Looking Over the Obama Horizon

So what will the Obama years bring us? Here are two reasonable projections, one domestic and the other international.

The Wall Street Journal projects what an Obama led, liberal Democrat government will do based on the bills that failed to pass the recent Congress ("The Liberal Supermajority," Oct. 17, 2008).

Medicare for all - "the Obama plan would shift between 32 million and 52 million from private coverage to the huge new entitlement. Like Medicare or the Canadian system, this would never be repealed."

The business climate - "Democrats could cause the economic downturn to last longer than it otherwise will by enacting regulatory overkill like Sarbanes-Oxley. Something more punitive is likely as well, for instance a windfall profits tax on oil, and maybe other industries."

Union supremacy - "The "Employee Free Choice Act" would convert workplaces into union shops merely by gathering signatures from a majority of employees, which means organizers could strongarm those who opposed such a petition. ... This would be the biggest pro-union shift in the balance of labor-management power since the Wagner Act of 1935."

Taxes - "Taxes will rise substantially, the only question being how high."

The green revolution - "Cap and trade would hand Congress trillions of dollars in new spending from the auction of carbon credits, which it would use to pick winners and losers in the energy business and across the economy. Huge chunks of GDP and millions of jobs would be at the mercy of Congress and a vast new global-warming bureaucracy."

Voting rights - "national, election-day voter registration. This is a long-time goal of Acorn and others on the "community organizer" left and would make it far easier to stack the voter rolls."

Free Speech - "the Fairness Doctrine is likely to be reimposed either by Congress or the Obama FCC. A major goal of the supermajority left would be to shut down talk radio and other voices of political opposition." On this last issue, read "Dems Get Set to Muzzle the Right" by Brian Anderson of City Journal (New York Post, Oct. 20, 2008).

On the international front, Joe Biden himself said recently, "Remember, I said it standing here, if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy." Obama is known to be not only inexperienced, but also an appeaser, a talker, a man eager to be liked in foreign affairs. Enemies around the world who are not nearly as enlightened as the Harvard educated Obama will seize the opportunity the gain ground on America and on their neighbors while the pup's eyes are still opening.

Ralph Peters ("America the Weak: US risks turmoil under Prez O", New York Post, Oct. 20, 2008) foresees "an avalanche of confrontations."

Al Qaeda - "al Qaeda will pull out all the stops to kill as many Americans as possible - in Iraq, Afghanistan and, if they can, here at home - hoping that America will throw away the victories our troops bought with their blood."

Pakistan - "the save-the-Taliban elements in the Pakistani intelligence services and body politic will avoid taking serious action against "their" terrorists...The Pakistanis think Obama would lose Afghanistan - and they believe they can reap the subsequent whirlwind."

Iran - "Even without nukes, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would try the new administration's temper in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf."

Israel - "Obama's election would be read as the end of staunch US support for Israel. Backed by Syria and Iran, Hezbollah would provoke another, far-bloodier war with Israel. Lebanon would disintegrate."

Saudi Arabia - "Convinced that Obama will be more "tolerant" toward militant Islam, the Saudis would redouble their funding of bigotry and butchery-for-Allah - in the US, too."

Russia - "Vladimir Putin, intends to gobble Ukraine next year... 2009 may see the starkest repression of freedom since Stalin seized Eastern Europe. Our Georgian allies should dust off their Russian dictionaries."

Venezuela - "Hugo Chavez will...export his megalomaniacal version of gun-barrel socialism. He'll seek a hug-for-the-cameras meet with President Obama as early as possible."

North Korea - "will regard an Obama administration as a green light to cheat." (DCI - as they did with the Clinton and Bush administrations)

Peters states the obvious when he says, "an Obama administration would be a second Carter presidency - only far worse." The most catastrophic foreign policy blunder of the Carter foreign policy was the mishandling of Iran leading up to the fall of the Shah. That was thirty years ago. We are still living with the consequences and perhaps we have yet to see the worst of them should Iran obtain nuclear weapons. Even just four years in power will very likely bring immeasurable suffering to the world and far-reaching compromise of American security.

Having Joe Biden at the young president's elbow will only make matters worse.