It doesn’t surprise me that Rush Limbaugh says he wants President Obama to fail, or, more precisely, “I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation.” Limbaugh is self-absorbed, and makes money by being provocative. Unlike our elected leaders, he does not need to think about the greater good of our country’s prosperity. He is interested in his own prosperity. And good enough for him. That is the capitalist way. The American Way.
It also doesn’t surprise me that members of the Republican Party feel stuck between not wanting to offend Limbaugh and his followers and not wanting to sound like they bear our new president ill will in seeing his efforts fail. Which do you support – a bully who can hurt you if you stand up to him, or the people who elected you?
What does surprise me is that no one is defining what failure means. Has anyone asked if “wanting Obama to fail” means 10% unemployment? 15%?
Does failure mean more foreclosures? How about a Dow at 5000?
I wonder if Obama failing means another trillion or so dollars paid to banks. Or is it buying auto companies, Or letting them go bankrupt and adding even more to the unemployed?
I wonder if those who listen to and agree with Rush Limbaugh think this kind of failure is ok, if it proves that conservative ideology is superior to other views.
Of course, I am one of the lucky ones who still has a job, so I can afford to think about these things.
Those who are not so lucky may also wonder: With all the crises we face as a country, why would you want any president to fail?
Not a business was stirring, not large corporationsTheir requests had been sent to Congress with care
In hopes that Pelosi, or Reid, would give them a share The CEO’s had their hopes set on the Fed
And visions of bonuses danced in their headsI was at home, full of hope and wonder
At the thought of big companies not going under.
Then out on the street there arose such a clatter,I looked out the window to see what was the matter.On the street was a hay wagon, making its way
Not the usual wagon, filled with bales of hay.
No, this one, (and I know this sounds funny),
Was filled instead with bales full of money.
With a very old driver, so morose and deadpan,
That I knew in a flash it was Alan Greenspan
There was a small note, stuck to each cash bale
With the name of a company too big to fail.
His wagon was drawn by eight sleek mega-bucksAnd he shouted their names as he whipped their buttocks “Now Paulson, Bernanke, Now Rubin and Volcker
On Krugman, On Samuelson, Kudlow and Cramer,To the next company’s holiday retreat! So I can deposit a bale at the revelers’ feet"And so the wagon continued on,Until the last bail-out bales were gone.Greenspan then to his team gave a whistle,And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.And as they flew way up into the sky,
Alan cried, “I must see Ayn Rand once more ‘fore I die.”And I heard him exclaim as they flew into the night"Happy bail-outs to all, and to none, oversight!"
I believe Barack would be well advised to turn the tables and play the game a while. Here are just a few of the words I’d begin to associate with McCain – angry, desperate, outdated, inflexible, old, partisan.
A good start would be to include the following phrase so that it makes the evening news:
“…every American should be deeply concerned by John McCain’s willingness to participate in angry partisan rhetoric, even when the facts clearly do not support points he is so desperately trying to make.”
