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Edited on Tue Apr-26-11 06:27 PM by Cal33
It's just quite possible that from now on Obama and his crew will not only be talking tougher, but also acting it -- for real. My reasons are as follows:
Since Obama declared his running for a second term, he simply has to follow his words with deeds. There is no other choice for him. He knows that a lot of Liberals are mad at and have become alienated from him (I still partly am), and that he has to win them back. F.i., the statement he made that the oil companies are going to be investigated about the recent big jump in oil prices, and Atty. Gen. Holder was going to do it. I believe the chances are that this investigation is going to be a genuine and thorough one, because Obama wants to win his second term -- if for no other reason.
Obama will be working hard, I think, to win back the good graces of the Liberals whom he had mosly ignored the past 2+ years. And he has another 18 months to go before Nov. 2012. That's a long way off! He knows he has to both talk and act tougher to win. Whatever he says he'll do, he will do, if it can be done in a year and a half. He'll simply have to carry out what he says, if he hopes to win the election. Promises about the more distant future, of course, will have to wait until the time comes.
So, the chances of his really changing and becoming tougher seem to be pretty good -- if for no other reason than this would be the best way, if not the only way, for him to win a second term. And once he does win his second term, he has only 4 years of political life left. If he continues to do poorly, there will be no other chances for him to make good again -- ever. He's finished! On the other hand, if he really changes from now on, he has a lot to gain.
I'm betting on his wanting to be considered by history as one of the great American presidents. He has enough time (almost 6 years counting from now) to change and really succeed at it. He could always say that for 2+ years he had tried his best to bring the two major parties together in a bi-partisanship, even bending over backwards to do so, but the Repubs. would have none of it. So there was no other way for the Dems. to go but go it alone, and fighting them.
For all I know, this might even have been a part of his original planning all along. (I'm guessing, of course, but who can say for sure? Only he knows). I also tend to forget what an awful job Obama has in cleaning up after the 8-year mess of Bush's mismanagement. Only those who are working there can really appreciate how much it prevents them from working more effectively.
When he won the election in 2008, Obama had his plans of how to carry out what he intendeded to do as president. These how-to-carry-out methods depended not only on his own wishes. A lot also depended upon the already existing political circumstances in which he found himself, and which were NOT OF HIS OWN DOING and were changing all the time, but which, nevertheless, had to be dealt with. Can we appreciate how much adjusting and re-adjusting of his methods in carrying out his plan he had and has to make, then change and remake, over and over again? And the Neocons are there to make sure that he never succeeds in anything he wants to accomplish. That's their style.
I still haven't completely given up the hope that Obama has plans up his sleeve. One reason is, unlike Bush, he is a highly intelligent man. Maybe, according to the way he sees it, he has to look bad -- even look very bad first -- before he can overcome the mountains of difficulties, and then to triumph in the end, in spite of them all? We can only guess at his difficulties. But he has to deal with them, and he can only deal with them according to his own lights. I hope the above is true, but I realize that this might also represent wishful thinking on my part. There are people who think Obama might have plans for making big money after his presidency is over, and a good way is to pal up with the corporations. I think Obama is already financially well-off, even right now. His two best-seller books were written long before he became president. Like Clinton, he is an exceptionally good speaker, and also like Clinton, he is very popular abroad. He'll be invited to speak, both at home and abroad, at $250,000 a clip (or whatever the going-rate will be in the future). He already has two best-sellers under his belt, just think of the books he could be writing after his presidency! I personally think he doesn't even need the Repub. corporations to make big money. His financial future is already secured.
It's really quite possible that Obama's declaration of running for a second term could be the STARTING POINT OF HIS BIG CHANGE because, in his opinion, the right timing for it is now. I sure hope I'm right. It's the only sensible thing for him to do, if he wants to go down in history as one of the great American presidents. And he does have time enough to do it in, too. If he wins he'll have five-and-a-half years.
We can all be very alert and just look at what changes he'll be making between now and November, 2012 -- not just at one, but at all of them -- and then make up our minds.
I think that all is not lost. I believe there is good reason for hope. Just be alert and watch how things turn out -- beginning with the oil company investigation that is about to start any day. I can't believe that he would deliberately cook up this as a farce just to win votes. In fact, this would cause him to lose them. A G.W.Bush he is not!
Yes, my opinions waiver back and forth, a lot of it depending on the political winds of change. And it's happening to many of us. Who can know for sure? These are very interesting, but troubled and highly dangerous times.
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