NOT a post about the Accidental President's next career as a MMA pro.
But OH YEAH a post about Obama dealing with the realities of the Oval Office.
Obama the campaigner decried the use of military tribunals to try terror suspects. He called for Abu Ghraib photos to be released.
Obama the Prez has kind of changed his mind on those issues.
We won't call it a flip-flop, out of respect for John Kerry.
Now there exists a naughty theory that explains Obama's reversal, and it boils down to calling BHO a fraud for running against Bush policies he had no intention of overturning. I think the truth is a little grayer than that. (Shocking. Almost as shocking as a politician ditching a campaign promise.)
One, Obama is no dummy. He knew that so long as he reflexively opposed everything a historically unpopular Bush stood for, then even he, as a black man, could travel the yellow brick road, true-blue, to the White House.
But secondly, I feel that the responsibility of keeping the country safe is causing Obama to reconsider his convictions. I think it more likely that daily intelligence briefings and such things are, gulp, encouraging him to continue some Bush policies that he may deem more useful now.
And, re-gulp, Mitch McConnell could be right. (Insert proverb about blind squirrels and nuts.) On Fox News two days ago, the Senate Minority Leader opined: "I think he's adjusting his sails on all of these issues now that he is President and knows that one of his principal responsibilities is to keep the American people safe."
Let's also not forget that BHO has already called for a stop to interrogation techniques equivalent to torture, and seems committed to closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
He could simply be reaching out to Republicans on the national-security level, forging a compromise here or there as he lays groundwork for future give-and-take on issues closer to his heart. I like that option the best. That makes it right, no?
Or he needed to walk 100 days in another man's shoes? He has also had to reopen tribunals to determine what to do with detainees.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a case of saying what was necessary. It can be easier to ask for forgivness than permission. His predecessor was pretty good with that one too.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out against him in the next election...
Walk 100 days, clever. And I like the forgiveness-permission idiom too. But nobody's going to remember this in 2012 or care about it if the economy is healed or if its decline steepens. Let's not kid ourselves, Obama's going to be the guy who cleaned up after Bush or the guy who wasn't able to. So let's hope he gets to say something memorable in three years, like, "The fundamentals of our economy are strong." Tee-hee.
ReplyDelete