Populist

You know we’re in trouble when Republican blowhards keep saying they want Obama to fail (at least according to redundant TV news babble). Here we are in deep doo doo, on the brink of economic free fall, and the party that put us there in the first place hopes we don’t get out of it.

More realistically, William Greider is worried Obama, along with the rest us, may be sucked into the voracious void of the burgeoning corporate state that threatens to overwhelm our democracy, even as he preaches reform:

The president is getting what he asked for, but perhaps not what he had in mind. During the campaign, Barack Obama beckoned Americans to put aside their cynicism about politics and re-engage as active citizens. They are now doing so with red-hot anger. They are outraged by events and forcing their way into congressional affairs and behind closed doors where policy wonks discuss issues with cerebral civility. The president is now trapped between these two realms -- the governing elites who decide things and the people who are governed. Which side is he on? If he does not choose wisely, the anger could devour his presidency.

Read the rest of Greider's analysis from last Sunday's Washington Post, and then you may want to get on this bus too, before it's too late.

"People are angry, but they want this president to succeed," Greider concludes. "Mobilized citizens can help him to prevail. If he goes with the other side, they will bring him down."