I just don't have the energy to list in detail the innumerable Bush policies and idiocy that continue under the Obama administration. Not only are we continuing the policies and behaviors initiated under Rumsfeld....Let's just say that we are now funding the people we're fighting. Not only in Iraq, not only in Afghanistan, but now in Somalia as well. Wonderful, isn't it? Then consider the continuity in economic policy between Bush and Obama. Both seem bound and determined to recreate the same mistakes Hoover did. What's next from Obama, "volunterism"?
History's already judged Hoover. History has even come in with a judgement on FDR's flirtation with balanced budgets during the Great Depression. Hell's bells, even the Irish Famine demonstrates the need for government spending during an economic crisis. Oh, and by the way, it also demonstrates the essential cruelty at the heart of laissez-faire capitalism.
Where's the withdrawal from Iraq and the draw-down in Afghanistan? We now see talk from the administration of staying in both countries. Not just for a few months, for years, for decades. Has not one person in the Obama administration read Sun Tzu? "Long wars benefit no one." Why expend the lives of our soldiers and our treasure in such a reckless way? And to make things worse, we discover that the US military wishes to expand its use of mercenaries? Has not one person in this administration read Machiavelli? "Whence they are obliged, either to hope that there will be no peace or to gain so much for themselves in times of war, that they can provide for themselves in times of peace." So I say, WTF?
Now, added to this devastating failure of management, of military strategy, and common sense, add it to the recent debt deal. Add it to his failures as a negotiator. Add it to his failures in leadership. Add it to his moral failures, for what else do we call an adamant refusal to prosecute torturers? I don't care what makes Obama tick. Any president who engages in this kind of dysfunctional behavior, or allows his subordinates to get this far out on a limb, is a fool and a failure as a leader. He shouldn't be president. I said this of GW Bush, based on his personal behavior and his policies. You expect me to cut a guy slack when he makes mistakes just as egregious as Bush did? I'm not built that way. For the safety, prosperity, and health of the nation, Obama has to be a one term president.
You think I get pleasure from saying this? I gave money to Obama's campaign, three different donations in 2008. The conclusion has left me a little depressed and sad at what might have been. I ask myself: "Do we really have to primary Obama?" Yes, I think we do.
Next week, something less controversial.
