to do right by the American people. He should have known better, but his inexperience trumped wisdom.
His giant stimulus sellout bill remains an unfocused mess. The American people have no clue where the money is going.
Stimulus funds could have spent on infrastructure -- a swift, massive, transcontinental transportation revolution. Updating our stressed and dangerously dated air traffic controls systems. Subsidizing public transportation overhauls in every major city. Putting enough personnel in airports to check every bag. State of the art, wi-fi connected electric bullet trains criss-crossing the whole country, taking pressure off airlines and the auto industry and giving travelers more choice.
Who would not remember the transportation President? Or how his transportation overhaul created millions of jobs (check) and pumped billions into the economy by dramatically increasing interstate commerce (check)? Who would not recall how The Great Man eliminated traffic? How he made swift travel easy and affordable thus making workers everywhere happier and more productive (check)?
And who wouldn’t marvel how this great transportation vision ended pollution – and increased vacations and cut down stress – and thus improved the health of Americans (check)?
Obama lacked the scope and vastness of vision that would allow him to see past his corporatism into the immediate needs of the people: his stimulus bill was a wreck, a pork fest for special interests and democratic donors.
Similarly, Obama’s energy bill ended its life as a sellout to the wishes of big oil and a backdoor tax on Americans through increased gas and electric bills.
As a result, Obama has lost the trust and respect of America. Therefore, Americans will believe nothing he says about healthcare. Nor should it be.
Americans know Obama is not going to stand up to price gouging pharmaceuticals. Not when he has taken price controls off the table. Not when he is blocking the free market from working by disallowing Americans the ability to purchase cheaper drugs overseas.
Americans know Obama will not fight for an optional government insurance plan to compete with mercenary private insurers, as an alternative for those who rightly do not trust health insurance companies.
Americans know – from long ago – that Obama is a corporate hack, a corporate lackey, and a corporate sellout. We have watched him support the interests of Wall Street-Washington oligarchs over those of working families time and yet again.
Why would his healthcare speech be any different?
Unless Obama says I rescind my backroom lobbyist deals and will fight to the death for an optional government plan, nothing he says makes a dime's worth of difference.
Too little, too late, sir. The American people have stopped listening.
For more info: 1) CLICK HERE to see how Obama sold out on Iraq. Then 2) CLICK HERE to see how Obama's corporatism puts American democracy at serious risk.
Comments
Geez,I hope your wrong on your assessment. I still have faith in the man. Come next week we shall see if it is misplaced.
I send this to Ms Gifford's and John McCain
Dear Congressman/Congresswoman
Thank you for your great work in resisting the
Healthcare Reform Tax that will be imposed on my children and their children
I am requesting that you stay home or not report to your office on 09/09/09 to help in assisting me to protest this new healthcare tax by not hearing President Obama’s Healthcare Tax Speech to you.
I know that you want to help the President remember his Campaign Pledge of No New Taxes to the American Public.
Thank You
Gmoneycricket
Brilliant article. Spot on! Where can I read more from this author?
If we could just get every black man in America to betray Obama then maybe Obama would quit the presidency. First, Jesse Jackson, then Jeremiah Wright and now D.K. Jamaal. We just need a few more jealous black men to turn on their own and we'll have a victory!!
D.K. Jamaal, why not step back and look at why you have so much hatred for Obama...could it be because he hasn't done anything yet about "don't ask, don't tell"?
His only chance is to provide clear leadership and not simple buzz words. The chances he will do so are slim.
www.examiner.com/x-19977-Allentown-Fiscal-Responsibility-Examiner~y2009m9d3-A-blueprint-to-pass-Obamacare
@DearJealousJamaal
Obama doesn't need every black man in America to betray him, since Obama is already betraying every black man in America by being such a sellout!
DK is exactly right, we need a fighter in the white house, not a sellout fake black man like Obama.
Obama sold out and sold Americans down the river.
Part 2
FACT: Obama predicted a $7 trillion budget shortfall, but now raised it to $9 trillion. Why was he off by so much? Because he’s incompetent and/or a liar. And don’t be surprised if the actual deficit is far greater than $9 trillion.
FACT: Obama has been lying about healthcare reform, cap-and-trade, and just about everything else that comes out of his mouth. We can’t believe a word he says.
CONCLUSION: Obama is clearly incompetent and extremely dishonest. Why does he want to lead the USA down this destructive path? The Dems in Congress are no better, and we should throw all of them out of office. And here’s one more final FACT: Our founding fathers not only gave us the right to revolt against an oppressive govt, they said it’s our duty as Americans.
Part 1
FACT: Obama promised not to raise taxes of any kind on anyone who makes less than $200k. But two weeks after his inauguration he raised taxes by 62 cents a pack on the nation’s 43 million smokers, most of whom make less than $200k.
FACT: Obama promised that the unemployment rate would not exceed 8% if we pass his stimulus plan, but the unemployment rate is now at 9.7%.
FACT: Obama told us that $1 in govt spending will return $1.52 in economic growth and that $1 in tax cuts returns just 99 cents in economic growth. If you follow his logic, all we need to do is spend our way to prosperity.
Ignorant. this is all hype. First of all, the stimulus money that went to the banks was from the Bush Stimulus package. Second, the stimulus money spent is posted for all to see at Recovery.gov, a first for any administration. The transportation stuff is a rant, with no basis in fact. Please keep in mind, that congress creates laws and bills, not the President. The President can only serve to lead and direct them.
He may in the end, sell out to the corporations on the Health Care bill. With the conservatives and all their lie spreading and ignorant repeating of talking points.
All politicians are catering to the corporatization of America. Our campaign laws have made it that way. Individuals are limited in what they can give, and corporations are not.
The real people to blame for all of our problems is us.
The corporations spend millions of dollars putting fear in our heads that will protect their interests. They have studied the neurological behavior of human beings (animals in general) and they know if the can generate even the perception of danger, we sill be still until we sense that the perceived danger has passed, except to spread warning of the perceived danger to our group.
WE need to stand up to the corporations. WE need to educate ourselves about the facts, instead of relying on anecdotal stories. WE need to elect the candidate that spends the least.
The power is within ourselves. Man up!
Ignorance really is Bliss judging from the comments to this article.
Wouldn't it be great, if Obama or any president for that matter, could just DICTATE to this country about how he promised healthcare reform? Never mind! This is a democracy, isn't it? So all the other branches of the government,who are influenced by corporate lobbyists and the other people who put THEM in office, have to put their 2 cents into the bill. A lot of compromising goes into every billthat goes through the system--it's a wonder any laws get passed. I'm living with a depressed saleman-health insurance-and he isn't happy with the way the healthcare program is shaping up! The President did his job when he brought it up to the House/senate. They know where Obama stands on it, but, in the end, he only gets one vote. Don't hate the man , hate the system.
Dantheman is an idiot!!!
Nuff said
DearJealousJamaal is under the belief that if you are black you must support the Magic negro. The magic is being exposed!
walrus is just an ass!
Powerful article, D.K. Thank you for articulating what so many Americans are waking-up to realize: Obama is a deception of the oligarchy, by the oligarchy, and for the oligarchy.
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