Moving away for a moment from the question of will they or won’t they increase taxes, there is a conflagration of epic proportions going on right now on the Left. The Democratic base of assorted Marxist special interest groups are going bonkers (not that they weren’t already) over Barack Obama’s breaking his campaign promise to redistribute wealth tax the rich. At the same time, over at the AFL-CIO headquarters, union bosss are so ticked off at the ‘NAFTA-style’ trade deal with South Korea that Monday’s legislative meeting exploded as the UAW tried to defend Bob King’s throwing “every other union under the bus.”

On Sunday, one of the bloggers at Firedoglake posed the question that many more on the Left seem to be asking right now: “Where is the President Obama I voted for?”

Oddly enough, the former Obama supporter answered his/her own question:

I think it’s important to look for the clues we may have missed the first time in evaluating this man we now have in the White House. What did I miss? Now, I think I know. It’s been dawning on me that Barack Obama is mentally disturbed. He appears to be a classic narcissist. The Weekly Standard and LA Times have started calling him, “The American Narcissus”.  And you know what? They’re right. Obama is  drowning in hubris. One characteristic of all clinical narcissists is that they lack empathy. Just don’t get it. That sympathy thing escapes them.

The union-friendly Labor Notes also points to an alleged Obama double-cross on the South Korean trade deal:

Sources inside union headquarters tell Labor Notes that Obama met with AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka, Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, and Communications Workers President Larry Cohen in November, and promised that worker and environmental protections would be included in a deal with South Korea.

The eventual agreement contains none of those provisions—which U.S. unions have insisted must be the bedrock of a new, more humane trade policy. (Obama the candidate mouthed the same words).

But the agreement does have the approval of Bob King, president of the United Auto Workers, who shocked fellow officers—not to mention thousands of members who have agitated against corporate-backed trade rules—by supporting the deal almost immediately.

Then, Dave Weigel from Slate.com made a most poignant comments as he observed
We Are All Tom Buffenbarger Now. Buffenbarger, some may recall, is the long-winded president of the International Association of Machinists. During the Democrats’ primary campaign in 2008, union bosses were split on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. It was at one Ohio event that Clinton-backer Buffenbarger famously went on a tirade against Obama that Weigel believes was a prescient moment.

During the tirade, Buffenbarger claimed that Obama was a“silver-tongued orator from Kansas, Hawaii and Illinois”…”The man in love with the microphone.” Now, Obama’s supporters, those same “latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies” that Buffenbarger described, are beginning to wonder if they put their trust-fund money on the wrong horse.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKJVHjZVD60&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Whether or not Democrats picked the wrong horse is an issue they’ll have to sort out for themselves. Why? Because a horse is a horse, of course!

Footnote: To the best of our knowledge, Tom Buffenbarger has never been invited to the Obama’s White House.
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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

X-posted.