Tonight's installment begins with an op-ed at EIN by Joe Rothstein, that asks a question and then leaves it unanswered, hanging like the iconic kitten from a tree limb. Food for thought, as it were, served up with a healthy dose of 1968 parallels that cast Rothstein as the kind usher with a flashlight showing Obama the way to the exit door before someone yells "Fire!" in the crowded theatre.
Will Obama Be The Democratic Candidate In 2012? Probably. But.... (Joe Rothstein's Commentary)
August 18, 2011
By Joe Rothstein
Editor, EINNEWS.comWill Barack Obama be the Democratic Party's nominee for President in 2012? Probably. But don't bet whatever's left of your bankroll on it.
As unlikely as it may seem, President Obama could decide not to run for a second term. Sound far-fetched? Particularly since a formidable and growing campaign organization has his back? It's worth considering.
The President is clearly vulnerable to a Republican challenger. Well, yes, you might say, but to who? Everyone currently running for the GOP nomination has seemingly fatal flaws in hoping to appeal to a predictably moderate electorate. Sorry, Democrats, that's not a given. I've been around long enough to remember how hard Democratic insiders rooted for Ronald Reagan to win the Republican nomination in 1980. No one that extreme could win in November, could they?
Far more potentially explosive is Bruce A. Dixon's entry at Black Agenda Report . Using one of my favorite movies as a backdrop, Dixon enumerates reasons why we should all be less concerned about Obama, his family, and his legacy, and more concerned about our own families - from youngest to oldest. Now I understand that he is addressing the Black community, but what he is saying should resonate beyond racial borders, which is why this white chick is using the first person plural here. We are a plural nation. Dixon's message should resonate beyond the borders of the naib. (Yes, I am a white chick who lives in the naib because during the boom I bought where I could afford to rather than in the astronomically priced suburbs. Even at that, with a secure job, I worry about those mortgage payments.) Here is the eminently reasonable treatise of Bruce A. Dixon whose voice should be heard by all and sundry.
Published on Black Agenda Report (http://blackagendareport.com)It's Too Late To Save The Obama Administration. Can We Still Save Ourselves?
By Bruce A. DixonCreated 08/17/2011 - 12:59
By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
Two and half years into the Obama presidency, some of us spend more time mooning over pretty pictures of the First Family, their beautiful kids and regal mother-in-law than we spend publicly worrying over the fates of millions of families, children and elders we personally know. Why are some of us still trying to “save” the Obama administration. When will it be time to save ourselves from endless war, climate change, joblessness and the other ravages of late predatory capitalism?
It's Too Late To Save The Obama Administration. Can We Still Save Ourselves?
By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
Back in the summer of 1996 I saw the movie Independence Day in a Chicago theater where two thirds of the audience was black. The scene that got the audience on its feet cheering was one in which aliens hovered over the White House, and blasted it to matchwood. I've often thought that if that same flick were released in 2009 or 2010, that same mostly black audience would have gasped in horror.
Wrapping it up tonight, we have an an incisive, bullet-style blog post by my friend John Smart that he simply copied into a comment thread here on a prior post. It deserves better. He also uses one of my all-time-fav pictures of Our Girl Hillary!
10 reasons Clinton would have been a better President
The NY Times, hoping to tamp down the Clinton bubble that that keeps on bubbling published this dribble. It is warm, steamy horse shit, suitable for the paper that only a few years ago gave us Judith Miller and her yellow journalism.
There is AMPLE evidence that Clinton would have been a better president.
1. Experience matters. Have we not seen how damaging Obama’s lack of experience and judgement is? July 2011 is all one needs to prove this.
Read the other nine>>>>Tacking this on from Barb, Heavy.
Oval Office Appeaser
Obama likes to think of himself as a successor to FDR. But this former supporter sees a different—and much less impressive—resemblance.
When Barack Obama was inaugurated, a Republican president had taken the peace, prosperity, and budget surpluses of the Clinton years and given us two wars, a devastated economy, and an almost trillion-dollar deficit. Obama was going to be our Franklin Roosevelt, our Winston Churchill—a visionary leader who would give America hope again. Instead, he has turned out to be the Neville Chamberlain of American politics, drifting toward national catastrophe, one compromise at a time.
