This & That!

FALLOUT:  As expected a tsunami of criticism washed over the White House over the president’s decision to deliver a political economic speech while the Naval Yard tragedy was playing out just blocks away.  Republicans fell all over themselves to express their shock and indignation over the president’s tone deaf response to the shootings.

As a matter of record, we have supported, for the most part, this president’s efforts during his two terms in office.  But he got this one wrong.  Surely his economic agenda could have waited another day.  We have to ask…would he have given that speech if one of his friends or family members were working in that naval yard.  Would he have chuckled and delivered those political barbs while uncertain of the fate of someone close to him.  Even his defensive response to the criticism, “I was in contact with the FBI making certain that the appropriate resources were in place…Congress has a lot of work to do…” lacked the compassion that we have come to expect from this president.  Where was the Consoler in Chief that moved the nation in the aftermath of Sandy Hook?

That said is not the Republican indignation just as off-putting and tone deaf?  Think of the hypocrisy in their shock and dismay.  After all, aren’t these same Republicans the ones who have blocked even the most minimal attempts by this president to curb gun violence in this country?

Then again, maybe we are wrong.  Maybe the president got it right…a few brief words of sorrow and then on with business as usual.  For isn’t that exactly what we as a nation do whenever we have one of these mass shootings?  We lower our flags, bow our heads…and then go on with business as usual.  Nothing ever changes.  In fact we re-elect those who stand in the way of any substantive change.  Our society has become so immune to these senseless acts of violence that we just shake our heads and move on.

The Bureau of Statistics defines a “mass shooting” as one resulting in the deaths of four or more individuals.  Since Barak Obama took office in 2009 there have been 49 mass shootings in this country.

SELF INFLICTED WOUNDS:  The government will run out of money in two weeks.  Absent a budget, the congress must pass a continuing resolution authorizing the funds to allow the government to continue to function.  Tea Party house members have said that they will vote against any continuing resolution that contains funding for The Affordable Care Act.  A government shutdown runs the risk of plunging a weak economy into a very costly recession.  Tea Party Republicans, embolden by their gerrymandered constituency, believe that they can use this leverage to bring the president to heel and dismantle his health care achievement.

In a recent editorial, The Wall Street Journal, the flagship for conservative views, called Republican efforts to shut down the government a “Kamikaze Mission” noting “Kamikaze missions rarely end well, especially for the pilot.” The journal rightly notes that the “leverage” that Republicans think they have “exists only in the world of town hall applause lines and fundraising letters.”

It should be noted that the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land.  The voters reaffirmed the law when they elected President Obama to a second term.  Congress reaffirmed the law when they voted “No’ to 41 separate Tea Party attempts to defund the law.  And the Supreme Court reaffirmed the law ruling that the Affordable Care Act fell within the legal tenants of the Constitution.

If the Tea Party Republicans are successful in shutting down the government they will not bring about the repeal of The Affordable Care Act.  But they will bring about the end of the Republican Party’s as an influential participant on the national political stage.

    

                

What Is Wrong With Us?

There was another mass shooting yesterday.

12 dead… 8 wounded.

Yet we do nothing.

The shooter carries a firearm.

He has a legal permit to do so.

He has fired his weapon before.

Reports say that he fired shots through his apartment ceiling to quiet a noisy neighbor.

Reports say that he fired at passing vehicles whose occupants mocked him.

Reports say he shot out the tires of his neighbor’s car over a dispute.

12 dead…8 wounded.

Yet we do nothing.

The president makes a speech while members of his government lay dead and wounded.

He expresses his condolences for the dead and injured.

He praises first responders who rushed into harm’s way.

Then he seamlessly attacks his political opponents over economic issues.

Those on the podium behind him laugh at his barbs.

His aide says the speech was scheduled months ago.

His aide says that postponing the speech was never considered.

12 dead…8 wounded.

Yet we do nothing.

The NRA says that the only thing that stops a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun.

There were armed guards in that naval yard.

12 dead…8 wounded.

Yet we do nothing.

The nation will mourn today.

Flags will fly at half staff.

And those left behind in places like Columbine, Blacksburg, Aurora and Sandy Hook will relive the horror once again.

12 dead…8 wounded.

Yet we do nothing.

When will this senseless slaughter end?

When will politicians put the will of the majority over their own selfish interests?

When will the fringe understand that a loaded weapon cannot compensate for their impotence?

There was another mass shooting yesterday.

12 dead…8 wounded.

What is wrong with us?

No Lesson Learned

“The mistake of my first term…was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right.  And that is important.  But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times.”

That was newly re-elected President Barak Obama responding to a question put to him by CBS NEWS’ Charlie Rose on July 12, 2012.  Rose had asked the president to name the biggest mistake he made during his first term.

Let’s fast forward to September 15, 2013. 

Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have just reached an agreement on the elimination of Syria’s stock pile of chemical weapons.  ABC NEWS’ George Stephanopoulos has asked the president for his reaction to the agreement given his seemingly muddled attempt to win support for a punitive military strike against the Syrian regime.

“I’m less concerned about style points.” the president said.  I’m much more concerned with getting the policy right.”

It would appear from the president’s own statements that he has failed to learn from his previous mistakes.

The presidents’ policy on Syria has lacked clarity from the very beginning.  He tried to clean it up by giving an impassioned speech to the nation laying out his case for military action.  Then he closed by calling for patience and a diplomatic solution.  As a result his soaring oratory failed to move the needle.

The same thing is happening with the president’s signature legislative achievement…The affordable Health Care Act. 

The support of the American people for the president’s health care plan is eroding daily.  53% of the people now think that Obamacare is a bad idea. 

(Interestingly when these same people were asked if they understood what was in the law, 70% said “No”.  How do you oppose a bill when you don’t know what’s in it?  That’s another story.) 

The president got the health care policy right.  The goal for Obamacare is to provide affordable coverage for everyone while reducing health care cost.  That IS good policy.  But the president has failed “to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose” when it comes to America’s health care.

We see the same phenomenon with the replacement for retiring Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke.

The president’s choice to replace Bernanke is former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.  Instead of doing dirty work to fight for Summers’ approval, the Obama administration floated a trial balloon by leaking the president’s selection to the press.  Senate Democrats shot it down.  They blame Summers’ de-regulation policies as Treasury secretary for paving the way for the casino atmosphere that permeated the banking industry and nearly wrecked the economy.  Instead of fighting for their candidate the Obama administration backed off with barely a whimper.  Having received zero support from the White House, Summers withdrew his name for consideration.

Was Larry Summers the right man for the job?  Is The Affordable Care Act good policy that will make health care available to all American’s while lowering our health care cost?  Was the right policy in Syria a punitive military strike or the removal and elimination of all the regime’s chemical weapon stockpiles?

There is an old saying in campaign politics…when you are on the stump repeating your policy agenda over and over and over again…when those traveling with you have heard the speech so many time that the mere thought of listening to it again puts them to sleep…only then has your begun to resonate with your audience.

This president has never learned that lesson.  He still operates under the false belief that the only thing that matters is getting the policy right. He still believes that the announcement is the end game when in fact it only the beginning.  He has shunned the back room arm twisting and deal making that lies at the very core of his chosen profession.  And he finds himself in a weakened position because of it.

The president said that his one big mistake in his first term “was thinking that the job was just about getting the policy right.”

Unfortunately for the country and the world, the president

It Has Been An Interesting Week!

It has been an interesting week.

Assad says he doesn’t possess any chemical weapons.

Assad agrees to turn over the chemical weapons he says he doesn’t have to the UN.

Assad orders his military to scatter the chemical weapons he says he doesn’t have to undisclosed locations.

President Obama says he has evidence that Assad used chemical weapons against his own people.

President Obama portrays Assad as a monster for using chemical weapons against his own people.

President Obama says he will order a limited military assault against Assad in retribution for the regime’s use of chemical weapons.

President Obama says he has the constitutional authority to order the assault without obtaining congressional approval.

President Obama says he will obtain congressional approval.

President Obama goes to Capitol Hill to make his case to members of congress.  He urges them to give him the vote for military action.

President Obama says he will take his case for military action to the people.

President Obama conducts six live television interviews making the case for military action.

President Obama meets with congressional leaders and asks them NOT to take a vote on military action.

President Obama addresses the nation.  He makes the moral case for military action against a regime that has gassed 1400 people including 400 children.  He urges congress to support his decision.

In the same speech President Obama tells congress to hold off on their vote in order to give diplomacy time to work.

President Obama, having urged congress to take vote for war while asking them to hold off on the vote for war, proclaims that it is time to get on with the people’s business.

Senator Rand Paul takes it upon himself to issue a response to the president’s address.

Senator Paul questions whether or not Assad used chemical weapons.

Senator Paul says Assad must go.

Senator Paul says that the US should not intervene.

Senator Paul says that Assad must die.  

Secretary Kerry portrays Assad as a monster who has slaughtered over 100,000 of his own people including the use of chemical weapons to gas innocent men, women and children.

Secretary of State Kerry makes the case for a military assault against Assad.

Secretary Kerry categorizes the military assault against the monster that has slaughtered 100,000 of its own people including the use of chemical weapons to gas innocents as “unbelievably small.”

Speaker Boehner says that it is time for congress to get on with the conducting the people’s business.

Speaker Boehner then allows another House vote to repeal Obamacare.

For the 41^st time the House votes to repeal Obamacare.

Vladimir Putin writes an op-ed in the New York Times in which he criticizes the US for intervening in the internal affairs of foreign nations in general and Syria in particular.

Vladimir Putin has shipped over a billion dollars in arms and munitions to the Syrian regime.

Vladimir Putin has Russian troops in Georgia and Chechnya.

Vladimir Putin questions America’s self proclaimed “exceptionalism” saying that in God’s eyes “we are all equal.”

Vladimir Putin’s government is persecuting homosexuals.

Vladimir Putin has signed a law that bans the adoption of children by gay couples and single gay individuals. 

Vladimir Putin has signed a law that allows Russian police to arrest tourists or foreign nationals that they suspect of being homosexual, lesbian or pro-gay.

Vladimir Putin is about to sign a law that will allow the government to remove children from parents that are gay or lesbian or suspected of being gay or lesbian even if the parents are the child’s biological parents.

Senator Ted Cruz was recently discussing former Republican Senator from North Carolina, Jesse Helms.

Senator Cruz said: “What we need in the Senate is 100 more like Jesse Helms.”

Jesse Helms was a vicious racist and homophobe.

Hems once referred to the University of North Carolina as the University of Negroes and Communists.

Once upon a time Helms found himself standing in an elevator with Carol Moseley Braun who was the only black person serving in the Senate.  He turned to his companion and said:  “I’m going to make her cry.”  And then he began to sing “Dixie” to the senator.  “I wish I was in the land of cotton…”

 

  

  

Putin: The Gift That Keeps On giving

Vladimir Putin has what some might call an oversized ego.  He is fond of being photographed doing manly things like riding horses while shirtless, hunting big game, scuba diving or beating up some poor schmuck in judo class. 

He has admitted that some of the photographs were staged.  So what!  It’s the image that counts.  Vladimir the badass!  Bring it!

He is also a world leader with a very big chip on his shoulder when it comes to the United States in general and the US president in particular.  He bristles at the second class mantle that hangs around his once mighty nation; and his animosity toward President Obama is palpable.  Pull up any video of the two of them appearing in public and the image is always the same…Obama using his soaring oratory to make a point while a slouching Putin looks away with total disinterest.

So it is not surprising to see Putin use the president’s “difficulties” with Syria to take center stage in the world arena.  What better chance to promote himself and his beloved country in the eyes of the world.

Putin has assumed the position of leadership in the Syrian conflict.  When Secretary of State Kerry off handedly commented that the United States would hold off on military intervention if Syria gave up its chemical weapons, Putin immediately instructed his Foreign Minister to accept and muscled his Syrian ally to agree. 

Suddenly Putin is a world hero being considered for a Nobel Peace Prize.  In the blink of an eye he has replaced Obama as the world leader running the show on the Syrian crisis.

Embolden by his rise to stardom the egomaniacal former KGB chief placed an op-ed in the New York Times.  In the piece Putin channels Rand Paul.  He criticizes the United States foreign policy saying “US military intervention in the internal conflicts of foreign countries has become commonplace” and warns that the president’s use of military strikes in Syria runs the risk of “spreading the conflict far beyond Syria’s borders.” 

He ends by taking a personal shot at Obama’s reference to “American exceptionalism.” “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.  There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those that are still finding their way to democracy.  Their policies differ, too.  We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessing, we must not forget that God crated us all equal.”

Now there are those in our government who will bristle at Putin’s commandeering the spotlight from the president and the world’s lone superpower.  We can already hear Senator McCain screaming “the president is leading from behind.”

But we welcome Putin’s willingness to grab the spotlight.  And so should the president.

A resolution to the Syrian conflict now rests with Putin.  He owns it.  Now he has to deliver.

We have said before that the US cannot win the peace in the Middle East by way of unilateral military strikes.  World peace can only come through the world’s involvement.

Putin has handed Obama a gift. 

Just say “thank you.”        

  

Obama Makes His Case For War...And Peace

The president addressed the nation last night and tried to thread a needle.

As expected he made his case for a military response against the Assad regime in order to send a clear message that the use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated.  At the same time he called for patience to allow a developing diplomatic solution the time to gain traction.

He called for his congressional friends on the right and on the left to support his decision to use military force.  Then he asked them to hold off on their vote to give diplomacy a chance.  Earlier in the day the president met privately with congressional leaders urging them to postpone their vote…a vote he knew that he was certain to lose… so as not to undercut him in the eyes of the world.

The president’s policy on Syria has taken a very circuitous route toward its current position of being backed into a corner. Given the hand that he has dealt himself, last night’s speech was probably the best he could do.

Overall the reviews from the chattering class are not good.  We’ll leave it to others to parse each word.

Our take away is as follows.

Last night the president pushed the reset button.  He gave the world a chance to develop a diplomatic solution to the Syrian conflict while holding the threat of military intervention over its head.  If diplomacy is successful then it is a win win for humanity.  If diplomacy fails he can always intervene militarily.  And next time he won’t wait for congressional approval.

The hawks won’t take kindly to this strategy.  Relying on the evil Putin to broker a peaceful settlement is not their idea of strong American leadership. 

The doves won’t like it either.  In their view holding the threat of military intervention as a bargaining chip is never acceptable.

It complicated!

It is time for the country to learn that America’s influence in world affairs is waning.  We can no longer go it alone.  America’s military might cannot solve the world’s problems.

Today marks the 12^th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  In the aftermath of that horrible day, America unleashed upon its enemies the full force and fury of its military might.    Al Qaeda has been decimated, Bin Laden is dead, Hussein is dead, and Gadhaffi is dead, Afghanistan has returned to the second century haven for terrorism that it once was, and Iran has filled the power vacuum in Iraq.  Thousands of American lives lost…to what end. 

We have been at war for twelve years and the Middle East looks very much today as it did on 9/11/2001…a region in conflict threatening to boil over into a worldwide conflagration.  The lesson here is that we are powerless to stop it by ourselves.

The key to a new world order in the Middle East lies in Syria, Iran and Israel/Palestine.   They are all interconnected.  A long term solution cannot be found at the tip of a cruise missile.

The key to worldwide peace is the world’s involvement in creating that peace.

The sooner we learn that lesson the better.

The president tried to thread that needle last night.

Under the circumstances he did the best that he could do.

  

    

                     

Putin Just Threw Obama A Lifeline

Yesterday the White House put on a full court press to make the case for military action in Syria.  What was supposed to be a strong unified performance played out across the national news networks turned out to be yet another version of amateur hour.

The president sat with six national news anchors and made his case for military action.  He stressed the importance of sending a strong, clear message to the Syrian regime that the use of chemical weapons would not go without severe consequences.

Meanwhile his chief diplomat, Secretary of State John Kerry, was telling his audience how “unbelievably small” these strikes would be and that they were not intended to alter the course of the Syrian civil war.

(Which poses for us the question:  if this military action is so “unbelievably small” and will be inconsequential in altering the course of the Syria civil conflict then why seek congressional approval? Or why do it at all for that matter.  But we digress.)

Then, in response to a reporter’s question: “What could Syria do to stop the US from striking?”  Kerry shrugged and nonchalantly said that they could hand over all of their chemical weapons and promise to never develop them again.  It was intended as a rhetorical response, not a policy statement.

That is until the Russian leadership seized on Kerry’s remark and said that it was a great idea; to which the Syrian leadership agreed. France then offered to bring the measure up before the UN Security Council.

To be fair, a similar proposal has been in the works within the halls of congress.  But the idea had lost steam until Kerry’s offhanded remarks.

Suddenly Washington insiders were scrambling.

Senate Majority Leader grabbed the first microphone that he could find and said the senate would put off a vote on authorization until more information on the latest developments could be examined.

The White House tried desperately to gain control of the message.  They said that while they were encouraged by the discussion, they would remain skeptical and cautious in their approach.  The president himself made it clear that this sudden apparent capitulation on the part of the Syrian regime came only as a direct result of his very clear intention to use military force.  A host of presidential standard bearers led by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed the president.

That breeze that blew through the trees yesterday afternoon was the collective sigh of relief coming out of Washington.

Nobody in Washington wants to take this politically toxic vote.  Not the White House, not congress…nobody.  They were all desperately seeking a way off the ledge without jumping.

And Vladimir Putin handed it to them.

The president is scheduled to address the American people tonight.  His job is to convince the American people that a military strike against Syria is the right thing to do.  All the poling suggests that his task is almost impossible.  There is no appetite in this country for another military intervention in the Middle East…no matter how “unbelievably small” it might be.

Given the recent overtures of the Russians and the Syrians we expect that tonight’s address will take a different tract.  The president will still make the case for taking out Assad’s chemical weapon capabilities.  But he will remind us that he has always favored a diplomatic solution.  And since Assad does not pose an imminent threat to the homeland he will acknowledge that there is still time for the peaceful solution that he has always preferred.  He will comment on his skepticism of the Russian proposal and he will remind us that such a proposal only came about as the result of the very real prospect of US military intervention. 

Stay strong!  Save face!

When the president finishes his remarks he should get on the phone and thank his not so very best friend, Vladimir Putin.

Because Vladimir Putin just threw the president a lifeline.