Hope and Small Change

In all of the speculating over, "Who Killed Billy Thompson," the role of President Obama has loomed large. The NY Daily News raises some very interesting points: "President Obama's brain trust floated a raft of excuses on Wednesday in answer to complaints that he didn't lift a finger for vanquished Democrat William Thompson. "It was a sleeper race. No one thought it was going to be a close race, especially Bloomberg," a source told the Daily News. A stronger presidential embrace of Thompson might have backfired, the Obama insider contended, by driving more Bloomberg backers to the polls."

What a load of complete crap. Does this anonymous source-and why won't Gaspard man up about his meddling here-really understand the implications of this horse manure? So, if we understand what the Obami is saying, it means that the intercession of the man who ran up record numbers in NYC last November, has been so tarnished that his intercession now would have caused a backlash. Come on!

The emmis is that Obama is apparently the latest featured fish in the Bloomberg tank-and there is no limit to the reach of the man's millions: "But the source acknowledged that Obama had no desire to take on Bloomberg. "[Bloomberg's] an ally, so I'm not sure we would have spent the political capital," the source said. "Obama didn't even put out a statement endorsing [Thompson]. That tells you how we feel about Bloomberg."

But why is the plutocrat such an ally for Mr. Hope and Change? What this unseemly alliance underscores, is that the president's populism is simply an autobiographical artifice-lacking any real depth of commitment. Why else would he avoid supporting his party's nominee over the man who used his millions to both overturn a popular referendum, as well as to subvert any real democratic debate during the concluded election cycle?


Or, as our Hispanic brethren might say: Dos Alas del mismo pajaro. Obama the Community Organizer comes off in this sad spectacle as purely a parvenu-just another toady to the mayor's vast fortune. So much for the need to speak truth to power.