Fellow Americans, and fellow Democrats and Obama supporters, we are
at a moment of truth, a pivotal turning point -- in the form of what
happens in the next days and weeks with robust, universal health
reform. A fork in the road socially, economically -- and politically.
It could go either way depending on Obama and the Democratic
officeholders many of us worked so hard to elect. They have the power
to act, but will they use it -- or lose it?
Since the election of Barack Obama, mainstream observers have
commented on the turmoil in the backrooms of the White House and the
Pentagon. Apparently, the new President is trying to repair the damages
done by the irresponsible and reckless moves of the Bush era and
refocus the U.S. around a new set of policies. It is going to be very
tough. On a parallel track, many think that the long-term decline of
the U.S. is inevitable, partially because of its own internal fractures
(economic crisis, military overstretch), partially because of the rise
of emerging powers.
Policies that were wrong under George W. Bush are no less wrong because Barack Obama is in the White House.
One of the most disappointing aspects of the early months of the
Obama administration has been its unwillingness to end many of the
mind-numbing abuses linked to the so-called war on terror and to
establish a legal and moral framework designed to prevent those abuses
from ever occurring again.
The top scientific advisers in the Obama administration on Tuesday unveiled a startling new report
on what the latest climate science tells us is both already happening
and likely to happen in the near future if planet-warming emissions
continue unhindered.
Days ago, a warning shot from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue landed with a thud on Capitol Hill, near some recent arrivals in the House. The political salvo was carefully aimed and expertly fired.
It isn't quite
fair to call Barack Obama a liar. During the campaign he carefully
avoided committing to much of anything important that he might have to
take back later. For now, I won’t quibble with The St. Petersburg
Times’s Obamameter, which so far has the president keeping 30 promises
and breaking only six.
This paragraph from this morning's New York Times story on proposed financial-sector regulations is becoming all too common in the early days of the Obama administration:
Let's face it, even Bo is photogenic, charismatic. He's a camera hound. And as for Barack, Michelle, Sasha, and Malia -- keep in mind that we're now in a first name culture -- they all glow on screen.
I’ve been having a hard time getting
a fix on our new (though no longer quite so) president.
I know my friends on the left will think
that’s just because I’m hopelessly naive. Ironically, I expect
the good folks on the right (who exist along with that adjective mostly
as a theoretical proposition, but you get the idea) would fully agree
with this statement, perhaps the only thing in the world the left and
right all have in common.
