horse of george

Obama's 'jobs plan' speech turned out to be the political calculation I figured it would be - but the interesting thing I think is that it was so blatantly political, cynical almost given the obviousness of its intent - I mean he says in the speech it's paid for and then announces a few days later what he means by paid for is that he wants to raise taxes to pay for it which means the thing's still born, everybody knows that - that's pretty cynical - but so cynical that I'm gonna turn out to be right here? - by that I mean that the man has no desire to serve another term as president, especially if the congress [as it will be] is controlled by republicans - he can't just simply lose though, rather he has to lose on terms that allow him to leave office bruised but still a hero to the left wing and therefore still a viable voice that can tour the world making lots and lots of money giving pretty speeches. That would certainly be a horrible way for a leader to behave so it's kind of hard to imagine I'm right here - still, even hardcore democrats are looking at his jobs bill and saying 'how the hell does this make any sense?'. More than likely he and his people realize there's only two ways to have any chance of winning reelection: dramatically change his ideological stripes [which will not happen for reasons stated above ie, he'd destroy his brand]. or two, make republicans look like intemperate obstructionists. The problem with the latter is, he'd still be stuck with a republican congress - and if he's not gonna alter his ideological assumptions and preferences I find it very hard to believe he'd want to serve another term under those circumstances - needless to say, the country would not be well served by such an outcome - as I've said many times, Clinton could move to the center cause that's where he came from and he owed nothing to the DailyKos/Jon Stewart types - the impression of Obama the rational moderate is merely a political prop and always has been - I think people still under estimate just how utterly political Obama is - it's all about manipulation of perceptions for him - every time he gives a speech you both hear and see it [you can tell he's practiced a lot in front of a mirror - which is fine if you're an actor - not sure about the utility of such if you're president of the United States] - it's all a cynical calculation designed to either promote himself, promote an agenda, or promote an agenda in order to promote himself.