Debt-O-Nation

President Obama is now perhaps the foremost contender for the Worst President Ever epithet.  Stealing that crown from Bush was a virtual impossibility, but Obama appears to be up for the challenge.  Obama said he recognized the need to change course, he was elected on that basis, and he expressly resisted change at every opportunity.  The endemic fraud of the Bush administration has more deeply retrenched in the persona of Obama.   The slick marketing campaign around the concepts of change we can believe in, we can do better, and yes we can was utterly fraudulent.  In the most charitable characterization, whatever self-justifying internal narrative propelled him to stump on change, his conception of change is now shown to be completely at odds with the public’s understanding.  This gulf of understanding is only bound to widen.  It wouldn’t be surprising to see The Gulf of Understanding completely militarized before this Presidency ends.

Americans apparently aren’t too concerned about wars of aggression, torture, illegal wiretapping, the rule of law, the separation of powers, the constitution, and so on, nor do they care much about how the US economy works, but they do care about their pocketbooks.  Not surprisingly, Obama’s fraudulent image is souring most saliently in the public’s attitude toward the bank bailouts, and more generally, the economy (Recall that his election was only cemented when the economy turned sharply south; that’s when Obama left McCain doddering in the polling dust).  Most of the economic damage was probably irreversible before Obama even took office, but he supported Bush’s actions wholly, upped the ante after taking office, and he’s been going “all in” ever since.  

During the SOTU, Obama said something quite attention-grabbing:

“We’re working to lift the value of a family’s single largest investment — their home [..]”

Like George “This sucker could go down” Bush before him, Obama was referring to the DEBT-o-nation of actual mortgages underlying and triggering the chain reaction of mortgage backed securities that are still set to take out lower Manhattan and the rest of the global economy like a controlled demolition.  The entire scheme was nothing less than the biggest fraud ever committed, and a lot of people were on to it at its early stages.  Spitzer, for example, wasn’t taken out for whoring.  Thus, the problems of the TBTF have only gotten bigger and failer.

Unfortunately, the debt-o-nation continues apace.