Commissar in Chief

I guess Robert Romano sent this out before David Horowitz put up his essay yesterday warning against "Obama Derangement Syndrome":

Romano says a "new order" has arrived in America:

This new order is decidedly fascist, and it will rapidly proceed to being outright socialist. First, the monster will subsidize, then it will take ownership, and then it will destroy the American economy.

But check out Investor's Business Daily as well, "Meet The New Boss":

A president of the United States orders the chief executive officer of General Motors to resign. The same president is further ordering Chrysler to merge with Fiat, the Italian firm specializing in flimsy cardboard boxes on wheels.

This new reality should send a chill down the spines of all Americans. The federal government has begun to run U.S. companies.

President Obama said Monday, "my team will be working closely with GM to produce a better business plan."

To that confident assertion he added these stern sentiments:

"They must ask themselves: Have they consolidated enough unprofitable brands? Have they cleaned up their balance sheets, or are they still saddled with so much debt that they can't make future investments? Above all, have they created a credible model for how not only to survive, but to succeed in this competitive global market?"

Who is in a better position to know the answers to these questions? Rick Wagoner, the GM CEO for nine years and former GM chief financial officer who has been with the automaker since the late 1970s, even running one of its foreign affiliates in Brazil, and who holds a Harvard Business School MBA?

Or President Obama, a former community activist from the south side of Chicago with a great rhetorical gift?

The president answered that question this week by ordering Wagoner's firing.

Imagine if it were not GM, but your own small business employing a handful of people.

I've long refrained from attacking Barack Obama for his totalitaraian inclinations, and I recently praised President Obama on his "pragmatism" in foreign policy; but this administration's recent moves on the economy are simply breathtaking in the centralization of power in the bureaucratic state. It's no wonder those tea parties keep growing.

Related: Via Memeorandum, David Brooks dubs the president "Car Dealer in Chief," but I like "commissar" better. See also, Law and Order Teacher, "Nationalization Continues."