President Obama is not even two full months into his first term and by all accounts, he has hit the ground running and is trying to deal with two wars, an economic disaster he inherited, education, health care and strengthening ties with international allies and rehabilitating our image among friend and foe alike.
Of course, not everyone agrees with Obama’s agenda or more accurately, the means by which he is attempting to achieve certain ends, but that is to be expected- bipartisanship and civil discourse are lofty goals but after watching the last few weeks of acting out by Rush Limbaugh, the blatant economic hypocrisy of some in the GOP and the way the Democrats, particularly in the House, seem intent on making Obama’s job as hard as possible by being as unreasonable as possible [ex: adding certain nonsense to the stimulus package], it becomes more and more apparent that political infighting and partisan rancor are the mainstay of the DC establishment, and of the mainstream media in particular.
While it is far too soon to judge the President’s success or failure in any given area, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria has written a commentary about his initial thoughts on Team Obama’s foreign policy and I agree with about 99% of it. I like Zakaria and am trying to make a point of watching his Sunday show, ‘GPS’, on CNN.
Stumble It!
4 responses so far ↓
1 tehehehe // Mar 17, 2009 at 9:42 am
Obama has had a rough first 60 days. And while he has inherited some problems, every President does.
Obama’s biggest challenges are those that he is responsible for creating, exacerbating, or simply because he is trying to do so much, it is hard to focus on any one thing.
Obama is on his “honeymoon” with the American public, Congess, and foreign leaders. The honeymoon will end. It will get worse from there.
2 tehehehe // Mar 17, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Here is an interesting note. We have seen Obama’s budget; he is not only going to cut Defense spending by 10% (at least), but is wanting to cut VA spending on veterans who have “service connected disabilities” (if you were wounded in battle, and have a long-term disability, your privagte insurance company will have to pay the costs. The American Legion is incensed since this will not only raise veterans insurance costs, it will severely hurt recruitment into the national guard and Reserves who will see their insurance costs increase).
Now, with that backdrop, take a look at Russian and Chinese spending on Defense:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7947824.stm
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/as_china_politics/2009/03/04/188134.html
Now, when the US is planning on “reducing it military expenditure”, which would presumably reduce the “threat” to Russia or China, why would these “progressive” governments deem it necessary to increase defense spending? don’t they realize the US, under Obama, poses no threat to them? Don’t they want to cooperate with this historic Administration?
Hmmmmmm. What would Zakaria say about this high level of international cooperation?
3 tehehehe // Mar 18, 2009 at 9:32 am
Oh, great! Now he has Mexico and Europe ticked off with us.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7947428.stm
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/10/business/10global.php
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25162347-2703,00.html
Even Canada is at odds with us over a variety of issues:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Afghan+Awakening+puts+Canada+odds+over+foreign+policy/1196580/story.html
http://www.celsias.com/article/us-canada-increasingly-odds-over-water/
Well, at least Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela are willing to meet with Obama and improve relations. ‘Course, they may have some pre-conditions before they actually agree to a meeting.
On a happier note, the Palestinians have agreed not to kill any Americans this week after we promised to give them almost $1 bil to rebuild Gaza. They have made no promises about next week, however! The leader of Hamas says that they must keep “all options open” in seeking justice and responding to “infidel” aggression.
Happy days are here again! Obama will bring back “fireside chats”. That will make everything better!
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/14/obama-to-post-fireside-chats-on-youtube/
That Zakaria. He really knows how to call it! See. All it took was electing a leader who has the middle name of Hussein!
4 tehehehe // Mar 19, 2009 at 10:49 am
Now we have the UN suggesting that the world drop the dollar as an international currency after Bernanke floods the world with another $1 Trillion.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE52H2CY20090318
We’re talking about brilliant foreign policy moves here!
Maybe the Duke Coach in the NCAA finals has it right!
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/19/duke-coach-obama-worry-economy-ncaa-picks/
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