Who's in Charge???

It was never clearer than during the reign of the Bushmen, that the President of the United States is not the one calling the shots. He’s simply the media presence, the fall guy, the ventriloquist’s dummy. George W. couldn’t put three sentences together without a teleprompter, much less answer questions from the press spontaneously. Everything during his reign was staged. The smug idiot president who didn’t even win the election, was finally on his way back to Texas. Whew! It was never clearer that the president is not “in charge” than it was with W. Unless, of course, you want to roll back the hands of time to the Regan era where that president, the Hollywood actor, had Alzheimer’s Disease but remained in office anyway.
As the scope of the chaos left behind became clear, I wondered if Senator Barack Obama might change his mind.. After all, the job he was applying for had changed drastically while he was campaigning. It was possible that he wasn’t interested in the new job description, that he didn’t want to devote that much time to being a member of the clean up crew.

The Clintons, a seasoned political team, moved into the White House with high hopes. They were a team, they said so, and they had intellect and political savvy. We mobilized, we got out the vote, we wanted to help. We ‘d been convinced that some big things would change. Hilary rolled up her sleeves and immediately went to work on health care reform. She pounded out a plan, she took it to Congress, then something big happened. It wasn’t very clear what happened, but it was big. The media attacked. She was hailed as a bitch and a ball breaker, there were rumors of her being a lesbian, she was accused of interfering in important matters of state. Suddenly she went from seasoned team player, attorney at law, working mother, back to an archaic and traditional first lady. What would be big enough to make an accomplished professional woman like Hilary Clinton go back to the drawing room with a smile pasted on her face while there were no changes whatsoever to the bleak and inadequate system of health care in America?
Bill Clinton’s intention to make the military a safe place for homosexuals, turned into an assanine “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Clearly an embarrassing compromise with someone, but who? What convinced an intelligent man like Bill Clinton to stand in front of an entire nation and say something as ridiculous as Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. What makes Hilary put her tail between her legs and go back to the mindless role of First Lady instead of back to her life as an accomplished attorney? Many things happen that we don’t know about, and the investigations, and hints of scandal that surrounded them for the rest of his term would indicate to me that they put up a good fight. The price tag was high. They (whoever THEY are) dragged old mistresses out of the closet, gave them makeovers and paraded them in front of the nation. There was a possible real estate scandal that never amounted to anything, and of course, the grand finale.. the white house intern who put her semen covered dress in a plastic bag in her mother’s freezer, as if that were a perfectly normal thing to do. The Clintons started out in a ray of hope, a beam of light illuminating their path, and after many disappointments were drowned in the scandal of The Blow Job in the White House. Like anyone really cared, or like it was the first time, or like Kenneth Starr had never had indiscreet sex. I do believe the Clinton’s resistance resulted in the media undermining them, and successfully attacking their credibility.



If we watch carefully, we can see the same thing happening to President Obama. He, too, generated hope, hope for change. The time was right, the country was desperately in need of an overhaul, and he was the man to do it. He convinced us. He was going to balance his family life with his job. He and Michelle were going to have date night, once a week where they would mingle with the common people, have dinner, go dancing, take in a movie, drive around alone together in their car, just the two of them . He could handle it, he was confident they would succeed. We believed him. Michelle Obama gave up her career as an accomplished attorney and became an Amerian fashion icon, eliminating any threats to the status quo.

It’s true that the mess left by the Bushmen was enormous, financially, politically and emotionally. It’s also true that President Obama, now, a year into it, seems rather naieve. He, like Hilary, thought he could overhaul the healthcare system. God knows it ‘s only working well for the insurance companies. People are being denied quality health care in the richest nation in the world. It’s an international embarrassment, a stigma on the history of America. His administration went after it, talked about universal health care, the need for a public option. We had hope. After months of misleading information, we ended up with nothing but a few new guidelines for the insurance companies. It was too expensive some said…too expensive for who, I wonder.
So far, the only real clues I can come up with are these.
There’s oil in Iraq. Thick rich dark oil. Americans crave it, use it, bathe in it, and apparently will lie, cheat and steal to get their hands on more of it.
There’s poppies in Afghanistan. Opium poppies. I’d say this has something to do with the drug companies, who have something to do with the health insurance industry. Whatever it is, it’s important enough for President Obama to send 30,00 more troops to Afghanistan when he campaigned on an anti war platform, and won the Nobel Peace Prize. How embarrassing for a man like that to accept the Nobel Peace Prize while he’s sending more military might into another foreign land, driving people from their homes, demolishing their livelihoods and disrupting their way of life.
If you break it down far enough, in America, it always comes back to greed and profit and money, money and more money, while we the people have no idea who is conducting the orchestra. . I can only hope that President Obama will step back into that ray of light that was illuminating his path, causing us all to wear our sunglasses at night. Meanwhile, it’s the same old shit., with no hope in sight.