Wake Up And Smell the Presidential Coffee

As new President Barack Obama said on Wednesday,

“The question isn’t whether you’re better off than you were four years ago, the question is whether you’re better off than you were four weeks ago.”

Unless you are in the repo, liquor or foreclosure business the answer is no.

“President Barack Obama” you ask? Isn’t that pushing the presumptuous envelope a mite?  Perhaps you’re thinking, “arrogance much?”

Not really. It’s my job to be ahead of the curve and deal with what’s coming next.

Sure, I might be previsualizing 25 days from now, but your Creative Greenius can already smell the freshly ground whole beans our coffee’s about to be brewed with.  And I can assure you of one thing – that coffee ain’t preground old school Chock Full O’ Nuts.

Right now as the stock market crashes anew with each passing trading day – not just here but all around the world – it’s pretty damn obvious how irrelevant George Bush and Dick Cheney are.  At least 75% of America has already fired them in their minds and in their hearts and no longer considers them our nation’s leaders.  They’re only killing time – and the American economy – by continuing to occupy the White House.

And it has become painfully, cringe-inducingly just as obvious from watching the debates and the campaign these last several weeks that John McCain doesn’t really stand for anything and isn’t leading anyone where we need to go as much as he is standing against Barack Obama and leading the way for the entitled rich.

You know the entitled rich, they’re not the folks who earned their way to the top, they’re the ones who got it handed to them and then act like they’ve had it coming to them all along.  Perhaps you’ve encountered them along your way in life.

It’s not really John McCain’s fault.  He’s only being true to his genetics and home environment.  John McCain was born into the world of the well-off and powerful since his birth in 1936.  He’s been fighting on the side of the wealthy and privileged ever since entering life as the son of a Navy Admiral who himself was the son of an Admiral.  That was long before he ditched his first wife and his kids for his current wife, the 100 $million beer heiress.

John McCain can’t help it if he’s been a member of the entitled rich for his entire 72 years now.  But any of us who have worked for the entitled rich as waiters, bus boys, caddies, house painters, go-fers, warehouseman, truck drivers or speech writers – all of which your creative Greenius has earned a living doing – can’t help it if we know too much about what kind of character John McCain is.

We know only too well from our own life experience the red-faced angry sneer.  The furious finger jab.  The venomous tone of voice.  The snarling bombastic “Don’t you know who I am?!” attitude that can cut to the bone as they treat you like a bad dog if you disappoint them, don’t do things their way or worst of all don’t know your place.  Their ability to get mean, hateful and positively ugly is prodigious and it’s apparently contagious.

As the big time pressure has mounted and he has been put to the leadership test here in the moment of crisis, McCain has revealed his own true ugly, entitled, ultra-rich side and he has crashed his own chances to be our next President by running a desperate, hate-filled campaign that appeals to people’s worst side instead of their best.  He has aimed at the lowest common denominator and he has hit it on the nose.

John McCain’s crowds and supporters are bound together by what they DON’T like and their palpable fear of Barack Obama – not by any belief that John McCain would make the best President or that he has the right answers to guide us in this crisis – or any other.

They have become the angry mob following the angry man, ready to rip something – or someone – apart, so frustrated by their own impotence and the knowledge that they are the ones responsible for the failure they find their lives today.  These are the same people who voted for Bush twice and supported his policies.

These are the very same people who aimed their hate and anger previously at Al Gore and John Kerry on George Bush’s behalf for the past eight years and now the chickenhawks have come home to roost and they have no pot to cook them up in.  No wonder they have gone postal and need a target for their rage.  And when the “N” word isn’t available to them the word “Socialist” will do them just fine.

But President Obama has been calm, steady and intelligent throughout, and when he reminded me of how much better off I was four weeks ago it mostly made me think of my new rooftop solar system.  The one I didn’t buy.

Four weeks ago I was ready to withdraw $29,000 out of my savings and business capital to pay for my solar system.  Four weeks ago I was prepared to wait a year to claim my tax credits and five years to get my business deprecation.  I was willing to wait at least 11 years to break even.

But four weeks ago the entire world was a different place.

Four weeks ago I was more worried about the fate climate change has in store for us than anything else.

The climate has only gotten worse in the last four weeks, but today I worry that the fear, uncertainty, hate and anger being whipped up by a desperate campaign which has already lost, can destroy our climate before the greenhouse gasses finish the job.

But I still believe Hope will triumph over Fear in these last 25 days.

I still believe the majority of people now feel that enough is enough.

I predict that the size of the landslide President Obama receives on November 4 will allow the rest of us to rise up in positive momentum and rebuild this country based on the strengths of the common man and common sense – two things that have been the real POWs for the past 8 years.

Right now it’s time to brew up another fresh pot of coffee.  We’re going to need to be alert and ready for what’s coming next.