Obama: A New Era or Business As Usual

I have goosebumps now watching Barack Obama walking onto the stage as the next President of the United States of America. He has won the election with a crushing electoral college victory. As I write, the man is presenting his victory speech. "Change," he says,"has come to America.""While we breath, we hope," he said. Oprah and Jesse Jackson are both crying.
There is no doubt that this is a historic
win for the junior senator from Illinois. And there were echoes of Martin Luther King in his acceptance speech: "We as a people will get there..." And like John F Kennedy, he exhorted his country to call up a "new spirit of service...."

He also addressed Africa, I believe, referring to "the forgotten corners of the world." He stands with us, he says. For perhaps the first time in a generation, we have a true idealist in the White House. This man has been presented with a mandate to not only change America, but the world. Will he rise to the occassion? Will he overcome the ingrained American system, reach over above its head to Africa? Will he or won't he?

President Barack Obama has the chance to use his mandate creatively in Africa. Because of the colour of his skin, he can be harder on the continent of Africa without having that interpreted in racial terms. I hope that this win means that there is no place for dictators in Africa in the new world. He can be tough on them in ways no other president could have done. That Obama is a Democrat, a party that is traditionally a friend of Africa, is also a big help.

A centrist, Obama is unlikely to introduce earth-shaking policies on Africa, but he will ensure that the foundations put in place by Clinton, the last great friend of Africa to occupy the White House, are reinforced. The Growth and Opportunity Act, a Clinton masterpiece, he should seek to overhaul so that Africa can also live this American fairytale by being presented with an even more level playing field.

I hold the hope that farming subsidies will disappear. I hold the hope that Africa will now be presented by this new administration with a new opportunity to access the markets of the world on a level playing field. I hold hope that the era for handouts to Africa is over and that there is a new era in which the nations that thrive are the ones that are willing to work to make something of themselves.

Barack Obama is not only America's son, but also the world's son, Africa's son. He has international exposure unequalled by any other president in the history of that country. Having grown up in part outside the States, with a heritage stretching to the dusty plains of Kenya, this Metrosexual man truly understands the place of America in the world.

The hope then, is not only America's but also the world's and especially Africa's. For a better shot at this, I hope President Obama appoints Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State.

Comments

  1. We congratulate President-elect Barak Obama for making history and for resuscitating the American dream....I however think that if he becomes hard on some of our disappointing African monarchies, they will simply dismiss him as Uncle Tom.

    My hope is that the example of his rise to office will be an inspiration to Africans, particularly Zimbabweans, that "Yes, we can" get our nation working again! So to me inspiration rather than a big stick, should be what what we must hope to get. If we are not inspired we will not benefit from his foreign policy towards Africa.

    Glen

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  2. You asked which he is. So far the evidence from credible sources says he's "Business as Usual":

    In Obama's 13-person transition team are 4 lobbyists, 3 are $$$ campaign fund-raisers instead of people chosen for their expertise, and 2 held executive/lobbyist positions at the disgraced Fannie Mae. (with some overlap, e.g. some are lobbyists AND fund-raisers) Wow, some people still believe Obama will clean up D.C.'s corporate influence, but ^that^ is no "change" (to quote Obama's own campaign-slogan) from GW Bush's corporate influence. Reviewing the Treasury Dept (policy/budget/personnel changes) shall be the CEO of Stonebridge, a corporation whose clients (foreign businesses) need Treasury's permission to acquire USA-based corps: Tell me how honestly the U.S. Treasury will police a corporation like Stonebridge, when the U.S. Treasury's policy/personnel were chosen by Stonebridge's CEO?!<--"fox guarding the hen house" and conflict-of-interest: This is just like when Bush's USDA was run by cattle-industry execs and his FDA got cozy with the pharma corps it was supposed to be policing...so Obama has already broken his campaign-promise to "change" D.C.'s business-as-usual, and not as some sort of rare mistake with ONE appointee, but REPEATEDLY as shown in this paragraph. (Since he assailed Hillary Clinton for being tied to corporate lobbyists --which he himself termed "business as usual" in agreement with me-- he is guilty of hypocrisy as well. It's funny that the pacifist Gandhi and warmongering USMC take nearly the same position on something: "Be the change you wish to see" and "Lead by example," respectively. Obama has too much greed and too little guts to follow his own advice of not taking bribe-money from lobbyists...I shall show at the end of this post that he was taking bribe-money (and returning these favors) in many many scandals, before he was president-elect, too: it's a consistent pattern.) And finally, (a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKinsey_&_Company#Criticism") four are ALSO tied to the McKinsey corp, accused by many unrelated parties (often in pending lawsuits) of reckless anti-consumer practices and cover-ups (so Obama's being no more pro-consumer than what we'd expect from Bush).

    . . . As for Obama's other campaign slogan, "the audacity of hope": "Hope makes for a good breakfast, but a poor supper".~Francis Bacon. Sorry America, Obama aint the change you need, he is a Great Pretender...just as corrupt and inept as all the other scum in D.C., but more charming and a better liar than Bush. Please...wake the fuck up to realities like I exposed in the last paragraph, because you're taking me --and my donations to animals-- and the whole economy including other charities, down with you. All in the name of "hope". ("Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion"~from The Matrix) Instead of hoping, Democrats (the voters not the leaders) need to work smarter and/or harder: Work to reform the Dem Party (as I'll describe below)...starting with Obama's corruption. Otherwise people will vote the Republicans back in, just as they've done every 4-12 years, getting sick of whichever party is in power b/c they're BOTH so inept and corrupt.

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  3. Separate issue:

    Obama took more $$$ from the CEO's who triggered the worldwide recession than any Senator except one:

    Who foresaw the danger and tried to stop it, versus who did not? (let me re-state that: Who would benefit you if they ran the country, versus who harmed your quality-of-life?)
    Austan Goolsbee is Obama's LEAD financial advisor:

    This guy continued defending subprime mortgages as safe...even in 2007. i.e. some of the last people to pull their heads out of their asses and see the crisis coming were Obama and his merry men: Contrast Obama's clueless fiscal advisor against those listed below this paragraph, who predicted today's crisis as early as 1995. Yes, 1995. And contrast Obama's slow reaction, even against Chris Dodd's (D-CT) reaction: Despite that Dodd was the ONLY senator to be blinded by more bribe-money than what Obama took from the mortgage CEO's (see the FEC.gov data in the opensecrets.org link I gave), Dodd pulled his head out of his ass and warned of the crisis by 2007. Obama's advisor Goolsbee mentions Democrat Dodd's move disparagingly in this 2007 article, and McCain tried to legislate to stop it in 2005 (too many corrupt people in both parties stopped McCain). Even that idiot Bush --or at least I know MANY Obama supporters agree he's an idiot-- warned of today's financial collapse in 2003...YEARS earlier than Obama and/or his advisors: Who knew that any Democrat could ever be stupider than Bush on anything, let alone something so important as the economy (the biggest issue to voters in exit-polls)? PWND. Well, certainly most Americans don't know it, others are in denial about it...that's the reason I originally wrote this for my friends, but now history has proven Obama's main fiscal advisor wrong (you PHAIL!) in what is shaping up to be the biggest and most predictable worldwide fiscal disaster since the Great Depression, and history has now proven Dodd/Bush/McCain correct (at least when Dodd/Bush/McCain jumped on the bandwagon with Cato, though Dodd/Bush/McCain were ALL too-little-too-late). Cato of course is a libertarian thinktank. And they predicted it in 1995, and evidence from Clinton's Treasury dep't proved them correct by 2000 or earlier. (Clinton did nothing...Bush made one half-hearted attempt to stop it in 2003, but profited from it like the Clintonites+Obama nonetheless...and now the world suffers because of the leaders of these 2 parties, these 2 presidents...and congressmen including the next president. Here's VIDEO PROOF of more Democrats defending the mortgages that triggered the recession, who took bribe-money from mortgage CEO, but Republicans joined them: About 60% of the corruption to cause the worldwide recession was from Democrats, as the FEC.gov data organized in the opensecrets.org link shows.)

    ...and yet, Obama still likes Goolsbee enough to let him head Obama's two major economic panels. Sorry to be terse, but Americans simply can't afford a major screw-up like Goolsbee running the economy now! ...and if most in the media were willing to criticize Obama (and those related to Obama, like Goolsbee) and willing to report in a way that's best for YOU instead of what's best for Obama, they'd criticize his support of Goolsbee until Goolsbee was GONE. Even I foresaw this recession before Goolsbee --I got mostly out of the stock market-- yet my economic training has only been informal and running real-life businesses (economics is a science [observing patterns], and I'm a scientist [unlike Obama, a lawyer...pronounced "liar" :-) ]). Obama likes Goolsbee: Goolsbee tells Obama what Obama wants to hear, that it's ok to keep taking bribe-money from mortgage CEO's (and less often, directly from the corporations).

    The most Nobels for economics were also won by libertarians (Chicago School of thought; approx 70% of the staff at U of Chicago are libertarian, per ISDN 1840646063), the other 30% who attended U of Chicago (including the very anti-libertarian Goolsbee) all suck and have no Nobels. ;-) Goolsbee also said in his 2007 article that subprime mortgages (often predatory lending) were 'helping' ordinary people...many of these poor people were getting foreclosed upon even back then (often left homeless and worse off than Obama & co's 'help'), and now that it's 2008 and this has reverberated thru the whole economy, I wonder how today's massive (and yet, still increasing) LAYOFFS 'help' regular people? (at least, USA has increasing layoffs...hope things are better in Zimbabwe)

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  4. I need to add, just in case this clears up how the mortgage scandal worked: Mortgage CEO's made big annual pay-for-performance bonuses due to the loosening on subprime mortgages, which Obama's fiscal advisor Goolsbee and others in congress (in the CSPAN video I linked to) advocated. CEO's like Obama's friend Gorelick (google: Obama Gorelick).

    Other scandals (BRIEFLY compared to the recession, the most important issue for many Americans):

    * his wife 'coincidentally' got a $200,000/year raise after he gave TAXPAYER money to her employer

    * Obama partnered up with Tony Rezko within the last few years as Rezko was CURRENTLY being indicted for bribing politicians. Rezko has since been convicted. Rezko got $100,000,000 of taxpayer money to rehab affordable housing; Rezko left most of them boarded up; 1/3rd of the housing was in Obama's district. So, what did Obama get? Just before Rezko was awarded the $100-million contract, Obama and the Rezko's bought property together from the same seller: Rezko paid full price while Obama got [from a property-seller's perspective] the FULL $300k discount.) Obama has since called his relations with Rezko "boneheaded" ...but whether boneheaded or purposely corrupt, we can't afford either in a president.
    * Obama got a donation, then gave TAXPAYER money back to a racist named Pfleger.
    * Hunter Biden: nepotism. Among Obama's other earmarks, before Obama chose Joe Biden as the V.P., Obama sent TAXPAYER money to Hunter.

    Revisionist history:
    1. Obama tried to blame this recession on McCain (google "Obama trickle"), despite that Obama's corruption, not McCain's trickle-down, caused the recession, and despite the link I gave in my last post, showing McCain trying to STOP the mortgages that caused the recession, whilst Obama merely tried to PROFIT from the mortgage CEO's and corps.
    2. Obama on the troop surge in Iraq:
    On 1/18/08, Obama said: "I cannot in good conscience support this escalation. It is a policy which ... has failed" about the troop surge (but of course, the change.gov page for Iraq says "Judgment You Can Trust"...hmmm, he sure misjudged whether the surge would work), but six months later (7/27/08), Liarbama says: "I have consistently said that as a consequence of us putting more troops in, and the awakening in the Anbar province, where Sunnis turned against al-Qaeda, violence is significantly down and that there is a significant improvement in Iraq". Obama's hindsight is 20/20, but his foresight was never 20/20; we need a president with foresight like Cato's when they testified in congress and TRIED to warn that congressional housing policy would cause a recession, instead of a run-off between Dumb and Dumberer each 4 years. Just as Obama (and most congressmen) refused to listen to Cato (and others) warnings that have come true, Liarbama just refuses to admit that he was EVER wrong on the Iraq surge: it's a pattern.

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