There is an old saying that a falling star should be observed from a high promontory so as to better take in the glory of the flame-out. But a foxhole is safer.
Or as Bill Clinton learned, “Duck!”. Take all means necessary to avoid flying pots, pans, lamps, and scissors.
Many of the questions asked about who the true Barack Obama really is will be answered in the next 14 days.
Now, I’m going out on a limb here by saying it’s becoming ever more likely that Obama will lose the election on November 6th, and realization of that fact is slowing creeping over him as I write this. How is he handling this internally? How will he handle this with his closest associates? His handlers? The people he sees every day at the office? The people, for four years, he never acknowledged that they even existed? The domestic staff in the presidential quarters?
How will Obama behave when he knows those closest to him see him in this new, broken, more human light? Especially if America proclaims, as it well might, that he is a loser by a broad margin, say 53-46?
How will he deal with all this new knowledge when he looks at himself in the mirror?
Imagine all the disagreeable things from now through January 20 he will have to confront, all for the first time.
Will he attend the Inauguration? Will he pretend a smile or goodwill to the victor? What about the transition teams? Will they be a help or a hindrance? Will Obama meet with Romney privately, or hand all that off to Plouffe or Axelrod? Will he and his staff make the transition smooth, or like the Clinton children (who didn’t even lose) trash the building, destroy files, steal things , even taking bowel movements in desk drawers just to prove what classless rubes they really were?
By all rights, this is all brand new territory for Barack Obama, just as it was old territory for Richard Nixon.
Consider, since Barack was twelve, possibly much earlier, he reputedly has never heard a discouraging word about his abilities, his mental acumen (or big ears). From the earliest days he received high praise daily for deeds and accomplishments which, if measured against the past four years, were C-level ordinary at best.
Since all his past school performance through Hawaii to California to New York to Harvard have been buried away, we have to surmise Obama is at least aware that there is much buried away that is revealing of an Obama the world has never been allowed to see. So in this we have to assume he is a pretender with malice aforethought, i.e., a cunning liar, not some mere overly-coddled prima donna. I personally doubt he is so self-loving and delusional as to believe he really is as good (or eloquent) as his reputation seems to say, or that he is a messiah, causing the world to change merely by his beatification in it.
But then I remember that night in 2008 when he met the masses after being declared the victor and what I saw should worry anyone.
So I could be wrong. Power, especially the power of adoring throngs, is a more powerful opiate that all that stuff he poured into his body in his college years. I never forget the historical character and magician, Simon Magus, in Thomas B Costain’s The Silver Chalice, who attempted to compete with the feats of Jesus the Nazarene, and as Jonathan Winters once said, “got to believing his own stuff”, and climbed to the top of a tall building then leapt off, attempting to prove to the crowd below he could really fly.
We have here a man-child here of unknown self-awareness, a kid who never heard “No,” never was punished, was coddled, doted on and adored from childhood, and praised into adulthood for work that was probably quite average, and now we must try to estimate how he will react to trauma of the first magnitude.
Confronting the ultimate spanking, the ultimate rejection, can take on many very personal aspects, possibly unknown even to his closest associates, for these are all new territories for Barack Obama. And the possibility of various medications throughout his presidency (read Lady Penguin’s excellent series on Obama in this regard), possibly producing an almost somnolent posture in Debate #1, and opposite wide eyed frenzy in Debate #2, and a sullen meanness in Debate #3, only multiplies the possibilities.
And Obama will have two months to wreck if he loses. But will be wait? Can he wait? Can he be controlled, even by his “handlers,” as the reality of rejection washes over him?
Policy-wise, many of Obama’s windows have closed. He can still approve the Keystone Pipeline, forgive student loans, even forgive hundreds of thousands of mortgages, but none will have any political effect. Not this late. He can write all sorts of new executive orders, but they will last no more than 70 days and be bound up in Court, never really taking effect. (Unlike Bush, I hope Romney targets and fires every single Obama appointee and GS-hire above the grade of GS-10.)
Mostly, he can make the new Romney administration’s debt and budget problems much worse – out of spite. First, there’s sequestration, which is the law, and will take effect on Jan 1, and while Obama says he had nothing to do with it becoming law, it was his office that sent it over to Harry Reid, (who passed it off to the ever-obliging Mitch McConnell…more on this after the election), and he has promised to veto any bill fixing it that did not include tax hikes he’s requested. Let’s hope, with Romney securely a victor, and a new Senate and House to seated, the GOP House calls Obama’s bluff….again, more on this after the election.)
And then, there is the end of the Bush tax cuts on Jan 1, which will be part of any congressional bill sent to the lame duck Obama to sign. (This will be show time for the real men of Congress, for that tax situation will exist for less than 30 days, if Obama vetoes it.)
But maybe Obama can be convinced (possibly with the assistance of the standard menu of stimulants) that America is a nation of rubes and way too beneath his skills. Maybe he can be convinced to simply walk away, shaking the dust of this backward country off his shoes, so he can move onto even higher callings, such as the Secretariat of the United Nations…where interestingly, the United States has a veto, I think. I think this will be the preferred exit strategy for all those around Obama who consider him to be their personal rice bowl.
(My dream is that Obama will become UN Secretary, but then the US will kick the UN out of New York, and only continue financial support if they name Lesotho the new UN address. Think of the shovel ready jobs. But I digress.)
While I love to see really “worthy” stars go down in flames, I turn mostly to the realm of rock music to find most of the worthier candidates. With the power of an Obama, I still have a little tremor of fear and anxiety.
So watching his star fall should be from a safe distance, with all the tools baseball catchers use, and maybe an old mattress to boot, for added security from flying debris.
Just saying.
