Obama & Lincoln

I was thinking this morning about how Obama claimed to be such a devoted follower of Lincoln. And I was thinking of how for 18 months Obama has fumbled around in the presidency saying good things -- he was elected to bring "change" -- but delivering very little. He reminds me of Lincoln's generals. They talked a good fight, but they failed to take the army into the South and deal a deadly blow the to the rebellion. Obama has been unwilling to take on big interests, the lobbyists, big corporations, Wall Street, etc. He has advisors who know who crappy the economy is. He has fiddled while Rome burns. Just like McClellan in the Civil War, Obama has marched his proudly outfitted troops up and down but failed to engage the enemy. Obama preens as a leader who understands the electorate and what is needed. But he is timid like McClellan. He is unwilling to take his troops to war.

It is time for Obama to find his inner U. S. Grant and take on the ills that are strangling the US. The American people have suffered from a decade of no real wage increases. The rich got richer under Reagan-Bush-Clinton and they got phenomenally richer under Bush II. Meanwhile the economy sickened and it is now dying under the hand of the Great Recession. Obama has to find the heart of Grant and slug it out with the enemies that are strangling the US: the Republicans, big corporate interests, the war lobby, etc. Obama needs to turn the US toward a new direction that will see rewards flow down to the people who actually do the work in society. Obama needs to set up a safety net to protect the most vulnerable of the population during this terrible economic crisis.

Big changes are needed. Not the baby steps Obama has taken up to now. He needs to be like Grant and send the troops in and harden himself to the slaughter that war truly is. War is a meatgrinder that feeds off the flesh of the innocent. Only by great effort will the Reagan legacy be slayed like the dragon that Reagan's legacy truly is. Only when the sword of a fired-up politics has been shoved through the heart of Republican intransigence will there be any hope of a new dawn. I'm waiting for Obama to find his inner U. S. Grant.