The Audacity of Obama

Whoever said "wonders never cease" wasn't just whistlin' Dixie.
I never in my darkest imaginings could have conceived of a worst president than George W. Bush.
But, whatdya know??
He's come back disguised as a tall, eloquent, articulate and charismatic black man named Barack Obama. And he's come in a way as devious, disgusting and dishonorable as Bush did in 2000 and 2004---giving the devil his due, at least Bush wasn't selling peace, hope and change. Everybody knew what Bush was about. It was a case of either you liked it or you didn't.
But Obama has set new records in cynical hypocrisy.

With the help of Madison Avenue, he packaged himself as the sorely needed and desperately awaited breath of fresh air after eight years of Bush's criminality, ineptitude and buffoonery.
While taking money from big business with one hand, he was also getting money and support from the "little people", while regaling them with his evangelical sermons on 'A new day-a-comin''
And man, was he good at it---he even got a sawbuck out of yours truly---and in my 61 years on earth I never felt strong enough about any of the ten presidential candidates I've voted for in my life to send them anything more than a penny, a three-cent stamp and some old lint.
I admit it---this master slick con man hooked me in---he bamboozled me, snookered me--- I, who have been a progressive since the 60's and thought I knew all there was to know and seen all there was to be seen of this burlesque that we call politics in America.
Today he made a speech after receiving his Nobel Peace Prize that should motivate the estate of George Orwell to sue Obama for plagiarizing the author's "War is Peace" idea from "1984."
Aside from his crimes of stealing billions of dollars from the people and giving it to corrupt businessmen; aside from escalating a pointless war in Afghanistan through lies and deceptions every bit as egregious as those of Bush regarding Iraq; aside from ordering Drone attacks in that country and Pakistan that have killed an estimated 700 civilians; aside from his refusal to uncompromisingly champion a health plan that would benefit anyone but his super-rich pals; aside from not punishing the crimes of his predecessor's administration; aside from continuing to promote to the world the American gift of torture; aside from refusing to come to the aid of a democratically-elected government in Honduras ousted by a military coup---indeed, even extending recognition to the usurping despoilers of democracy there.

As ignominious as all of these, his cynical appeal and exploitation of people to whom he sold hope and change, and galvanized to become active in the political process---many, many of whom had never participated before---to now leave these people with a deep disillusionment that will no doubt have them once again retreat into cynicism and apathy---perhaps stands as his most grievous wound to this nation and its hope for a better future.