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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TideGlider who wrote (26561)	2/23/2010 5:37:50 PM
From: GROUND ZERO™	Respond to of 103300

That's good to know... GZ

To: TideGlider who wrote (26561)	2/24/2010 6:45:12 AM
From: GROUND ZERO™	3 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 103300

The United States of Chicago Bill Thomas Monday, February 22, 2010 The same people that fell for the "hope and change" crap a year ago are suddenly too stupid to understand the genius at work in the White House. The Obama administration is tanking, and Democrats and their media flacks are blaming everyone but themselves. Talk-show host Bill Maher zeroes in on the basic theme: Americans "are not bright enough to really understand the issues." "The biggest culprit in our current predicament," as Jacob Weisberg sees it in Slate, is "the childishness, ignorance and growing incoherence of the public at large." In other words, the same voting public that fell for "hope and change" and put Barack Obama in office a year ago suddenly is too stupid to notice the genius at work in the White House. With Obama not inclined to do what presidents are supposed to do, namely keep the country solvent and secure, lots of people are wondering what gives. Talk about dumb. Some on the extremes, as Obama himself noted, believe his health care reform program is part of a "Bolshevik plot" to wreck the nation's economy. Others, not smart enough to think in those terms, are just afraid of losing their jobs, homes and life savings. Obama learned his politics in Chicago, where complainers are ignored. But in Washington, Democratic Party officials are concerned his "transformative" presidency may be transforming millions of former supporters into an angry mob. The latest polls shows the party has something to worry about. Obama's job approval numbers are in free-fall, from over 62 percent early last year to 47 percent last week. On top of that, surveys of voter sentiment suggest the 2010 congressional elections will see GOP gains. Scott Brown's win last month in Massachusetts took away the Democrats' 60-vote majority in the Senate, forcing the administration to work with Republicans, something it was planning to avoid. Obama ran for the presidency promising to be the exact opposite of what he's turned out to be: a Chicago political operator too slick for his own good. Which isn't that surprising, because the Chicago way of doing things is what he's brought to the White House. Chicago, it's important to know, has been run by the Democratic Party since 1931. That's one-party rule for 79 years. Currently under the control of Mayor Richard M. Daley, son of a former Chicago mayor, the city's political machine, in exchange for unquestioning loyalty, dispenses everything from jobs to Thanksgiving turkeys. That these goodies should flow through the Democratic Party makes perfect sense. Chicago's politburo-style city council has 50 members. Forty-seven seats are held by Democrats, two seats are vacant, and one seat is Republican. Do the math. In most American governing bodies, business is done by compromise. In Chicago, there's no need for compromise because there's practically no opposition party. This is how Obama and Co. thought it would be running Washington. The problem is things don't work that way anymore - not after Democrats lost their super majority in the Senate, where the administration's agenda can now be stopped by a single vote. In Chicago, a situation like that could be easily corrected by the application of muscle. In Washington, that may help, or it could make more Americans realize how wrong they were to believe this bunch in the first place. Bill Thomas is the author of "Club Fed: Power, Money, Sex and Violence on Capitol Hill," and other books. sfgate.com GZ