Would the real Barack Obama please stand up?

Three versions of the US President appear to be setting the agenda in the White House; the first seems on course for disaster

FIRST POSTED MARCH 5, 2009

So far as I can figure it at this early stage of the game, we elected at least three presidents last November, all of them identified by the name Barack Obama. Unfortunately, the one on duty in the Oval Office most of the time, the First Obama - the one the elites picked as their man - is sticking to utterly conventional and catastrophic policies.

Here is a man who has spent a lavish portion of his first hundred days setting the stage for what bids fair to be one of the greatest foreign policy disasters of the postwar epoch, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. To find parallel cases of lunatic misjudgment, you have to go all the way back to 1961 and John F Kennedy's twin commitments to ratchet up the US intervention in Vietnam and greenlight the attempted invasion of Cuba.

Now Obama is pulling troops out of Iraq (except for the 50,000 he wants to leave installed in long-term garrisons) to send them at a prodigious expense well beyond the present means of penniless Uncle Sam to ignite widening disaster in Afghanistan. With its lethal onslaughts into Pakistan, the United States is in the process of finishing off the tottering Zardari regime, ushering in a military coup directed by Islamic fundamentalists in profound sympathy with the Taliban.

What real action has Obama taken so far to reverse economic catastrophe?

In concert with militarist continuity from the Bush years, Obama's lawyers have told federal judges - they are explicitly continuing Bush policies on rendition, indefinite detention, spying and telecom immunity. Obama also echoes Bush in contradicting the National Intelligence Estimate, insisting that Iran is working on nukes.

At home disaster is not impending but upon us. The US Titanic took another huge lurch on the first two trading days of March, as the financial markets looked at the plummeting dividend figures from flagship firms like GE and HSBC; AIG's fourth-quarter loss of $61.7bn (the largest in US corporate history); and the impending write-down in commercial real estate, which will tear another huge hole in the Titanic's hull.

If you believe Obama, pictured here introducing Governor Kathleen Sebelius as his nominee for Health & Human Services Secretary, true healthcare reform is right around the next corner

Barack Obama and Governor Kathleen Sebelius

No budget proposal coming out of the White House should ever be taken seriously. But even if Obama's is properly regarded as merely an advertisement of good intentions, what has there been by way of substantive action in these first crucial days to reverse economic catastrophe? The stimulus package will scarcely deal with the job losses of the past three months. Trillions have been tossed uselessly to the banks, on the recommendation of the bankers and their pitchmen, with whom Obama has surrounded himself.

In sum, the First Obama is doing badly.

The Second Obama is the one who talks a great game, as the Republicans are finding out. Standing in Salt Lake City airport on Monday I caught sight of him introducing Governor Kathleen

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Child please, give the man a chance to do the job. It took more than 100 days to get in this mess. Micro-analyzing at this point just seems like you have nothing else to write about.

Posted by jvporter@gmail.com at 10:56am on March 6, 2009

Obama is a very intelligent and well-informed politician, which is reason enough to wonder why he has surrounded himself with advisors who are a) deeply enmeshed in and subservient to a banking and economic services system that is so very obviously corrupt and in all likelihood irreparably broken, b) other advisors who are committed to finding military answers to problems that require diplomatic solutions, and c) yet more advisors who seem to be determined to cover up the many and various crimes of the Bush administration and continue Bush's policies. He really does seem to need a lot of support from Americans who understand the need for CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN and are willing and able to demand it.

Posted by MichaelG49 at 5:24pm on March 6, 2009

"Meet the new boss- same as the old boss". Pete Townsend said that. "America is bigger than its presidents. The crazy decisions get taken no matter who is in the hot seat". I said that.

Posted by dfg fdg at 8:06pm on March 6, 2009

Whomever one votes for the government still wins. Look at thatcher's greatest achievement, Blair, on whom a desperate nation pinned so much hope after the valley of death into which the Tories led us - apparently willingly or at least insufficient resistance. Same thing happened in Oz in 2007. After 11 excruciating years going backwards socially, intellectually and morally, when Krudd was elected. At least he had the decency, pre election, to promise/warn/threaten that he was (John) Howard-lite - just slightly more hair and longer (expected) lifespan. Gee, thanks a heap. Wait till the Cameroons get their hands on the Treasury - we ain't seen nothing yet.

Posted by allan kessing at 10:31am on March 7, 2009

I say let's give this President some more time before we start declaring his policy maneuvers a total failure. I don' think any current world leader has been handed this huge a pile of crap to deal with right off the bat. Let's give it more than a few months to sort things out, shall we? If Mr. Cockburn has some magical solution to these problems that everyone's missing, perhaps he could give the White House a call.

Posted by Clarence Ewing at 12:12am on March 8, 2009

Obama is fast becoming a damp squib.

Posted by ROBERT BOYD at 2:07pm on March 8, 2009

Perhaps the question should have been what real action did George W Bush take to avert the disaster now facing Barak Obama. How far is the guy into his term and some columnists are already taking a negative tone, But the American people aren't.

Posted by don roberts at 8:13am on March 9, 2009

What else you can expect when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney would have given pardon to Bernard Maddoff for loosing over 50 Billion Dollars with most coming from Jews and riches. They have now promised him to accept prison sentence for life and then promised him a successful switch with some one who he can pay a million bucks and get him out of prison so that he can live in Switzerland or some place, just like they are helping him now to continue living in his 50 Million dollar apartment in down town Manhatten by providing him good attorneys. Do you think Bush and Cheney and their cronies did not know what Maddoff was doing? They knew it and are now blaming him for not coming out earlier, so they could have pardoned him before leaving office, LOL

Posted by Genteel Love at 9:40am on March 11, 2009

No matter how many times leaders betray the voters and look after the real powers, people still fall for the next one's hype and place all their hopes in him. Then he fails to deliver. Same old same old. 'Don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters'. Medical marijuana is the only positive thing he's done, but why not go the whole hog and legalise it across the country, then the rest of the world can relax and follow suit [even the UK eventually].

Posted by Peter Simmons at 11:10am on March 11, 2009