Smart politicos know well the difference between campaigning and governing. That which is easily said on the campaign trail is much less cavalierly accomplished once in elected office. That phenomenon has clearly begun to unfold with Obama and the real-world sight of his transition, which has been more centrist than many expected.
Now, a symbolic note on the difference between running for office and serving in it: "Obama staff will say cu l8r 2 IM." A small issue, perhaps, but nonetheless illustrative of the constraints imposed by the reality of life in the federal government, the Executive Branch, and specifically the White House.
On a related note, one of the truly lamentable outcomes of recent weeks (and months) has been the placement of expectations upon a President Obama that are wholly inconsistent with the powers and abilities of the Office of President of the United States. The federal government cannot provide what many of them seek, nor should one man sitting in the Oval Office be expected to do so.
Whatever one's partisan affiliation and hopes for Obama's political success, that is an awesome, and awful, weight for our 44th President to bear.
Posted by Eric Earling at January 20, 2009 11:05 AM | Email ThisWhile it is true that many of the "expectations" of Obama are far beyond the appropriate constitutional "powers and abilities" of the president, keep in mind that the "awesome ... awful weight" has been self-imposed - intentionally and gladly self-imposed - by Obama himself.
Obama's agenda (massive expansion of government, higher taxes, higher deficits, weakened military, retreat in the war against terrorism, abortion, wasteful spending on bailouts, government-run healthcare, ill-conceived and counterproductive "global warming" policies, "card check" for union bureaucrats, "fairness doctrine" to silence talk radio, etc.) indeed often is counter to the interests of the American people and counter to constitutional government.
But that doesn't mean that Obama and his cheerleaders in the liberal elite and mainstream media won't try very hard, forcefully, with all their might and skill, to impose this inappropriate and harmful agenda.
They might succeed in forcing through some or all of this harmful left agenda. That will be determined by the political debates and battles to come. Forcing the left agenda on America will be difficult, but it is not impossible.
I don't feel sorry for Obama in his taking on such a difficult task. But I hope he fails.
Posted by: Steve Beren on January 20, 2009 11:41 AMThat said, I hope that his specific policy objectives fail. Government is not the engine of prosperity and equality in this country. The independent actions of millions of people seeking their own dreams is what has enabled prosperity and greater civil rights than any other country on the planet, ever.
I pledge to be a thoughtful, rational voice of opposition to the leftist agenda that Obama and the current Congress support and wish to employ.
I will not base my arguments on emotion or vapid popular opinion, but instead I will argue on the basis of rational understanding and the founding principles of this country.
I am a conservative, that is my world-view, why should I forsake my beliefs in the name of agreement and cooperation?
I did not agree with everything that Bush has done over the past 8 years, and I will not disagree with everything that Obama does in the next 4. Even now, many Bush policies are being carried forward into the Obama administration, with nary a peep from devout leftists. I think that this highlights the fact that many Bush policies were not the work of evil and that much of the Bush hate came from an emotional response and not a rational argument.
"A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true." - Socrates
Posted by: ducttape2 on January 20, 2009 11:44 AMThe Obama Depression begins.
Posted by: Mark on January 20, 2009 12:00 PMThis definitely is an interesting technical, legal, and security issues. While it may seem small to the general public, like the search for a first dog, behind the scenes it does raise interesting issues.
There are Blackberries that meet the government's FIPS encryption requirements, but FIPS doesn't begin to address the classified side of the equation. The NSA has approved a PDA/phone for such use, so from a technical standpoint, it will be interesting to see if this project is elevated.
From a legal standpoint, there are all sorts of issues of where does one draw the line between public and personal conversations and the legal requirements for Obama as office holder now. I am sure no one would have concern about family conversations (e.g., between Obama and say his girls--they are getting to the teenage IM age), but conversations with the general public, in my opinion, do fall under open records requirements. If his adminstration wants to be diligent in openness, like it has tried to be in transition, then all email traffic should be open for inspection. The only caveat I would state is the private citizen's privacy should be protected (e.g., private citizen's posts/emails to the Whitehouse.gov website). The content and thoughts can be shared, but individual's email addresses and other personal information should be excluded from general release (e.g., can fall under FOUO classification, where other Privacy Act issues are regulated).
As far as security issues, I think, other than the electronic transportation of classified information, which can be alleviated through policy, practice, and procedures, the biggest concern is most likely the GPS capabilities of phones (i.e., knowing where the President is located). I don't see this as such a big issue. First off, a large chunk of the time, given the President's visibility, knowing where he is located isn't that hard. When he is in private and in areas where his whereabouts should be secured, then he can simply forgo taking his Blackberry with him to these locations.
As a tech-geek, I hope he does change the NSA and Secret Service's mindsets and is allowed to keep his Blackberry. It is nice to have a President that is in-tuned with today's technology.
Posted by: tc on January 20, 2009 12:13 PMOdd how these same people attacked Bush from day one and even when did things their way, he was still scorned and insulted.
Posted by: Medic/Vet on January 20, 2009 12:21 PMThe rules apply to everyone but Emperor Obama.
Posted by: Crusader on January 20, 2009 01:01 PMYour desire to never awaken in the face of the call to do so only deepens the responsibility and fury you will experience. When you are squeezing the next aborted baby into the sewer while still blaming no one who is power for implementing policies that have never had a history of success stop just for a moment and realize that all your fear driven decisions and lack of faith need to be turned from.
Restoration cannot come in that face of all insulation you seek from your responsibility of your choices. The economy of grace will run dry and justice will come. Obama is the Only one responsible for the expectations. He did nothing to blunt them but we all will bear the burden of the collective scream of the 2 year old left stomping its feet when the wells runs dry.
Anyways where do I send my mortgage and power bills to be paid? Your place Duff?
Posted by: Col. Hogan on January 20, 2009 01:08 PMYour desire to never awaken in the face of the call to do so only deepens the responsibility and fury you will experience. When you are squeezing the next aborted baby into the sewer while still blaming no one who is power for implementing policies that have never had a history of success stop just for a moment and realize that all your fear driven decisions and lack of faith need to be turned from.
Restoration cannot come in that face of all insulation you seek from your responsibility of your choices. The economy of grace will run dry and justice will come. Obama is the Only one responsible for the expectations. He did nothing to blunt them but we all will bear the burden of the collective scream of the 2 year old left stomping its feet when the wells runs dry.
Anyways where do I send my mortgage and power bills to be paid? Your place Duff?
Posted by: Col. Hogan on January 20, 2009 01:08 PMI had a great conversation with some typical Seattle liberals in a coffee shop today. They were cheering the inauguration. After Obama's speech I brought up Obama's line about "when government works, we'll move forward, when it doesn't, programs will end."
I ask the leftists around me which programs they think are failures and should/will be ended? The most common answer is "the war". I then pointed out that Obama already addressed the war, he was not talking about foreign policy, he was talking about domestic social programs. Then they come up blank.
I then brought up the continual failure of the public school system through Democrat and Republican presidents over the last 30 years. Even during the Clinton years when school spending was up dramatically, school performance was down and drop-out rates were up. Nearly a quarter of Seattle's school kids go to private schools and the Seattle school district is now a segregated school system that is doing more to destroy the futures of children that to pave the way to prosperity.
I then expressed my wishes that Obama move to end the tenure of union teachers so that the bad ones can be fired and to push for charter and/or voucher programs to end the teacher union monopoly and give lower and middle class parents real control over their children's education. (Rich parents just opt-out of the public education system and send their kids to private prep schools.)
If Obama is serious about what he says, he'll be objective when selecting government institutions to end and/or radically change. That would mean some pillars of the liberal faith will be toppled.
I was getting blank stares at this point.
I then reassured them: "Don't worry, he's probably a partisan hack like his predecessor and won't touch any liberal 'faith-based' institutions like unions and public schools."
"Either he'll be a great president and will have the integrity to back up his words objectively or he'll be a partisan hack that lied to us on inauguration day. If he fails to address the public school problem--spending more money on schools has not and will not fix it--then we'll know which type of person he is."
Have a nice day. :-)
(At this point it looked like the ultra-liberal, lives-alone, aging-hippie, white, cat-lady was about to beat me up to shut me up. To her, I was cursing the lord (Obama) in a house of worship (Starbucks) and it looked like she wanted to burn me, the heretic, at the stake. So I ducked out with a smile on my face.)
Posted by: blindman on January 20, 2009 02:43 PMFor the record, President Bush had my full support after 9/11 to go after the terrorist in Afghanistan. He lost my support by pursuing Iraq and cemented this loss by then tying Iraq to the War on Terror.