John Feehery: Speaking Engagements

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Czars Among Us

Posted on June 10, 2009

Czars Among US


 


            Many have already commented on the plethora of czars that have been named by the Obama Administration to help the President control the nation’s economy.  Not many have noted the striking similarity between the actual actions of President Obama and that of a real czar, Vladimir Putin.


 


            Even Pravda, the former organ of International Communism, has chided the United States for its stunning move to the left.


 


            Like Obama, Putin has a fawning media that is intimidated by an uncertain market place and looking for any help to stay afloat.  (Think Brian Williams and his unbelievable coverage of the President during his two day tour of the White House).


 


            Putin wouldn’t name a "compensation czar" yesterday to set salary and bonuses at some of the biggest Russian  firms at the heart of the economic crisis, as part of a broader government campaign to reshape pay practices across Russia.  But President Obama would.


 


            President Obama wouldn’t go to a small town ravaged by the global downturn and yell at local tycoons about how they are not taking care of their employees, like Putin did the other day to one Russia’s prominent business owners.  Or would he?


 


            Obama wouldn’t call that man, Oleg Deripaska, greedy and a cockroach.  Well, at least he wouldn’t call him a cockroach, right?


 


            Of course, President Obama wouldn’t fire the CEO of a private company, like Putin did to the President of Olimpstroy, a company that is overseeing construction for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.  Unless that person was a CEO of a major car company.


 


            Speaking of cars, President Obama hasn’t taken to selling cars like Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who recently showed off his new Russian-made SUV, part of his bid to support domestic car makers during Russia's severe financial crisis.  As one wire report put it, “Putin appeared before journalists Saturday behind the wheel of his new khaki-colored Niva, which is produced by Russia's biggest car maker Avtovaz. A pleased-looking Putin invited reporters to take a ride, according to Russian television footage. Appearing at his Black Sea residence in the Olympic city of Sochi, Putin said he would use the three-door, stick-shift car to go fishing.  Putin has urged Russians to support domestic producers -- especially automobile makers -- against their foreign competitors as the economy struggles amid the global financial crisis.”


 


            Now, why would Obama want to own a car company?


 


            And isn’t it ironic that both Mr. Putin and Mr. Obama are fixated with the census.


 


Another wire report put it this way, “The next Russian census, announced for 2010, may be delayed, less because of the financial problems Moscow officials have cited up to now but because of political concerns that any accurate count would show that Vladimir Putin’s social policies have not been nearly as successful as he and his government have claimed.”


 


Maybe that is why Mr. Obama has insisted that the policies dictating the census be located not in Commerce Department, like it usually is, but under his watchful eye in the West Wing.


 


Both Putin and Obama like to photographed with their shirt off.  Both don’t mind that Iran has nuclear power for “peaceful purposes,” and neither really want us to deploy our anti-ballistic missile technology to Poland.


 


The President has taken to naming all kinds of czars for all kinds of purposes.  I just wonder when he is going to cut to the chase and name himself czar, and join his good friend Vlad Putin in the dictator business.




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