What kind of President will Obama be? We only have vague and conflicting impressions because his statements to date appear to be incoherent (at best) on a range of subjects. For example, he wants to eradicate al-Qaeda but run from Iraq. If we left Iraq and focused on the tribal regions of Pakistan, where does Obama think al-Qaeda might go for sanctuary? We really can’t afford to be playing whack-a-mole with terrorists.

The other incoherent thing he has been babbling on about is Global Warming, making apocalyptic claims that defy all reality:

The ‘science is beyond dispute, and the facts are clear’. Yes the science is clear. We are in a serious global cooling phase which even scientist associated with the alarmist UN’s IPCC predict will last a decade or more. Yes, the data over the last decade have proven ALL of the IPCC climate models and predictions wrong. Science demands accuracy in its theories. When they are wrong there is no salvaging them or twisting them, they get thrown out. Science is showing there is no CO2 based, man-made CO2 and that is hard data.

But the sea levels are rising (on TV, not in the real world) storms are getting stronger (but they aren’t since the last two hurricane seasons are at a decades low intensity) and there is increased famine.

Well …. science shows that warmer global temperatures reduce famine as more crops can be grown for longer periods over greater ranges of latitude. In fact, models show global warming should reverse the worst area of famine on the globe, south of the Sahara Desert in Africa:

Global warming could significantly increase rainfall in Saharan Africa within a few decades, potentially ending the severe droughts that have devastated the region, a new study suggests.

The discovery was made by climate experts at the Royal Meteorological Institute in De Bilt, the Netherlands, who used a computer model to predict changes in the Sahel region – a wide belt stretching from the Atlantic to the horn of Africa that includes Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti.

Global warming will heat the land more than the sea, leading to changes in air pressure and weather. When the Netherlands team simulated this effect and combined it with warming caused by the expected rises in greenhouse gas emissions between 1980 and 2080, they found Sahel rainfall in the July to September period jumped 1-2mm a day.

Some scientists suspected that global warming might increase rainfall in the region, causing the so-called greening of the Sahara, but these are the biggest predicted increases so far.

So what is the pattern we are starting to see here for President-elect Obama? Well, it seems to mirror the Clinton model. The man who promised change is filling his cabinet with liberal democrat retreads. He is a Kool-Aid swilling liberal who wants to push the country left.  He is not being bold, he is seeing what can be poll tested successfully. He is the man of fad. Whatever is popular he is for, whatever is not he claims no position.

With the country still a post 9-11 country when it comes to al-Qaeda it is no surprise Obama claims he will eradicate al-Qaeda, especially in the face of threats by its number 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahiri:

A statement purporting to be from the second-in-command of Islamic militant network al-Qaeda has called on Muslims to harm “criminal” America.

In the message, Ayman al-Zawahiri is heard accusing President-elect Barack Obama of betraying his Muslim roots.

He also likens him to a “house slave” – who had chosen to align himself with the “enemies” of Islam.

Mr Obama has said stamping out al-Qaeda “once and for all” will be a top priority during his administration.

On Sunday, he said capturing or killing Osama Bin Laden was “critical” to US security.

Obama talks big, but his endless efforts to surrender Iraq to al-Qaeda showed he was not really serious about destroying al-Qaeda. A few years back he tested the political winds and saw Iraq was unpopular so he went incoherent on national security in order to maximize his personal adoration. He cried for the end of a hopeless war. Then things turned around and now the nation sees Iraq as a victory. What will Obama do? Will he break the hearts of his liberal base and go against public opinion?

Obama doesn’t see the trap he is setting up for himself because he is sure he is doing all this brilliantly and no one can trip him up. He has very little room for error as the economy continues to tank. Way too many of his voters bought into the fad idea that Obama was going to bring on Nirvana, that he was the Chosen One.

Clinton was egotistical and naive too when he started his first term. When he went into office he was going to show off that dazzling intellect everyone was drooling about (this year it is tingly legs). After the disaster in Somalia, his political near-death experience of the WTC I bombing (hiding the fact this was an act of war on American under the mirage of a criminal investigation and trial) and Hillary’s Health Care blunder Clinton finally learned the limits of Presidential power and why you need a cadre of leaders around you who know the hidden land mines of each area of government.

Obama cannot afford to lose his messianic image. The wrath of the naive voter who doesn’t get what was promised is swift and brutal – just look at Bush and the far right when they did not get all of what they wanted.  Obama has to face land mines overseas in Iraq, Iran and elsewhere (see here for a good overview of the real al-Qaeda and Islamo Fascist threat). The threat of terrorism is real and they are gunning for the new President.

I think the best indication of how dumb Obama could be is how he is blissfully unaware of what will happen if he imposes liberal policies on top of an ailing economy. He is a Kool-Aid guzzling liberal. His sheltered life and lack of real world experience has not given him the experience to understand the real world, he sees things through a lens not unlike the mentality seen on network TV shows.

For example, our economy is in shambles and the Messiah wants to make the mythical rising waters recede and cool an already cooling planet:

“At its core, it’s very simple – we need a price on carbon,” said David Crane, chief executive officer of NRG Energy, another Climate Action Partnership member. “We own coal-fired power plants. That’s what we do for a living. We’ve been developing low- or no-carbon technologies as we look to the future. … But again, we need a price on carbon, because it’s not cheap.”

Obama’s four-minute, videotaped speech largely repeated elements of his energy plan from the campaign trail, saying the nation must cut greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2050.

It is almost laughable. CO2 levels have been on the rise for 10 years, and the planet has been cooling over that same decade. The last time we had a record warm year was 1998 – when Bill Clinton was in office fighting impeachment! The current year is more reminiscent of 1995, right before the Clinton-Dole election year and when the GOP took over Congress.

Look, the only bright light in our economy is energy. Consumer prices fell in October (one month) by an amount not seen in 60 years:

The Consumer Price Index plunged 1.0 percent in October, its biggest drop since the Labor Department began monthly records in 1947. Core prices, excluding food and energy items, fell 0.1 percent — the first fall in more than a quarter of a century as prices for gasoline and all energy-related products fell.

It was all due to the lowered cost of energy. But Obama plans to go ahead and start taxing energy so that we will price ourselves out of certain energy solutions, which just happen to be incredibly popular at the moment. What is middle class American supposed to do with their oil heating system – convert it to nuclear power? 

Even if things went well on the economy it would be well into next year before we cleared the trouble. But things are not going well, and more and more people are going to get financially squeezed or ruined without any price increases on energy. Obama correctly sees “Green” as the next big media driven fad. But fads are just that, fads. As we see our tax dollars going to lousy businesses, executive and union jobs which pay too much in salary and benefits, to financial institutions that got rich off bad loans, people are going to start to get angrier and angrier.

And just wait until they see more taxes on energy, no drop in CO2 (because our portion of the global CO2 pool is miniscule) and global cooling continuing despite the CO2 levels not shrinking. And when crops cannot be grown at today’s levels due to the cooling there will be real outrage at the cost of food, food shortages and famine.  Obama (and too many other conservatives and moderates) have bought into the global warming myths (even 10 years after it stopped warming). Their pride and ego will not let them admit they were wrong, so we all get to pay for their crazy ideas on the latest fad and bring more pain to the average American and the poorest among us.

Obama’s pattern is becoming clear: he looks for popular positions and tries to push liberal policies through these fads. Some fads allow him to be openly liberal (Climate Change) and others he has to hide his liberal views under a smoke screen (Iraq victory). But Obama is Clinton 2.0. And that is going to really damage the democrats, because fool me once shame on you, fool me twice – shame on me. Fads are no way to govern. 

Tags: al-Qaeda, Famine, Global Warming, Iraq, Pakistan, President-Elect Obama, Rising Seas