Two Uncomfortable Observations

In case you're given to ask; the reason these are getting posted as blogs instead of new "American Bob" episode is that A.) I'm tinkering with that format and B.) This takes five minutes whereas the videos take several hours...

OBSERVATION #1:
There is not a single "radical" thing about either President Obama or the era in which his Presidency is taking place. Everything from his policy proscriptions to his general tone to his fixation on centrist-compromise are the polar opposite of "radical." The non-superficial differences between him and the last 30-40 years of Democrat Presidents and politicians in general are essentially nonexistant. What's more, the economic downturn currently occuring is, while grim, not meaningfully worse for most Americans than the economic/energy crisis of the late-70s to the recession of a decade or so later.

Despite this, both Obama and his Presidency have been regarded AS "radical" to such a wide and fervent degree that an entire movement, the so-called "Tea Party," has sprung up specifically as a "counterweight" this supposed radicalism. Given the (empirically provable) lack of actual radicalism or even meaningful policy difference between Obama and pretty much ANY Democrat or even moderate-Republican who has taken the national stage in any of our lifetimes... what, precisely, would be the "Occam's Razor" answer to the question of what it is about him that really fills the "Tea Party" - on the primal, subconscious level - with so much panic and consternation?


OBSERVATION #2:
The key problem facing Obama's so-called "Buffet Tax" or "Robin Hood Tax" is that - despite the fact that a plurality of Americans tend to favor such a measure - 40 years of an incredibly successful campaign of subtle race-baiting subterfuge on behalf of conservative/Republican political strategists has successfully conditioned huge chunks of Middle America to hear "Tax the wealthy to help the poor" as "steal from hardworking Whites to give away to 'undeserving' Blacks and 'illegal' Latinos." (What, after all, do you suppose the repeated dog-whistle stump phrase of "Real Americans" is supposed to mean?)