Oct. 28, 2013
Barack Obama: A Modest Assessment
THE GOVERNMENT CRISIS has been settled, mostly because of President Obama's resolve. When he said after the 2012 elections that he was through negotiating with the Republicans about continuing resolutions and debt ceilings, he meant it. Now he has more than three years to hone his leadership skills, which I believe he needs to concentrate on in order to seal his legacy.
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AND AN IMPRESSIVE legacy it is. We finally have national health care. Theodore Roosevelt was the first President to give thought to it, over 100 years ago. When FDR hired Frances Perkins to be his Secretary of Labor in 1933 he asked her what her goals were. "Unemployment Insurance, Social Security, and National Health Care," she replied. Every Democrat and one Republican since Truman has endorsed it. It represents the logical conclusion of the New Deal and Great Society programs. After forty years of being in the woodshed (due at least partially to foolish behavior on our part) we have a progressive in the White House. To all of you armchair liberals who do nothing but whine about what he hasn't done, I would ask you to name the last president who came this close to looking out for the causes you're interested in. On social issues, he's been right on the money. Why do we continue our two-century-plus discrimination practices? The White House was built by the Irish (and the blacks; but we imported them). My family came from Germany and Italy. After they finished their stints on garden paradises such as Ellis and Angel Islands (where they could see the beauty of America but not participate) we generously allowed them to live in tenements. My grandpa, a first generation American, was a butcher --- six days a week, twelve or fourteen hours a day. The current flavor is anything hispanic, but especially from Mexico. For the first time in our country's history, we've actually built up a wall to keep them out. And what kind of work do they do? Mostly they pick crops. And who are the Communists that hire them? Uh --- that would be huge agribusiness conglomerates, since the family farm is mostly a nostalgic memory. Credit where it's due, President Bush was at least somewhat benign on this. And Mr. Obama could be doing better, but at least he's responding to some pretty odious forces by making an effort. There are way too many guns and gun violence in this country, probably more than the next five countries combined. Couldn't we at least come to a mutual agreement that it's way past time to at least have a civil discussion about this? Certainly we can agree with the NRA's assertion that mental health issues need to be addressed. And certainly we ought to be able to agree that nobody except the military needs assault rifles. Barack Obama is the first President to talk seriously about this since Lyndon Johnson. The second amendment is the only one that talks about a piece of machinery (we may be the only country in the world to have something like this; I've never heard otherwise). Machinery is bound to change over the years. What if the second commandment said "Thou Shalt Exercise Thy Divine Right To Posses a Well-Regulated Set of Wheels"? Drones have wheels. Maybe Donald Trump would be the only person who could afford one, which he could use to drop all of his birther documentation into the middle of the Pacific, along with the drone. This is the first President to openly embrace LBGT issues and gay marriage. Why are we even talking about this? Perhaps I've lived in Ess Eff too long, but this one's as obvious as Liberace. Those of you who don't get this, no disrespect intended, need to take a crowbar and pry open your minds. Why are we still treating Blacks so badly? What if Trayvon Martin had been of age, armed, and had shot the white-skinned neighborhood watch guy? What do you think the jury would have ruled then? "If your answer to that question is at least ambiguous, then we have something to talk about" --- Barack Obama. Why, forty years after Roe v. Wade, are a woman's right to make decisions about her body even up for discussion? The President has been front and center about that, as well as the depressing wage inequality between the genders. What about the elderly? The President's current position is he's non-negotiable on Social Security and Medicare benefits, and the Republicans have gone strangely silent about this lately. On the economy, we are crawling back --- just like we did in the thirties. The Roaring Twenties lasted about 8 years --- it took all of the thirties to get back. The last economic pigfest lasted a quarter century --- this is going to take time, particularly if the Republicans, without offering any alternatives, continue to automatically reject every job and economic plan Obama proposes. And lest we forget, he nailed Bin Ladin. Some wisenheimers say Bush laid all the groundwork for this. That's not unlike saying Calvin Coolidge was responsible for the Great Depression. History ain't gonna see it that way. Bin Ladin orchestrated 9/11 as surely as Tojo planned Pearl Harbor. Both of them deserve to be dead. To those who would correctly assert that much of what the President talks about is still little more than a dream, we've had dreamers before --- Kennedy, King, Lennon. We'll see where Barak Obama fits in.
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HAS THE PRESIDENT disappointed me? You bet. Why are we still in Afghanistan? Why did it take us so long to get out of Iraq? Those places are no less a train wreck than they were in 2009. Why do we still have troops in Germany and Japan nearly 70 years after the end of WWII? How about Korea (1953), the Philippines and Cuba (Spanish-American War, 1898) and damn near every other country on the planet except Vietnam, which kicked our sorry asses out? Talk about entitlements! It would seem like the Dept. of Defense considers itself a birthright. Way past time for this to change. To discuss the entire issue of transparency is a column in itself, so I will try and keep my comments brief. What Mr. Snowden and the Wikileaks guy offered are the tip of the iceberg. We were promised the most transparent administration ever. Right. That would be like Richard Nixon asserting his term would be the most scandal-free in history. The President has been embarrassingly behind the curve on every issue that's come up, being forced to 'fess up on all matters only after the media has outed him. At least once he gets caught, he belatedly tells the truth. But it begs the question: What aren't we being told? The leader of Brazil cancelled a state visit because she found out we'd been monitoring her cell-phone. Then the leaders of France and Germany made it clear that they were more than a little annoyed by the same behavior. Shouldn't these revelations have been preceded by an Obamacall of abject, groveling apology for this inexcusable violation of their human dignity? While he's at it, he should call the call every leader of every country on Earth, even Kim Sick Un, and do the same. After that, get a few local phone books and start making random calls. We spent nearly $11 BILLION on the NSA last year. Looking for an easy budget cut, Mr. Prez? They couldn't discover the human sewage responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings, nor the whack job that killed a few cops and then holed up in a cabin near L.A. and destroyed a perfectly useful piece of property, or the derango that walked into a D.C. military facility and blew away a dozen people --- just to name a very few? The word inefficient called --- it wants its reputation back. How about wasting the money on a $5 per hour raise for everybody making less than $20 an hour? Finally, where do you stand on corporate welfare? I don't know if you'll get around to this, but you could try and lay some groundwork.
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AND HOW HAS he been treated by his opponents? Like he doesn't really belong in the White House because, let's face it, he's not like a normal American. What other President has felt compelled to release his birth certificate? Congress' little feelings are hurt because he doesn't schmooze enough with them. How 80s! Has it ever occurred to these folks that instead of going out and eating and drinking too much, wotinevvin's name is wrong with spending time with your family, especially when your kids are at such critical ages? I don't hear much about their families. Well no, that isn't exactly right. A Republican congressman has come out in favor of gay marriage after his 20 or 21 year old son outed himself. I don't think the Obamas would find out at that late date. This is the best family we've had in the White House since the Kennedys. What really roasted my cookies was when Sen. Mitch McConnell said, after the 2010 midterms that his objective was "to make certain Barack Obama is a one-term President." Nothing about jobs, the economy, the deficit. NOTHING. The President tried to negotiate with them. It led to one near government showdown, one real govt. shutdown ($24 billion, thank you Taze Party) two near defaults, and countless wastes of taxpayer time and money trying to void the Affordable Care Act. Do the Republicans ever plan to tell us what they're for?
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TIME TO BRING this questionable effort full circle, or perhaps more of a parallelogram. I believe in this President. I believe in his ability to lead. He still has over three years. If my (don't forget that word modest) assessments are anywhere near the ballpark, I suspect we'll be finding out pretty soon.
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We hold these truths to be self evident: That all men(?) are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of willschneider7648@gmail.com
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