After his 4 hour trip to New Orleans, President Obama praised W’s father, George Herbert Walker Bush, in a speech at Texas A&M University. Obama hailed “this man of vision” (well, he proved he had the “vision thing” when he checked his watch out during a debate with Clinton, didn’t he? Maybe Obama also missed seeing the befuddled bozo incumbent oblivious to the price of bread? But then, the Bushes eat only cake) “whose life of service is an inspiration to us all.”

Fittingly, Obama, who is looking more and more like a Rockefeller Republican (strong on defense spending, pro-expansion, pro-spending on banks and Wall St. and niggardly on the needs of average Americans), spoke in the presence of his own Republican Secretary of Defense. Yes, Robert Gates. W’s guy whom Obama still has not seen fit to replace, probably because W’s defense secretary’s vision of expansion and escalation is pretty similar to the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s. Obama dolloped praise on Gates:

“…he could not be doing a better job on our behalf, and I want you all to know that I’m very proud to have him as our secretary of Defense.”

SOURCE: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/10/barack-obama-george-h-w-bush-texas-speech-text.html

For a man who promised to bring fresh new faces to Washington (remember Obama’s whopper of a lie to the electorate, “you need to bring new faces to bring about real change”), Obama seemed awfully comfy in the presence of all the old faces that have shaped the country’s defense and economic policies for the past 3 decades. Take Obama on the former Republican Secretary of State, James Baker, the man who led W’s steal of the 2000 election: (he’s) “served this country for decades as a trusted advisor to presidents, and more importantly, as a statesman.” Yeah, Mr. President, Baker’s brownshirts storming the offices of the vote counters in Florida helping cut off the vote count really showed a lot of statesman-like qualities. Sure. Here’s Obama’s spin on W’s Republican Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates: “He has served for four decades under eight presidents with integrity, with candor, with an undying commitment to keep this nation safe.” Maybe Obama will nominate Gates for the 2010 Peace Prize? It seems it’s pretty easy to hoodwink five Lutefisk-eating Norwegians, anyway, with rhetoric and promises. Accomplishments? Who needs them.

Here’s Obama On George H.W. Bush:

“He easily could have chosen a life of comfort and privilege, and instead, time and again, when offered a chance to serve, he seized it. It was second nature to him -– the continuation of a proud family tradition that he and Mrs. Bush clearly passed on to their children and grandchildren.”

I guess Obama forgot that W. was one of those children, or that Bush and progeny HAVE lived lives of comfort and privilege. I must confess, moreover, that I have a personal recollection of George H.W. Bush that is at variance with Obama’s fantasy portrayal of the man. In the mid’ 1990′s, after Pappy Bush was voted out by the electorate, he became a spokesman for Citibank in Asia giving speeches for $1 million a pop. That kind of greed is hardly public spiritedness but then Citibank got a nice return on their investment too in the subsequent lack of government oversight. Pappy Bush’s speech was always the same one, delivered I think 6 times in various cities to bring in a maximum amount of loot. I attended one of these sorry affairs in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Bush DEMANDED that the press be kept far away from the talk and INSISTED that they not be allowed to ask him questions! He was very comfortable in the settings of totalitarian-led governments like Vietnam and China or one party states like Singapore where the press couldn’t ask hard questions. The real George H.W. Bush has little to do with Obama’s Frank Capra-like version of him.

Or look at Obama’s words about “public service” delivered in Texas that could have been written and uttered by the Grade B actor Obama has said he so admired–The Gipper himself:

“And if anyone here thinks that our government has all the solutions, President Bush and I will be the first to tell you that you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Government can build the best schools, with the best teachers — but we can’t run the PTA, or chaperone those field trips, or mentor those kids after school, or have them sit down and do their homework at night. We can pass the most comprehensive health reform bill — but Congress can’t be on the ground in our communities caring for the sick and helping people lead healthier lives.

Government can give our troops the equipment they need, and the pay and benefits that they have earned, and nobody is working harder at doing that than Secretary Gates — but it can’t be there to offer a home-cooked meal to a military family stretched thin, or to make sure our veterans get the respect and appreciation they deserve in their communities when they come home. (Applause.)

In the end, when it comes to the challenges we face, the need for action always exceeds the limits of government. While there’s plenty that government can do and must do to keep our families safe, and our planet clean, and our markets free and fair, there’s a lot that government can’t –- and shouldn’t –- do.”

SOURCE: For this quotation and all other quotations from Obama’s Texas A&M address, Los Angeles Times transcript of his speech at link above.

Sadly, those words are Obama’s and not Reagan’s. I guess no one told Obama that the public isn’t looking for the government to run the PTA, to chaperone field trips, or to provide home-cooked meals to military families. Talk about a series of straw men arguments. What the public IS LOOKING for from its government and its starry-eyed President is: real healthcare reform (not health “insurance” reform); looking at all of the options available on Afghanistan, including withdrawal and containment; and, spending more than the paltry amount that the President has on domestic stimulus to deal with 10% unemployment. But Obama, not unlike Reagan and the Bushes, finds it easier to erect straw men arguments on what government cannot do than actually doing something positive for the needs of average Americans. Trillions to banks and Wall St. under Obama’s Geithner, bread and circuses ($250 per person additional a year for Social Security benefits) for the rest.

Obama also churned out platitudes to those in “public service” (like the Bush family and Jim Baker?) who supposedly work in government for a sense of duty: “Those folks weren’t in it for the money.” Sorry, Mr. President. Have a look at all the politicians who claim they are in it for “public service” but end up as millionaires having sold out the public in the process. Tom Daschle anyone? You remember the former Democratic Senate Majority Leader who came to Washington,D.C. from South Dakota as a humble man with little money and now rolls in green provided by the insurance and drug companies? The same public servant who got a chauffeur-driven limo from one of these Fat Cat operations and welched on his income taxes (but was never prosecuted)? The same guy Obama wanted as his HHS Secretary before he had to withdraw, red-faced from humiliation, from confirmation hearings that showed he was a tax dodger? Or how about former Congressman Billy Tauzin? Contrary to Obama’s Frank Capra-like fair tales about people going into “public service” for duty, Tauzin, like most politicians, had dollar signs in his eyes from the start. Tauzin, you may recall, oversaw the pharmaceutical industry as as Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, but bailed out to take a $1 million plus (not counting bonuses, stock options and whatevva!) top lobbyist job for the drug industry. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1216-05.htm

Or take a look at all of Max Baucus’s former staffers who are now serving as lobbyists for the drug, healthcare and insurance industries. Or the circle of advisors around Tim Geithner–many of them basking in bonuses from Wall St.? Or look at all the ex-Goldman Sachs people working for Obama while Goldman is enjoying record profits again because Obama’s administration is so cozy with them. That’s not exactly the public spiritedness that Obama falsely painted in his speech to George Herbert Walker Bush. But that’s the Hollywood-like storyline that Obama, Bush, W, Jim Baker, and Billy Tauzin would have us believe. Ah, the Bush Republicans and the Obama Democrats join together in a mutual admiration society. Are they really that much different anyway?

It should be clear now to all that Obama’s real enemy is not the GOP but progressives within his own party. Obama even today continues to court Republicans (Olympia Snowe, anyone?) and neo-Republicans (Joe Lieberman, anyone?) even though they they bitterly oppose the values of the Democratic side of the Democratic party. Obama embraces a 44 year Republican in Arlen Specter and snubs a real Democratic Congressman who would be a more progressive face in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Rahm tells progressives to go “F __k themselves” while Obama refuses to meet with the Democratic Progressive Caucus despite two requests in writing for him to do so.

The recent lovefest between Obama and the old faces of two Bush administrations in Texas, Obama’s continuation and even escalation of the policies of war and expansion started by W, his quest for “bipartisanship” in health “insurance” reform, and his freezing out progressives from his administration–all prove that the hallmark of the Obama administration is continuity not change. It explains why Obama prefers the likes of Judd Gregg and Robert Gates to Howard Dean and Wes Clark. It explains why Obama can afford to say nice things to the people from the Bush administration because nothing much has changed under him, even as the same old faces like Gates and most of W’s generals work alongside the new president. Obama’s change is all cosmetic, all window-dressing which brings us to Hollywood.

If only Obama could find another Frank Capra to stage his version of politicians working for the public good along with a nation of high-minded volunteers and a government that recognizes its limitations! Maybe, “It’s a Wonderful World For Those in Power” as a working title and starring Obama himself? Or if you prefer, “You CAN take it With You!” narrated by Billy Tauzin and Tom Daschle. If Obama has proven one thing in his young presidency, it is that Hollywood is not alone in spinning out illusions. Perhaps the great Irving Berlin got it wrong when he wrote that champion foot tapper, “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” Politics today seems a business indistinguishable from Hollywood. The Gipper would approve of Obama, just as Obama approves of the Gipper.