The real goal is to reward the G.O.P.’s wealthiest patrons by crippling what remains of organized labor, by wrecking the government agencies charged with regulating and policing corporations, and, as always, by rewarding the wealthiest with more tax breaks. The bankrupt moral equation codified in the Bush era — that tax cuts tilted to the highest bracket were a higher priority even than paying for two wars — is now a given. The once-bedrock American values of shared sacrifice and equal economic opportunity have been overrun.

The amazing (and sad) thing is how these people have so many little people lined up behind them and their figureheads. These days, everyone drinks the swill that the government is the enemy and needs to be choked to death. Doesn’t anyone realize that choking the government to death will eventually lead to the rest of us impaled on the sword of pure unadulterated greed? Do these tea partiers actually think the Koch brothers or any of these other oligarchs give a fuck about them and will know they exist once they’ve destroyed our nation?

Sadly, there likely isn’t any end in sight. The Democrats have, as usual, started the process of capitulating and slashing spending for important Federal programs to shreds in the name of “bipartisan compromise”.

Technorati Tags: frank rich, government shutdown, ny times, tea party

It’s this misplaced trust in elites both outside the White House and within it that seems to prevent Obama from realizing the moment that history has handed to him. Americans are still seething at the bonus-grabbing titans of the bubble and at the public and private institutions that failed to police them. But rather than embrace a unifying vision that could ignite his presidency, Obama shies away from connecting the dots as forcefully and relentlessly as the facts and Americans’ anger demand.

I can’t think of a more succinct way to sum up the first eighteen month’s of Obama’s presidency. It’s not enough to figure out that there is a problem, there is a need to forcefully act on it. Unfortunately, Obama seems happy to deign to his advisers and to the rubes that run our biggest corporations rather than just take matters into his own hands and do what needs to be done. Sadly, I think that by the time he realizes this, it will be far, far too late, and we as a country will be far, far worse off for it.

It’s still about change, Mr. President. I hope you can soon realize that.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, bp, frank rich, oil spill

Bob Herbert:

We have a monumental double standard here. Mr. McCain has had trouble in his public comments distinguishing Sunnis from Shiites and had to be corrected in one stunningly embarrassing moment by his good friend Joe Lieberman. He has referred to a Iraq-Pakistan border when the two countries do not share a border. … My guess is that most voters don’t see John McCain as an angry candidate, despite several very public lapses. The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy. Barack Obama is not the only candidate the voters need to know more about.

Frank Rich:

Mr. McCain could also have stepped into the leadership gap left by Mr. Bush’s de facto abdication. His inability to even make a stab at doing so is troubling. While drama-queen commentators on television last week were busy building up false suspense about the Obama trip — will he make a world-class gaffe? will he have too large an audience in Germany? — few focused on the alarms that Mr. McCain’s behavior at home raise about his fitness to be president.

It’s sad to say, however, that this might be as close as we come to a real examination by the mainstream media of McCain’s shortcomings from his short temper to his inability to get his facts straight. There is little desire by the mainstream media to delve into it at any depth. I guess the food at his media barbeques is just that good.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, bob herbert, frank rich, john mccain, new york times