Barack Savonarola Hoffa, Jnr.

I do want to blog about the State of the Union address later, and the troubles any President would have in the midst of an ongoing economic crisis which, as I keep saying, can now spread from any one of a number of centres identified on this blog and others over the past three years.

Debt and deficit are connected to currency imbalances; currency imbalances are connected to asset bubbles and the diminishing return from the income imbalance between developed countries and the BRIC countries; western economies are on borrowed time, mostly; and oil capacity cannot cope with demand. Derivative misuse has gutted the western capacity to cope, and quantitative easing and bank rescues have distorted or hidden the reality. No President can cope with that and the grotesque mess in Washington and the looming social security crisis. Probably none could have.

However, I'm running around, so I'll blog later.

All I'd ask is whether anyone else was disconcerted that the President of the United States is now triangulating himself against everyone else--Congress, the States, and the Supreme Court--in an attempt to align with angry, troubled and deeply fearful voters. And what did Associate Justice Alito think that he was doing calling the President a liar from the well of Congress?

This sort of thing is as old as time, and probably politically sensible; but it doesn't bode well, does it? The President is meant to be the tribune of the people, but the people seem more interested in their States, their towns and cities, and their survival in the face of a venal and largely amoral political-media class. Can any leader represent one group to the other and belong to neither?

Here's a sensible, well balanced visual reflection on things.