RSS Feed MenuHow’s this for a movie angle on the news: Obama, Democrat House and Senate majorities, and the Liberalization of the Supreme Court = The Perfect Storm.
Here’s the movie: A crew of fishermen struggle to support themselves and their families on a catch that gets progressively smaller. Their charismatic captain persuades the crew that everything will change, and he will deliver them a huge catch. They give him carte blanche, and throwing all caution to the wind he takes their boat far beyond where they have fished before. They catch loads of fish and revel like men who have just had a Federal Government bailout. Blinded by hope and greed, the crew does not realize just how perilous a position their captain has led them to. A massive storm gathers and a huge wave (debt payments, cap-and-trade vouchers, nationalized health care, Wall Street bailouts, etc.) hits their ship of state and the boat and the crew are wiped out. Despite a rescue effort, only a few pieces of wreckage are ever recovered.
Here’s the news: “Obama reveling in U.S. power unseen in decades”
Originally posted at STORMBRINGER.
kroner // May 3, 2009 at 10:21 pm
they are killed by a wave of health care?
VA Shepherd // May 4, 2009 at 1:44 am
Kroner must believe that government-run health care will turn a profit unlike every other government run concern.
krove // May 4, 2009 at 5:38 am
Impossible story because the boat had already been driven onto the rocks by the previous captain.
VA Shepherd // May 4, 2009 at 6:01 am
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet
ottovbvs // May 4, 2009 at 7:11 am
Linnane seems to live in a world of his own invention so movies seem a perfectly reasonable vehicle for his predictions. Nothing to do with reality of course.
sinz54 // May 4, 2009 at 9:24 am
It’s amazing how so many have totally forgotten about Lyndon B. Johnson. They pushed him out of their minds because of Vietnam.But in 1964, LBJ had won a bigger landslide victory and a bigger mandate than Obama. His coattails gave the Dems bigger majorities in both House and Senate than they have now. And of course, in 1964, there was also the ultra-liberal Earl Warren Supreme Court, which did just about everything that liberals wanted, without any deviation.Yet, just 4 years later, Richard Nixon won the Presidency. And LBJ is an unperson, as far as Dems are concerned.No one can predict the future.If Obama succeeds, then great! He will be known as a transformational President.But if he fails, since the liberals now own all three branches of government, they won’t be able to scapegoat conservatives this time. It will be a failure of liberalism itself, not just Obama. And the electorate will deal with that accordingly.The stakes are very high.
ottovbvs // May 4, 2009 at 1:33 pm
sinz54 9:24 AM”It’s amazing how so many have totally forgotten about Lyndon B. Johnson. They pushed him out of their minds because of Vietnam.”….He’s not out of my mind. After FDR and Truman he’s probably the president whose left the biggest mark on the country in the last hundred years. Nixon won the presidency because the Vietnam war was a disaster that was tearing the country apart. Remember the draft existed. If the draft existed now Iraq would have been over long ago. No war and LBJ would have run again and been elected. For Obama to fail he’s got to fu as majestically as LBJ but I see no signs he’s that dumb. On the contrary as a very conservative but realistic buddy of mine was saying this morning…he shows every sign of being one of the top ten presidents in US history.
sinz54 // May 5, 2009 at 7:44 am
ottovbvs: You could have seen the same optimistic predictions about LBJ in May 1965. In May 1965, Vietnam looked like an annoying, but manageable, problem. And there was a lot of excitement about LBJ’s Great Society program.Vietnam didn’t begin to “tear the country apart” till 1967.In May 1977, at the start of the Carter administration, no one would have predicted that Reagan would win a landslide 3 years later.Anyone who makes long-term predictions about a fledgling administration is a fool.Let’s wait till around 2011 before we pass judgment on the Obama administration. It’s very early in the game.
sinz54 // May 5, 2009 at 7:46 am
ottovbvs: It’s interesting how liberals like you have come full circle about the military draft.In the late 1960s, liberals were agitating to end the draft. They believed that the draft gave the President a large pool of manpower to start wars like Vietnam; few Americans would volunteer to fight in Vietnam. So they considered an all-volunteer army as a force for peace.Now they’ve turned completely around, and think that a draft is the way to end wars, because it will provoke antiwar dissent. The fact that they are actually nostalgic for the riots and bitterly anti-American sentiment from our young that tore America apart in the 1960s, disgusts me.Sorry, liberals. Abbie Hoffman is still dead.
mlindroo // May 6, 2009 at 2:35 am
I mostly agree with the argument that Sinz54 is making, i.e. that Obama’s political fate will be determined by the success of his domestic and foreign policy. This is what killed G.W.Bush and LBJ after all. However, one needs to remember that those two presidents paid such a steep political price for Iraq & Vietnam because their Administrations made the voluntary decision to start the wars in the first place! So they were uniquely responsible for having created the mess. Obama will still suffer politically if there are setbacks in the so-called war on terror”, but he does inherit many problems created by the previous Administration.Regarding conscription, my understanding is virtually no populous Western country relies on it anymore. The long term trend seems to be a stronger emphasis on outsourcing / private contractors and unmanned aerial / combat vehicles and robotics. It seems an important political driver indeed is that it will reduce the political cost of attacking and occupying a perceived foreign threat such as Iraq.MARCU$