Somebody in my household -- I don't know who; nobody will 'fess up -- subscribes to the New Yorker. The latest had -- besides a very amusing cover, which it took me a minute to understand -- a mighty thumbsucker on the prospects for an Obama second term:
Obama has an ambitious second-term agenda, which, at least in broad ways, his campaign is beginning to highlight. The President has said that the most important policy he could address in his second term is climate change....I laughed so hard at this I nearly fell off my chair. Climate change! Oh please! Is there a three-year-old anywhere in this broad land prepared to swallow such a bare-faced whopper? This narrowly myopic, cynical, on-the-make Chicago machine politician wants us to believe he wants to do something about climate change? Jeez, where do you start?
Let's begin with the obvious fact that there is a clear elite consensus to do nothing whatsoever about climate change, apart from a little greenwashing of exposed flesh from the neck up; below the collar, it's the same old reeking noisome insalubrious territory -- cheap oil, endless driving, and the BTUphagous suburban house. But we are to think that sometime next November, once safely re-elected, Obie is going to fall off his horse on the road to Damascus -- the literal Joe Biden road to Damascus, I fear -- and decide to defy elite opinion? If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.
Presumably this little global-warming lullaby is directed at the Dembot base. Now normally the base only needs cultivating during primary season, and since Obie didn't face any primaries, he was in a fine position to tell the base to go fuck its collective self -- which he more or less did, in fact.
Now that the election is starting to look a lot less like a shoo-in, however, the question of turnout looms large. Obie's eleventh-hour conversion to gay marriage -- without, of course, any concrete initiatives to accompany it -- and these soft cooing noises about climate change look very much like ways to get a few more dependable Democratic voters hobbling out in their walkers.
What's next? Free Lexapro? Don't be discouraged!
Comments (6)
One president, heroically determined to a) get serious and b) blame congress, does nothing to damage the consensus, and a high profile failure would strengthen it.
I could see Obie, while presiding over another slow sellout to whoever is buying, wanting something noble to cast his imperious gaze towards.
And if he did accidentally get something done, he'd run it like Health Care, and let the oil companies write the legislation.
A few more rounds of this and the Dems will be Irish, loving most the fight they lose.
Posted by Free Willy | June 12, 2012 4:50 AM
Posted on June 12, 2012 04:50
Green grows the laurel and soft falls the dew,
Sad was my heart when I parted from you,
And in our next meeting I hope you'll prove true,
Never change the green laurel for the red white and blue...
Posted by IOZ | June 12, 2012 9:24 AM
Posted on June 12, 2012 09:24
Less of a shoe in? Since when? Romney would have had troble making it onto my high school debate team.
Did Obama get caught watching soccer or something?
Posted by leontrollski | June 12, 2012 10:27 AM
Posted on June 12, 2012 10:27
I only know what the New Yorker tells me.
Posted by MJS | June 12, 2012 10:57 AM
Posted on June 12, 2012 10:57
a shew in again , .. of the debating , my mother was reading aloud to me from her vanity fair this past weekend , she got as far as where oba's girlfriend wins in their foot race ..before we had to move on again, did anyone else see that ..
Posted by anne shew | June 12, 2012 12:31 PM
Posted on June 12, 2012 12:31
@IOZ: Awww. I'm really touched.
Posted by MJS | June 13, 2012 10:49 AM
Posted on June 13, 2012 10:49