Pondering Barack (a work in progress) Pt 2

I suspect a lot of folks confused Barack Obama with Martin Luther King, Jr.  There were times when Barack himself encouraged that perception especially at his inauguration.  At the time, ABC News reported:

To mark Martin Luther King Day, Obama released a statement linking King's "I Have a Dream" speech on the Washington Mall 45 years ago and his own ascension to the nation's top job, saying, "Tomorrow, we will come together as one people on the same mall where Dr. King's dream echoes still" (Jan 19, 2009).

We often hear the reminder that Barack never made any secret of his goal to shift the war to Afghanistan because of Pakistan.  I remember him talking about that when he was debating McCain.  And everybody knew Barack got boucoup campaign bucks from banksters.  Once he got elected, though, jubilation at the thought of seeing Bush and Cheney depart was so great that caution and healthy cynicism about politicians in general gave way to pervasive buoyancy.  Democrats love to think, "Happy Days are Here Again," and I am no exception.

Then that plane landed in the Hudson, and filled American hearts with the idea that the nation as a whole could be saved from disaster.  I myself was so optimistic about America at the time that I was inspired to link to a petition demanding George Bush and Dick Cheney be tried as War Criminals (Flight 1549 provides a Metaphor for America, Stonerdate 01.16.09).  I hadn't forgotten about Henry Kissinger, but sometimes a girl just wants to believe dreams can come true.

I still think dreams can come true for individuals.  Actually, I believe it for the whole world, too - I just think it's going to take generations and generations.  On Barack's inauguration day, however, the stage was set to encourage hopes and dreams, particularly Martin Luther King, Jr's dream since, as it happened (and I say that with all the emphasis Bokonon himself intended) it was Martin Luther King Day, and the mall in Washington DC was filled with a diverse crowd, tearfully cheering America's first African-American president as the embodiment of MLK's dream.

When Pete Seeger was singing "This Land is Your Land," in that goofy hat at Barack Obama's inauguration, I thought for one brief shining moment that We the People had elected a man of the people who would speak for us.



Then Barack appointed all his Goldman-Sachs buddies to manage our nation's economy.  Some people started howling that very moment, but I didn't really know who those guys were anyway.  I vaguely remembered them from Bill Clinton's days and no matter what anybody says, I love Bill Clinton.

The trouble is that I hadn't been paying attention to current events for years and years because I was focused on my own troubles - particularly divorcing Buzz Kill, the Summer Boyfriend Reality Show and the ongoing pleasure that is my son, Velvet aka Buster aka Bill - the budding Rainbow Warrior.  I had enough trouble in my life without bringing Dick Cheney and George Bush into the living room on the nightly news.

My mother had already told me that Bill Clinton was Republican Light.  I just didn't realize Bill Clinton was the best Republican we'd seen in decades - and I sure didn't suspect that damn Barack Obama was the first Black Republican elected to such a prominent position.  Now, of course, I suspect that Wall Street Bankers paid for Barack's graduate school as part of a brilliant strategy to divert America's attention from their own shenanigans with a Token Negro in the White House.

Which brings me to Tiger Woods . . .