By Maui Curmudgeon

Stop me when this sounds familiar:

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.  We are the change that we seek.”

“It’s not just enough to change the players. We’ve gotta change the game.”

And here’s my favorite so far:

“We cannot meet 21st Century challenges with a 20th Century bureaucracy.”

What Obama neglected to add was, “…but I’m sure going to try!”

I’m not the first to say this, but I have to add my voice to the choir. A man who promises change by bringing in “new players”, by bringing change “to Washington” instead of getting change “from Washington” is a man who needs to think outside the political box. Obama sold himself as just that man. America bought it.

Since the election, one of two things has happened.

Circumstances have changed Obama’s philosophy. If this is true, he is an incredibly weak man and he shouldn’t be president. We’re screwed.

Or, Obama lied. I think this likely. I think he’s smart. He knew when he said these things that they were crap. He knew given the growing problems America faces that he had to bring in people who had been there before, who could not spend valuable time learning how the system works but rather work to fix the problems. That would have been fair enough if he had been honest and told America that. He didn’t. He cheated, like he cheated on his pledge to use public monies. He said what he said to win.

By doing this, Obama has pissed off his base, before he even takes office (http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081208/pl_politico/16292). For a man who is supposed to be a savvy politician, that’s a pretty dumb thing to do.

To get away with this sleazy slight-of-hand, Obama has come up with a fantastic trick, and it will work. It’s called, “Promise money to everyone.” Not too many will care (except those with principles) that you ran on one idea and now work another, if you wave bucks in front of them.

The national debt is at $10.7 trillion and rising by nearly $4 billion every day. Obama is promising another one to two trillion dollars in relief and public work projects. He hasn’t said a word about how or who is to pay for all this. I would respect the man if he sat down and talked like an adult, instead of with “yes we can” platitudes. i.e. “Yes, America, you can get help, but you’re going to have to pay for that help.”

Currently 70% of the gross domestic product is paid by consumer debt. This level is historic and unsustainable.  Like the housing, hedge fund, and insurance industries, production will collapse unless the system is restructured. The automakers are just the first. Restructuring doesn’t mean filling pot holes. Restructuring means changing the system at its core. We need a new system. We don’t need money stuffed into pockets under the old system.

Finally, an indicator that Obama just doesn’t get it is his ridiculous propensity for hiring not only “people who screwed it up the first time” but, god help us, Republicans. (http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/08/obama.cabinet/index.html).

If America wanted an administration with Republicans, it would have voted for Republicans. Duh.

And spare us the “picking the best person for the job” bullshit. There are a half dozen good people who would have made pretty good work of the job Obama is now getting. There sure are several people who would work well and hard in any position, and believe it or not, many of them aren’t Republicans.

If anyone has heard of an “Obama really sucks already” campaign, sign me up. I’ll send money.