What If The Divine Was Merely…Mortal?

by Brian Brady

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

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I must admit that I agree with Barack Obama.  I’ve been trying to keep my chin up and look for the positive aspects of his Presidency.  I remember thinking, on election night, that he would have an awfully tough time governing from the center with the Pelosi/Reid Politburo pressuring him.

Why is governing from the center important?  Well, that’s what Candidate Obama promised and that’s what 3 out of 4 of the voters wanted:

On the other side of the argument are the exit polls showing the Americans who voted Tuesday described themselves as 44 percent moderate, 34 percent conservative and only 22 percent liberal. That would seem to portray a center-right nation.

Here’s his first test:

Democrats are growing impatient with President-elect Barack Obama‘s refusal to inject himself in the major economic crises confronting the country. Obama has sidestepped some policy questions by saying there is only one president at a time. But the dodge is wearing thin. “He’s going to have to be more assertive than he’s been,” House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., told consumer advocates Thursday.

Make no mistake about it, Barney Frank is a member of the Pelosi/Reid Politburo.  He is at the center of the everything is fine with Franklin controversy that eventually blew up in our faces.  Today, Frank and others want to divert funds appropriated for banks to the auto industry.  Their colleagues aren’t buying it.  What happens when the Politburo doesn’t have the support of the Faithful?  It turns to its Messiah…but the Messiah is just a man… and that man doesn’t want to dirty his hands with axle grease.

Presidents-elect typically spend the transition period assembling their cabinets, their White House staff and preparing to take the reins of power. But this transition is occurring at an extraordinary time, with bad economic news mounting by the day and with one of the country’s major industries begging for a hand to keep from collapsing.

Two Democratic senators involved in trying to salvage the auto companies have said Obama could help move the process along and should become more engaged.

“The Obama team has to step up,” Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and one of the lead negotiators, said Nov. 21 in Hartford, Conn. “In the minds of the people, this is the Obama administration. I don’t think we can wait until January 20.”

President-Elects of days gone by have inherited difficult times.  In 1980, President-Elect Reagan respectfully stood by and watched President Carter scramble to bring the hostages home from Iran.  It happened on Inauguration Day, minutes after Reagan’s Oath of Office.  While the Iranian move was a snub to the departing President, even Reagan would admit that Carter’s efforts were what brought our countrymen home.

The High Priests of the Politburo don’t like the “man”; they want the Great Liberal Messiah:

Frank, shrewd and quick-witted, also poked fun at Obama’s calls for a “post-partisan” governing environment in Washington. Frank predicted that regulatory legislation aimed at preventing abuses related to subprime mortgages and credit cards stood a much better chance next year, when Democrats have greater majorities in the House and Senate.

“It is a grave mistake to assume that parties are irrelevant to this process,” he said. “My one difference with the president-elect, about whom I am very enthusiastic, is when he talks about being post-partisan.

I’m encouraged.  This man might actually keep his promises….and that virtue is…Divine.