The President I'd Like to See: Press Conference Blues

Here's the press conference I'd like to see today:

Reporter:  Mr. President what does the Petraeus affair tell us about the culture at the national security institutions of this country?

Mr. Obama: Culture is defined by values, what we hold out as ideal behavior. Behavior often deviates from this, where individuals are concerned. If you mean by that question do we have a culture which allows for powerful men in high positions to trade on that power to intimidate women into sexual relationships, nothing in what I've learned thus far about this particular affair would suggest anything of the sort occurred here or exists as a background in general.  There is no issue of "sexual harassment"  in this case, as far as we know now.  As for values, they are embodied in the military legal code, which forbids married officers from having extra marital affairs and which forbids any officer, married or unmarried from engaging in a sexual relationship with an officer of lower rank.  The fact General Petraeus resigned speaks to his own assessment of his own behavior, that he betrayed a trust, and having done that in his previous job, he apparently concluded he could not command trust in his present job. All of us in highly visible jobs, jobs which command some power are exposed to temptation daily: Power is attractive to many people. Some of us are better than others at resisting temptation. 

Reporter: But are you saying Ms. Broadwell was attracted to General Petraeus because of his power? 

Mr. Obama:  I am saying I feel like the school m'arm who has an important math class to teach and I am confronted by a bunch of giddy teenagers who want to talk about nothing but sex. Now I can dismiss this class if you refuse to talk about the important concerns of this country of 300 million people, who face a fiscal cliff, or we can talk about matters which affect the average citizen.

Reporter: Are you willing for us to go over the cliff?

Mr. Obama:  The Republican Party insisted on this cliff.  And now, because so many Republican Congressmen and Senators have been foolish enough to take some pledge, like a bunch of college sophomores, eager to get into some fraternity, they are steering the country over a cliff.  It's as if we are all in a boat headed toward a waterfall on our right. To the left is a clear and safe line, but the Republican leaders, who are at the stern, with the steering paddle have refused ever to steer the boat left; right is the only direction they will steer us. So they'd rather send us all over the waterfall than ever admit they have taken a foolish pledge.

And Miles To Go, Before We Sleep

Mad Dog awakens smiling. The virtuous have triumphed and the vacuous and mendacious have been vanquished.

But Mad Dog is aware of history.  Lincoln won re election in 1864  and two nights after Lee's surrender, he stepped out on a White House balcony and spoke to a celebrating crowd and said he would leave the question of Negro voting to the states, but he hoped that "very intelligent" colored men who had served the Union as soldiers would be permitted to vote. In the crowd below, John Wilkes Booth said to his companions, "That means nigger citizenship. Now, by God, I'll put him through."

So Mad Dog is wary, especially at the moment of joy and victory, and remembers there is work yet to be done.

Mitch McConnell is still the leader of the Republicans in the Senate and still insists there will be no tax hikes for billionaires. John Boehner is still the Speaker of the House and he still says the deficit has to be cut by cutting spending, not by increasing revenue.

The Republicans still control the House and slightly less than half of the country voted for Mitt Romney.

What is joyful is the knowledge there really was a silent majority this time--and it was a liberal, thoughtful majority, not fooled by the prevaricating Republican money machine of super PACs. 

We can hope for a more resolute, less accommodating President, one who has learned from this campaign, and from the first debate: you get nowhere by politeness in Washington. You have to go on the attack. You have to demonize, diminish and throttle McConnell and Boehner, by name and personally, if you want to move forward.  

Mr. Obama has won the election. He now needs to lead.

The First Debate: Maybe A Good Thing

Mad Dog luxuriates in the afterglow of an election rightly won, and well fought.

And one of the many good things to come out of it, Mad Dog dearly hopes is a new, more combative President Obama. 

Many's the time Mad Dog, being a froth at the mouth type himself, howled at the timidity of Mr. Obama when faced with intransigence from Mr. McConnell and Mr. Boehner.  No, we will not raise taxes on the rich.  Oh, okay, well, if you don't like that, maybe we could just let the tax cuts we have expire and then we won't have to call it a tax hike. Would that be all right, Mr. McConnell?  Would that offend you, Mr. Boehner?

Hopefully, Mr. Obama heard from enough of his supporters, after the first debate to drive that point home, not just for the next two debates, when he finally, came out swinging and landed combinations, and showed no fear of appearing like an angry Black man.  

"Well, Mr. Romney, yes we do have fewer ships on the water now, but we also have fewer horses and bayonets because we've got these things called aircraft carriers and  these ships that go under the water."

Mr. President, if you feel the need, come up here to New Hampshire and Mad Dog will give you growling lessons.

Obama Wins: Reaction from the Right

Mad Dog has just returned from a holiday victory tour through New York City and Washington, DC. 
What delights Democrats is, beyond genuinely liking Obama, watching those odious sleaze ball Republicans trying to spin this election.

Karl Rove stayed in form by looking at what the Republicans are most guilty of and attributing that to Democrats: Thus, he says, Democrats won by suppressing the vote,  which is to say, Democrats thwarted the will of the American people, who really loved and preferred Mr. Romney, but Democrats would not allow these real Americans to have what they wanted. 

One thing you can say for Rove, he keeps the most important thing in his sights. Of course, it is Republicans who realize they cannot win if people are simply counted. As Lincoln, a Republican observed, "The Good Lord must have loved the common folk--he made so many of them."  To win, the Republicans have tried poll taxes, restrictions on voting times and days (Florida), reducing the number of polling machines in Democratic strongholds to lengthen lines and waiting times (as Republicans did in the Democratic strong holds in Northern Virginia), all the dirty tricks, to simply deny a voice to the underclass or to urban centers where Democrats live.

Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh got together and decided, actually, even they could not sell that to their audiences, not after that blond bimbo on Fox News asked Karl Rove if he had a different set of math rules than what everyone else uses, a set of rules which is forged by his own desires.  
So what the unholy trinity  is now saying is, yes the people have spoken, but it's the new demographics of our country, all those immigrants the Democrats let in, and you know so many of them wind up on welfare, and so the country has shifted from people with pride, who want to earn their way and work hard to a country comprised of people who don't want to work hard, who want the government to take care of them--Mitt Romney's 47%.  

That 47% remark "resonated" with the true believers of the Republican party. People like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, who work hard, don't you know? They look at people who want to be given hand outs, the welfare Queens who drive Cadillacs and live on welfare, while Ann and Rush and Sean and Glenn slave away in their TV studios eating brown bag lunches they made at home. 

It's more of the Tea Party, Republican, the undeserving poor vs the rich-who-earned-it. 

This is a very old story, of course. When the grimy peasants looked at Marie Antoinette and the king ride by in their sumptuous carriages and asked, "Why do they have so much and we have so little?" The reply was:  Because it is God's will.  God chose those rich to be rich and He wants you to be poor.

Ayn Rand had much the same answer: The Superman is gifted, driven, superior and will naturally rise to the top. 

Nowhere in any of what you hear from Sean, Rush, Ann or Glenn is there any room for a consideration of the details by which certain citizens among us are placed on third base, and given only fat pitches down the middle to hit when they come up to bat. 

So nowhere in the right wing world view are the Romney bank accounts in the Cayman Islands, the myriad of government provided tax breaks, outright grants and contracts which make whatever welfare remains look like pigeon droppings compared to the tsunami of government benefits given those in power, those in the money.

What we got here is trouble in River City, folks, because the good white folks who have, until now, controlled the game, reworked the rules of the game, fixed the game so they would be sure to win, they can't control it any more, at least not this time around. 

Oh, Happy Day!

Mad Dog has spent days preparing for the worst, a vile outcome with dishonesty enshrined.

But America turned out to be better, smarter than that.

At least on one day.

Feels good to be an American tonight.

Goodnight Maud.  Goodnight Mr. President.  Goodnight Patty McKenzie and all those who sailed with you.  Goodnight moon.

Early Voting, New Hampshire Style

Last week, in an attempt at head clearing, Mad Dog walked through the White Mountains. Happened to walk through Hart's Location, without knowing it. This morning, the good folks of Hart's location cast 23 of 33 votes for President Obama. It's rival for midnight, first- in-the-nation voting, Dixville Notch, cast 5 votes for Mr. Obama and 5 for Mitt Romney.   

So the process here has begun.  

Many have commented that the magic is gone for Mr. Obama. That fresh, dewy thing we called "Hope" has withered on the bloom. 

Mad Dog answers: Of course. 

Getting-to-know-you is always a process of disillusionment. Embodied in that word is the word, "illusion." This is why, in every relationship, there is disappointment. You find out things about your new friend which you do not like. There are the things which attracted you in the first place, but then there are the other things.

And if the connection persists over time, everyone changes. But does the fact you are no longer a cute puppy  mean you ought no longer be valued?  Do we give away our old dogs, when their black noses turn pink, when gray muzzles appear?

Mad dog heard a lecture from a wonderful Harvard researcher on the topic of female libido.  When libido wanes in men, it's usually tied to falling levels of testosterone. Replace testosterone, and men are randy again.  But in women, no such hormone drives sexual interest and attraction. Her Harvard team investigated all the candidate hormones, and combinations of hormones--estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol, growth hormone--and none of them, nor any combination, seemed to restore libido in women. "In fact," the researcher said, "The only thing which predictably restored libido in the women who visited our clinic was...a new partner."

Today, Americans will decide whether to toss away yesterday's Hope and Change and to latch on to a new partner.  The triumph of hope over experience, as Oscar Wilde described the man who, once divorced, remarries.

In the end, we see the Heartbreak Kid, having just married his blond, blue eyed fantasy object. He is  sitting at a table at his wedding reception,  looking across the room at  his new wife.  And he is already withdrawing from her.  And we see the dawning of his realization:  the problem with his new choice, as with his former wife,  does not reside in either one of them, but in himself.

This Too, Shall Pass

 When Lincoln reflected on the state of the nation in 1859, the bloody internecine warfare in Kansas and Nebraska over slavery, the outbreaks of violence in the chambers of Congress itself, he said,  "This to shall pass." and he added, "How consoling in our depths of affliction." Of course, there were more travails to come. But he was right: Eventually, the nation rode out the dark times.

Should Romney and the Republicans prevail tomorrow, despite our best efforts to deny them, we can remember this.

There have been some odious Republican Presidents, and some odious Republican presidencies, but even in them, some good things happened.  As sleazy as Warren G. Harding was, he was one of the first presidents in the 20th century to speak out, at least mildly, for improving the lot and rights of African Americans. Nixon tried to institute extensions of health care coverage. 

We cannot know what Romney will do--which is a very good reason to vote against him. He simply tells each audience whatever he thinks they want to hear.  He is a man for whom truth is always mutable,  and he can convince himself the only thing that really matters in this world is what happens to him. In this, he is a classic sociopath, without any real capacity for genuine sympathy or connection with other people.  In that sense, Gail Collins got it right when she encapsulated her concept of Romney the man, as the guy to lashed his dog to the top of the car--it worked for Mr. Romney, if not for the dog.

He has played people for fools his whole life, and made a fortune doing it. We'll see if he can play enough people for fools tomorrow.