Monkey see, monkey do

Wait a second. Something does not make any sense. How can President George Bush and President Barrack Obama come up with the same strategy as presidents?

You see, as a Republican, I can say that watching President Dubbya spend a trillion dollars on wars, expanding the size of the debt and government while using the Patriot Act against honest Americans was embarrassing. Watching President Obama follow the same game plan is downright suspicious.

For some very strange reason President Hope and Change decided to keep Guantanamo Bay open, continued the same Bush tax plan and continued the same wars that keep our troops in harm’s way after promising to bring them home within 16 months. President Barry even found ways to make sure his buddies at Goldman Sachs did not loose money in the financial collapse, you know the company that hired President Bill Clinton’s son-in-law. We, of course, cannot forget the fact that he had secret meetings with health care executives after chiding Bush, Bill and Hillary for doing that very same thing the last time.

If you’re thinking what I’m thinking, then maybe you’re wondering how he came up with the same plans as George Bush came up with? If you’re a Democrat who believes George Bush was an idiot, then you must be having this sick feeling that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I have another solution that will blow your mind.

Just imagine for a second that you could find a person who has no actual governing experience — not even in a little state like Alaska. When they were elected to lower office, they did not show up 46 percent of the time and voted with their party 96 percent of the time. You have a person who has not really held any high-level management jobs, or had to make payroll. You might be able to control that person, as long as you let them run around and be president. Think banana republics in Latin America or Africa. If you and your powerful buddies got together and wielded your massive influence and power from behind the scenes, your presidents could actually change every four years, but policy would remain the same. The voters would not revolt because they voted for that person.

You see, the Democrats had control of both houses of Congress, and could pass any legislation they wanted for the first two years Obama was in office. So how is it that all the hopes and changes that were promised didn’t happen? I believe President Obama is a good man at heart. Unfortunately, I don’t think Bush or Obama have what it takes to stand up to the forces they have faced.

You don’t have to jump to the theory that aliens are controlling their minds. Often the answer is much more benign than that. A number of years ago I learned that the executive secretary of a company often has more power than other executives with titles. The secretary and the deputy secretary in cabinet positions change when presidents change. What does not change are the people next in command. Those people have a funny way of ending up working for large companies when they retire with full pensions. They get jobs as very well-paid consultants if they don’t go on to seek higher office.

But you don’t have to stray very from the top to understand the power of this effect. Bill Clinton went on to make some amazing cash as a consultant. It would not surprise me if George Bush and some of his friends did not go on to make some fantastic money as well. Have you noticed that no president or any of his buddies have been busted for inappropriate income. Let’s face it, speaking engagements are one thing, but that’s not where the real large money comes from.

Now I am not saying that Bill Clinton’s son-in-law is not going to make an amazing amount of money in his life, all on his own merits, but what a message that would send to the Obamas who are raising two bright and wonderful little girls. The favor bank of the world works a little different than passing envelopes full of cash. Often, how you treat people leaving office tells the person coming into office that they will get gold at the end of the ride, as long as they don’t kill the golden goose.

You see, it’s not against the law for a large corporation to pay multi-million dollar fees after a person leaves office. We know from the fact that the IRS ignored Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel for 17 years that no one is watching out for bribes. Companies can legally hire the family of bureaucrats and politicians at much higher rates than the market normally pays after they leave office. That’s just the way of the world. People with power and money got that money and keep that money because they understand how this works.

Its no fluke that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Gen. Petraeus are both from the previous administration that President Obama was elected to change. If the parties are starting to blur, it is not your imagination. Presidents come and go, but the real people that run our country never leave.

David Alsabery can be reached at alsabery@gmail.com.