Obama In Pajama In Cuba

You'll recall that recently, the former President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, attempted to subvert the Honduran constitution that mandated a single term for the presidency by forcing a referendum that would allow presidents to serve more than one term, the proximate cause being that Señor Zelaya's single term was coming to an end. In response, the Honduran legislature ruled against him and the Honduran Supreme Court affirmed the ruling. In response - and in true fascist style - Zelaya called out his supporters to intimidate his opponents, then confiscated the ballots, fired the head of Hondura's military and attempted a bogus referendum himself.

Stop me if this sounds remarkably like any number of tyrants who have declared themselves "president for life", starting with Idi Amin, the cannibal, straight through to the Jefe' du jour in South America, Hugo Chavez. They too made the most blatant of attempts to subvert democracy, likewise using the institutions of Democracy against itself.

Zelaya was not so lucky. After his eleventh-hour power grab, his legislature condemned him, and his Supreme Court ruled against him. Then, his military paid him a visit in the middle of the night, put him on an airplane to Costa Rica in his pajamas, and bid him goodbye.

President Obama's reaction? Of course, he came down on the side of the would-be dictator, as did his ideological soul-mate, Hugo Chavez.

Since the "coup" as Obama put it, the Hondurans have been subject to sundry international pressures, including a cutoff of U.S. aid, UN condemnation, and threats by Obama to restrict trade. Four month's later, though, they're holding up pretty well, and Zelaya has been reduced to cravenly lurking around the border in Nicaragua, holing up in the Costa Rican embassy and holding press conferences with an ever-diminishing group of reporters, his 15 minutes of fame - not to mention his dreams of power - rapidly drawing to a close.

The moral of this story is not clear, except for the fact that Obama's reaction was drearily predictable, so in thrall is he to dictators. As OffHisMeds and others have observed time and again, while President Obama is perfectly content to bestow his favor on the likes of Chavez, Zelaya, Prince Abdullah and Vladimir Putin, he reserves his scorn and criticism for countries that actually sanctify Democracy and observe its norms. Countries like Israel, for example. Or the Czech Republic. Or Honduras.

OffHisMed's consolation in the face of such behavior is that Obama - never one much for introspection - will finally overstep his boundaries in America as Zelaya did in Honduras, occasioning Congress to defy him, the Supreme Court to overrule him, and the American military to escort him from his bed in his pajamas, hustle him to an airstrip and ship him to, say, Cuba, where he, Raul, and the only partially decomposed corpse of the ultimate president-for-life, Fidel Castro, can commiserate until the wee hours, albeit with the consolation of some really good cigars and the compatibility of their world views.

OffHisMed's other happy thought is that - if this were to happen - there would no longer be a U.S. president around to be the enabler of dictators.

At least, that is, until the next election cycle.