Hope and Change

I might as well join the parade of pundits (whatever that is) and bloggers and toss in my own opinions of the recent election. From previous posts many of you will realize that I stayed on the sidelines except for my anti Barney Frank vote and the ballot questions. I will now place elections in my personal category to avoid - like Town Meetings. I will probably go to the polls and simply submit a blank ballot. Town elections will be a different story - the old Tip O’Neil line. The bailout bill was the final realization that everything appears to be “in the bag.” Color me CYNIC!

Hope and change I classify as BS and more BS. I have seen too much failure such as Jimmy Carter - deserted by his own party and Bush I who managed to go from the highest approval rating to virtually the lowest in a span of six months. I do not spend my emotional resources on vague terminology wrapped within “hope” and “change.” As the old commercial stated “show me the beef.” Some may compare the Obama coronation to that of JFK. Good luck with that. JFK was wrapped up in mythology brought about by tragic death. In reality it was a rather mundane administration. The recent win by Obama can be traced primarily to economic issues and they tied McCain to Bush on that issue. Excellent political strategy. With the “job” Bush had done the poll numbers in August should have been Obama 10+ and not virtually even.

The Congress is obviously where the problem is and will continue to be. Congress place settings is determined by about 60 seats in the House and another 10 in the Senate. These are the ones that are “vulnerable” either via retirement or indictment. They have a tendency to shift back and forth in large numbers such as the last election or smaller numbers as in the previous few elections. Congress will “read” the new President and determine just how far they can go. Think of the President as the adult and Congress as petulant teenagers. In some families they run the show. If things appear a bit sour after a year or two you will see about one third of the Democrats willing to bolt party lines on certain issues. This is quite similar to what the Republicans recently did with Bush. A clue is this has nothing to do with political integrity and party loyalty but everything to do with political survival. Last thing you want to be is one of those 60.

The new administration will attempt to deal with a mounting debt, a war that appears endless, health care issues, real unemployment of close to 10% (forget that 6.5 figure), an economy that has stalled, a punitive tax code and on and on. Maybe the hope and change crowd has illusions of success and I hope they are right, but history shows they will be bitterly disappointed. But Obama does have an out and that is Bush. That’ll give him a year or two. After that if things continue to go south you can always play the race card. If it comes to that the writing will be clearly on the wall and some new candidate will enter in the political turmoil on a platform of “hope” and “change.”

As a side note I will start a new open thread on Sunady and it will be labeled Open Post #1. Man...I am just soooo clever.