Lies, Lies and Damned Lies

Sorry for the following, but I've quite a bit to say. Hang on tight.

This week saw the enactment, at last, of the Obama stimulus plan. And, yes, the stock market ticked up a bit, but it isn't wise to use the Dow Jones as much of a barometer anymore. As we've learned, the market is run by a gang of morons.

But the Obama Express just keeps rolling. Every week...hell, practicaly every day, the Administration rolls back another onerous Bush rule, drop-kicks another Bush regulation and is slowly, inevitably steering this country back on course.

The result? Obama is immensely popular. Americans, on the whole, can see that Obama is not only working hard- he's working smart. He's doing so much, in fact, that there is some criticism that he's doing too much, if you can believe that. My reaction to that is: leave the guy alone. He has eight years of bullshit to undo.

The right-wing punditocracy is going absolutely apeshit. "Socialism!" doesn't seem to have lost its sting as the GoOPer word of the year, so they're tossing that at Obama pretty hard. But darned if it doesn't stick. Some, as we've mentioned, are trying to get him to assume ownership of this loser economy. But, as we've demonstrated, this isn't his mess. It's Bush's mess and Barack is just doing the dirty work of picking up after the Chimp.

But it brings me to my main point: let's suppose, in some Bizarro World, that Barack Obama- president for less that two months, remember- is somehow responsible for our current financial disaster. I know he isn't. You know he isn't. But let's try, for a moment, to think like a right-winger. (Owww! It hurts!) Stay with me.

So...Barack is to blame for the tanking stock market, the loss of a million-plus jobs so far this year, my rapidly disappearing hairline...everything. Barack owns it ALL.

So explain something to me: If this is so...why was it that September 11th, 2001 was all Bill Clinton's fault? You remember this, don't you? In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when the country was casting about to blame someone for the worst attack on American soil in our history, who did the right wing decide was the boogeyman? Bill Clinton.

"He didn't do enough to protect the country against terrorists! He didn't have a system in place during the transition to the new Administration! He was derelict in his duties! It was Clinton's fault!" Uh-huh. Forget Richard Clarke's testimony to the contrary. Forget that the 9/11 Commission laid most of the blame at the feet of the Bush Administration. Forget the bin Laden memo that Bush got (and ignored) a month before the attacks. Forget it all.

Bush was president for eight months when the attacks occurred in September of 2001. The Congress and Senate at the time were both in the hands of the Republicans. And yet who was to blame when those planes crashed into the towers? Bill Clinton. Believe it.

And yet here we are, less than sixty days after Obama was signed in and the economic mess is.....all Obama's fault.

Is it any wonder that the Republican party's popularity is in the toilet? They have no credibility, no morality, no inspiration and no leadership. Everyone with a brain can see these lying, wack-job, greedy, me-only fuckheads for what they are. And they CANNOT get their shit together. Hell, they're about to kick their newly appointed head of the GOP out of office less than three months after he took over! It is a party in disarray and thank goodness for that.

(My favorite poll from the past month is the one that shows the Democrats have more than a third of the country affiliating themselves with their party. The Republicans? Two points lower than the Independents. That's a party in huge trouble.)

Keep on rollin', Barack. We got your back. And you're doing great. Rock on.