I have to agree with Limbaugh though--Obama is putting a face on potential Republican obstructionism. Pick a target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it.

To make the argument about me instead of his plan makes sense from his perspective. Obama's plan would buy votes for the Democrat Party, in the same way FDR's New Deal established majority power for 50 years of Democrat rule, and it would also simultaneously seriously damage any hope of future tax cuts. It would allow a majority of American voters to guarantee no taxes for themselves going forward. It would burden the private sector and put the public sector in permanent and firm control of the economy. Put simply, I believe his stimulus is aimed at re-establishing "eternal" power for the Democrat Party rather than stimulating the economy because anyone with a brain knows this is NOT how you stimulate the economy. If I can be made to serve as a distraction, then there is that much less time debating the merits of this TRILLION dollar debacle.

If this is what Obama has in mind, then he's made a fatal mistake. Newt Gingrich was the perfect foil for Clinton because he was almost unknown to the general public and his only way of responding to Clinton was through the liberal media. He was a tailor-made patsy.

Limbaugh on the other hand is one of the most famous men in the country, and he doesn't use any intermediaries to talk to the American public. The state media would have little choice by to quote him or play video and audio excerpts--thus insuring that Limbaugh's message would go out unmassaged. Obama might get in a sound bite every now and again, but Limbaugh has three hours a day to harangue the public about the Democrat's plan to "war profiteer" at the expense of the citzenry. He's going to do that anyway, but by picking a fight with him, Obama guarantees him a far larger audience that he would otherwise have on his own.

Mark Twain's political advice, more recently echoed by Bill Clinton, was to, "Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel." That's a bit of an anachronism now, but the principle remains sound--those who have the public ear are powerful adversaries, not easily engaged without suffering a few bruises, lost teeth and perhaps broken bones.

Of course, the Republicans don't need Limbaugh to tell them what to do--the goals of the Democrats are obvious and the outcomes very bad for them personally. Its hard to motivate a politician to do the right thing, unless that "right thing" involves their own professional survival.

Ultimately though, what this incident suggests is that we are just at the very beginning of a long struggle for the political and cultural identity of the country.

Most Americans are ignorant of their own form of government, so its little surprise that they would know almost nothing about Frances, but there are some interesting lessons to be learned from examining their history. Both the U.S. and France had revolutions at about the same time, but the outcomes were very different. British subjects not in accord with the revolutionary spirit had the unusual option of being able to go to England, or north to Canada (where they are referred to as United Empire Loyalists...). This left the field clear for Americans to build the country from a basis of unity. In spite of that, disputes abounded anyways, and we wound up fighting a civil war.

In France, the losing side in the revolution had no place to go, so they stayed, and the disputes were magnified accordingly. France has been through five Republics since the revolution, and polarization was--like it is now in the U.S.--the rule rather than the exception. The massive French bureaucracy, like a heavy blanket over every part of French life, is in the end, simply a reaction to the polarization that threatened it continuously for a couple of centuries.

The expected rejoinder might be, "...well, they're French, we're Americans..." True, but one of the interesting elements of examining different forms of government is how irrelevant their legal structures are. Whether you have a parliament, a Congress, a President or Supreme Ruler for Life, the functions of the government and the crises they respond to are remarkably uniform everywhere in the world.

Human behavior is uniform regardless of language and culture is simply the result of different environment stressors.

The current state of political polarization in this country is remarkable similar to that of revolutionary France. Democrats undoubtedly understand this and will apply the French solution--massive centralization of government and economy.

Bonjour comrade.