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20090921

Obama's Burden

2 comments:

  1. Down memory lane......

    I remember thinking (before the 2000 election) Bush would be awful, just terrible, a disastrous president. And then when he became president he turned out to be even worse. Unbelievably worse.

    All of us here clearly remember the lead up to the Iraq war. By no means were all the American people fooled, for in San Francisco alone tens of thousands went out and marched in October and November 2002. And then again in early 2003, just before the war, when it must have gone up to a hundred thousand. And that was the tip of the iceberg, though we would never have known it from the mass media. No president in memory ever imposed anything like that propaganda campaign onto the American people, and has still to be called to account.

    Now here is Obama, moving against the tide Bush created, offering his “change.” Not only is there a frantic rightwing resistance to change but the 24/7 news cycle has him hemmed in. And Obama is a methodic worker, who takes his time making decisions while the outside world clamors for an immediate choice. In fact, thoughtfulness is one of the qualities the right detests, since they often see it as indecisive and a sign of weakness. Where many on the left see Obama’s prolonged thoughtfulness as a “sell out” to the status quo, a sign of insincerity.

    Here’s Frank Rich today (if you haven’t already seen it.) A columnist, too, like a politician, should be able to stand apart and calmly look about. Of course, that does not guarantee anything, nor necessarily that you are in the right.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/opinion/27rich.html?_r=1

    There’s certainly much to be troubled by Obama’s presidency. Afghanistan and his approach to the financial markets to name two. But I think the cartoon above asks the right question. We have no idea at this time how Obama’s presidency will finally work out. Though with Bush it truly was easy to tell, from the very beginning. And then when Iraq came along......

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