Comandante Obama - The president has made America look like a banana republic.

Peter Robinson authored an article on February 27, 2009 for Forbes online in which he relates a conversation he had with a Colombian and a Cuban:

"But you don't understand," the Colombian said. "We've seen this before."

"He's right, my good friend," the Cuban said. "We Latin Americans know the pattern. Believe me we do."

The American tried to shrug off the Latin Americans' warning. To his consternation, he found that he couldn't. Peron, Fidel, now Chavez, they insisted. The emergence of misrule, corruption and economic stagnation in Latin American nations follows a particular sequence or progression. Now the sequence was unfolding in the United States.

"It starts with a cult of personality," the Cuban explained. "One man declares himself the jefe, the caudillo, the big leader."


They went on to explain to Robinson the progression followed in Latin America and the parallels they see with Obama.

THE CULT OF PERSONALITY
- The election was based on “hope” and “change”.. he had failed to advance a genuine agenda
- Academics and the mainstream media have been “only too willing to place themselves in thrall to Obama”:

“On Feb. 17, for example, the president had signed an $800 billion "stimulus" bill, at least three-quarters of which was devoted not to stimulus but to political payoffs. Less than a week later, he had hosted a White House "summit" on fiscal responsibility. Had the press noted the contrast? Had it objected? The very idea. “

NATIONALIZATION
The Columbian noted that next comes nationalization:

Fidel had nationalized the Cuban sugar mills, Chavez the Banco de Venezuela, Morales the Bolivian oil and gas industries.

Obama? He may not have been issuing sweeping diktats. But as the American had to admit, he had already presided over a vast expansion of the federal stake in banks, in the automobile industry and in the mortgage markets. And in his address before Congress, he had proposed a new federal presence in health care, an industry that accounts for a full one-seventh of the economy.

CENSORSHIP
The last step is censorship. The Cuban said it is coming. The American said ”no way...we have the First Amendment“. The Cuban noted we soon will have the Fairness Doctrine.

Revoked in 1987, the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters to air contrasting views of public issues. Reintroduced today, the Fairness Doctrine would force radio stations to pair conservative talk show hosts, who draw big audiences, with liberal hosts, who, as Al Franken's brief radio career demonstrated, draw barely any audiences at all. As the American had to grant, the Fairness Doctrine would thus make talk radio unprofitable, in effect censoring Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, Michael Reagan, Laura Ingraham and other conservative stars.

The re-imposition of the Fairness Doctrine--and the imposition of censorship. Was this possible? As the American had to admit, it now appeared not only possible but likely.

Welcome to the New America. All Hail to the Comandante!!