Season of Goodwill over for Obama
After a seamless transition period, cracks are starting to appear in the President-elects road to the White House.
By Laurence Witherington on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 - 479 words.
2009 has already seen the polish on Barack Obama’s smooth transition to power become scuffed. The man who could do no wrong is still a popular figure, of course, but niggles are beginning to set in.
First, his silence on the Israeli invasion of Gaza has been questioned. A man who was so vocal on the economic crisis and who weighed in on the terror attacks in Bombay, has not been seen to raise so much as an eyebrow in the direction of the Middle East. Instead he has been pictured playing golf in Hawaii, his usual holiday spot. This means he has attracted as much attention from the golfing bloggers as the political ones, and neither are impressed with his performance.
Of course, Obama is not the President until January 20th, a fact he will continue to reel out as and when it suits over the next few weeks.
Second, his nominee for commerce secretary, the Latino governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, has now declined the offer due to an ongoing investigation into whether his administration gave lucrative contracts to a political donor. This does not implicate Obama in any wrong doing directly, but if he had just opened the pages of a New Mexico newspaper he could have seen that there might be problems.
Third, the Senate is a mess. The Rod Blagojevich saga continues to throw up twists and irritations. The disgraced Governor went ahead and exercised his right to name the Senator that would replace Obama in Illinois. This is a clever move because having been accused of trying to sell the seat, he has now clearly given it away for free. However, other Democrats are annoyed because the nominee is the veteran Democrat Roland W. Burris, a man who has lost three elections in a row and someone who will clearly be a target for the Republicans.
Burris would replace Obama as the only African-American in the Senate, a fact that further complicates the issue. Representative Bobby L. Rush, an Illinois Democrat, and a fiery one at that, described the Senate as “the last bastion of racial plantation politics in America.”
The Senate race in Minnesota is also far from over. The Democrat Al Franken, initially with fewer votes, now has more, after a lengthy recounting process. Of course, if the recount worked for Franken his opponent, Norm Coleman, hopes an appeal will work for him. A game of ping-pong anyone?
Finally, and most recently, Obama’s pick to head the CIA has been criticized. A former chief of staff for Bill Clinton, Leon Panetta, is the man, and his lack of security experience is the problem. Of course, those who support the choice say that it represents a necessary shattering of the status quo at the end of an administration that seemed to approve the use torture and for whom Guantanamo Bay became the main symbol to the outside world.
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I agree, Obama's silence over whats happening in Gaza is shameful, particularly as he hasnt exercised the same measure of restraint on so many other issues. I liked this:
http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/0...
Look. If you were President-elect, would you want to like, completely fuck your chances of being able to work out a peace deal (by 2016) by opening your mouth for one side or the other BEFORE you are ACTUALLY PRESIDENT. No, you wouldn't. This issue isn't like other issues, like the auto bailout or the stimulus package, which demand immediate attention from the President-elect (in words, at least) before they're implemented and their success has no relationship to when and how Obama talks about them.
The peace process in Israel and Palestine, by contrast, demands a lot more tact in this awkward period before January 20th. Obama speaking out now would harm his chances when he does sit down to moderate the peace process. Also, the President-elect hasn't issued statements about any current foreign policy crises. There is evidence, though, that he did actually call Condoleeza Rice to discuss the Gaza situation when it started. Right now, with no real executive authority, it's better Obama wait to say something when he does have some.
Moreover, maybe talking about a way of pulling the country out of a potentially severe recession is more pressing and important than what's going on in Gaza, which is nothing new. The collapse of the U.S. economy is, for the President, a more important priority than making peace between Israelis and Palestinians. So all you all can just hold your fucking horses for a second.
If history teaches us anything, it's that the history of the war between Israelis and Palestinians won't run out of history any time soon. Obama telling Israeli it's being barbarous and excessive won't save a single Palestinian life right now.
Also, let the man have a fucking vacation. He and his minions just saved your charming liberal moral certainties and starry-eyed goals from another four years of marginalization and opposition from the executive branch.
Fucking liberals. I can't stand you people. I don't know why I call myself one. Oh, yes, now I remember all the brainwashing by family, friends, school, The New Yorker, The Economist (which is pretty much Rolling Stone circa 1970 compared to real conservative American rags like The Weekly Standard), and good common sense.
We are all a bunch of assholes, though, self-righteous and deluded and whiny and stubborn and stupid as our opponents. Republicans understand politics, you've got to give them that. For Democrats, politics is like some sort of ethics class. For Republicans, it's a business.