The Republicanization of Barack Obama

Last night's State of the Union speech was long on symbolism, civility, gravitas, and kumbya moments, as pointed out repeatedly by the mainstream media. However, it was also very, very short on substance and detail. In fact, after the speech, I found my self in the uncomfortable situation of agreeing with the twit from Delaware, Christine O'Donnell, who was selected by Good Morning America to sit next to Donna Brazile and to dissect the session, presenting opposing GOP and Democratic viewpoints.

To put O'Donnell in so called "expert" position on a political panel gives witness to just how far the media has fallen in common sense and credibility. The Christine O'Donnells of the world are nothing more than media created comic relief inserted into what should be real and informative discussions about the state of our world. Yet, here she was in pundit position next to democratic operative Brazile who attempted to make the most of a lousy situation. O'Donnell is a direct slap in the face to women such as Brazile who have worked hard for their credibility and respect only to have it shredded in the space of a 4 minute television interview by Bozo the Clown's daughter.

So, I was somewhat surprised to hear O'Donnell say that President Obama took all of his talking points from the Tea Party. I agree absolutely. Obama did last night what the GOP has been doing for the past couple of decades-talking a lot of stuff, but not presenting any solutions on how to get it done.

I would have loved to hear Obama present a plan for putting people back to work, like something along the lines of a WPA project to rebuild our infrastructure. We need bullet trains, but do you honestly think the GOP is going to fund such a project when the man in the White House actually said he was willing to look at cuts to medicare, medicaid and social security funding? Sure, he said he would not support privatization of social security, nor would he allow any cuts to affect those who are retired or stand on the brink of retirement now. After that, he invited cuts to the health care law, leading me to wonder what all the fuss was about two years ago, if he's not willing to fight for his masterpiece, now that it is actually on the books.

I wanted to hear Obama demand cuts in the military budget. It is not enough to bring home the troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Military bases need to close. Antiquated weapons systems need to be eliminated. Pretending to fight spending by threatening to veto any bill with earmarks is an insult to the intelligence of the American people. Mideastern dictatorships that America has been propping up for years need to be allowed to fall as they are doing now. He stressed the need to improve education as states like Ohio dismantle and refuse the educational funding that he put into place just one year ago. New Ohio GOP governor Kasich has killed the rail system program, is threatening to stop all education programs, all the while giving his assistants big raises and bragging about it as they come into office.

The State of the Union address, as presented last night, could have been delivered by a republican, like John Boehner and except for the multi syllable words, no one would have known that it was crafted by the democrat in the oval office. It left me wondering if Obama has farmed out his speech writing to someone with Rand Paul tendencies. O'Donnell didn't disappoint, because after making the teabagger comparison, she then fell back into her usual shtick of Obama bashing without really understanding the words coming out of her mouth. Her points on the program obviously written by someone else with a better understanding of politics in general. She actually referred to notes during what should have been an impromptu session.

I have long been bothered by what I see as the "republican" tendencies of America's first black president. His total embrace of all things Bush began the day he took office. Others have compared him to the great communicator, as Ronald Reagan was called. Those comparisons continued last night. One pundit even said the speech echoed all things Reagan in tone and tenor, and sadly, I could not disagree.

The general lack of respect for Obama, with the Reagan comparisons continues albeit in a more civil manner. In other words, he doesn't have a thought in his head, that a white man didn't have first. But that's another post. I disgress.

This past Sunday, on CBS Sunday Morning, Ben Stein said based on what America has seen from its first Black man in the White House, maybe he should switch parties and run in 2012 as a Republican. I couldn't agree more. Doesn't mean I won't vote for him. Just means I would like him to come out of his political closet and be who he really seems to be.

The Politics of Seduction

And President Barack Obama is a master. Once again, after being backed into a corner during the past couple of months, he came out swinging, slamming an oratorical home run over the left field fence, temporarily making me forget the year that was 2009. I loved the speech. In fact, I love listening to Obama talk. While he talks I am inclined to believe everything he says. I tend to take all that he says at face value. I want the feel good snake oil that he peddles every time he opens his mouth to address the American people. His best speeches are like sex on a crowded beach at high noon, crawling with people, walking by, as you surreptitiously get it on, covered by a not big enough towel with a stranger you met twenty minutes before. A stolen, impulsive adrenaline rush kind of moment that you want to go on forever, but doesn't, because it can't.

And now, its the next day and the thrill is gone. The speech is over leaving only the echo of his voice in your mind. Hollow. The politics of seduction, having worked its magic and done its job, fading away in the cold fog of the morning after.

So in the filtered light of a new day, let's look at the speech, shall we........

Don't ask, don't tell...remains a vague promise....no deadline...sometime this year he will work for it..

Jobs...calling on business to help...like before...tax cuts to make it so....republican solution..another failed attempt at bipartisan politics

Bitch slapped the Supremes....I did like that.....How can these fools not understand that the Sup co ruling just opened us up to some foreign government like China or even rich man Bin Laden, spending bucks to gift wrap a legal Manchurian candidate for the American people...

His announced intention to go forward with health care reform is good...his blast at the scaredy cat democrats who are backing down was on time. My fear is that what will come is even less than what is currently on the table, and what is currently on the table, sucks...no other way to describe it.

President Obama did go school yard on the GOP, putting them on blast for refusing to take part in governance of the country. Did they hear him? Probably not, judging from their response delivered by the latest Mitt Romney clone, who's upside is that he is not Mitt Romney.

This slight of hand spending freeze...put off for a year...but still nothing less than a covert shout out to conservatives..another attempt to placate them.

Liked his tone. Obama took the middle ground between Fresh Prince Carlton and John Shaft. He didn't back down, instead striking just enough of the right note for the conservative talking heads to resurrect the old “he's arrogant” insult again.

If white people call him arrogant, it means he's doing something right like challenging their sense of control. “the boy just won't stay in his place!”

That's a good thing.

So to conclude, I like the speech. It was the right one for the time. Obama is still the best option given the choices of what else is available. It remains to be seen, however, if he was successful at taking back control of his own narrative from the conservative spin doctors.

And I just wish he'd have slapped the GOP obstructionists as hard as he came down on the Supremes.

Jim Barack The Hammer Obama Shaft Kelly

I'm at that point in the blaxploitation movie on loop in my head, where I'm ready for some action. We know who the good guys are, we know who the bad guy is, and we know who is supposed to be saved and why.

I'm ready for the big chocolate gun carrying, Jim Brown lookin' actor to whip it out and tell everybody;

“we got to go this way, 'cause if we go back we die, 'n I ain't ready to die just yet!”

The alpha male has spoken....the paler hued Beta Boy glares, and makes an ugly face, like he's going to do something. But he knows on a good day, he can't whip this Negro's ass in a fair fight. So reluctantly, Beta Boy drops his show for the ladies and turns in the direction that Chocolate Thunder wants to go, and starts walking, while the rest of the group meekly follows. No way are they getting in between these two fools, because while they quietly admit that Beta boy, may be their preferred cup of tea, they also know he don't know his ass from a hole in the ground and is totally useless in this situation.

Chocolate Thunder may be straight up crazy, but he knows what he's doing and can help them get home alive, and like all good Negroes, he is going to sacrifice himself and die so that all the good folks can live a better life, while remembering him fondly in their dreams of the good ole days.

So who would you follow? Camera ready Beta Boy or Crazy as a bedbug Chocolate Thunder?

Easy answer for me...I'm going with crazy, because sometimes the tried and true won't work and you can never go back and sometimes you can never go home again. So you keep marching forward until you see daylight or the end of the trail or the town located just over the hill.

President Obama was supposed to be the one. He was supposed to be the Jim Brown-Chocolate Thunder crazy, who was going to ride into DC and teach all the status quo Beta Boys and Catatonic Neanderthals how to save the people.

But what we've gotten so far, from Obama, is a weak imitation of Carlton, the dimwit cousin from Fresh Prince. All flash but so far, no substance.

I am truly troubled by all this talk of backing up and backing away from Health Care Reform, just because Ted Kennedy's seat was lost in Massachusetts.

One seat, people...ONE STUPID SEAT!.....That still leaves an 18 seat majority in the Senate. It's still a Democrat majority...I don't see the problem. Beta Boy Scott is singing the same song as the rest of his frat club-no plan, no clue. So the majority has to work a little harder. That's why it's called a job!

The American people or those who still have jobs, work everyday, without health care, without guaranteed holidays or carved in stone 4600-dollar yearly pay raises.

Now comes President Obama's first State of the Union Address and from the news reports, he seems more intent on placating us with peripheral bullshit then with delivering the goods. We don't need no stinkin' bipartisanship. We don't need feel good. We don't need 156 different ways to say “Change” in the course of a one hour speech, before a house full of unctuous people pretending to care.

Just once, I would like to see a State of the Union speech where all these fools sit on their hands and listen, quietly to what is being said.

We don't need the pep rally. I don't even care if they twitter to their follower twats, as long as they do it quietly and STFU!

So what should Obama say and do in his State of the Union Speech?

The American people need a jobs program. It's gone way past trickle down, need to work through the system kind of fixes. The guys at that top are doing what they always do, sitting on the money and jamming the feeder pipes so that nothings leaks down or out to the masses.

The American people need some liquid plumber, pronto. They need a powerful motorized snake to unclog the drain and get folks back to work. “F” the system...as in flush the system in order to get it going. We thought Obama would use an executive order or two to mandate some work projects to begin yesterday.

And to make sure that minorities get their fair share, open an office where minority workers or independent workers...those not allowed into the trade unions...to sign up and get hired and put to work alongside the union guys... If a contractor can't or won't use the independents, then his company can't work the project. This does away with the contractors who can't find anybody to work for them except illegal aliens.

Unemployment in my neighborhood is about 20%....yet....there is a lot of renovation going on the houses here.....all of it being done by whites and Hispanics.....in a nearly 100% Black neighborhood...now how does that happen? Not only do we no longer own the homes, we can't get work on them either. And you can bank that its happening everywhere else, too.

After he talks about Jobs, Obama needs to get back to the alphabet...DADT, DOMA, and ENDA. No more talk that it is going to happen. We need to know when it is going to happen. What day is it going to happen? The future is here, now.

Finally, he should now have a real plan for health care reform instead of that bill which is really an insurance industry subsidy program like the stimulus/subsidy program was for Wall Street. Dropping the age limit on medicare to give America what he and Congress already have in their own health care would be a start.

Better yet....why not just cancel the speech....and sit on camera and sign executive orders that really jump start the economy and let the people see that Chocolate Thunder has arrived and is ready willing and able to do crazy for the people in order to get this country back on track.