October 1, 2011  The Fat Guy and the Skinny Guy: More Alike Than
They Appear  By James V Capua  For all their contrasting looks,
Chris Christie and Barack Obama are alike in one critical
respect: both are the kind of politician endangered elites offer
up when they correctly perceive their power threatened.  To
preserve their dominance, establishments seek above all to
protect the orthodoxies they have enshrined and the trends they
have fostered.  By doing so, they maintain the interests of
those they depend upon critically for support, and they limit
the damage that challengers can cause.  This stasis is sold by
wrapping it artfully in the bright colors and shimmering bows of
novelty.  Barack Obama has been a perfect example.  He looked
different, but his Hope and Change never challenged an elite
orthodoxy.  For all his wife's assurances that our lives "as
usual" were over, Obama presumed to place himself at the front
of Democrat-approved social and cultural trends, all the while
never challenging one.  He du