Senator Byrd is just not up to making coherent comparisons between Rome and the American empire anymore so I will try to fill the bet I can.

President Obama has much the same challenge as did Octavian did as Ceasar of a divided Rome. The rich members of the Republic 'party' had soaked the people beyond all reasonable bounds. Octavian was a threat to the very rich depnding upon how he was going to help the people at the expense of the rich or even worse, rouse the people against the upper class. Octavian defended himself by the clever use of propoganda in the form of his image on coins and statue. His image was crafted to be almost demure in his pose of offering a hand to the poor while not being overly militaristic in his clothing.

Obama has to satisfy a similar two masters. It will be perilous especially when dealing with the current spokesman of the military industrial complex, Gates.

Obama's dilemma is not just that he is offending the plutocrats of the US financial sector, or that he faces Republican resistance in Congress, or that he's running headlong into the Right's potent media machine.

Obama also will have to take on key leaders of the US military. Part of this is his own fault for listening to centrist Democrats who urged him to retain President Bush's Defense Secretary Robert Gates, one of Obama's high-profile gestures of bipartisanship.

Though well-liked in Washington power circles – and possessing a disarming style – Gates has a history as a hawkish policymaker who will undercut a President he sees as going soft. As a young CIA officer, Gates was linked to the behind-the-scenes sabotage of Carter in 1980. [See Parry's Secrecy & Privilege, or Consortiumnews.com's "The Secret World of Robert Gates."]

When Bush nominated Gates to replace Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in November 2006, Official Washington (and many Democrats) assumed that the move meant that Bush was adopting a more pragmatic approach to Iraq and would soon begin a phased withdrawal.

Gates has caused Obama to break with his planned quick withdrawl from Iraq and has even promised an expanded land war in southern Asia / Pashtoonistan / Afghanistan / Pakistan.

How cleverly Barak can navigate around these great forces while restoring some stability to the people of the United States will rely on circumstances and providence. A quick fake and move to the inside, as he does in basketball will serve him well.