Obama's Superbowl Game

The nation has begun a new game. The old team is gone. We the people, have been the opposing team, in other words, the defending team, in this process of advancing democracy and legitimate government, as opposed to illegitimate government, although our advantages had been suppressed by our last opponent---Team BushCo.

As America's only defending team, we were constantly at a disadvantage due to their subversive cheating, bribing of referees, and dirty plays. Now, they are done and gone. The game is over. We defenders have to prepare for a new game with a new opponent. They have shared their game plan, their strategy and the rules. We are willing to play, although everything is just starting. We are in Limbo. We are waiting for it all to begin.

Over the last 4 years, we defenders and our support team, the free thinking, open-minded, democracy-believing, non-Regressive-neo-con American people, have been analyzing all the plays made by Team BushCo, and had plenty to talk about, criticize and debate. The blogs were filled with opinion pieces and editorials. But now, everything is in a holding pattern, since President Obama’s team is just beginning to line up and approach formation.

What fills the Blogosphere is basically filled with healthy chatter. Are we experiencing deflation or not? Is Tim Geithner too close to Goldman Sachs or not? (Where was the outrage with Paulson’s actual paid connection to Goldman Sachs?) Can Obama fix what is broken? Is his cabinet capable of orchestrating a recovery plan that will work? Will China fall into recession?; or, hold to their strong GDP?; or, grow as the world’s reserve currency?; or, upstage the dollar around the world, while continuing to manipulate their currency against the dollar? Will President Obama capitulate to the plutocrats who had controlled finance for decades? Is the stimulus package to little, or just enough? Will his choice for Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack carry water for the agribusiness corporate royalists, of which he was a member as Governor of Iowa and support of genetically engineered pharmaceutical crops, as well as a government representative working as a supporter on behalf of Monsanto, which orchestrated the takeover of the seed industry with their purchase of the Terminator seed patent?

What about Afghanistan, Gaza, and Iraq? Will Afghanistan continue to drain our budget deficit and be a weight around the nation’s neck, as the Soviets realized after their years of engagement? Will Obama stand up to Israel and Iran? Will the Constitution be restored or continue to be subverted? Will the rights of the citizens, and their right to privacy be further destroyed? Will rendition, and many of the BushCo's illegal violations of the Geneva Convention remain intact? Will Obama sign the bill that allows Homeland Security to build internment camps on domestic military bases? Is Team Obama preparing for a round up of those disenfranchised and destitute Americans taken down by the collapse of the U.S. economy? Will whistleblowers be respected, heard, and protected from political silencers? Will the failed  "Too-Big-To-Fail” financial investment banks be nationalized? Currently, one game play has already been made to hand over the remainder of the TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program), which might end up as a fumble. Is hyperinflation waiting in the wings? Will under/unemployment numbers reach 20%? How much more personal wealth will end up being lost in 2009-2010? (Over 40% of the world’s wealth has already been burned up.) Will suburbia disappear and end up being foreclosed on and bankrupt? Will the fossil fuel motoring and freewheeling lifestyle implode further eroding personal income and job stability? Will the press restore their diseased investigative backbone?

Will there be global trade reform or will it remain imbalanced? Will the administration tax the multi-national corporations, which have outsourced this nation’s jobs? Will President Obama demand that the profits made by the multi-nationals return to the U.S. or face penalties? Will we see import tariffs? How deep will the cuts in federal programs be in order to reduce the hugely massive national debt? Will there be a plan to reduce the trade deficit that will make a difference?

Will No Child Left Behind be left behind? Will American see a significant downsizing of school programs and services in order to remain solvent? How much will property taxes shrink? Will there be civil unrest? Will colleges and universities do away with all but the essentials in order to obtain a degree? Will foreclosed homes be sold for whatever a buyer will pay to take it off the hands of the bank minus the leans, and owed property taxes? 

Will Obama bring forth a significant plan for alternative energy, and a nationwide rail network? Will Team Obama's Energy Secretary want more of the same brought to us by BushCo? 

Is President Obama really for Change? Is Hope just a four letter word? How much “Change” is he ready to deliver? Or, is he just another quarterback bought and paid for by the opposing team franchise owners (the oligarchs) to do battle, at any cost, against the defending team?

These questions are just a drop in the bucket. Until the game begins to move down the field, there really is little to write about except for the fallout dropping all around us as a result of the devastating firestorm created by the last team.

All the hypotheticals and what-ifs being written about across the Internet are only fillers and time spacers, since most of us don’t really know what the Obama Team will actually do next. There are pundits, and writers outlining the various possibilities being considered by Team Obama, but until he grabs the ball and advances his offensive line down the field, we won’t know how it will unfold, or how we defenders will act.

Making predictions based upon hypotheticals has its limitations and can be an exercise in futility. It has its place, but we should avoid elevating our anxiety levels and fears over what has not yet happened.

But what is true is that we defenders are beginning to figure out the Team Obama strategy and field plan just by seeing who he has brought out onto the field to play HIS game. Let the game begin!!!