PRESS RELEASE
The Ides of March 2010
Feb. 28, 2010 (EIRNS)—This editorial will appear in issue 8 of EIR.
Sotto voce, within the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. and around the country, political insiders, including top Democratic Party officials, are voicing the same conclusion: Barack Obama is a disaster, and if nothing is done, the United States is not going to survive. Some, among the muted chorus, are openly talking of the need for the President to be removed from office—by impeachment or resignation. Others fear the "i" word, but offer no comforting alternative to President Obama's speedy removal from office.
The first open fissures within the Obama White House team, itself, have now grabbed headlines, beginning with a Daily Beast online column two weeks ago by Leslie Gelb, the former President of the New York Council on Foreign Relations, longtime New York Times senior correspondent, and Carter Administration State Department policy director. Clearly speaking for the Democratic Party wing of the Eastern Liberal Establishment, Gelb demanded the immediate ouster of Rahm Emanuel, and the entire Chicago sycophant crew occupying the remaining West Wing offices.
Gelb's column was countered, a week later, by the Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, who jumped to Emanuel's defense, while roasting Valerie Jarrett, David Axelrod, Robert Gibbs and, by implication, First Lady Michelle Obama. By Milbank's account, Emanuel's ruthless competence has been undermined, at every turn, by the Chicago incompetents, who treat President Obama like a cult god—a most dangerous relationship to cultivate with a man with a Narcissistic Complex to rival Emperor Nero. Emanuel would sell his soul to the Devil with no compunctions. But he demands Devilish competence.
There is good reason to believe that the Milbank account is accurate, and that Rahm Emanuel is not about to throw his reputation down the nearest toilet bowl, to remain in competition with the likes of Jarrett and Axelrod. Things are about to get very nasty in Obamaland, and none too soon.
The reality is that the American people have already delivered a devastating vote of no-confidence to President Obama at every opportunity, since the August recess town hall meeting explosions. This past week, students a the University of California at Berkley rioted over cuts of $2.5 billion in the bankrupt state's higher education budget. Young Americans, who delivered the 2008 election to Obama, have defected in droves, and are facing a no-future prospect with anger, that is now boiling over into rage. If you thought that the Spring 1968 Boomer generation campus explosions were serious business, wait to see what erupts this month—as students are hit with massive cutbacks, cancelled credit lines, and real unemployment and underemployment figures between 20-30 percent.
One very senior Democratic Party official openly declares that Obama has done more to destroy the United States in one year than Bush and Cheney were able to do in eight. Can there be a more stinging indictment?
So far, the pandemonium in the corridors of power is taking place in cloak rooms, and private watering holes, in whispered tones. Out on the street the same sentiments are being voiced with pungency and force.
To date, Lyndon LaRouche is the only public figure to openly and loudly demand Obama's impeachment or resignation. An orderly transfer of power, as specified in our Federal Constitution, must take place. The groundswell is building, and the message could not be more clear: The Ides of March 2010 is days away.
