Although a lot of focus has been made about the comments where he complained about not having a "cool" high tech phone in his office, I found these comments that he made more fascinating:
I had the emir of Qatar come by the Oval Office today. Pretty influential guy. He is a big booster, big promoter of democracy all throughout the Middle East. Reform, reform, reform. ... Now he himself is not reforming significantly. There's no big move toward democracy in Qatar. But you know part of the reason is that the per capita income of Qatar is $145,000 a year. That will dampen a lot of conflict.
I make this point only because if there is opportunity, if people feel their lives can get better, then a lot of these problems get solved.Does he think this about the United States, that "if people feel their lives can get better, then a lot of these problems get solved"? How close is he to thinking that if he can just get the crowds going, he could be President for life?
A: Pretty close, but there's that little problem of Amendment XXII. It seems also that the wannabe duce has forgotten the old rule that the microphone is always on. Of course, Obama knows by now that there's a tremendous difference between mean income and median income.
ReplyDeleteNow, recall his soaring rhetoric in 2008 and his habit of tilting his head back and sticking his chin out, just like Mussolini used to do. Too bad for him that he's already losing the regressives. Just skim sites like Common Dreams and Daily Kos to see what I mean. The Nation, however, is still behind him.
Mussolini visiting Alfa Romeo:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Mussolini_all%27Alfa_Romeo.JPG
Bush/Blair pushed economic freedom, like China's, in the Middle East. Mubarak got a $50 million foundation to use as he pleased, courtesy of American taxpayers.
ReplyDeleteObama/Wolin continued the policy.
When I read that, I thought, you could post this as something GWB said [I could easily imagine it]--and then wait for all the comments about what a dunce he was. Then the reveal...ooops, that was Obama!
ReplyDeleteWhen people's bellies remain full, and when people have reason to expect that this will continue indefinitely, then anyone can get away with anything. The problem is that this is not the way the world, or the Universe, works. There are limits to everything, certainly in the material world. When these limits are hit, then the correction will begin.
ReplyDeleteTihs is where we are now. When the United States finally collapses into civil war, the "money" involved will disappear. From the Middle East point of view, less oil sold and less food available to buy.
Kaboom.