== Obama vs. The Fear = By Mark Morford

[madokie]

Grin and be enthralled, or tremble and stuff dollar bills into your mattress?

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/02/27/notes022709.DTL&nl=fix

Everyone I know is feeling a little bipolar right now. Everyone I know is going through the most unusual of psychological and socioeconomic fits, a bit unsure what to do and how to feel and exactly which emotional flush should be the one to modulate their equilibrium on a day-to-day basis.

The conundrum is obvious and compelling and, as always, deeply enhanced -- if not wholly solved -- by vodka.

It goes something like this: Do you allow yourself, even now, to feel any sort of ongoing, relieved, merciful joy that Barack Obama actually is sitting in the Big Chair in the White House? That this elegant, articulate, Zen-like man whose integrity is rock-solid and whose ideas, while certainly not in perfect alignment with every ultra-lefty vision on the planet (clean coal? Please), are astonishingly ambitious and brave, is leading this nation during one of the worst economic times in its short and paroxysmal history?

Or do you say whatever, sorry, no time for that. Everything's plummeting and jobs are dying and (in my case, certainly) the industry you've worked for your entire career is gasping its last breath, and therefore, melancholy and dread and panic are the only truly appropriate responses, because I don't care how great the guy is, any smile that might cross my face when I see him gets immediately wiped out as soon as I ponder my 401k? ...

[Birdiesmom]

1. Fantastic article

Much needed breath of fresh air. Thanks!

[malaise]

2. Excellent article

Thanks.
K & R

[bread_and_roses]

3. yes, a good article

and salutary for someone like me, a congenital doubter and critic and someone who has genuine and, i think, well-founded reservations and even harsh opposition to some of the paths Obama is taking. But still and still and still - there he is, charismatic, looking like some more evolved version of humanity, interrupting the train of horrors we've been on for so many years.

[Peace Patriot]

7. Lol!

"But still and still and still - there he is, charismatic, looking like some more evolved version of humanity, interrupting the train of horrors we've been on for so many years."

:rofl:

You got me!

[tularetom]

4. Thanks for posting this

Just what I need to read first thing in the morning.

BTW I hear the Chronicle is about to take a dump. Like permanently. Any word on what will happen to this column if that happens?

I hope he keeps running it on line. I'd really miss it if he stopped.

[KharmaTrain]

5. Just Remember Where We Were...

Rerack for just a moment...Summer 2006...before Mark Foley and there was a strong possibility the Democratic party was on the verge of being wiped out with a veto proof House and Senate. DeLay was running roughshod in the House, Frist was diagnosing Terri Schaivo from the Senate and the booosh regime was totally out of control. Now look at where we are now. Would we want to go back to those days????

I don't know if I'm feeling as bipolar as just plain numb about what I'm seeing. I knew that the debris field left by the last 8 years of corruption and ineptitude would be far and wide and knew that whoever was elected would have his/her hands full. I had no illusions of a 180 political swing, just hopes for a saner, more competent government. Or more specific, a REAL government, not a kleptocracy. That we have...and with a bonus.

We're just a little more than a month in and we're already seeing a very agile and capable leader...a man who has some vision and knows how Washington works. While I think we have some very rough months, possibly years ahead, in the end, we'll look back at 2008 and feel a sense of pride in having had a part in taking back our country and being at the start of a new more Progressive era.

Cheers...

:hi:

[madokie]

6. I remember when I was literally scared to death

and it wasn't that long ago either.:scared: We'll come out of this much stronger than we were due to the gross overreaching of the bushco criminals. They rubbed our collective faces in it to the point even some of the dumb asses get the picture.
Remember a few years ago when poppy broke down and started crying when he was talking about his evil bad spawn son, I wish I knew how to find a link to that but I don't so anyways, those tears he was shedding that day was because he had realized how fucked he was due to his idiot son and his criminal insane cohorts. When the dust settles from all this the bush name will be relegated to its rightful place, which is pretty much in the treason and traitors category. Totally completely 100% un-American

[Peace Patriot]

8. Yup, summer 2006. The nuking of Iran seemed imminent.

Then, everything changed. The Democrats became a majority in Congress. The nuking of Iran went away. Rumsfeld resigned. And--very, very, very oddly--Nancy Pelosi announced "Impeachment is off the table." (WHAT "table," Nancy?).

My theory is we went through a counter-coup, by some insider group (maybe including Daddy Bush, but some good guys, too), and we were in REAL peril. Actually, everything didn't change instantly. The new Congress then re-funded the Iraq War, in defiance of 70% of the American people. And, of course, the bad guy financiers were building up to their Financial 9/11 this last September. But the palpable fear of nuclear armageddon in the Middle East went away pretty quickly. And penetration of the leftist internet news/opinion, as opposed to the corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies, really began to have an effect on the American people in the form, not so much of changing their opinions, as validating their opinions--empowering, energizing them--and giving them a grass roots organizing tool.

And, yeah, it seems a lo-o-o--o-ong way from there to here. And many of us are not quite here yet. That was a bad-ass nightmare. It lingers.

[diane in sf]

9. I think you're right, realistic members of the military as well, the group stopped Cheney

and his insane plans to Armageddon the Middle East.

[Z_I_Peevey]

10. So you're thinking the turning point was the public disclosure

of those nuclear weapons on planes and how they "somehow" got to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana?

[Peace Patriot]

11. I'm not sure about that. It's possible. I think the timing was right.

That sure was a weird thing. I'm not sure what was going on. But I think that weapons were already in place, surrounding Iran, to nuke them at any time. I was thinking more of the British sailors' incident. Remember that? It sure looked like the "Gulf of Tonkin" to me--that is, a manufactured incident, as the trigger for war. Then-ping!--Iran gives the sailors back, with a smile. I think that was it. Somehow the trigger wasn't pulled. The sequence maybe went like this: Confrontation with Bush/Cheney circa fall 2006, maybe before the Congressional elections. The Democrats win. Pelosi says, "Impeachment is off the table" (apropos of nothing). And Rumsfeld resigns (Dec 06). As the Democrats move toward refunding the Iraq War, there are still iffy, dangerous elements in place to trigger armageddon. So the military part of the group that confronted Bush/Cheney begins working on those, within the military, and some of the others do a round of diplomacy, to untrigger the potential responses of Russia, China and Israel. (Russia and China defending Iran; Israel joining the attack on Iran.) At this point (circa March 2007), Pelosi goes off on a trip to the Middle East--right in the middle of the British sailors crisis--and stops in Syria (where she puts on a veil and walks through a marketplace), makes other stops, and visits Israel and addresses the parliament with a speech oozing with reassurances. I think she was taking the word that nuking Iran was "off the table."

The counter-coup group (and I agree, the military would surely have been involved--also intelligence people, and some big politicos and corpos) traded "no impeachment" for no nuking of Iran, and possibly also for Bush/Cheney leaving peacefully when the time came. (--if they were planning martial law and no elections). And Rumsfeld was forced to resign. I've thought all along he was the worst of the lot--I think he was the 9/11 "decider." He has many heinous crimes in his dossier. Possibly someone got the goods on him, to force him out. I think the consequence is that all three of them, and possibly a few others, were immunized not just on impeachment, but on future prosecution. That was the price they extracted for not destroying the planet (which an armageddon--even a limited one--in Iran would have done).

Well, that's my fantasize scenario. It kind of gives you a warm fuzzy feeling inside, that Mommy and Daddy were looking out for us. Sorry. I'm very ambivalent about this. Sure glad we avoided armageddon, but feeling agony about our democracy--if that's how it all happened. I pretty much believe it. It's not just a fantasy. It makes a lot of sense. But where are we, the people, in all of this? Not very relevant. Do we even have a democracy any more?

[cilla4progress]

12. Too good to be true?

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade...least of all my own; I am totally smitten and have been since the beginning. But it all just seems too unlikely, too unbelievable. Let's just say I hope Michelle and Barack live to a ripe old age - Supreme Court anyone (after his 4 terms are up :) )? I guess on some level I wonder whether we "deserve" them. God bless them and keep them safe.