Looks like we're going to invite (ie have) Hitlery for lunch!
Billary
Tampa, FL
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BARACK THE BABY
By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN
December 7, 2006 -- In reading Senator Barack Obama's #1 bestseller, The
Audacity of Hope, one begins to wonder whether he is another cynical
politician or just a helplessly naïve neophyte.
After a few chapters, one actually has the audacity to hope that it is his
inexperience - and nothing sinister - that accounts for his sometimes
silly
and often misleading narrative. Anyone who is that naive should not be a
U.S. Senator, much less the president.
Obama is a uniquely charismatic candidate who has catapulted into second
place among democratic primary voters, forcing Hillary Clinton to hastily
abandon her coy pretense that she hasn't made a decision about whether to
run. He inspires people by his story, his demeanor and his message.
But if his book offers a window into the real Barack Obama, one thing is
certain: He has a long way to go before he is ready for the presidency.
He's
only been in the U.S. Senate for two years and before that, he was a state
senator and a professor of constitutional law. He's never been an
administrator, met a payroll, developed a budget, or solved a crisis. It's
not only his greenness that sends out warnings; at times, he doesn't seem
to
grasp the implications of all that he writes. At other times, his words
have
a distinct disconnect with his actions and legislative record.
Sometimes he sounds downright juvenile. Consider this missive, which opens
chapter five: "One thing about being a U.S. Senator - you fly a lot."
Brilliant! It gets worse: "Most of the time I fly . in coach, hoping for
an
aisle or window seat" (But not always.) " . there are times when . I fly
on
a private jet." Then, "the flying experience is a good deal different."
Wow.
Obama then describes the experience: "lounges that feature big soft
couches
and big screen TVs." Hog heaven. "Restrooms are generally empty and
spotless, and have those mechanical shoe-****ne machines and mouthwash and
mints in a bowl." The planes? "Well, they're nice." The purpose of the
trip
was "fund raising" but the senator was thrilled when his staff "explained
to
him" that he could travel on "someone else's jet" and only have to pay the
comparatively minor cost of first class airfare.
There's no mention of the special interests that pay for those cor****ate
jets for senators or about the lobbyists that usually accompany them,
using
the down time to fill their heads with information and arguments for their
client's legislative priorities. All we learn from Obama is how la dolce
vita prevails at private air****ts.
Obama actually took 23 separate trips on cor****ate jets during his first
year in the Senate, until he was appointed as the democratic point man on
ethics legislation last year, following the Jack Abramoff scandal
involving
lobbyists paying for Congressional travel. Given the political atmosphere
and the intense probe of Congressional travel, it would not have been good
politics for him to continue to avail himself of the lobbyist largesse.
So,
that's when he stopped taking the free rides. Cushy sofas or not.
Obama is a political infant, a babe in the woods. He's a Jimmy Carter,
running for president based on his personal moral outlook, his background
and history, and making a virtue out of his limited knowledge of how
American government works. One thing is sure - in the age of terrorism, we
don't need a president who can't find the men's room.
Obama's book is replete with paeans to non-partisan****p and rising above
the
bitterness of the blue/red divide. He sees the virtues in his political
opponents. "I find it possible," he declares, "to understand their
motives,
and to recognize in them the values I share."
But, in reality, Obama is no "third way" politician. He is a party line
Democrat, according to the National Journal, the 18th most liberal member
of
the Senate, which puts him ahead of (or behind) 60% of his fellow
Democrats
in the Senate. The gospel according to Planned Parenthood? He gets 100%.
Right to life? Zero. The AFL-CIO celebrates his vote with them on nine out
of ten issues and the ACLU agrees.
He talks like a moderate, but he votes like a liberal.
This deception, which he shares in common with Hillary, would be par for
the
Wa****ngton course. But it is the sound bites that festoon his book that
lead
one to suspect that he really doesn't understand the facts or the issues.
For example, he writes, "we say we value the legacy we leave the next
generation and then saddle that generation with mountains of debt."
Really?
Has the senator noticed that the deficit is now down to only a bit more
than
2% of our GDP, or is that sound bite too precious to lose in the face of
the
facts?
Or - he accuses us of tolerating "schools that don't teach, that are
chronically underfunded and understaffed and underinspired." We hate to
get
in the way of his speechwriter's momentum, but how about the central
issues:
teacher incompetence, the need for merit pay and the im****tance of waiving
tenure to get rid of bad instructors?
He speaks of an increasingly wealthy "knowledge class" of Americans able
to
purchase "whatever they want on the marketplace - private schools, private
health care, private security and private jets." But then he opposes the
voucher system designed to give the poor parity in purchasing power for
private education.
And then he says that voters are tired of "sound bite solutions to
complicated problems." So are his readers.
Senator Barack Obama could indeed represent something new in our politics
instead of something old and simply repackaged. He could step up and truly
develop a third way, carrying on where Bill Clinton left off on issues of
poverty, race, standards, education and global competitiveness. But Bill
Clinton worked hard at grappling with our problems and designing real
solutions. He immersed himself in the data and worked hard to learn how to
be president.
But Obama is taking the easy way out - skimming the surface, sloganeering
and hiding behind Democratic orthodoxy while pretending to be something
else.
The saving grace is that he is young and just starting out. If he pays the
same attention to substance that he appears to have spent acquiring a
profound understanding of constitutional law - which he used to teach -
then
he has the potential to be a great figure.
But he's not there yet.
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***Copyright Eileen McGann and Dick Morris 2006***
--
Love Billary
Tampa, FL
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