Riding the wave like a pro.

This is how I see things.

1. The Bush Administration in international affaris has been following a new policy for the past two or three years, but it has not been noticed by the media, so President Obama will both get high marks and good results for the same thing when he takes over. The main stream media seem to think Mr. Obama walks on water, something he has never claimed or even hinted at doing. Just the fact he is COOL appears to be more than enough to feed the media’s adoration, adoration so abject and worshipful that rarely seen after high school.

2. Barack Obama has had a run of good luck and the cautioius temperment and brains to profit from it. He currently has the good fortune to have a number of very important things going his way. With the Status of Forces agreement in Iraq, the Bush people have donethe heavy lifting in preparation of our withdrawal. Obama will be able to remove the bulk of our military in the next year an a half. What is lucky for him is that his campaign promise of more or less sixteen months to withdraw and what Bush has prepared are all but identical, except for the fact that the media see Bush as a drooling Texas moron, war criminal, village idiot, want to be dictator and dope. The same media see Obama as Prince Charming, FDR, Kobe Bryant, King Henry V, Nelson Mandella and Will Smith all in rolled into one. OBAMA IS SMART ENOUGH TO LET THEM THINK SO.

3. The fall of crude oil from almost $150/ barrel to the $35. to $45. is a very luck break for President Obama. It has put most of the worlds big time thugs and bullies on short rations and left them scrambling to shore up their domestic economies and make sure their people have an adequate food supply instead of making trouble for the USA and their neighbors. Iran and the others are in tight place right now and who knows what may happen. If Obama is really lucky the Iranian people may demand and get a regime change and maybe even get something roughly like a democratic government. The current regime and its cabal of prelates and fundamentalist thugs have a great deal to answer for to the citizens of Iran and they very well might have to do so this year.

The the collapse of the oil and gas bubble undercuts the delusions of world grandeur of Russia’s Putin and Venezuela’s ever popular Hugo Chavez. Chavez is a real piece of work, sort of the Banana Republic Road Company star in a revival of Benito Mussolini's role as Il Duce. But this time no spats or wife beater shirts.

4. The relationship of the USA and China right now is a perfect example of Mark Twain’s definition of allies: Two nations whose hands are so deep in each others pockets that they could not separate even if they wanted to. We agree to buy everything they want to export and they agree to keep their profits in US Treasury bonds. Crazy, but both sides are absolutely entangled and there is not way out.

5. One thing Obama and his White House and Justice Department should be ready for about two years down the road is a huge wave of petty and not so petty corruption scandals stemming from the ripping off and gross misappropriation of billions in economic recovery funds. Since Obama and the US Attorneys can not stop or even hinder the inevitable skimming and spreading the boodle around, they should make it clear from the beginning that they have their cold hard eyes on the locals pol’s who will actually be spreading big bucks around. The Congressmen are incapable of not turning the stimulus package into the greatest fattest pork feast of all time. It is hard wired into them, liberals and conservatives, saints and sinners, Republicans and Democrats, thoughtful statesmen and sleazy political hacks, they all will make sure their home towns score big time pork. Vast amounts of the money will be wasted or squandered or go into sweetheart contracts for their supporters and pals. Hundreds of silly ass projects ranging from Parks and playgrounds named after Congressmen to museums for folk art, barbecue festivals and grants to spiffy up this or that long neglected park or historic building. The Mayor of Las Vegas Nevada has proposed a grand museum celebrating the role of organized crime in building Aemrica. Can you imagine it, halls devoted to the career accomplishments of Joe Bananas, Buggsy Segal, Louie the Waiter, Lucky Luciano and all the rest of the great wise guys. (I didn’t just make this up.) Perhaps they will even have displays honoring political figures like Mayor Hague of Jersey City, Mayor Curley of Boston, Governor Huey Long of Louisiana, Mayor Jimmy “Gentleman Jim” Walker of New York and the ever popular Boss Twead of Tammany Hall.