Category: Politics

To a large extent Elliott snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. She showed very poor judgment in apparently just relying upon support from her caucus, who failed to deliver their own people in their own ridings. Elliott also seemed to just rely upon the same political advisers and political elites who were responsible for Tory defeats in the last four elections.

Talk about the gang who could not shoot straight!!

To Brown’s credit, he was not another right wing,  tone-deaf socially conservative Tim Hudak clone.

To the surprise of Elliott and her people, Brown pulled a Jason Kenney and he went out to all the socially conservative new Canadian groups, in the 905 areas and beyond, and brought in a ton of new Conservative supporters, among the South Asian, Tamil, Arab, Muslim and Asian communities.

Elliott played it safe. She made few errors, but she was destroyed nonetheless

Brown and his people did what Elliott should have done. Gone out and brought in new members, from the ethnic communities who had gradually gravitated to the federal Conservative fold through the efforts of Kenney and Harper.

Instead, Elliott played it safe. She made few errors, but she was destroyed nonetheless.

Though the left wing media has and will paint Brown as a hard core right wing nut, he is and will be a formidable opponent to Premier Wynne. He is very likeable. He is charming. He is young, smart and very aggressive.

Not only did Brown attract thousands and thousands of new members from previously non Conservative communities,  more importantly he and his organization were able to successfully get these new Conservatives to come out and vote. A true test of Brown’s organizational skills and formidable ground game, in this case, reminiscent of Obama’s successful ground game.

Premier Wynne. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Your time in office is well past due. And the new invigorated Conservatives are stronger than ever and they are going after you and your scandal-ridden government.

It should be no surprise that the “good doctor” Faustus accomplished nothing in the next twenty-four years. And at the end of this period, he wished to repent, but it was too late, and his body was ripped to shreds and his soul transported to hell.

The moral of this play, like the Icarus legend, is that pride or hubris, comes before the fall.

Similarly,  I strongly believe that Obama’s overweening pride, or hubris, in crafting a horrible nuclear deal with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will lead to Obama’s foreseeable downfall. Sooner rather than later.

Let me give you an example of Obama’s arrogance which apparently has dangerously clouded his thinking and his actions in negotiating this nuclear deal with Iran.

I have studied Obama- the man, for many years- as a young man, university student, community organizer, law student, young local politician, senator and then president.

Obama’s both strength and weakness is in the power of his self-constructed views and values and his unfailing belief in himself to influence those around him-  through reason, argument and the persuasive power of his oratory.

It is very rational to Obama that if the US, its allies and other major world powers ( the gang of six- US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany) engage Iran, a brutal rogue regime, in nuclear negotiations, then it rationally follows that successful peaceful negotiations, will lead to peaceful and positive change both within Iran and with respect to Iran’s relationship to countries within and without the Mideast.

As Obama stated in a recent National Public Radio interview:

(referring to Ira) “If in fact they’re engaged in international business, and there are foreign investors, and their economy becomes more integrated with the world economy, then in many ways it makes it harder for them to engage in behaviors that are contrary to international norms.”

The problem with Obama is that he arrogantly believes himself to be sort of an infallible Sun King- that knowledge and understanding revolve around him, and that he alone has the answers.

Unfortunately, his long-time advisers-  Valerie Jarrett and Susan Rice and his political subordinates- Biden and Kerry- seem more like “ yes men” and props to feed Obama’s ego, rather than independent and objective critics who have the cojones to challenge Obama’s world views and his particular views of Iran.

Accordingly, one of Obama’s fatal flaws, is that he arrogantly projects his own views on the Iranians. And then incorrectly comes to the conclusion that the Iranians naturally and rationally must share Obama’s well-thought out views.

Hence Obama believes that the proper course of action and the only course of action is not only to engage in serious nuclear talks with Iran, but ultimately to permit Iran to successfully build nuclear bombs, several years down the road.

Because according to Obama’s own hope and belief,  and his projection of his beliefs upon the Iranians-  by that time,  Iran will be a more benign, moderate, peaceful nation which would prefer ( to use Obama’s term) “regional equilibrium” with its Mideast neighbors- Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel- than out right conventional or nuclear war.

The problem with Obama’s thinking is that he has arrogantly confused his own thinking with that of the Iranians.

The facts on the ground tell a completely different story.

In 2009, when the Iranian Green Movement of Iranian students, reformers,  liberal intellectuals, secular businessmen and moderates surged into the streets following a disputed election,  radical political change in Tehran seemed possible.

But led by current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei-  the Revolutionary Guards, the reactionary clergy, the hard-line judiciary and their supporters and followers crushed the Green Movement. Their leaders-imprisoned, tortured, or killed together with many thousands of protesters.

There is no factual evidence that this Iranian power establishment will become more moderate and more benign in the future. Probably, Iran will become even more militant, more powerful, more power-crazy, and more aggressively supportive of murderous terrorist groups as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthi in Yemen.

Ayatollah Khamenei, in the midst of these so-called, game-changing peaceful nuclear negotiations, continues to publicly condemn the United States as the Great Satan and even has referred to Obama’s spin on the negotiations as “devilish and deceptive.”

America’s allies in the region such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel consider the infusion of billions of dollars into Iran and the ability of Iran to rapidly ramp up the development of its nuclear arsenal, ( as a result of this horrible nuclear agreement) clear existential threats to their very existence. It follows that these nations will in turn acquire and/or develop nuclear arms to counter the Iranian nuclear threat in their own backyard.

Accordingly, a nuclear arms race in the Mideast is inevitable and a regional nuclear war- probable.

All because intellectually arrogant Obama believes he is the smartest man at the negotiating table and he alone knows and understands the Iranians.

But Obama’s fatal blunders with the Iranians have not been lost on the majority of the American people and their Republican and Democratic representatives in Congress.

I predict that Congress, led by both Republicans and Democrats, will pass veto-proof legislation clipping the wings of Icarus Obama, vis a vis Iran.

And Obama’s Faustian framework deal with the Devil will ultimately lead to Obama’s inglorious downfall both as to his presidency and as to his legacy.

Furthermore, according to Premier Wynne, the Liberals have learned their lesson. They will be more transparent and open.

In the immortal words of NDP provincial leader, Andrea Horwath, “what a load of bull spit!”

In the view of the Ontario Auditor General, and in my humble opinion, the expenditure of over $1 billion dollars to cancel, then relocate and rebuild the gas plants, was totally unnecessary and an almost criminal waste of taxpayer money.

Based on the Ontario Auditor General’s report (which extensively investigated the gas plant cancellations) the then Ontario Liberal McGuinty government ( of which Wynne was a senior cabinet minister) clearly authorized its outside counsel to negotiate the payment of hundreds of millions of dollars,  to a greedy American hedge fund lender and to an
incompetent gas plant operator, unnecessarily, so as to make this gas plant cancellation debacle go quietly away. Out of public sight.  And out of the public mind.  (See here and here)

Then the McGuinty/Wynne government lied about the full amount paid. Then when the opposition parties demanded to see the emails and documents relating to the gas plant cancellation, the very same government lied about the existence of these documents.

Then in order to further cover up, the cover up, the same government retained computer security expert Peter Faist, boyfriend of Laura Miller, ( key McGuinty staffer) to wipe out the offending documents and emails in the Premier’s office.

Then to further cover up, the cover up, the Wynne government triple covered up, by refusing to permit the investigating legislative committee to obtain the testimony of the said Peter Faist.

It is imperative that both opposition parties keep Wynne’s feet to fire on this scandal, as well as the numerous other outstanding Liberal scandals, still under investigation- MaRS, Sudbury election bribe, eHealth, Ornge, just to name the most deplorable.