Obama, a coward? Surely not…but then again…

We are witnessing the birth of a new unstable country. The Democratic Republic of America.

 

The word democratic in a country’s name never bodes well. It’s like you’re trying too hard to be “democratic”, and more often than not, it just means that you’re not. Move over DRC (Congo), here comes the DRA, the world’s most powerful banana republic. And, Reverend Al Sharpton, before you even so much as start thinking about getting offended, just remember that Bananas don’t just grow in Africa, but in many other places. So this has nothing to do with Obama…

 

 

 

Well not directly, but it has to do with his party. The US of A will become the DR of A because it will be under the Democratic Party that everything American capitalism stood for, from confidence, to capitalism, to meritocracy is being slowly destroyed. Never has the word Democratic meant so little…

 

In another big screw-up, the administration has totally mishandled the AIG situation. To stop the bonuses, or not to stops the bonuses, that is the question? It seems that the person chosen by Obama to take decisions on the economy is just as indecisive as his boss. Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary and tax laggard, is in trouble. He’s in more trouble than the assets in his flop of a Troubled Asset Relief Programme or TARP. He’s scared. He pushed Obama’s USD787bn stimulus package, but Obama now says another USD750bn may be needed to stabilise the financial market. But the market is not really very impressed with the results of the first 700bn spent. To many it looks like throwing good money after bad.

This is because Obama and his administration are, put simply, political cowards. Spineless. Simply put, they either do not know what to do, or, worse, they know what to do but are too scared to do it for fear of ending the love-in they’ve enjoyed so far. That is why Timothy Geithner has abandoned plans for a BAD BANK that gets troubled assets of the balance sheets of troubled banks so that they can start lending. He was scared of the political cost to his boss. No to BAD BANK has meant YES to BAD ECONOMY. A damaged Obama and Geithner now will have to eat humble pie and give the US the Bad Bank it deserves in the Badest way possible. The Bad Bank fiasco is a sign of a Bad President. I think we can lay off the word BAD for a bit now, don’t you think?

 

 

 

Meanwhile, the US economy main financial institutions are suffering more and more from the uncertainty. The market has been doing nothing but fall since Obama stepped into the White House. So much for the man touted as the Messiah. The true Messiah expelled the money changers from the temple. The Obama version (the fake one) is expelling money from the economy. GREAT!

 

So the big financial goliaths of America are beginning to look like the kind of behemoths that we used to call mammoths, till they went extinct. This is because of the uncertainty in the market which the Democratic Messiah and his “apostles” have failed to dispel. So recently, we have Senate Banking Committee Christopher Dodd (a Democrat, btw), talking about nationalizing the entire banking system for “a short time”. I’ve never heard of the idea of a “short nationalisation” before…I’ve heard of “The Long Kiss Good Bye”, which wasn’t bad movie, but in this case, it is exactly what he’s suggesting to the financial system as we know it. BYE BYE…. And for a long time. Yes, nationalisations are like extinctions. They are never “Short” because what is born from them is never what was put to long sleep in the first place… But that’s OK, because something will be reborn and it will be hopefully healthier, if this is the only choice available. I’m no fan of nationalisation, but if nationalisation is the way out, then so be it, but do it quick. Tough love, people, tough love is what is needed. Obama was elected on a ticket of change, and he already acts like a jaded cynical politico too scared of paying the political price of economically vital decisions. However the longer you drag your feet before doing the inevitable, the worse its impact will be. If America ends up having to nationalise entire parts of the economy late, then we will have the kind of nationalisation that is the stuff of nightmares. Messy, haphazard, piecemeal and inefficient. The value-destroying kind of nationalisation. Is there any other kind, I wonder?

 

 

 

 

This is not the only sign of cowardly leadership. Take the nomination process. Why do you think so many of Obama’s candidates failed to get Senate confirmation. Two reasons:

 

1. The first is because most are mediocre or just simply tax dodgers
2. The second, is because Obama is obsessed with how history will judge him, so installed the most ridiculously unrealistic vetting procedure which only permits saints to get in. Mother Theresa would have failed for account of having bad breath in her late years and I doubt even Ghandi would have passed it because of the sexual harassment lawsuits he would have triggered due to his partial nudity shocking female interns. Obama is trying to make it sound that the vetting must be tough to uphold high ethical values. Yeah, right, and the Pope is African…No, this is all about Obama. All this is because Obama cares more about his image than his country. A man so in love with rhetoric and nice words that he is willing to play the fiddle while his country burns. He so often likes to compare himself to Roosevelt and Lincoln. I suggest he compares himself with Nero, for a change.

 

May be it is inevitable, may be it is essential to nationalize everything after Obama and the Congress screwed up the stimulus plan. But if it does take place, I expect Obama will do it in style. He might as well also install state control of all industry (well with Obama as Car Czar, Detroit is already a mini-Soviet in the making), and land collectivisation too.

 

With no cars being made in the US anymore, the Amish should be put in charge of Detroit. Wagons which go clipetty-clop, clippetty-clop may be slow, but they are cheaper and American through and through (unless Toyota invests in Amish transportation too). With everything belonging to the state, Americans will have time on their hands as everybody will earn the same money and with no incentive many will just stay at home. Obesity could become a greater problem with a sedentary population so many will be forced to work the land to lose fat.

 

Seriously, I don’t see a nationalisation being short, so I think America would soften the blow by picking a new name for their country to reflect its new status as banana republic.

 

 

 

 

The Democratic Republic of America. The word Democratic will be just meaningful here as it is with the Congo. It is more prescriptive, than descriptive… It is an ambition and destination rather than a reality. It is also dysfunctional. The DR of A. That’s what it will be called and the Democrats can take all the credit. Obama got into office by saying “Yes We Can…”, and now you know why he never finished the sentence. “Yes We Can Screw You” doesn’t get you into office.

 

 

A word of hope though, to end this article on a positive note. Only one year ago, Kenya, that post-colonial haven for all those who would like to believe that the dark days of Africa (no pun intended) are firmly behind it, was being torn apart by tribal rivalries.

It was the sort of behaviour we would have expected from Sudan, or Somalia, or your run-of-the-mill African basket case. Kenya was a cool place, it was the playground of the rich and famous, and people like Silvio Briatore no less, had made it their home. (His clothing brand, Billionnaire, is really nothing more than a way of introducing African sartorial chic cool Mobutu-style to an essentially white Caucasian well-heeled market).

 

Kenya was becoming a basket case in traditional African style. And yet, one year later, it had managed to place a man at the top of the American administration. What an amazing feat indeed! I would therefore like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Kenyan and American people on their union. As a sign of the growing bonds between the two nations, their economies are fast converging! I am not sure how any of this will help the American people, but at least the Kenyans are happy.

 

 

 

© Sameh El-Shahat 2009