I guess I just feel jaded right now. I am trying to catch my breath and look back over the Obama first 100 days, arbitrary time span though it be. All I see is unmitigated partisanship on the right, and substantial partisanship on the left, gotta admit that one though I am on the left myself.
The torture memo stuff keeps jumping out of the box even though Obama struggles mightily to stuff it back. Hey, I am trying to pull the economy out of the potty, plus take our first baby steps on the journey toward climate change victory and health care survival, and I don't have time to deal with this mess. How do I deal with it without looking like a hypocrite or wading into a partisan battle so bloody that it will destroy my presidency? Answer: just get Holder to appoint a special prosecutor and walk away. Only a special prosecutor can do it- if you try to do it yourself, it WILL destroy your presidency.
As to the demand that your cabinet bring you 100 million in cuts to federal spending, I would like to defend Obama on that, but I can't, because it came out sounding like the stuff that Bush kept saying for 8 years. Just you wait, we will nibble that deficit down to nothing. After a while that changed to lookee here, I am going to reduce the deficit by HALF by the time I leave. Then at the end, the deficit got so ugly that there was no point to talking about it anymore. So fine, Granted, Bush handed Obama a sackful of rattlesnakes where the economy was concerned, and there was no longer any way to pretend that the deficits were getting better. But still, "by golly we are going to cut 100 million" just looks stupid when we are talking about trillions of new debt. By all means, cut wasteful programs. Just don't pretend that pennies matter when compared to 1000 dollar bills. Don't treat it as a photo opp, like see I am serious about fiscal responsibility here, stop worrying. Obama, we are supposed to worry, because we are in a worrisome place. You got mocked by the right on this one, and you deserved to be. Say something meaningful on how we are going to see black ink again before we die of old age, or say nothing at all. Don't open your mouth if what comes out is going to be meaningless.
Let's see, what else is there to talk about, Dick Cheney's continuing string of rants against the Obama administration, while Bush surprises us by having enough class to deliver "silence"? Part of me would like to lay into Cheney, but I am going to refrain from doing that. Cheney has said too much already. He needs to direct his comments to the torture policy special prosecutor, when we hopefully reach that point. I have a feeling that his tune will change to "I can't recall" when that happens.
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Comments: 11
I don't blame Obama for this zero-sum game. He is, as you say, dealing with a big fat mess - but I wonder how much the call for deficit cuts at this juncture is just another attempt to make Rush happy. Someday it will penetrate those teeny-tiny brains that if Obama fails, we all go down with him.
As for the other, Cheney's never going to voluntarily address that issue and we all know it. Not unless he's dragged kicking and screaming by a Special Prosecutor and even then I bet he slides.
Let the memos out, let people speak, and more importantly let Cheney go to FOX NEWS on a daily basis to attempt to convince America that torture is OK under certain circumstances. I hope some GOP elected officials agree with him in public. So far, they are staying away from Dick.
There is also another dangerous group - the rest of government. The system is designed for gridlock. Its only purpose at this time is the perpetuation of the status quo and all of its members work to keep their own little slice of power and enrichment. Obama may be unique, but he is a Democrat, and has always been a good establishment soldier. So far he has impressed me as a hard worker with a flair for agreeable rhetoric. But I'm not sold that his net effect will be that different from any of his predecessors.
Sarah, you are on the mark with your comment about the bailout and the deficit. I wonder how many middle and low earning people think Obama will raise their taxes because they've heard the rich pundits and special guest analysts whining on Fox. That is, I think media coverage of the whole thing is mediocre at best, because it's too oriented toward the sound bite, and toward maximizing viewership over the accuracy and completeness of their coverage.
Chris, I guess you could broadly paint me as liberal, even though I see some of my views as conservative by my own standards. But I feel that I differ from liberals in that most of them seem like willing participants in this sham of a democracy. I'm in no way satisfied that our interests are well served by the present system. I think that it doesn't care, isn't controllable, and holds our elected officials and us captive while it sucks us dry through taxes and uses those funds to strike a balance that will lead to more decades of necessary military spending, diplomatic brinksmanship, and intelligence networks that overrule the constitution on grounds of extraordinary danger to the country.
It takes a very very positive hopeful person to not feel jaded in these times. I'm not holding my breath waiting for Obama to work his magic. I'm just hoping that our boat stays afloat while the humans figure out how to divvy up all the misery.
Jessie, I think that is a fair criticism of where we are with President-watching now, that we are not giving enough time for the guys to post results. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Progress should be measured in years not days, because that is how historians will measure it.
Rick, yes, it is the System that is at question here. Obama is a fairly talented guy who is attempting to work the problem, or actually work several problems all at once. He is not perfect, but it could also be asked, why do we need to have a perfect president, shouldn't the rest of the governmental structure be able to deliver decent results with a president who is less than perfect?
I belong to a non-fiction book group and a recent discussion featured the notion that presidential powers are part of the problem, rather than the solution to the problem. That is a tough one for me to come to terms with, because I want Obama to address our challenges, and in some ways I do not trust the Congressional sausage factory to get it right.
When we get into a conflict, we tend to say to ourselves "this changes everything". But in reality, it never does change everything.
Obama thinks he can control the headhunters in his party who want political blood. Releasing the memos with the caveat it was for information only wasn't bright but at least it seemed like it would end there. His collapse of will under fire from the fringe of his party in violation to both campaign and presidential promises in only a couple of days trumped that though. Regardless of appointing a special prosecutor or not (both parties after Ken Starr seemed to have had enough of that), his administration is breaking from a political tradition that this country has had for centuries now, no hunting on the outgoing administrations. He may just have made history and the next time the Repubs get control, Dems will be cursing his name for that too.
:0) Thanks for your comment - I do recycle every single can I get. Almost every bottle and everything else I possibly can, it's important. :0)