The Day After the Ides

Brutus to Obama's Caesar?

It is March 16th, 44 B.C., and Julius Caesar lies in state, dead at the hands of enemies and friends alike. In the town square, Brutus is the blazing topic of discussion, mostly from people trying desperately  to explain his "alleged" betrayal of Caesar as a simple mistake.

"He was walking by with a dagger and tripped on an upturned corner of the carpet", said one senator who was present at the slaying. Another man, a dignitary named Odiferous, offered, "It was tragic, really. Brutus had just sliced pineapple and was carrying the tray with the blade out when he walked too close to His Eminence". 

A third witness went so far as to blame the advanced age of Brutus, suggesting he was becoming a child again. "I don't  know how many times we've scolded Brutus about running with daggers." 

Silly, I know. But what of the damage control currently under way about the latest declarations of former president Bill Clinton, which are basically tantamount to the betrayal of Caesar by Brutus? It is almost embarrassing that the players who try to pass for our most adult of adults in a country of children have played out this charade in order to protect the most juvenile president this country has ever elected. Perhaps even more embarrassing is the fact Bill Clinton is subjecting himself to it all, even participating in his own flogging.

Obama and his surrogates have been busy trying to demonize Mitt Romney as an evil capitalist who sucked the life out of companies and ruined the lives of every day workers like you and me while working with Bain Capital. Obama himself has even recently iced the cake by audaciously declaring that Romney has never "worked a real job". When asked about it by a CNN host, Clinton defended Romney, saying that as a former Governor and a man with "a sterling business career", Romney was definitely qualified to be president. 

Clinton spoke candidly, probably for the first time in his career, and it was not helpful in the least to Barack Obama. Now he's been tripping all over himself trying to walk back the comments, even suggesting that he had no idea they were harmful to Obama's campaign. And Clinton's own people are saying that he's basically getting senile. Clinton is allowing all of this to be said unchallenged all the while he is apologizing for his comments.

But it must be remembered that Brutus did not slay Caesar alone. There were a handful of senators who participated in the murder, and just like then, Clinton is not the only Democrat to criticize Obama's Bain strategy. Newark Mayor Cory Booker was the first to open the attacks, calling the vilification of Bain "nauseating". (Booker was also the first to fall on his sword). Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick joined in as did former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. Are they all senile as well? How many more Democrats are out there holding the same view on the Bain attacks?

Ready for Battle

The big question, though, is whether this will deter the Obama campaign from continuing this line of attack. What's done is done, and all the apologies in the world won't change it. Romney has the ammunition in the form of sound bites and video clips, and you can bet that his team is working right now to produce effective counter ads to use against Obama.

I predict that Caesar shall remain deceased. 

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No Tacking to Starboard

Much has been made of Bill Clinton's political savvy by virtue of his tactical navigation following the Newt Gingrich-led capture of Congress in 1994, Clinton's first mid-term election of his first term as president. As Gingrich engineered his place as Speaker of the House, Clinton had the sense to recognize the mood of the people, and corrected his course by tacking back toward the center, and away from the far left destination he originally sought.

Hillary was not happy at "the captain's" decision, but being the good first mate, she obeyed the orders out of a sense of duty, no matter the bitter after taste. There was a brief brush with mutiny with her health care fiasco, but nothing that agitated the crew to the point of disaster, and the administration chugged along, actually benefiting from the grounding sense of it's opposition. President Clinton's acceptance of parts of his foe's ideas helped to cement his perceived greatness. He was a political prodigy.

Now we have Liberal commentators desperately trying to convince the electorate that - despite our own perceptive experience - Obama will follow the same trajectory in order to remain politically viable. Regardless of Obama's increasingly defiant rhetoric, we're expected to believe that he may suddenly succumb to some sort of epiphany that will miraculously transform him into a moderate who will heed the admonitions of the masses.

Sorry, I'm not buying, and I suspect there will be many who did who will soon be on the long returns line seeking credit or exchange.

The primary reason for my prognostication lies in Obama's stubborn refusal to accept his own inadequacies, or even the possibility that he may be on the wrong path. He paints his opposition as either having nefarious intent, or as mentally deficient and incapable of comprehending his magnificence. He is utterly convinced that his vision for America, regardless of its incredible divergence from the Founders' intent, is correct, and if he can't convince you, he will mandate you.

Rather than realize that his agenda is viewed by the people as not only unacceptable, but infuriating, Obama instead maintains that we're not thinking clearly, and that our information sources are lying to us. He will stop at nothing to discredit critics, going so far as to make baseless accusations and false statements. Pretty strange behavior for an alleged lawyer.

Someone capable of such arrogance is certainly unlikely to yield to pressure. It will be extremely interesting to see how Obama deals with the distinct probability that he will no longer have the measure of support from Congress that he currently enjoys. It appears almost certain that for the second half of his singular term he will face a hostile crowd in the Capitol.

This should be fun.

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