Pravda on Obama: Unless ‘Republican scapegoat’ ends crisis, he’ll leave office early

President Obama is no “savior of the great nation,” according to Pravda Online. Rather, he’s a “scapegoat,” the Russian news source says, an “intermediate figure” who Republicans allowed to come to power during a time of crisis. In analysis that has a distinctly Russian accent, Pravda predicts:

If Obama does not manage to extricate the nation from the crisis in two or three years, the Reps will unveil their real candidate, and Obama’s presidency will finish earlier than expected.

I’m a little leery of Russian stuff on the Web (I resist ordering MP3s for pennies at Russian sites, for example) and that extends to the oddly tabloidy English-language Pravda site. But the presenter on the BBC World Service (heard via MPR) included this story last night in a rundown of the (generally favorable) reaction to Obama’s inauguration among the legitimate European press, so apparently it’s the real deal.

Here’s how Pravda’s story (headlined “Barack Obama takes office as Republicans’ scapegoat”) starts. After this it’s biographical.

USA’s new President Barack Obama is taking office January 20. George W. Bush was a big headache for the whole world, although his successor does not seem to be a man who can become the savior of the great nation. Those thinking that the USA will have many positive changes in its politics after Obama comes to power think it wrong. It touches upon the US-Russian relations too.

It would be wrong to think that Obama will mark the beginning of the new era in US politics. Obama became the president because one needed a scapegoat during hard times of the crisis and the new economic model, which the crisis may eventually trigger. The Republicans simply decided to move over to make Obama become an intermediate figure. John McCain was too conservative to win. If Obama does not manage to extricate the nation from the crisis in two or three years, the Reps will unveil their real candidate, and Obama’s presidency will finish earlier than expected.