President Obama

While you're savoring the words, rolling them around on your tongue like your favorite chocolate, versus the anguished howl of President McCain, there are some realities that need to intrude. Despite the McCain theme, Barack Obama has a middle of the road political philosophy, unless McCain is correct and he's been hiding stuff. Even with that philosophy the Republicans will not go away. Boehner will be back and quite possibly McConnell and they are neither low key nor somewhat partisan opponents. The day after the election the Republicans will go on the attack and it will get serious the day after Inauguration.

The Republicans, to our distress, have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams in their quest to break government and now us with it. Government is broke, worse than broke, sunken in debt and committed to even more of it. Money for new programs isn't there and worse, existing programs are threatened. Not only has debt doubled under BushCo, but the interest has increased. Crony contracts will have a space to run yet. BushCo's economic wreckage will be with us for some time to come.

The real disaster in government is truly entrenched, the infusion of partisan hires into Agencies. Not the appointed heads, this is an ordinary issue for transition teams to deal with. These are the Civil Service hires who should not have been hired on a partisan basis but are now protected from "retaliation" by Civil Service rules. This damage will live on long after GeorgeII is no more than a swear word for stupidity. The incompetent and agenda ridden will continue to have a large hand in American affairs.

Whether there are tax breaks or not, government is going to see its revenue go down. Business is going to hurt, employment is going to be hurt, and even some of the plutocrats that have been late will get dinged. You should believe that there will be a plutocratic stock buy up in the very near future. The market is getting near what companies are worth in assets so where ever the market goes, buying is a good deal, these companies can later be broken up for a profit. It is important to remember that right now the only people who have lost any money in the market have either sold or are living off their investments.

The right ideologues on the Supreme Court are not going anywhere for a good long time, the older and less healthy members are the centrists and left of centers. While I may agree with the decision on Heller v DC, the majority opinions were about as bad as any you'd expect from students. This case should have been defining and clearly about the US Constitution and it was a mess. This means that you cannot expect anything like good legal opinion from that bunch and they have, generally, four votes. This particular situation may last for decades.

If Obama gets the entire package and has a 60 seat Senate and a really sizable House majority you might think things will really get done. Being able to pass bills doesn't mean being able to fund them. Passing bills doesn't mean business becomes confident, it doesn't mean expansion and job growth, the factors that control that are beyond government control once transparency is achieved. Senator Obama has some good ideas, good intentions, and I believe a real concern with ordinary America's well being. He will surround himself with able and intelligent people who will do a good job - with what they've got. And that is exactly the problem.