RADICAL IDEAS

GETTING TO KNOW OBAMA

I knew Saul Alinsky, and – to paraphrase Senator Bentson – Obama is a Saul Alinsky. He spoke at UCLA back in the early fifties and afterward six of us had coffee with him at the cafe across the street from the movie theater in Westwood. One of us, I've forgotten who, asked Alinsky what he could do to make America a better country. The author of Rules for Radicals and Reveille for Radicals said there were only three things; vote, organize, and peacefully assemble to petition the government. That was how to make radical change.

Alinsky is most famous for his work, called the Back of the Yards movement, to improve the terrible conditions under which Blacks were forced to work at Chicago's infamous stock yards. But the trip that brought him to UCLA was supposed to take him to Oakland where he would try to help the growing Black population. The idea that he might be successful so frightened the city that the Council voted to ban him from entering the city – for life.

Obama, like Alinsky, suffered from prejudice. He because of his color, Alinsky because he was a Jew at a time when Antisemitism was more common than a cold, and far more deadly. Obama believes, as Alinsky did, that the people truly have the power, but often must wrestle it from the clenched fist of corporations and entrenched politicians. In his State of the Union speech, Obama called on Americans to wrestle control from Big Oil, corrupt banks, the filthy rich, and from a paralyzed Senate and the House divided against itself, and against America.

The morning-after blogs, paid pundits,”liberal” whiners, and rabble rousing Republicans all found little but fault with President Obama's State of the Union speech, but Saul Alinsky would be one damned proud man as he listened to the radical call to action.

BACK TO COLLEGE

IT'S THE NUMBERS, STUPID!

There is all but universal agreement among pundits that 2012 will be another year in which, “It's the economy, stupid!” But recent polls predict the likely Electoral College vote – the only one that counts (as Al Gore discovered) – give Obama 242 votes from “safe” blue states, so he's only 28 short of the 270 he needs to win. So it's time to start yelling, 'It's the numbers, stupid! These polls also have him picking up the swing states of Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, and Ohio, which add a total of 40 more for a total of 282, 12 more than are needed to give the family dog, Bo, another four years to run around the rose garden. Team Obama also has a good chance of picking up Colorado and Virginia which would have his daughters chanting, “Three-oh-four, three-oh-four, three-oh-four!” Or maybe, “Three-oh-four more years!”

Then, of course, the question of who he'll run against adds an important factor. Most of the polls cited above were based on the assumption Romney would be the (un)lucky winner of the GOP slug fest, but were it to actually be Gingrich, Obama would garner another ten to twenty votes. And the more damage Newt does to Mitt (and Mitt does to himself,) the more it adds to Obama's total. I ought to abide by the dictum “It's too early to predict the outcome!” but a Republican victory in the Electoral College does seem neigh on to impossible.

That conclusion must, of course, be whispered in closed rooms (or sung in the shower,) since it could lead some to decide their votes aren't needed. But as Al Gore and Tom Dewey learned painfully, every one does. One thing Obama could do to snatch many of Ron Paul's young supporters to his side would be to dramatically reduce the Fed's war on marijuana. He doesn't have to inhale, just get the DEA to hold its breath.

WINNER TAKES WHAT?

TOO MUCH or TOO LITTLE?

GOP voters face odd choices. Does Romney have too much money or pay too little tax? Does Newt have too little morality or too many wives? One would think the debate would be about the economy, the threat from Iran, or how to power our country, but those issues are being flushed down the debate toilet. Call Roto-Rooter!

All the wannbes are yelling that Obama is the problem, but he has only one wife and he's paid the IRS what he owes. If the contest between their candidate and Obama ever turns to issues that actually matter, Obama will have a very easy ride back to sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue. If you doubt that, read once-conservative Andrew Sullivan's article in Newsweek. Following Allan Lichtman's list of the thirteen keys to the White House, (Red his book!) he ticks off President Obama's truly amazing first term successes As Wordsworth put it, “:The world is too much with us, looking back.” What Americans want to know is what's 2012, 2013, 2015 going to be like?

Now that the Newt has beaten the Mitt in South Carolina the old guard of the GOP is looking forward to Tampa as if they already knew another Katrina was going to hit it. There are even whispers, in closed rooms of course, of a brokered convention. That is to say, one where primary and caucus votes are ignored and the masters of the party pick a candidate. Jeb Bush? No, not another Bush. Chris Christie? No, he's too fat. Tim Pawlenty? No, he's got pawlenty of nothin'. Meanwhile Obama's team is sitting around giggling.

I've covered four national conventions and until now I haven't been sorry to miss the more recent ones, but I sure would like to go to Tampa to watch the GOP tamp down Mitt and Newt as they search for somebody who isn't too rich, hadn't paid too little tax, who wasn't a multi-wived philander who took millions from the mortgage giant, and, just maybe, could beat Obama. The smoke in those smoked filled room will have to be weed ti they're going to hallucinate a win in 2012.

PLAY BALL!

VOICES FROM THE RIGHT

The battle for the Republican presidential nomination often triggers memories of lines from the opening of Longfellow's classic Evangeline: “The deep voice neighboring ocean speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.” Or Shakespeare's lines: “Full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.” They talk and talk but I don't learn much.

As much as Romney tries to maintain his performance as a patient teacher confronting of a bunch of ill behaved loud children, he comes across more as the crossing guard holding a Stop sign as the students run back and forth across the street yelling insults at him. Soon, I've no doubt, the class will come to order and proceed to the playground where the game of kick ball will be played. .The final score of that game will be determined by voters who will be forced to chose between Washington and Wall Street. It is, at present, unclear whether Americans dislike Robber Barrons or “bureaucrats” more, and whom the poor, unemployed, and underpaid will blame for the sorry state of the economy. The GOP shouts that the mob should just go get a job, but to paraphrase Patrick Henry, they may cry jobs, jobs, but there are no jobs. .

And, of course, there lurks the ugly possibility that before November 6 events may conspire to make threats to our national security the overriding issue. The Obama campaign is surely not hoping our enemies will attack, but if they were to, the crossing guard better run for cover as his party is no longer viewed as the stronger defender of our freedom. For now, however, Obama's crew in Chicago is undoubtedly planning a campaign that will focus on the sins of Wall Street and Romney's admission that he pays a lower tax rate than the school janitor, or the maids that clean his many houses, makes him vulnerable and it's not clear how he can kick that ball back at the other team.

A SILVER SPOON IN HIS MOUTH

IT'S THE ECONOMY AGAIN, STUPID

The Mitt may have some trouble in South Carolina but by the time the Florida vote's counted he is almost certain to be the Republican 2012 candidate, which means the race is on. And as James Carville said back in '92, “It's the economy stupid!” I'll wager the team in Chicago is now exploring every deal Bain Captial Ventures made from the day it was founded right through yesterday, and has a squad out hunting for every person who lost a job when Bain captured the company they worked for. Obama's campaign has no choice; it's going to be a 99% versus 1% battle right down to November 5. We have Romney, and the Occupy Movement to thank for that.

An African-American Harvard lawyer who turned his back on offers from powerful law firms to help organize the poor and powerless in Chicago running against a multibillionaire who is still reaping profits from a company that ravaged companies it bought is a never-before-in-history contest. It makes the '32 race of Hoover and FDR look like a choice between two members of the same frat for student of the year honors.

If, as most economists predict, the jobless rate drops another couple of points and the House continues to block aggressive efforts to pass Obama's jobs bills, the outcome looks safe for the President's reelection. Unless. . And there is a big “unless.” What is uncertain is how independents and “Reagan Democrats” are going to vote. Back in the days of the Robber Barons Americans understood that the 1% had gotten rich at the expense of the rest of the people, but today there still seems to be a persistent view among many that the filthy rich deserve every penny they're hording. To change that, the Obama campaign has to put a face on the 99% and the 1% too.

We're I working in the Chicago office I'd recommend having workers whom Romney fired do video stand-ups in front of some of Romney's houses. I'd also air some spots of the mansion The Mitt was living in in France while supposedly on a Mormon mission to save French souls. And how about a baby picture of Romney with a shiny silver spoon in his mouth. Yeah, I like that.

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THE ENEMY WITHIN

SVENGALI'S BUSY

One of the cushiest jobs in politics is getting to be Svengali, or svengali as it's now okay to write, sort of like Google becoming google. The character from George de Maurier's 1894 novel gets to screw up everybody's best laid plans by worming his way into their confidence, and it's plain as the nose on Romney's face that there's one working his, or her, butt off amidst the GOP, most likely his. One of the sneakiest things he did was talk the Republicans into tacking a provision on to the unemployment extension bill that would deny anybody who doesn't have a high school diploma, or GED, from collecting unemployment insurance. Cleaver, bastard, right? (Hats off to Economist View blog for bringing the plot to screw workers to my attention.)

He figured out that if the GOP did that it would destroy their chances of picking up blue collar “Reagan Democrats,” piss off Hispanics, and make it look like Republicans favored “intellectuals.” All that in a couple of sentences added to the bill! Boy he's good. .I mean, he figured out that people who had to drop out of school and go to work to help support their folks, who were not allowed to go to school because they were third generation “wetbacks,” or who had dyslexia and flunked out but who paid into the government's insurance program for decades will all be screwed, and they will make the GOP pay on election day.

There is, however, the possibility that it wasn't a svengali spy planted by the Democrats but just another example of the how much they really do dislike the ever shrinking working class and the part of America's needy they used to all “welfare queens;” poor women trying to raise kids as single mothers.

The persistent attack on those who are struggling and their unbridled support of those who are gurgling Champagne will not work in 2012. It doesn't take an undercover svengali to figure that out. And now Romney's attacking Obama for not having Wall Street smarts. Gee, maybe Mitt is the Republican's svengali!

FOX'S FRIENDS

LET'S TAKE A BREAK

OK, I've had all the Iowa I can tolerate and he who wins in New Hampshire has a really good chance of winning in Maine, period, so let's explore the world of “progressive” whiners. The blogs were full of them this morning. Most concentrated on Obama's “failures” and how things you've never heard of can cost him the election. Among the latter was the story of the government's deportation of an African-American teenage runaway to Colombia. It was a truly stupid thing ICE did, but I betcha Obama didn't actually, personally, willfully issue the order to deport her and the blog's insistence that the case will hurt him with Hispanic voters gets my Most Stupid Thing of the Day award.

But the Where Do You Get That Crap? award goes to usually smart Truthdig In one article, the writer (no byline) characterizes the president's efforts to reign in Wall Street as “tepid.” And that ran the day after Obama had made the recess appointment to head the Consumer Protection Agency and added three new member to the National Labor Relations Board. And, to make sure they garnered the above named WDYGTC award the piece was titled, “Arms Dealer Obama Will Win by Default.” Arms dealer? I guess they slapped that insult on him for allowing Israel and Saudi Arabia to buy guns and planes from American firms.

It often seems like these self-appointed “liberal” gurus are trying to out fox Fox. One of them accused Obama of acting like he thought he was “King” for making recess appointments when Congress was pretending not to be on recess by holding 45 second daily meetings, and another asserted that he was being kind to Wall Street because it had bought him his 2008 win. The teachers who had these dolts as students must be damned embarrassed. Somehow they graduated without understanding that we have three branches of government and two political parties. The rest of us remember that it was the Supreme Court that gave Wall Street unlimited power to buy elections and the Republicans in the House and Senate who tried to tie Obama's hands so he couldn't protect consumers.

So my advice is, ignore the “liberal” blogs and go straight to Fox News to catch up on the latest attacks on Obama.

THE UNGODLY

THE ANTI CHRISTS AMONG US

A woman told ex-Senator Santorum at one of his campaign events that government shouldn't give the hungry money for food they can't pay back. She began her tirade by describing herself as an Evangelical Christian. Though I am not a Christian, my memory of Jesus' injunction to his followers to care for the those in need for “they are our brothers” is one I try to follow. But as I am not without sin, I can't cast the first stone at the awful woman, but she damned well deserves to be pelted with rocks.

During this seemingly endless season of political pomposity, I have not heard one of the self-proclaimed Christians running for the GOP nomination quote Mathew 29:24. It is there believers are told it's easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a Wall Street banker to get into heaven. (I've paraphrased the Bible a bit.) The Occupy protestors, on the other hand, are acting as Jesus did when he drove the moneychangers from the temple with a knotted rope.  Reading the words his disciples say Jesus spoke makes it painfully clear that today's arch conservatives are anti Christs.

And that makes me ask, Where are the other Christian ministers? I would like to hear what Catholic Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopalian clergy would say to the woman who would let the hungry starve, to the those who cheered when told more people would die were Obamacare repealed, those who would condemn a woman to death rather than allow her doctor to terminate her pregnancy, and those who deny homosexuals the right to defend their country. Their silence is their shame.

The election of 2012 will not be decided on the basis of religious affiliation, of course, but if the GOP “preaches” the vile sermons of the anti Christs women, independents, gays, and truly moral Americans will vote for Democrats. Oh, and so will atheists and agnostics; the most rapidly growing “faith” in the country.

WHO'S THE ENEMY?

THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS MY FRIEND

The old Arab proverb about who's a friend and who's an enemy may be the key to an Obama victory in this year's election. It worked for Truman in '48 and it appears to be the Democratic strategy again. Voters are the “enemy” of Congress and Congress is sure as hell Obama's enemy, so his attacks on both the House and Senate should garner him votes on election day.

Today's papers (Jan 1) report that the GOP campaign will try to use Obama against Obama, picking quotes that contradict. That seems looney to me since the Republican candidate, unless it's Bachmann, can be quoted has having taken six sides on issues that have only two; for or against. But the even greater problem with that strategy is, as noted above, that the public dislikes Congress far more than it dislikes Obama.

All this will become clearer in the next two months as Congress deals with the extension of unemployment benefits, the need to raise the debt limit, and – oh yes – jobs. (Unlike Governor Perry, I remembered the third thing.) And here's where we can all count on the Tea Party fringe to work their butts off helping Obama win reelection. But then there's the economy (stupid.) Most economists predict slow but steady growth but they said the same thing last New Years and it turned out to be only the most minimal growth. Here too, however, the ball is in the Republican's court, and the Tea Party folk seem to be promising to fumble when ever it's in their hands. It's only ten months to the goal line and the Democrats have by far the better quarterback, even if his favorite game is basketball. So let's call it a slam dunk rather than a touchdown.