Another Unfortunate Titanic Metaphor

OK, lets just suppose there was the Captain of a ship called the Titanic, for the purpose of this metaphorical illustration we'll call him Captain Bush. Now this Captain is arrogant, cocky and not terribly bright and unfortunately he happens to be at the helm of the most powerful Country, oops....I mean ship, in the history of the World. As is easily predictable, this hapless bungler of a ship's Captain proceeds to slam the massive vessel square into an iceberg. Though Captain Bush and his bridge hands are able to conceal the degree of damage for a few hours, eventually it becomes obvious to all aboard that the circumstances are dire. After a brief meeting, the Passengers and Crew vote to toss the Captain and his inner circle of supporters overboard and select a new Captain.

Their plan goes off without a hitch, but time is short and the situation is critical. The new Captain Obama is young bright and optimistic, however he has assumed control of the bridge of a vessel which is taking on water at an alarming rate. He devises a brilliant plan and embarks upon what may be a futile attempt to save the vessel. At this point in the metaphor the ship is in pretty bad shape,but still afloat so we don't yet know how the plot will unfold, but things definitely don't look rosy.

The scene changes and we find ourselves in the media room with various pundits, many of whom helped place the incompetent Captain Bush at the helm in the first place. Horrified that the passengers will recognize their complicity in the creation of this tragic circumstance and make them walk the plank, they make a pact never to mention the name of the former Captain and to make the case that the New Captain is at fault. They decide to argue that the number of gallons of water pouring into the vessel per minute has increased since the new Captain has taken the helm and therefore he should be held responsible for the tragedy, instead of old "What's His Name."



Sound pretty ridiculous? You need only turn on Cable news or listen to AM talk radio to hear this absurd argument made daily. The latest right wing talking point, or more accurately "leap of logic", is remarkably simple and just as remarkably absurd. The daily fall of the Dow , according to the right wing media, is a reaction to President Obama's policy proposals therefor he is to blame for our economic woes. This argument ignores the fact that the stock market began it's slide before Obama was elected or that the massive job losses began months before he took office. More importantly we must ignore the fact that most of the Obamas plan ares still in the proposal stage. Their twisted logic creates an economic crisis which began on January 20, 2009 and would clearly right itself shortly if not for the policies being proposed by the Obama Administration. Each day the latest Wall Street drop is directly linked to the latest Tim Geithner speech or future health care proposal.

It was easily predictable that the right wing mouthpieces would make an attempt to shift the responsibility for this economic catastrophe from its rightful owners. Their policies of deregulation and corporate welfare must be protected for future use when, and if, this mess is cleaned up. I foolishly assumed that they would wait a tad bit longer than one month into the new Administration.