The first George Bush killed his chances at winning more than one term by pouring out of his lips, “watch my lips. no new taxes!.” Then what? Tax Tax Tax of course.

Barack Obama, the anti-war candidate now has three wars going, one past the limits of the war powers act, making it unconstitutional, even according to his own lawyers. So when his lawyers say something he doesn’t agree with, he invokes his law degree and looks for support from other lawyers.

Not a war? Bombing Libya? Defense Secretary Robert Gates obviously thinks otherwise. And is obviously fed up with being thrown into wars he’s expected to clean up following dumb decisions by presidents turning wars into knots impossible to untangle.

The NY Times quotes Gates as saying, “If we were about to be attacked or had been attacked or something happened that threatened a vital U.S. national interest, I would be the first in line to say, ‘Let’s go,’ ” Mr. Gates said. “I will always be an advocate in terms of wars of necessity. I am just much more cautious on wars of choice.” Most recently, he expressed major reservations about American intervention in Libya.

So what’s next, DaddyO? More pep talks? You’re fast becoming the second Lyndon Johnson. Remember him? The president who took over the Vietnam War, accelerated it, lost it, surrendered and announced he was quitting his job?

Maybe. But only up until the surrender. Getting him out of the white house will take a power wench, or a candidate who can beat him in 2012. And so far the Repubs haven’t a prayer with the current herd of sheep.

Unfortunately, Carl Von Clausewitz was right on when he said, “War is the continuation of politics by other means” –On War (1830)

So he traipses up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to mingle with the tourists and tell them the really really important stuff: that they couldn’t be there enjoying the monument and His Celebrity if the silly budget deal hadn’t been made. Right at the last hour, as planned, His Celebrity has saved the people again! Speaker Boner (AKA John Boehner)? He had nothing to do with it.

Isn’t he wonderful?! Knows exactly what turns his media people on. Runs out there like it was a spur of the moment thing, when we all know a president goes nowhere without Secret Service planning. But what we all know is meaningless. It’s all about what His Celebrity says, not does.

Brilliant politics. Now if he could just get it through his head that he’s killing America. Spending it out of existence with no regard but a piece of lip service here and there about how we’ve got to get control of the budget. Like his word does everything. Like maybe God, when as they say, he spoke the world into existence.

Maybe that’s it! He wants to be God. Or at least a benevolent dictator who could do every little thing – and big thing – he wants without anybody to hold back his slightest whim. Ultimate power and adulation.

Maybe Glenn Beck was right. Monotonous after a while, but right on his big idea. The idea is to kill the country to take complete control of it? People will follow any hope if they get far enough down in spirit. They did blindly follow Franklin Roosevelt during the misery of the depression, because he could talk good hope. Never pulled America out of the depression until he got America into World War II. But he gave such great speech that the public followed like sheep miserable in herds.

Gasoline prices going out of sight again, unemployment still high, spending totally out of control, and all we get is his words about how we’ve got to do something, while real actions go in the opposite direction. What do you think? Was Glenn Beck right?

Freud was so on when he said, “…we men… find reality generally quite unsatisfactory” – Sigmund Freud, Psychoanalysis (1910)

“News this week of the first departure of a Cabinet secretary from the Obama administration comes amid a wide-ranging effort under the new chief of staff, William M. Daley, to repair badly frayed relations between the White House and the Cabinet.”

In another quote, Daley said he’s heard Cabinet members’ complaints. “You hear the same thing: ‘I don’t think we’re used well. I don’t think we’re consulted enough,’ ”

So it keeps stacking up. He’s a go-it-alone president, do his own thing dictator president. One who decides without the help of the Supreme Court what’s constitutional and what’s not, as in deciding not to enforce the defense of marriage act. And we’re talking about a law passed by Congress and signed by Democrat Bill Clinton.

The would-be-dictator president rolls on until the steam roller hits a wall, then backs off – briefly – until he figures a way around it.

No wonder Patriots have always realized that government is the problem. And not only the problem, but in many ways the worst enemy the American people have.

As Thomas Paine put it, “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil” –The Rights of Man (1792)

via White House moving to repair troubled relationship with Cabinet.

Huckabee, Romney, Palin, Gingrich, Pawlenty, etc, all bouncing around in a very hollow box will debate, preach, yak, posture, whatever it takes to totally lose support because… because not one of them, nor all of them together, has the charisma of Obama. And the winner is, always was, and always will be the best actor. The guy (get a grip–the term includes girls, just like your waiter/waitress says) who wins is the one that comes across as the best TV actor. The shiniest celebrity on the tube. Before TV pictures took over and killed tons of ugly politicians, it was the best stage and radio actor.

The Kennedy/Nixon thing started it of course. And Kennedy, who never accomplished anything but talk, talk, talk kept the Charisma advantage until he died? No, still has it. Some people still think of him as a great president, but it took ugly old Lyndon Johnson, who could manipulate politicians so well, to get it all done. But Johnson was never a big talent at swaying public opinion.

So it is with the current gang of Republicans. They all have their party appeal, but are totally limited in their public appeal as presidential candidates. They’ll all march along, collect a good deal of money for the fight, get endorsements of some so-called influential members of the party, but fall flat when it comes to capturing the public celebrity worship it takes to become president in a fight with someone who already has it.

Like Bob Dole did his party and himself a great disservice by running against Bill Clinton. Just fumbled along eating Clinton dust. And how did George W. win, when he has the charisma of a lead balloon? Simple. His opponents pulled off the impossible and came off worse in the charisma department.

Yeh, we’ll be hearing all about the issues. Issues will be spurting copiously from the mouths of the TV heads and the talk show yakkers. That’s their job. But in the end, issues will mean nothing. The top celebrity will win. Always has, always will.

What country does that sound like? Could it be the U.S.? The line is taken from a NY times article on Egypt. But it could just as well apply to today’s America.  Politicians – those already elected wouldn’t agree. They’d object to the patronage and bribes part. But that stuff by any other names, such as outlandish contributions, pet local projects that cost billions and government contracts for things we don’t need? What else are they?

The U.S. has been running for years on the same stuff every other corrupt country has been running on. And “change” has just made it worse. Like a debt we can never pay off growing larger for stuff we don’t need. It’s like a couple I know who always talk the woe-is-me talk because of their credit card debt, and say they’re taking steps to reform,  but continue to charge lavish vacations. Like Obama charges lavish vacations. Yeh, we know he pays for his personal accommodations, but Air Force One, his entourage and security runs into millions. And it’s all charged to our national-debt credit card.

Then there are the protest demonstrations in Wisconsin. Are they just a precursor to the demonstrations to come in Washington if we ever really start cutting back the mess that’s been building  for decades? And someday we will have to.  Either when the bill comes due for the Social Security money we’ve been spending by the billions for things other than benefits for the people who are supposed to get it, or the trillions we’ve borrowed from China.

Yeh, it’s coming due in pieces already. But so far we’ve been able to borrow from one credit card to make payments on another while the interest keeps building.

But one day that stops. And the day Washington gets stopped down due to protest crowds like those in Cairo and Madison Wisconsin, look out. One state government can come to a standstill for a while and the rest of the world can live through it. But a really shut-down Washington?

As Thomas Paine said back in 1792, “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil” –The Rights of Man (1792)

Will the next government that emerges from the tumult in Egypt be Islamic or Islamist? There’s a critical difference, say experts, who caution against knee-jerk fears that Mubarak might be replaced by Islamists — Muslim political extremists.

Inevitably, the government — Hosni Mubarak or anyone else — will be Muslim, as it is now, because Egypt is one of the largest Muslim-majority nations in the world.

More via Mubarak or Muslim Brotherhood not Egypt’s only choice: Experts – Faith & Reason.

At first notice, when he spoke at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and then when he started his campaign speeches, we couldn’t help but notice a great similarity to Martin Luther King, Jr. Has nothing to do with race or what Obama says, but how he says it. The pace, the cadence, the repeating of certain phrases for emphasis all say preacher. Because that’s exactly what a good preacher does. And MLK was that.

Then there’s the motivator. When a good motivational speaker finishes, we’ve got to feel good about ourselves. We can do it, whatever it is. We have purpose, we can accomplish. Effective preachers convince all who listen of that. Good case: The man who preaches to an arena size congregation every week, and packs stadiums even in heavy doubter territory like New York City. His name is Joel Osteen. Watch him sometime. He IS the motivational speaker. As people listen, they don’t just feel good about God, they feel good about themselves.

Then there’s preacher Rick Warren. Motivational speaker, writer, host of he first McCain/Obama debate. He’s written a book that’s not just a NY Times best seller, but THE best seller, other than the Bible, of the past 2,000 years! And what’s the book about? You! YOU have a purpose in this world. It’s called the Purpose Driven Life. And YOU are the star of the book.

Cut back to Obama. He IS the motivational speaker. He IS the motivational preacher. Not the message we hear in church – except on occasions like Tucson – but accomplishing the same thing: moving people to feel and do what the speaker urges. How? By convincing you that you can accomplish more than you ever thought you could. And of course what you’re supposed to accomplish is the bidding of the one who delivers the inspiring words that convince you that you’re capable of anything. That’s Obama. That’s a preacher. And the ultimate salesman.

The alleged shooter, Jared Loughner, included Hitler’s Mein Kampf on his reading list. In a piece of YouTube junk he writes, yes writes (don’t expect any weird video–It’s just text), “No! I don’t trust in God.” His other rambling thoughts aren’t much different than what anybody dealing with a large segment of the public comes across. But not every rambling results in a shooting spree.

Like in one of our Nashville businesses we deal with aspiring songwriters all over the world. Most of them work at jobs like everybody else and have dreams they’re trying to do something about with their writing. But some have far-out dreams. Like the one who seems to really believe she’s a member of some royal family. Refers to herself with the title HRM.

We hear from her several times a week, telling us about how she’s had songs recorded by major artists, or how she’s been a staff writer of ours for years. She hasn’t accomplished either of course, but she seems to totally believe she has. So far, she’s harmless.

Then there’s the guy who ranted about strange things for months, then one day sent an envelope with an unidentified powder in it. Our person who opened the envelope felt a slight burning sensation, so we called local police, who came over, evacuated not only our building but those on either side of us. Took us all what they considered a safe distance away while a squad of some sort investigated the powder. Found nothing of real danger, so a few hours later everybody got back to work.

What happened to the guy who sent the mysterious envelope? Nothing so far as we know. Just a crank who wants to seem important, but so far seems to be harmless. We don’t open any more envelopes from him. In fact don’t get them since we told him about the “cops” incident. And threatened to send the FBI if we heard from him again.

With all this going on how can anybody determine which kook is dangerous and which is harmless before an Arizona or Fort Hood style incident occurs?

Probably can’t. And the kooks won’t quit if everybody gets more civil, as in members of Congress slamming each other and talk show hosts slamming them all.

We’ve just got to live with it. And some die with it. Then there are those geeks who constantly try to ruin everybody’s computer and make us spend billions on anti-virus programs. What talk-show host sets them off?

Yeh, I know, some people might think George W. is ugly. And that he’s not a good actor. Maybe they’re right. But it’s a choice between two, remember? And Al Gore is the worst actor imaginable. He looks like he’s lying even if he isn’t. But if you insist that W. is the ugliest of the two, remember that Al won the popular vote. And it was really the Supreme Court that did the real “deciding.”

Going back, there’s no debate that Ronald Reagan was the best actor. So was Jimmy Carter when he won. Nixon was always a good actor, John F. was just far better. And could anybody possibly put Barry Goldwater in the best actor category?

So what’s a good actor? Someone who can make people believe what they’re saying is real even when it makes no sense at all. Someone who owns the stage when he/she is on it. Lately Obama has been the best at that.

But back to Haley. Zero acting skills. Not even close to the ballpark of presidential charisma, much less in it. So could these people stop wasting air time and ink by even bringing it up?

With some in the financial world willing to bet on almost anything, it should be no surprise that a few would see the potential to profit from the often contentious and emotional process of ending a marriage.

More via Divorce Costs Financed by Firms – NYTimes.com.