Padding the resume

JPost has a good article about Obama padding his resume.  It struck me, this is one of the big things I really dislike about Obama.  He really reminds me of executives who hop from company to company and care only about their own career and image, not the company. 

They pride themselves on their “leadership abilities”, but don’t actually do anything one can point to.  They jump from stepping-stone to stepping-stone without ever really interacting along the way.  Their chief abilities are promoting themselves and quietly detaching themselves from ill-considered initiatives which they enthusiastically promote until the initiative sinks.  As long as they get their bonuses, they don’t care how the company is doing.

Basically, Obama reminds me of a useless MBA.

 

The economy stupor

Krugman had a good column yesterday about Obama’s lack of attention to economic issues.  The economy under Bush has collossally sucked.  Job growth is the slowest in 60 years.  The income gap has widened substantially over the last decade - and that’s just earned income, it doesn’t include other wealth.  McCain promises more of the same.  

Why is Obama not seizing on this?  His tax plan is actually fairly progressive and would help the middle vs. the rich - but for some reason he’s not talking about it.

The middle and lower-middle classes are descending towards outright poverty, with the wealthy detaching like the tip of a rocket and blasting off without the rest of us.  Foreclosures are at a record high.  The increasing cost of life basics - gas, food, housing, medical care - has got to be hurting a lot of families. 

That is, the economy has to be hurting a lot of families with a lot of swing voters.  So why is Obama strangely silent about all this? 

These are classic strong issues for Democrats.  Economic fairness - the basic guarantee that if you work hard, you’ll at least stay afloat, if not get ahead.  It’s a freaking no-brainer.  That Obama is not talking about issues that matter to the average voter only adds to his aura of elitism. 

C’mon, man, you’ve styled yourself as this amazing orator - do your stuff, already.  Get people to sign on to your vision, not McCain’s. 

Does he not believe his own promises?  Is that why he can’t bring himself to talk about his great plans - because he knows he can’t carry them off?  Seriously, why is he not talking about this?

 

To: God Re: Things I need you to do

Participating in a long-standing tradtion, Obama left a note to God in the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

“Lord—Protect my family and me,” reads the note published in the Maariv daily. “Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.”

I love that.  Not “Dear Lord, please …” or even “Lord, please,” or even “Lord,” Instead of a comma, he uses the efficient, business-like dash.  No please, no thank you, no sign-off - just a list of directives.  To God.

 

Obama - Turkey not a democracy

Hunh.  Apparently Obama doesn’t think Turkey is a democracy.

And then there are those who would lay all of the problems of the Middle East at the doorstep of Israel and its supporters, as if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the root of all trouble in the region. These voices blame the Middle East’s only democracy for the region’s extremism. They offer the false promise that abandoning a stalwart ally is somehow the path to strength. It is not, it never has been, and it never will be.

According to a 2007 survey by the Economist - hardly a bastion of liberalism - Israel was somewhat more democratic than Turkey.  But even Israel wasn’t in the category of ”fully functioning” democracy, but a “flawed” democracy.  If you’re going for “as democratic as the U.S.”, or a ”fully functioning democracy” - which Obama seems to be using as a yardstick - then neither Israel nor Turkey is a democracy.   If you use this standard, there is no democratic nation in the Middle East. 

But Obama knows what side his bread is buttered on.  Accordingly, Israel is a democracy, and Turkey is not.

 

Building in Motion

Italian architect Dr. David Fisher announced on Tuesday the launch of a revolutionary skyscraper in Dubai dubbed as the “world’s first building in motion,” an 80-story tower with revolving floors that give it an ever-shifting shape.

Call me crotchety, but buildings should not be in motion.  In general, a building in motion is a distinctly suboptimal state of affairs.

 

Compromise is tricky!

Remember when Obama ridiculed Hillary for voting for the Iraq war even though she was against it?  Remember how very bright-line he made it seem?  If you’re against the war, then vote against it!  Duh.  It’s what he would have done, if he’d been there to vote.  No-brainer!

Oh, If only politicians could vote according to their consciences.  Unfortunately - as I’m quite sure he knows well - they often can’t.  As he himself recently could not, on the FISA bill telecom immunity.  What?  If you’re against it, why didn’t you vote against it?  Duh.

 

Obamarang

Whoosh!

What was that?  That was Obama boomeranging on NAFTA.

 

 

Obama and the Timewarp

You know how the Rocky Horror Picture Show Timewarp dance goes, right?

It’s just a jump to the left
And then a step to the right …

This article gives yet another example of Obama’s back-and-forth shuffle, depending on what audience he’s addressing. 

If the topic is Cuba, and the audience is Illinois voters, it’s a Jump to the left - We will end all sanctions on Cuba!  Libertad!

Same topic, conservative Miami voters?  A step to the right.  We will maintain the embargo.

It amazes me that so many Obama supporters still think he’s some kind of amazing, principled social leader, rather than a politician.  He’s going to hold firm, he’s going to convince people of the “truth”, blahbity blah.  Somehow the Obama magic will bring us all together, and the lions will lay down with the lambs, and corporations will put aside their own interest in favor of the common good, etc. 

They just don’t seem to understand that even if he wanted to act according to his ideals - and I’m increasingly starting to believe his only ideal is self-promotion - he has to, and will, compromise. 

Compromise, and pander shamelessly.  I’d like to believe he feels a twinge everytime he panders?  But the more I see of him in action … I just don’t think he does.

It will be interesting to see the effect of the inevitable reality check of the general campaign on Obama supporters, when Obama drifts to the right.  And sad, too, in a way.  People wanted so much to believe.  People wanted a hero so badly.  And he’s knowingly leading them on.

 

Cake and hybrids

Heh.  It’s funny, how impatient I feel when people criticize gaffes by my candidate.  I look at Hillary’s RFK assassination comment and think, dumb.  Misstep.  So what?  Why are people focusing on this stupid shit?  There are major fucking problems that are not getting discussed because the press is more interested in macguffins. 

Like our oil-addicted economy and soaring fuel prices.  To which Obama’s response is, switch to smaller cars and hybrids.  “Switch”?  That entails … buying.  What about all the people who can’t afford to “switch”?  They’re fucked, AND they’re contributing to the problem. 

Obama’s response is either breathtakingly callous, or completely elitist and out of touch.  He bought a hybrid. (Except, he modestly says, it mostly sits in the garage - implying he’s so good about not driving, and completely glossing the fact that, as a senator and Presidential candidate, his own car sits in the garage because he’s, oh, driven everywhere.)  Everybody should buy hybrids!  The people are suffering?  Let them eat cake - and drive hybrids.

(I bought a Honda Civic hybrid in 2004, and am reeeally enjoying the good mileage.  So my disgust with Obama on this issue is not personally motivated.)

Further - worse - how limited a response is that?  Buy hybrids and drive less?  We’re forced into car dependency because of existing transportation infrastructure.  We need investment in rail and public transit.  Then we’d actually be able to drive less.   The airline and automobile industries get insane subsidies - why not throw rail a crumb?

So, how about talking about the structural problem?  Too practical?  Too granular?  Doesn’t make for a flowery speech?  Forget it.

I have to say, this is the most depressing indication of the extent of Obama’s “vision” I’ve seen yet.   So limited and reactive.  And lecture-y.  It puts the burden of a collective problem on individual shoulders, and gives a moral spin to an essentially technical problem.

Sound familiar?  Yeah.  It sounds … Republican.  Ugh.

 

Food shortages = progress!

Secretary Paulson says astronomical commodity prices are helping developing nations.  I wonder what the people killed in food riots in Cameroon think of that?

Oh, wait - they don’t think anything.  They’re dead.

“World agriculture has entered a new, unsustainable and politically risky period,” says Joachim von Braun, the head of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, DC.

To prove it, food riots have erupted in countries all along the equator. In Haiti, protesters chanting “We’re hungry” forced the prime minister to resign; 24 people were killed in riots in Cameroon; Egypt’s president ordered the army to start baking bread; the Philippines made hoarding rice punishable by life imprisonment.

“It’s an explosive situation and threatens political stability,” worries Jean-Louis Billon, president of Côte d’Ivoire’s chamber of commerce.

More:

Global food crisis ‘silent tsunami’ threatening over 100 million people, warns UN

Rural women could suffer due to increased biofuel production, warns UN agency

And why?

Lehman: Speculative Demand Enhancing Commodities Prices

Speculators profit, ordinary people starve.  This “helps” developing nations how?