Paul Rosenberg: The first time is a tragedy, the second time, a farce

[Bluebear]

And here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice - Bob Dylan

LBJ was a tragic figure. Barack Obama is a farcical one--and the joke's on you if you still don't realize that after his second mass escalation of the war in Afghanistan. As Robert Mann makes powerfully clear in his 2000 book, A Grand Delusion: America's Descent Into Vietnam, Johnson had been traumatized by the Democrat's sweeping losses as a result of the Korean War. The Democrats had held the Senate majority since FDR became President in 1932, and looked like they would hold it forever until Truman was caught flat-footed by the outbreak of the Korean War. Johnson did incredible work first winning back the majority, then engineering a massive landslide victory in 1958. He was petrified of the prospect of doing that again, and determined not to let it happen.. It was a deeply flawed decision--a tragic one--but at least LBJ had the excuse that it hadn't been tried before and found wanting.

Barack Obama has no such excuse. But he's not just repeating LBJ's mistake of trying to have guns and butter at the same time. He's repeatedly made clear that the butter has to go, no matter what. The only question is when. Unlike the GOP, when Obama talks about cutting budget deficits, we have every reason to believe that he's dead serious. Both Social Security and Medicare are in serious peril under Obama, no matter what happens in Afghanistan...

Bush/Cheney had WMDs. Obama has a pseudo-intellectual version of same.

The more things change... except they don't.

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=16333

[Greyhound]

1. Lately I've been pondering the notion that he compares pretty closely to Woodrow Wilson.

A very smart man used by politics to capture power and then finds himself way out of his depth.
:shrug:

[Bluebear]

2. I can't disagree.

He is an extremely smart man, I can't help but hear his thought bubble: What the hell did I get myself into?

[Bluebear]

8. yes

[Hydra]

4. I'm not so sure

The situation called for an FDR. He claimed he was Lincoln...so who was the metaphotical South this time, if the myth relates? Who was it that needed to be brought forcefully back into the fold?

It sure doesn't look like the Elephants are the prime target.

[Greyhound]

5. Me either, I've just noted some of the decisions and the people he's surrounded himself with

are very similar and the decisions they've pushed are, likewise, very similar. He came up in a thoroughly corrupt system, but it is also a very small and secure group, so perhaps he didn't understand the magnitude of powers he was subjecting himself, and us, to?

I really should do some research into Wilson, I just never liked him and found him excruciatingly boring so...

[Hydra]

7. I'm not really familiar with Wilson either

But in backtracking some of where this mess came from, Wilson is as you say- a man who never meant to cause the kind of damage that he, but was put in a situation where it was basically expected of him that he do so. Quite tragic, really. To come into such an office only to find out that you are owned.

[cali]

9. wow. he claimed he was Lincoln? And you'll happily provide that quote

cuz you're just so into facts.

As if.

[arcadian]

10. Yeah, Obama never, ever, used Lincoln imagery, quotes, etc

to get into the Whitehouse. Get real.

[laughingliberal]

14. Not at all and anyone who says he did...

never mind

[cali]

15. that's hardly the same thing.

your claim is a total pile of dogshit- as are most of your claims on just about anything, sweetie.

[valerief]

3. We can see by the speed we're getting "real" healthcare reform,

"real" energy independence, and "real" jobs for our nearly 20% unemployed that it's a very real possibility that SS and Medicare will be as hacked to bits as the US Constitution.

[Bluebear]

6. .

[laughingliberal]

11. The butter has to go...very much what it's been looking like to me

I was shocked to read of Bernanke's statements to Congress Thursday about SS and Medicare. I would like to hear some reassurance from President Obama that he does not intend to let SS and Medicare be gutted.

[Bluebear]

12. Also remember that we were told that help for the jobless is "limited" this week

[laughingliberal]

13. Yes, that was also on my mind when I posted the response.

Just wait. Will the insult now be the left just wants more butter?