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President Obama (for record only)

A note regarding President Obama  (original October 30, 2009)

A recent e-mail distribution of a scurrilous election screed attacking
Barack Obama  has induced me to record my impressions of the
presidency of Obama.  I am doing  this on October 30, before
announcement of his crucial Afghanistan decision.  And  before a
well-defined health-care reform bill is known.

Health reform

Many are paying for the health care of those millions without
insurance who  come to emergency wards with aggravated illness.  Many
are denied insurance  because of existing afflictions or have their
insurance cancelled because of  existing afflictions.
Reform of the American health-care system is necessary.  Previous
attempts  have failed, primarily because of the lobbying and advertising
of the insurance  industry.

The Republicans have fought on the side of that insurance industry.
This is  emphasized by the publicity drawn by the only one or two
Republicans who  might vote with the Democrats for reform.  Obama's
desire for reform may be  frustrated by the Republican control of the
Senate -- by virtue of the  Senate rule requiring 60 votes.

The Senate should force the Republicans to actually filibuster -- make
endless  speeches on the floor of the Senate to block passage of reform.
The 60 vote rule  is not understood by good citizens who wrongly think
the Democrats have control  of the Senate.

Economy

The economy crashed because of years of deregulation under Carter,
Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush -- but primarily following the
"government is the problem" philosophy of Reagan.

The repeal of Glass-Steagal permitted the banks to speculate.  The
refusal  of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury to regulate derivatives
despite  warnings from both within and outside government left the
speculators on  Wall Street to create a financial asset bubble.
The bubble consisted of derivatives -- especially securities claiming
to have  value based on paper collateral such as home mortgages.
The true value of these derivatives was not known.  The market prices
were greatly inflated.

The bubble broke as all bubbles do.  The Bush Treasury under the
Wall Streeter, Paulson, created an emergency fund of $700 billion to
relieve the banks and Wall Street firms of these "toxic assets."  This
TARP  -- Toxic Asset Relief Program (Public Law 110-343)-- was than
used  instead to bail out those banks and Wall Street firms.  The toxic
assets were  allowed to remain on their books, priced as they wished --
marking them to  the market was not required and not possible because
that market price was  either not known or so low as to put the banks
and firms into bankruptcy.

The true state of the largest banks is not publicly known at this date.

Under Obama, a stimulus package of spending -- about $787 billion
-- was  started to increase the aggregate demand -- the total of private
and government purchasing.  This was needed because the private buying had
sharply dropped.  Without demand -- spending -- businesses could not
continue to employ workers, unemployment rose, consumer confidence
dropped, and buying fell below production.  This creates a vicious cycle
that  may lead to a great depression.

The huge deficit spending under Reagan and the two Bushes --
creating debt with  the avowed intent of forcing the shrinking of
government -- was followed by the  two huge spendings of the Bush
TARP and the Obama Stimulus.  Republicans, both  for political purposes
and because of their ignorance of government finance, have  screamed and
shouted about the debt.  Their most glaring stupidity is their science-
fantasy belief in time travel.  They claim that our grandchildren will
be forced to  send money back in time to pay the debt.  Of course, our
grandchildren will be  able to consume what they produce unless they
ship their canned beans and autos  back to us ("beam me up, Scotty".
What we send to them will be an infrastructure  (safe bridges, education,
energy resources etc.) which can indeed be sent forward in time.

The best instruction regarding the Debt is the history of the debt of
World War 2  which was larger than the current debt, ended the Great
Depression, and gave  the "greatest generation" a golden era from 1946
until 1970.

Wars

Before the attack of September 11, 2001, George W. Bush was
determined to  be a "war president" and to accomplish what his father
had not done: occupy  Iraq and remove Sadam Hussein.  It was a
son-and-father rivalry.  The attack  of 9-11 provided the setting.  Bush
invaded first Afghanistan, then Iraq -- leaving  Afghanistan to the
Taliban with Osama bin Laden in hiding.

A democratic and stable Iraq will be a new gem in the Middle East
-- if it  happens. Iraq may yet fall into civil war, this remains to be
seen.   The United  States has expended more than 4,000 lives and about
one trillion dollars on this  invasion.  The Iraqis lost 100,000 civilian
lives, two million refugees -- mostly  their most competent citizens, and
great damage to their infrastructure.  The brutal  Saddam Hussein was
captured and hanged.  The United States provided great  recruiting aid for
the  terrorists by its use of torture of Muslims.

Afghanistan:

Alexander the Great had the wisdom to pass through quickly and
never return.  Akbar Khan killed Sir William Hay Macnaghten with his
own hands whereupon  4,500 British troops and 12,000 civilians marched
out of Kabul but only *one* survived.

Kipling's "The "Man Who Would Be King" ventured into
Afghanistan, and returned  only as a withered head in a bag.  Rudyard
Kipling wrote this metaphor to teach the  armies who would be King in
Afghanistan. But armies do not learn.

The English created the Durand Line -- the hiding place of Osama bin
Laden -- defining  the border between Afghanistan and India -- and ended
all attempts to control Afghanistan.

The Russian invasion of Afghanistan, 1979-89, was a major factor in
the fall of the Soviet Union.

Afghanistan is a geographic area occupied by many tribes.  It is not
a nation to be  conquered or built.  It is a burial place for invaders
and would-be do-gooders.

Obama's accomplishments.

They are considerable, many by executive orders  changing the
domestic policies of Bush, and by new attitudes in the executive
departments.  A recital here would only be to incite the lying,
screaming, and  shouting of Republicans whose only goal is the
destruction of Obama regardless of the damage to they cause to
America.

Will the Obama Presidency be a failure?

Probably.
There are too many problems left by his predecessors, both Democrats
and Republicans, and the course of history.  With the potential of being
one of the smartest and most accomplished presidents in United States
history, Obama may fail.

The economy may slide into Great Depression 2.  Regardless of the
fact that the crash was permitted by the removal of regulation beginning
with  President Carter but primarily by Republican impulses, Obama will
be  blamed for either failing to provide enough stimulus or for spending
too  much.

Iraq may fall into civil war.  Obama will be blamed for withdrawing
even  though withdrawal was set by Bush.  And Bush had abandoned
Afghanistan.

Afghanistan cannot be built as a nation.  Obama will be blamed for
the  failure to send enough troops.  Or for not pulling out sooner.
Either way, he  cannot win.  Afghanistan can only be abandoned again
to settle its own  affairs, as was Vietnam.  Obama, like Lyndon B.
Johnson, may be the victim of hubris   the belief in America's invincible
power.

Finally, the attacks on him by the money-making radio and
television right  wing shouters and screamers-- the leaders of the
Republican party -- will bear fruit.   It is inevitable that their
continuing attacks will incite at least an assassination attempt.
They will not be charged, as they should be, with inciting an
attempted murder.

And that's the news for October 30, 2009.

P.S. I apologize for this repeat, but the original seems to have
disappeared from Usenet.   This article is only "for the record" so
that I can some day say, "I told you so."

Mason Clark  http://frontal-lobe.info
book: Greater America in the Age of Rebellion
book: The Healing Wisdom of Dr.P.P.Quimby
book: Get Rich in Small Business (html)
book: Homosexuality: Causes and Cures

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