By Bob Boldt

Share Link:

It may be that the only good thing to come out of the Gulf Oil Spill will be to put the final nail in the coffin of Obama’s shot at a second term as president.

The President’s perceived helplessness in dealing with the greatest ecological disaster in US history is only the smallest part of the responsibility he faces.

In an essay by Tim Dickenson in the upcoming issue of The Rolling stone entitled, The Spill, The Scandal and the President, the blame is laid at the feet of the regulatory agencies who were corrupt, negligent and unconcerned about the conditions that made this (soon to be global) calamity not a matter of if  but when. 

“It's tempting to believe that the Gulf spill, like so many disasters inherited by Obama, was the fault of the Texas oilman who preceded him in office. But, though George W. Bush paved the way for the catastrophe, it was Obama who gave BP the green light to drill. ‘Bush owns eight years of the mess,’ says Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican from California. ‘But after more than a year on the job, Salazar owns it too.’ ”  --Tim Dickenson, The Spill, The Scandal and the President.

This gets to the most damning aspect of the Obama presidency—the fact that he has left so many past Bush policies from torture to murder of US citizens to the prosecutions of Bush’s two wars of choice to corrupt and softball regulations that made the Massey mine murders and the unstoppable geyser in the Golf inevitable. 

This is not the president I and every Democrat to the left of Harry Reed voted for. It is doubtful if, short of some unlikely, magical apotheosis, Obama will be able to carry any voter on the left in 2012.  He will certainly make no dent in what is becoming a more and more entrenched, monolithic, popular Republican right.  The result will be that the Democrats will be left with a terminally disliked candidate to reelect for a second term. 

I still argue these points with many of my ex-fellow Obama supporters.  They just don’t seem to get it that they have been sold out at every level by a sweet talking phony.  I would rather have Bush back.  At least everyone knew where he stood.  No hypocrisy there.  The worst case scenario that I fear is that the Democrats will remain blind to Obama’s un-electability and go to the polls with a candidate that almost any Republican can beat—given their proven successful strategies of single minded tenaciousness, lies and vote fraud.

“But Bush couldn’t have spent more than ten minutes in a dirty trailer in Arkansas before signaling for the helicopter. The guy was just too used to being around rich people, nice houses, cigarette boats full of sheiks and oil executives, etc. Sarah Palin on the other hand really is the kind of person who you can picture eating egg salad off a ping-pong table. That and her utterly genuine stupidity and meanness can take her a long way — all by themselves, I think these things can win the White House for her — and it seems like she senses this on an animal/reptilian level. Hence the renewed emphasis on jacking off her audiences of late.”  –Matt Tiabbi

I feel a bit of a hypocrite myself for even pretending to give a shit about the fate of the Democratic Party, because of my revulsion for national politics and my vow never to vote again—at least not for any President or member of the US Congress.  In spite of my bias, I would recommend that, if the Democrats want to have a chance of keeping the White House in the next term, they jettison Obama as ceremoniously and as quietly as possible.  It could be as stealthily a move as sending Joe on vacation and grooming a competent, charismatic Vice President who could step in when Obama decides (like LBJ did in ’68) not to seek a second term.
 
Why?  We are looking at a nearly certainly devastating choice for president by the Republicans—Sarah or perhaps someone even crazier. I predict that given a choice between Sarah and Barack, the Right will vote solidly for the Republican, the middle will, in a best case scenario, split and the Left will, like me, stay home in droves.  That and a little dishonest Bush-style vote fraud could give the loony lady a significant majority of the Electoral College vote.

It may be that the only good thing to come out of the Gulf Oil Spill will be to put the final nail in the coffin of Obama’s second term as president and awaken the Democrats to his un-electability in ’12.

I’m sorry to have to say this, but not even Sarah Palin could get me or my progressive left buddies out to the polls next time to vote for Obama.