Yes, Obama is a reflection of the corrupt Chicago Machine, and yes, he's been willing to do lots of bad things to be re-elected. However, he's been such an incompetent amateur that I think any attempt at being a dictator would fall flat on its face. If the Democrats really put up Michelle Obama I sincerely believe she would fail, not just because she's an idiot, not just because she has telegraphed to the American people that she doesn't seem to trust or like white people ("for the first time in my life I am proud of America" will come back to haunt her in that regard), but also because the notion that a President's wife succeeded him does seem pretty close to an attempt by the President to remain for another 8 years. It would make a lot of people VERY uneasy, for the exact reasons that Card so inartfully (as usual) describes (Card is an abysmal writer, and I think he only came up with one good idea in his life - Ender's Game - which he then managed to squeeze out another good book about - Ender's Shadow).

I notice that he misspelled "Adolf" - perhaps Hitler's enduring punishment in history is the consistent and pervasive misspelling of his first name by half-educated types like Card. Of course, the instant he tried to say Richard III didn't kill the princes, I was already looking at him like the idiot he is.

I do tend to agree with Card in some broad-brush fashion about Obama's terrible lack of a foreign policy, which projects US weakness. I don't understand the mental leap between "Obama favors Muslims" and "Obama isn't helping Syria", but I don't expect Card would be able to articulate his position coherently. The success of Ender's Game is premised on the fact that Card thinks like a child and writes like a child, so the book was believable.

His failed logic about history is impressive. I don't think anyone ever assumes that trends will continue indefinitely. Most people recognized that the Japanese economy was slowing, just as the Chinese economy is going to slow down in a BIG way in the 2020s because their population is going to actually fall and their median age keeps rising. They might become rich before they become old, or they might not. They might find a soft landing or they might collapse. In the former situation, they'll remain the largest economy in the world. In the latter, anything is possible.

As for things like the dot.com bubble, I don't know about Card, but it was obvious to me it was a bubble, and obvious to most of the people I knew at the time.

Do I think that Obama is a pompous, arrogant, self-righteous academic who doesn't understand what it means to work a real job in the real world and who can't grasp that politics is about compromise? YES.

Do I think that he has a chance of becoming a dictator, even if he wanted to? Hell no. Every time I see Obama standing in front of military personnel, I wonder if even 25% of them like him. I believe that the military dislikes Obama enough that, were he to try to seize power, he would find himself dead rather quickly.

It's not the first time I've heard the "dynasty" theory, either. Remember how they said the Kennedys were planning that Jack would be President for 8 years, then Bobby, then Teddy, thus locking things up for 24 years of Kennedys as President? Remember how well that one worked out? Or what about the Clintons, who supposedly planned 8 years of Bill, with an 8-year Al Gore interlude followed by 8 years of Hillary? That worked just great, didn't it? Or the George W. Bush, followed by Jeb, followed by one of the next generation of Bushes?

I will agree with Card in one respect: we must remain vigilant to protect our freedoms, our Constitution and our way of life. It's been that way since the founding of the Republic and it will stay that way until it does at last fall at some point.