Obama's Doppelgänger

Ere Babylon was dust, The Magus Zoroaster, my dead child,
Met his own image walking in the garden.
That apparition, sole of men, he saw.
For know there are two worlds of life and death:
One that which thou beholdest; but the other
Is underneath the grave, where do inhabit
The shadows of all forms that think and live
Till death unite them and they part no more

- Percy Bysshe Shelley, Promethius Unbound

A Doppelgänger is a spiritual double of a living person, a mirror image.  Often interpreted as a sinister omen, Shelley's poem anticipated his own death, and indeed he claimed in a letter shortly before his death to have met his own doppelgänger.

Consider the current day, and the current political campaign.   You could fairly describe Barack Obama's 2008 campaign thusly:

• He represented himself as holding positions other than his core beliefs (running as a moderate and governing as a radical).
• His view of "flyover" Americans was characterized by unknowing elitism ("clinging to their guns and religion").
• He made campaign statements that he later contradicted (he could no more renounce Jeremiah Wright than his own family, until he did).
• His supporters convinced themselves that the most important thing was replacing the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and so wrote their own hopes and dreams onto the blank slate that was the Candidate's very carefully crafted blank image.

It worked, spectacularly well.  Instapundit has coined a term to describe the buyer's remorse afflicting former Obama cheerleaders: hey, rube!

I'm struck by the similarity between the Obama/2008 and Romney/2012 campaigns.  Consider Romney:

• He represents himself as holding positions other than his core beliefs (running as a conservative after governing Massachusetts as a moderate).  Nobody believes his current positions on Obamacare or Gun Control, not even his supporters.
• His view of "flyover" Americans is characterized by unknowing elitism (cheesy grits, y'all).
• He made campaign statements that he later contradicted (compare anything he said in Massachusetts to anything he's said this year).
• His supporters seemingly have convinced themselves that the most important thing is replacing the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and so are writing their own hopes and dreams onto the blank slate that is Romney's very carefully crafted blank image.

Instapundit also is fond of pointing out that every Obama promise comes with an expiration date.  That would explain the entirety of Romney's flip flops:

• He was firmly Pro-Choice, but the expiration date has passed and now he's firmly Pro-Life.
• He was firmly against citizens owning dangerous "Assault Weapons", but the expiration date has passed and now he's firmly in favor of a citizen's right to keep and bear arms (and a lifetime member of the NRA, to boot, at least for the last couple years).
• He was firmly in favor of the State forcing you to buy something that you don't want and maybe can't afford (health care), but the expiration date has passed and now he's firmly going to repeal Obamacare.

I could go on, but you get the point.

Quite frankly, I don't see how anyone can say with a straight face that Romney would be a better president than his Doppelgänger, particularly if the Stupid Republican Party keeps control of the House and gains control of the Senate. Remember, this is still largely the party of George W. Bush and Harriet Myers, and so is presumptively champing at the bit to go back to the glory days of 2005. A GOP President won't restrain them any more than Bush did. They won't restrain a GOP President, any more than they did Bush.

A Republican Congress with Obama in the White House will be continually at war with each other, and so government will grind to a halt. That's the first benefit. The economy is likely to be no better in 4 years, and so the blame for that would not fall on a first term GOP President. That's the second benefit. Obama will resist all oversight into the EPA, DoJ, TSA, etc, and so a continual drip-drip-drip of government overreach and incompetence can be maintained for years, discrediting the Progressive Agenda. That's the third benefit, burying the liberal corpse at a crossroad with a stake through its heart. Oh, and Obamacare can be defunded, along with the portions of HHS that are responsible for implementing it. If Congress simply doesn't appropriate the funds, you have stopped it. Let Obama veto the budget, shutting down Government, all to save a wildly unpopular bill. A Republican Senate can delay SCOTUS nominations for a full-on Bork-style vetting.

Now, it's perfectly reasonable to say that the GOP are a lot of weaklings, who won't do any of this. I'm quite willing to consider this argument, in fact. But that just makes my case, which is to ask why they should be rewarded with even more uncontrolled power when they haven't demonstrated that they've changed their Bad Old Ways? After all, we're told that the Republic will cease to exist if Obama is re-elected, right? And the Congressional GOP still can't be trusted to rein him in?

I don't trust Romney at all, but think I understand him decently well. I don't trust the Congressional GOP much, but think I understand them decently well. I think I understand Obama decently well. I am a student of history; history tells you about today, if you listen. It will keep you from being surprised, if you listen.

I remain convinced that less damage will accrue to the Republic if we maintain divided government and let the Progressive Vision finish its death throes than to make a huge gamble that the same old crew has learned their lesson. Me, I'll take gridlock.

Stated another way, rather than vote for the fascist, I'll vote for the fascist.