Obama Wins, but Republicans Self-Destructed

Hubris on Wall Street and in Baghdad felled the imperious Republican Party. They had a vise-like grip on power and thankfully blew it. Obama happened to be a damned good candidate too.

He's pulling the country from the brink. This is a victory over massively misguided and failed policy. The Republicans, with their contempt for average people, thought they had the self-interest of the masses finally under control. But they were wrong. They fooled too many people for far too long. But in the end they went too far themselves.

With their growing sense of limitless power the Republicans invaded and occupied two nations with poor Americans pointing their guns, deluding themselves into thinking they could "spread democracy." They hadn't a clue what they were doing, succumbing to mad schemes of neo-conservatives believing victory in the Cold War was an opportunity to expand American power. Fortunately they didn't know anything about empire building. If they had Obama might not have had a chance.

Republicans became silly drunk with power. Remarks like "terrorist fist-jabs" and "paling around with terrorists" showed contempt for a populace devastated by excesses on Wall Street and the Pentagon.

That left McCain to campaign on a message of change. Imagine. How could he win against the opposition party that truly represented change? McCain must wake up in the middle of the night in a sweat screaming George W. Bush's name, with an epithet worthy of a Navy pilot. First he endured Bush's filthy 2000 primary campaign. Then he miscalculated that to win in 2008 he had to embrace Bush. The Hug must have sickened McCain. He had betrayed himself.

It's a great victory tonight. It's time to celebrate. But Bush and Cheney are still in charge. It used to take months by horse to get to Washington after victory. Inauguration was therefore set in March. January isn't soon enough in the jet age.

There's still time for Bush to create mischief. His father, after the people repudiated him in favor of Clinton, used the too-long transition period to invade Somalia and order air strikes on Iraq. Let's hope Bush is chastened enough to call it a day.

He's lucky he won't be put on trial for war crimes, though to put a cap on this wonderful night, he should be.

Read more reactions from HuffPost bloggers to Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election

Comments

[sposton]

I would recommend Joseph Stiglitz. At least the guy questions some tenets of our economics religion, and the current financial order. He probably would not be acceptable to Wall Street and I suspect Obama would never put anyone in there that would be vetoed by Wall Street. I object to Volcker because he brutally wrenched out inflation on the backs of ordinary people, which marked the beginning of a systemic downward pressure on American wages. Plus he would work hard on replacing $ with an international monetary unit. That would mean even greater loss of our sovereignty, opposite of what we need right now.

[RoloTomassi]

Thanks Joe, once again you nailed it.

But while BushCo has a window of opportunity to do additional damage, we have a small window of opportunity to organize a concerted affront to Free market fundamentalism in this country and around the world, by pushing for reforms not only here in the US financial industry but also in the WTO, IMF & World Bank.

Our best chance for modifying these entrenched and dispicable practices is to push hard and persistently while Wall St. goons are still reeling from their self-inflicted blows to the markets. We need a FDR-style return to Keynesian economic policies and stimulus programs, but we must remember that we are fighting an accepted "religion" of economics rather than a poorly imagined and failed set of economic policies.

[Jesster]

I've got a feeling that Americans of all stripes are just so relieved to see the light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to the long Bush & Co. nightmare, that they will not pursue any kind of "day of reckoning" when it comes to that crowd of criminals. I think most people (especially those who voted for Bush/Cheney TWICE) would just like to forget this tragic episode in our history.

I still haven't decided how much this matters. On the one hand, I want accountability and justice. I want lessons to be learned (though we've recently witnessed how little Enron and Arthur Andersen taught anyone...) On the other hand, there is the fact that we don't have a moment to waste to get back on track after our long devestating "derailment."

(For all of his obvious flaws, we wasted the Clinton Presidency's potential by going along with the Right Wing's fervent and ongoing assaults on things as insignificant as a speck of dust and culminating in the preposterous impeachment hearings...)

So while I crave "justice" - my first priority has to be "moving on" - since we literally are running out of time to turn it all around.

[tao53nyc]

"I'm hearing Democrats everywhere claim this election is a repudiation of free market economics. Don't believe it.

The war lost this election [for the GOP]. The war's multi-trillion dollar bill lost this election. Gitmo lost this election. The trillion -dollar deficit lost this election. The bailout lost this election. Bush lost this election.

Had the GOP nominated a candidate who knew anything at all about the market or The Fed or freedom, things would have been quite different. Gee, did anyone like that run this year? "

-- Ryan McMaken

[gs1962]

I agree completely. The Republicans, in their disregard for all working people and utter indifference to the sufferings of all Americans, have nearly destroyed our country. I hope that the era of give-aways to Corporations and CEOs is finally over.

[kaukerc]

Yep, I would have to agree with you on every point. The republicans self-destructed and we had a remarkable candidate. However, I do wonder if we had not had the financial meltdown, would we be celebrating right now? I am not so sure of that answer.