Boy (Barry) meets girl (Amerique) who is definitely not into him. He woos her with shakespearean poetry and begs to be given a chance. She relents when he assures her that he is not like the others. He will not cheat, he will cook, clean, and take out the garbage. He will be her provider and protector and, together, they will change the world. Unfortunately,after 20 months of marriage, Amerique is talking to her lawyers about trial separation. She is poised to move in with her ex-husband, Forest, because after almost 2 years of marriage, Barry has not given her the life she was promised.
Amerique is depressed and is beginning to feel nostalgic about the days when she used to be with Forest. Yes, the neighbours scoffed at the fact that he was educated but inarticulate. Their disdain was exacerbated when he responded to a provocation from one neighbour by opening fire on two neighbours. Yes, he depleted her savings, run up credit card bills and left without paying them. Yes, he was never apologetic or remorseful, but there was something about his brash ways that turned her on. Today, Barry is moonlighting at his 3rd job. The poems have been replaced with stern words and tough love. Forest on the other hand, is saying he has changed his ways and that his love for Amerique never died. He wants to come back to show Amerique that he is not the same man that abused her for 8 years.
Here in a nutshell is my take on the pending US midterm elections. It has an obvious slant, but I have never purported to be fair and balanced. Poor Democrats, they have sweaty palms because instead of energizing their base with left leaning policies, they intellectualized themselves into a hole and now they are paying for it. Obama and Clinton have taken to the streets with charm and gentle persuasion to prevent a catatonic slide to the Republicans. They argue that the healthcare reform, financial reform and the stabilization of a hypertensive economy are incredible feats which merits credit. Unfortunately, this is irrelevant because Amerique who is being persuaded, still has no steady income to prevent her house from being foreclosed. This is why soothsayers, pundits and polls are saying that the Republicans are poised to take the House and possibly the Senate. What they are forgetting is Amerique has not spoken yet. Infact she will not speak until November 2nd. So if you are in her sphere of influence, don't be disenchanted, step out on November 2nd and help Amerique make the right decision. Tell her a good man like Barry is hard to find. Yes he has fumbled and stumbled a few times, but he is a hardworking man whose heart is in the right place. Encourage Amerique to stand by her man and work with him to rebuild their home.
So she spoke on November 3rd. Trial seperation it is. Mr. President, the gloves are off, there is no need for metaphors or analogies. Lets have some real talk. I could not vote for you, but I could campaign for you - so I did. In watching you with Hilary in the 2008 elections, I noticed that you really try to stay above the fray. Even when she kicked you in the shins and trampled on your fingers, you would ignore her. You only roared when she would body slam you onto the ground and reach for the jugular. Then you would spring up like and cobra and fight like your life was at stake. Well the life of your presidency is at stake now. I am going to ask you to drop the cool and collected composure. Yes I know it is against your nature, but the American people need to feel like you feel their pain. it is no longer enough to say you are also frustrated. Flare your nostrils, heave your chest, widen your eyes. Do something because the pressed lips does not cut it. You are not like most people, you are more intelligent, more evolved, but inorder to get the tide on your side you need to show some blue collar emotion once in a while.
Do you see Michelle when she hits the trail? She combines high level intellect and ground level passion in a way that resonates with everyone. Please tell the White House handlers to get her out of the vegetable garden and use your best asset! We want to see more of Michelle. I want her explaining the impact of your economic agenda. I want her to tell the marginalized story of how you saved the American Auto industry. I want her to talk about the fact that the Banks have paid back the loans with interest. I want her to talk about the fact health care reform did not go as far as the left wanted but damnit, it will help over 30 million Americans and it lays the foundation for further advances in healthcare. Whilst we are on the topic of strong women who can connect, engage Hilary with the public. I know she has an important job which takes her across the world, but she I am sure your strategist can find a way to make her a more visible figure with an audible voice for your platform.
Mr. President, you made categoric promises to certain groups. Honor your word, repeal DADT. The LGBT group do not easily forget disappointments but they enthusiastically reward any attempt to empower their rights. Reach out directly to women and your base and get them on your side again. You are one of the best communicators in the history of American politics so why do you have a communications problem? I know why. You do not like to brag. But guess what? America responds well to bragging. Why do you think George Bush was so popular? Think of it this way; there is a difference between bragging and drumming in your achievements and you need to do some drumming. You remind of a really smart guy I went to school with. His name is Charles. This guy joined us mid way through a very academic stream and blew us away with his extraordinary high marks. Like you, Charles never boasted about his extraordinary achievements. In fact you would never know that he got 100% on a test unless you asked him. But unlike Charles, you cannot afford to be modest, you need to amplify your achievements through a megaphone inorder to blow out the wax from ears of the back biting Press.
No more high level intellectual talk. Rein your people in and curb the party resistance. Force the hard issues and hold every member of the House accountable when the tom foolery sets in. Mr. President I am on your side and so are the American people but you cannot let your brash opponents take over your historic journey. Wake up or the tea they are brewing will be served at a 2012 farewell party.
A very intelligent way to hold your readers' attention. I am very eager to read Mr. Williams' comment on this post.
Although his accomplishments have been monumental, Barry suffers from the same problems that plagued the early years of Mr. Blythe Clinton. He allowed the parties centrist to dictate "HIS" platform,- which ironically enough is why the people elected him in the first place- and now the Democrats are poised to lose their stronghold on power to a bunch of bumblin idiots led by a clueless bafoon all beco's Barry decided to give away the position of stregnth- something no leader elected with such an over-whelming mandate from the people has ever done- in every single one of his policy debates. His policies are not to be denied: $850 million for the nations historically black colleges and universities, full-scale draw-down in Iraq, healhcare legislation, pulling the country and the world from the brink of disaster and dealing with redicoulously overt stupidity from the idiots that made his herculean effort possible in the first place, the Republicans, to name a few. But with our nations relative youth and "right-now" mentality, it leads one to draw the conclusion that he should have honed his inner liberalities and demanded more of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to accommodate this nations wishes for a single-payer health care system, send some uber-wealthy mofo's to jail for the nations financial fiasco, and kept America's stake in Bank of America, CitiBank, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and GM et al and take control of the goodwill afforded him by our nations citizens. Make no mistake I harbour no illusions regarding what he faces everyday, but one thing is for certain he balked at a wonderfully fantastic oppotunity to take the bull by the horns whilest our nations citizens were counting on him to be strong, punitive to those who deserved it most and decisive about what his visions for "HIS" is nation were. Instead his Hope and Change were left in the American sausage grinders of the house and senate. That's why repulicans will gain the house next month. That's the only reason.
As u rightly said, Amerique is yet to speak. For us who live on other continents, we can only wish that she makes the right and obvious choice, by staying with Barry. We can only hope and pray. Because it is only when she looks at the bigger picture that she will realise that given what Barry was left with, he is doing his best. And also the crisis she is currently facing is a world wide problem which will take time to resolve.
But then again things always looks more objective from the outside.. as i said, we can only hope Amerique makes the right decision… it is afterall HER OWN decision
Golden well said. I think his desire for consensus building backfired. He got played by the republicans who let him dilute his policies to appease them, only to have them walk away. Prior to his presidency, the NYT had a piece about his days at the Havard law review and they mentioned that his desire for consensus building was problematic. I hope he wakes up to the fact that not everybody (some democrats included) want him to succeed. He needs to scale back on the cool and collected image and bring it like it has never been brought before.
Oh politics be damned. So Barack pushed for bipartisanship and instead he got booted off both ships. Why are we looking to one person to cure the ailments of America? It certainly took more than one president, more than one administration to get us into this mess. The current situation is one the current administration inherited so why not enlist past and present co-conspirators to clean it up. I was always told if you did like the current way things were, help find the right way to get it done. Instead we are tripping over who has the power. Well it is a fine mess we've gotten ourselves into. We asked for a global economy but didn't know it would involve outsourcing all our jobs overseas. We sought weapons of mass destruction, executed the leaders and politicians of other countries and as a result we lost the World Trade Center and thousands of lives. We belived in the hypocrisy of Wall Street and Financial institutions who rode off into the sunset we the the livelihoods of thousands of U.S. Citizens. And we sat back, thumed our noses at work we thought we were too good to do, opened our borders to cheap labor and now our own can barely find work of any kind. Come on guys, we only need look in the mirror to see where the true problem is. We blame our politicians for everything as if they are some far and removed entity not representative of us as a whole. America's problems are not that complex. Better still look at the world as a whole. America isn' t the only country suffering from a form of brain drain when it comes to, "how do we get ourselves out of this mess." The world is messed up. We are not alone. Barack is in good company if you want to talk about inept leadership.
None of our leaders have a clue on how to get this country back on the right track, at least that is how it appears to me. Everyone is playing the blame game and pointing at each other yet no one I've heard thus far has any concrete answers that will get to the root of our issues. Yes, but everyone wants to run. Everyone is in a hurry to put their name on their ballot with all their false promises. I hope Barack doesn't run for re-election. I hope he returns to public life, work on the outside (if at all) to help this nation. I didn't want him to run in the first place. I am an African American but his election was not a proud day for me. Leave it up to America to allow a minority to lead the country after the majority ran it into the ground. So for those of you so disgusted with the job he has done, I hope you get to take it back. Go ahead and finish the country off so we can rebuild. Unless of course you all don't destroy it in the process.
How apt!!
Yes America ( Amerique ) is like an immature woman who does not think long term. We have so easily forgotten how terrible the credit crunch was, how at that time, we never dreamt that things would be this stable.
We have quickly forgotten all that and expect Obama to conjure miracles outta thin air. But I tell you something!! Obama has a trump card. He has millions of unsung heroes and supporters working the streets and neighbourhoods as we speak. Just like he did in the election.
Right now all the pundits predict that the Republicans will take over the Senate. It is easy to be swayed by such talk. But come the 2nd people will move out to vote and the Democrats will retain the Senate.
And you Goldie will come back to me and tell me that I, Ebo told you so.
My humble take on this ( smile )
Oldman Child, I hope your prediction is true, because the concern is that people on Main st. may not be as motivated to vote because of the unemployment numbers…
Nancy. Thank you for your comments. I could feel your passion. I do hope Barack runs for re-election because by that time the economy should have turned around so I would not want someone else to take the credit when all he got was bruises. Do come back I love your insight
2 years ago, I supported Obama, donated a lot of money to his campaign, participated in the get out the vote effort, and of course voted for him myself. Now I'm one of those people who is less than enthusiastic about supporting the democratic party in these midterms. For one thing, while I admire Obama, I don't have nearly as high an opinion of the democratic party as a whole. Also, when I supported Obama, it wasn't because I wanted healthcare, or an end to hostilities in Iraq, or any other other issues Obama campaigned on, it was because I saw someone who looked at our political system and said "Things need to change." I supported the Obama that wrote "The Audacity of Hope" the one that made the keynote speech at the 2004 democratic national convention, the one that believes that the way forward for America is to turn the American government into one that actually acomplishes something, the one that wanted to lessen the influence of lobbyists, and special interests in the government, the one that wanted to reach accross party lines for the good of the country, the one that wanted to create a more transparent government, and reform congressional redistricting so that the people who sit in congress hold views that are more representative of those of the people who elected them.
If there had been, no healthcare reform, no stimulus bill, and none of the other things he has done, but he had made a strong effort to reform the system, I would be happier than I am now. I honestly think that after campaigning on a theme of change, change should have been the number one priority. I think that Obama since getting elected, has gotten caught up in the day to day business of politics, like everyone else in the administration, and has forgotten why he wanted to be president in the first place.
David, the results are in. I am begining to doubt whether what people voted for was left leaning change or a people just want jobs and until it gets better Obama could find a cure for AIDs and nobody would clap. He definitely has to reconnect with this base and energize them because i think the sweep was because many people who supported him did not feel encourage to vote