The only unknown here is the style in which he will push this. If he and Pelosi are able to bribe and scheme enough votes to pass the health care edict, he will approach immigration like a smug, triuphant, and condescending law professor. If he loses on healthcare, he will be angry, vindictive, and spiteful.

One thing that I find particularly troubling about the election of Barack Obama is the extention of this blind adoration of the Messiah to the 4th estate. There is no way that Obama’s presidency could have been possible without the hoard of media co-conspirators.

It was not only irrational, but unabashed and almost hypnotic. I can’t remember any presidential election won on a promise to raise taxes on anyone, yet I heard very little analysis of this phenomena in the mainstream media. When was the last time you heard a press commentator describe a candidate’s speach as causing a “tingle” up the back of his leg such as Chris Mathews of Obama’s speach?

I used to debate press bias with liberal friends in the past. As far as I’m concerned, the debate is over! In the past, liberal media had the decency to try to hide its bias. Ok, I understand that equal coverage is out of the question, but how about just a little healthy scepticism?

I can’t tell you how many times during this election cycle I explained to casual followers of government, including my wife, that sunset provisions in the Bush tax cuts ensure a tax increase to practically everyone in 2010. Most I discussed could not fathom this, having heard nothing of this in the media.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. As Sean Hannity has remarked, this election marked the “death of the media” in America.

Based on his experience as Fed President and as economic consultant to presidents beginning with Richard Nixon, he provides numerous examples of the superiority of the capitalism relative to the communism. He sites the work of late ecomomist Joseph Schumpeter and his concept of “Creative Destruction”, that is, inovative more efficient products and services constantly replacing outdated ones, as one of the keys to capitalist economic success.

By contrast, reporting on his observations of the Russian economy after the fall of the Soviet Union, he points out the perverse circumstances that threatened to leave the crumbling empire in a new economic dark ages. For instance, the fact that many, from central bankers to common citizens alike, in the former Soviet Republics could not even grasp the importance of fundamental capitalist concepts such as property rights.

It is my understanding that Mr. McCormack is something of an expert on this topic. How about it, do you have any anecdotes to share with us on your experiences in the former republics post-Cold War?