Nostradamus, i ain't

As regular readers know, I confidently predicted that Hillary would be the Democratic nominee back when all the conventional wisdom said that Obama had a it all wrapped up. Were I not so lazy about writing, I could have seemed even more prescient since I realized that Obama was doomed by his own abilities the first time I actually listened to one of his speeches. Of course Bill Clinton gave a giant clue to the nature of his inevitable destruction when he indicated that he and wifey would go racist on Obama's ass after South Carolina, but the seeds of that destruction came straight out of Barak's own mouth.

But Nostradamus I ain't. And you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes either. I made a simple string of deductions based on a solid foundation of facts. The process was all quite logical.

I started with the premise that the United States is not a functioning democracy, that it is in fact a one party state in which the Democrats are to the Republicans what the Washington Generals are to the Harlem Globetrotters: Well compensated professional losers. Of course it's more complicated than that. There is no grand conspiracy with a central committee that pulls all the strings. But nevertheless and although it is not particularly homogenous, there is effectively only one party. The business party.

Once you come to terms with that sad fact, predictions are easy. You simply have to look at the bottom line. Who is getting the money. What has to happen to keep it flowing? And of course huge profits are not enough. There must be constant growth, preferably exponential.

So the first clue is that the "defense" establishment rakes in a truly ridiculous share of the profits. Military-industrial complex is a much better description, though that has come to sound like commie talk, even though it was coined by a conservative Republican president and WWII hero.

The rest of the money goes to a wide variety of businesses. The lobbyists, not only for the military-industrial complex but for all the Enron's Exxon's, Con Ed's and anyone else who can scrape up the money to buy and pay for a congressperson or president, are the key to understanding the system. That and the fact that they own the media. Literally. They literally own the media. So the media will act accordingly.

The real party is simply not to be fucked with. That is the fact from which all predictions must spring.

So when I heard Obama speak seriously about gutting the military industrial complex and cutting out the lobbyists in order to actually represent regular people and saw that his communication, organizational, and fund raising skills were such that he might actually be able to pull it off, I realized that the blowback was coming and that it would be like none we have seen before. He was doomed, I told you. It was obvious.

Because, you see, if Obama were allowed to win and govern in a democratic manner, that would mean that the United States is a functional democracy and not a one party state. But since we're not, he won't. Simple as pie.

And I'll stick by my prediction that both Hillary and John McCain will choose Joe Leiberman as their vice-presidential candidate. I've already read speculation that he will be the keynote speaker at the Republican convention.

Now I'll go further and publicly predict that Hillary will not only win the Democratic nomination, but stomp McCain in the general election. That may seem unlikely now, but as the summer wears on I'm confident you'll look back at that and say, no shit Sherlock. Hillary is a much better representative of the party. Although he's tried real hard to scrub himself clean of any last vestige of honor and ethics, he has yet to fully come around to the ways of the party. Hillary, on the other hand, has no honor or ethics whatsoever.

The rule of thumb for these intra-party contests is that the sleaziest, most corrupt racist ultra-nationalist war monger will always win. That would be Hillary, in a mudslide.

What about Obama? I'd like to see him run as an independent and take down Hillary, but I don't think he'll do it and am not sure John McCain wouldn't become the new Ned Lamont even if he did.

So I'll stick with my sound advice that he do what's best for the country and go into exile in France. I believe that's truly his only chance of having a positive impact on the system. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But someday and for the rest of our lives. Not really, but one can always hope.