Commentary by Michael Sommer
The essential task of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States will be, first, to get America and the world out of the Black Hole created by the immoral, illegal, and often stupid domestic and foreign policies of the worst, most incompetent President in American history, George Walker Bush.
Despite President Obama's brilliance (142 I.Q.), his political sagacity, his no-drama-with-Obama unrattled demeanor, and his extraordinary vision, it is doubtful that he, or for that matter, even the next President after him can bring about many of the changes he promised and was elected to carry out. The task is simply too big, and the damage done by George Bush, other Presidents and unwatchful Americans is too great. But Mr. Obama will be a very welcome start, at least in theory. These things are hard to predict. He could be a good president, even a great president, but the jury is still out on whether he is a great or courageous man. And the times demand both greatness and great courage.
When FDR's brilliant speechwriter Sam Rosenman wrote the historic, still-ringing line, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" for President Roosevelt's first inaugural address, America did indeed have much to fear. Roosevelt was a great leader, but not a brilliant man. He cured that, as he did by overcoming the effects of polio, by measures of astute tactics, undeniable courage, and by surrounding himself with brilliant men whom he played off, one against the other, much as Lincoln did. As a concerned President Roosevelt noted in his still legendary address to an expectant nation, one third of America was then ill-housed, ill-clothed, and ill-fed. Privately FDR feared domestic fascism, increased Ku Klux Klanism, and given those despairing times, he feared the coming political freight train of the exceptionally gifted demagogue, the self-taught "hick," the formidable Governor of Louisiana, Huey Long. And, as FDR full-well knew, Huey very much wanted to move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and throw Franklin and Eleanor into the street. Huey argued that every man's home was his castle, and while "the hicks" as he privately called his admirers ate up his words and antics, he might actually have had a chance of calling the movers for the Roosevelts save that a doctor's bullets cut him down and saved the Nation an utter disaster.
Mr. Obama has not one or two emergencies, as Roosevelt had, in successfully curing the Depression and winning World War Two, but several, all at the same time. He will need all of his brilliance, all the brilliance of his advisors, and all the brilliance --- and there is plenty of it --- in the minds and hearts of the American people. And, as they have proven time and again, they will lift themselves out of the ashes left behind by ill-chosen leaders whom they admittedly chose --- for they are up to it.
Much of the world had almost given up on America under George Bush. They might well have if McCain had been elected, for he was, despite some of his sterling qualities, Bush III. In watching and listening to Bush, it was not the America much of the world knew and admired. It was, instead, a world of failed policies in nearly everything, envisioned by a man, or envisioned for him by others, a man who listened attentively to his D.C.-experienced Vice President, and who listened above all, to God. Bush earnestly believed that the Lord had shown him the way by ridding him of alcoholism and the road to confidence and certain achievement.
At one point in his sorry career, Laura Bush warned, "It's either Jack Daniels or me, George." George took the hint, embraced the Lord, but the world was the worse for it.
George Bush has been far worse of a President than Herbert Hoover, Ulysses S. Grant, and Warren G. Harding put together. For he does not much care for ideas, lacks intellectual curiosity and vision, and embraces reactionary philosophies that Mr. Obama will have to scale back as quickly as rabbits multiple for the world once again to regain its confidence in the true spirit and abilities of America.
This is all part of the dilemma of a democracy. As Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Churchill knew full well, the bloody thing can work, but it needs an informed electorate. Too often in recent American history, ignorance, stupidity, greed, and other cardinal sins have been brought into the voting booth to chose presidents and to keep them in power. Mr. Jefferson would have argued that Americans have every right to make mistakes, and can even be counted on to do so, if not in their choice of local officials then in their presidential choices. But even Old Tom might agree that George W. Bush is the worst political mistake Americans have ever made. For what George Bush has wrought may take perhaps generations to correct, decidedly more than Obama's two terms, and more than the next President's two terms after him. As the astronauts so quickly like to say after someone slipped up, "We screwed the pooch."
While millions went to work and tended their children, Dick Cheney and his staff of merry undertakers, spouting ill-served, reactionary philosophies and carrying out miscreant deeds, took America and the world to the cleaners. The redeeming ticket will be very costly, in treasure, to fully reclaim the best of the American way. Very possibly, since there is a good deal of worry that a money-flush U.S. military apparently would like to tackle yet more countries to extend the thin line of nation saving, make that saving civilization, as the Romans tried, but failed to do, ---it will cost ever more treasure and lives.
The trillions of dollars, probably five or more and counting, that economist and Nobel Prize Winner Joseph Steglitz keeps talking about, that will be billed, and will be spent on the crazy war in Iraq and the failing war in Afghanistan, with a good smack or two being saved up for the Iranians, and other errant Middle Easterners, possibly even the sometimes looney North Korean leadership, bespeak big troubles ahead for the community organizer from Chicago. For as sure as we all sit here, he will be tested, if not by the still evasive Bin Laden, then by surrogates and foolish nations. Meanwhile, China and Russia will regain some of their traditional world leadership because America has abandoned its role, unless Mr. Obama can make a sharp U- turn, and if that does not happen, it will sink further into decline, as Henry Kissinger warned it might many years ago.
All that would be enough to worry about, but it is only a partial list of worries for the new President. The two wars America is fighting without much moral or rhetorical resistance by average Americans or by Congress, will be wound down by Mr. Obama, but a U.S. military presence will remain in those two countries, and it may continue to have a cost in life and treasure. Meanwhile, an American economic crisis --- now a world economic crisis --- will get worse day by day, far worse before it gets better. We are only in Act One of the The Economic Mess, and if we somehow play our cards as Mr. Bush did, by allowing de-regulation and stupidity to run amok, it will continue to deepen every day and breathlessly put the world on the cliffs of a Global Deep-Recession. The three major factors that save us from a Depression are in-built government and free market corrections, very sharp thinking and our Chinese friends, who will come to the rescue lest they, too, go down the cloacae. Thus much the state of the world's economies are in the hands of seasoned Wall Street veterans and sharpies, some of whom will be at Mr. Obama's side as part of his cabinet, as well as The Most Esteemed Lending Bank of the People's Republic of China and Other Needed Asian Money Lenders. Sometimes the European money lenders will chime in, when they have to, provided they can act in unison and intelligently and not argue too much with each other about the best way of helping the Hapless Yanks and each other, too.
Mr. Bush had a nasty habit, while Americans were engaging in their favorite habits of making a buck, watching sports and info-entertainment on the tube, reading very little, and other in-house games, of never, ever, paying too close attention. For that, some have reasoned should be done by an admittedly greedy, incompetent but still present traditional albeit fast-changing media, although admittedly it is not profitable because too few listen or watch. All this while the modern world --- i.e., the young --- turn to the daily multiplying internet options and other revolutions in 9-second per glance info-gathering, and they too cannot make too much of the exasperating myriads of difficult domestic and foreign problems at hand, for there is little good analyses or commentary on them. Mr. Bush gave scant attention to the nation's real problems because he is an ignorant man, given to reactionary theories and, because he did not think them very important or that Adam Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, a book written in 1776 when Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, would providentially solve them. But, George, they were important, very important, and now Mr. Obama, America, and the world has them in their laps.
Given all that Mr. Obama must now try to correct within the eight years before him, assuredly compromise will be the order of the day, and, yes, there will be outright disappointment. For example, a real solution to the sorry state of national health care, as Mr. Obama passionately promised would be top priority, probably will not happen, because it costs too much and the pharmaceutical, health care, and medical lobbies will see that Mr. Obama's vision is not fulfilled.
One of Mr. Obama's --- and the nation's --- many dire problems stems from the dirty work of many of the 14,000 lobbies in Washington --- and most are bloody good in obstructionist tactics or, conversely, in lathering up the proper politicians to have their way. In many respects, when the history of Mr. Obama is written, the dual achievements of Franklin Roosevelt in curing the American Depression and winning World War Two may seem a bit trifling by comparison, given the enormity of his agenda. And let us remember that Roosevelt brought America out of a Depression really only by the onslaught of World War Two, which provided full employment. Mr. Obama may not be so lucky.
Mr. Obama says a top priority will be to create and save jobs. Mr. Roosevelt put millions of the unemployed to work on roads, bridges, and dams, and Mr. Obama is now making the same sounds as a partial solution. But it is only that, a partial solution. The fact is there are not enough available jobs, and will not be enough, despite the promise of the Green Economy and other buzz words. For at least his first term in office, there may not be near the number of jobs that Mr. Obama wants to create. Many of the jobless do not even bother to report their despair. They have simply given up trying to find work.
Add to that, he must scale down domestic costs, and raise some taxes no matter what he preaches. He must cut massive military costs, all the while defending America against both foreign aggressors and terrorists. Why this was not done under George Bush reeks of such utter incompetence that it will be the subject of reading in universities and much head-shaking for years to come. And, to add to his full plate of domestic messes, Mr. Obama likely will not only be tested by some errant nation or body of fanatics and terrorists, be they the mullahs of Iran, the North Korean leadership, or one of the always unpredictable Middle East nations or rogues. But he will probably not face too much trouble from Mr. Putin although the Russian Iron Man can be counted on to loudly saber rattle for domestic consumption. Mr. Putin, while playing to the Russian' people's historically tragic need for a strongman, is too smart to play his nuclear card or boorish, oil rich military cards, mainly because it would cost him and Russia far too much. So much for the chap in whose eyes Mr. Bush, upon meeting the KGB veteran, found virtue and honesty.
As for China, it will go on doing what it does now, simply buying countries one by one --- more than 160 to date --- first their infrastructures, then their souls, in whatever Faustian exchange they can be had. That is real power, but it is also pyrrhic power. For China, as the massive recent world-wide economic stock market and general economic slowdowns reveal, also must resort to good-sized bailouts to keep feared domestic discontent at a minimum.
With all these maneuverings, to those who argue that China will someday see another enlightened day, with enlightened leadership, a market economy, democracy of sorts, and the eventual release of 2 million political prisoners who dared to speak their minds, in person or on the internet, and that these now enlightened leaders will walk arm-in- arm with their Western brothers and sisters into the happy sunset, a suggested re-reading of history is indicated. Those in power in China will never give it up easily and those younger chaps aspiring to it are only a slight degree removed from the fascistic thought patterns of their elder, tactically clever, present leaders.
While the Chinese are playing their grand strategic hands, Mr. Obama - if the thousands of D.C. lobbyists and countless nerdy conservative zealots who oppose him have their say, will, of course, try to exact change out of his opponents, reiterating his supporter's genuinely felt chants, "Yes, we can!" Indeed we can, if we and Mr. Obama are very lucky and everything works out well.
Meanwhile, even now, the ugly head of reaction has raised its slimy cerebellum in America, with the likes of popular Talk Show host Rush Limbaugh, claiming some 13 million hangers-on and growing, who called Mr. Obama "a thug" one day after his election. That, of course, would not be news to Abraham Lincoln who was publicly called a gorilla and a great deal worse, yet managed to save the Union, for which he remains, to date, the greatest American president. Mr. Obama, whose real charge is to save America and give the world an American-assisted new direction in countless ways, gives speeches already being compared to Mr. Lincoln's, not just for their eloquence, to which Mr. Obama is Old Abe's able competitor, but also for Mr. Obama's seeming abilities to surmount the almost impossible tasks that face him. Mr. Lincoln faced the formidable task of saving the Union. Mr. Obama faces far more.
And while we are comparing the 16th to the 44th American President, there is another horrifying comparison being heard around the country. While Obama's election immeasurably helped to strike a body blow to the paralyzing American racism of 400 years --- handicapping both Whites and Blacks ---and while Colin Powell, Oprah Winfrey, and my friend Jesse Jackson --- whom I tried to help elect President twenty years earlier in 1988, all wept at Obama's Chicago victory speech, there were the calls --- and let us face this squarely --- to somehow do away with, and in some cases, murder Obama, somewhat identical in these emotional times to the public and successful calls to murder Lincoln.
When John McCain was confronted with this stripe of hatred, of which there still is plentiful supply in America --- although prior to Mr. Obama's election it had certainly diminished and with it, we may presume it will further diminish, the lights of old racial hatreds will not be put out easily. Martin Luther King and Gandhi knew in their hearts that something horrifying might come their way, and it did. This horrible thought of assassination has been insufficiently addressed by the media, politicians, pastors, priest, and rabbis, too cowardly to meet it head on and rally against the hatred that causes it. John McCain, to his great and everlasting credit, did meet it head on. He quickly tried to squelch it. Whenever he met the hatred in appearances and when it was evidenced by his supporters, he rose to denounce it. For that alone, he will always be regarded in the best light, irrespective of any of his political beliefs and political acts. For it is precisely these morally necessary acts that make for greatness, and Mr. McCain met that test.
Mr. Obama in his prudence and caution has yet to evidence real courage. McCain, though testy, sometimes rash, even juvenile, always had pluck, irrespective or not whether he exercises it to prove a point or two to his courageous father and grandfather, both legendary admirals, or for other inner reasons. McCain was wrong about Vietnam, wrong about Iraq, wrong about the economy, wrong about many things --- domestic and foreign --- that critically affect average Americans. But he stood tall in kicking racism in the rear when he had to. So, hats off to Captain McCain.
But alas, this was not so with his running mate Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, who assuredly will be heard from again, perhaps even in a presidential run in 2012. For there is far more here than the soccer mom, alleged bimbo beauty queen, who truly does not know that Africa is a continent. This lady is smart, engaging, and plays extremely well to her fundamental conservative base, including many women who admire her and hosts of other Americans as well.
But when she first heard the cry of "kill him" at a rally, she did nothing, for reasons known only to herself. Most of Americans overwhelmingly thought she was incompetent to be President. One of the funniest political campaign yard signs apparently distributed during the campaign, reads "Geezer" on top, "Dingbat" beneath a line separating the two candidates. But Sarah Palin's lack of moral certitude when someone gave vent to a monstrous, dangerous hatred --- which she knew full well is shared by more than a few Americans who politely explain that they "could never vote for a Black man," made her morally unfit to hold office.
In the several travels of my wife, Veronika, and I in during the last months, we have been shocked to hear the muttered threats of "someone will knock Obama off" no less than a dozen times. A pilot friend of ours says he has heard it more than two dozen times.These statements, sometimes accompanied by smirking, came from otherwise seemingly quite intelligent people, again proving that deep-seated hatred, ignorance, and fears have nothing to do even with higher I.Q.'s.
So while Mr. Obama's I.Q. at 142 is slightly higher than Mrs. Clinton's 140 or even Bill Clinton's 137 (Mr. Nixon's, for whatever it is worth, was 151 and there is probably a moral analogy to be made), Mr. Obama did win the Democratic nomination fairly, squarely and narrowly over Mrs. Clinton, as he did the general election over Senator McCain, although in both campaigns there were some nervous moments. The strategies were rightfully described by most of my political consultant peers as brilliant in vision and execution. Only 12% of Hillary's female supporters ---not including my uncannily astute political wife --- ended up voting for McCain.
To top that off, the so-called "Bradley Effect," named after the campaign in the 70s for California Governor of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley --- whom I knew well and whom I tried to help become California's first Afro-American Governor - to the surprise of many observers, did not really play a major role in Obama's election, perhaps because the economic crisis the nation and the world is facing was overriding, and the need for change so great, all enough to ride racism out on a rail. Tom Bradley lost his race by 7%, to his utter consternation. He discovered as Jesse Jackson did in 1988, that voters who say they will absolutely, surely, without question, vote for a black man, actually can lie.
Most Americans took deep pride in Mr. Obama's election, that a part of the American dream is hopefully, finally fulfilled, that anyone, of any race, or religion, has equal opportunity to be anything, even President of the United States. We still must overcome a graver issue than race: gender, for better than half of the human race suffers from that inequity. But Obama's election will probably deeply enter the American consciousness, and will provide evidence to the world that we put our big money where our big mouths and imperialism are. It was an historic day, a great, tear-filled moment, a reality, a wondrous thing to behold. The entire world again looks to America with great hope and a good deal of body English, to lead the way. For America is back.
But first, The Horrible Economic Mess. The stock markets in the United States and around the world, have not yet found bottom. While we wait and gnash our hands and innards to discover what that bottom will be, trillions of dollars have been lost, with trillions more to come. A deep global recession is upon us. There may be enough corrective factors in our economic make-ups and an seemingly endless Chinese bankroll not to threaten a true Depression, although there is certainly a wide-spread fear of that also. But for that to happen, the United States, China, and Europe would have to go down, and that is very, very unlikely. Charles Darwin was right about survival. Everyone likes it.
However, the size of this fast-spreading economic mess escapes the guessing minds of even the most brilliant experts, U.S. or foreign. They may utter words, even brilliant thoughts, but these are but educated guesses.
John McCain did have it right: the American economy is fundamentally sound, but not presently, John. It is anyone's guess with unemployment standing to climb at least a million more, thousands and thousands more homes being foreclosed because people cannot pay for them, with nearly one and ½ million U.S. jobs lost so far this year, with many more job losses coming, with Ford and General Motors needing massive bailouts for a myriad of reasons and seemingly set to go the way of the buffalo, and on and on, well then, what about, say, retail sales?. Well, brother-can-you-spare-a-dime, all this won't give much Tiny Tim Christmas cheer this season.
And, it will not take the usually predictable 16 months to ease out of this economic mess as it has in past recessions, the indicators are just too awful: anywhere from 24 to 30 months is more likely. If we can remember that far back, actually only a few months ago, the mess was brought on by mortgage companies such as Countrywide in California, and others of their ilk, some of whose officers may well be opening next year's Xmas presents in jail, and by hundreds of home loan brokers and other middlemen who knew full well that when they signed on their suckers, ah, borrowers, that the clients, poor devils as my British friends are wont to say, could never, ever repay the sums borrowed, not with their stupendously inadequate income. But no matter. Let's all make lots of money and pass on the cooked-up loan package to the next loan broker, who will take his hefty cut and pass it on to the next capitalist piggy, all the way to the Federal Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And let some of the chaps take a few bucks under the table too, so that everyone can feel merry this Christmas or any other season. Zillions were made in Bush years of unregulated economics, craftily maneuvered by Republicans who now, though increasingly rich, must pay the piper in the political outhouse for at least four years, for their unwise economic largesse. What the hay, lads, let the bloody bubble burst, we've got ours.
Even the venerable Alan Greenspan, who had been warned by one of his fellow members of the Federal Reserve Board that a freight train might be coming down on us all with no brakes, somewhat like Mr. McNamara's mea culpa many years after the Vietnam debacle, expressed proper shock that such things can happen. They can chaps, with the assistance of a blithering President and unscrupulous Republican politicians and home mortgage and Wall Street slime balls.
The whole scene played out a bit like that in Casablanca, in which Claude Rains, playing a corrupt French cop in the legendary Bogart flick, expresses mock outrage that gambling is occurring in Rick's Café (to which everyone comes), including Rains who has done much gambling there himself. Then when Rains is presented with a good sized stack of roulette chips by one of Bogart's café minions with the line, "Your winnings, sir," Rains famously remarks --- in a line with which every American is familiar --- "I'm shocked, shocked, that gambling is going on here!" and proceeds to close the joint to curry favor with his Nazi overlords. Thank God for the Chinese, for as Benjamin Franklin warned in another sense, "either we hang together or we will hang separately."
So then, enter Barack Obama, stage left. Mr. Obama, as anyone can readily see and hear or who has but heard his thinking and oratory, is brilliant, pensive, well-read, visionary, willing to cleverly take counsel from diversified views, a quick study, and one of the greatest orators of this or any other day. But all these amazing qualities did not keep the conservatives, AKA reactionaries, from already spitting bilge at him at dawn's light and they will continue to do so, smilingly, underhandedly, but if we can take note of their record, effectively.
Come January, after George Bush effortlessly, still smirking, slithers back to Crawford, Texas, or the Bush Family Bunker, a costly asterisk in world history, Mr. Obama will presumably launch full speed into overdrive and consort with his Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and as many bipartisan others as he can round up, to get the job done. Lord, there is much to be done, and the time is short, sir. But then, you know that.
Henry Kissinger once said of Richard Nixon, "If only someone had loved him as a child, he could have been a very great man." Barack Obama made it to Harvard Law School and with a very varied, psychologically challenging domestic and foreign life experience that even the most seasoned politicians could not even dream of, made it to the American presidency, the son of a White mother from Kansas and a wayward but brilliant father from Kenya.
Gunnar Myrdal, in his still classic book of the 40s, The American Dilemma, argued that America would have a devil of a time ridding itself of its hypocrisy about race. Ironically, much of the research on the book was done by an unknown young man, who went on to become a sterling American diplomat and to win a Nobel Peace Prize. His name was Ralph Bunche, one of the many outstanding Afro-Americans --- along with the suffering and courage of the Afro-American people comprising 13% of America's population ---to enable Mr.Obama's out-of-nowhere rise and rush past Mrs. Clinton to the White House possible. Mr. Obama has pretty well guaranteed that Americans won't be talking about race too much more.
The traditional achievement tests of "the first 100 days" will not really affect Mr. Obama, given the neglect, and to many Europeans, the incomprehensible mistakes of the presidency of George W. Bush. Months, years, "later in my first term," are the words that will be uttered by the new President and his administration.
Tactically, Obama's trajectories will be hard to predict, although many are trying. But like other fools, allow this writer to venture some predictions, with the caveat, that I review them in eight years and possibly pay off the bar bills of all the lads and lassies reading this if I am wrong:
1.Iraq. Mr. Obama will substantially wind down the war in Iraq and bring most troops home, but some will remain and not just in the Green Zone. More than 30,000 U.S. troops still serve in South Korea, nearly 60 years after hostilities broke out. Thousands more serve around the world, the objects of both admiration and disgust. In that regard, the Chinese, while always a suspicious lot, probably will not be a military threat. But they will have their hands on economic strings and pluck at them. They are perfectly happy to have the world, and particularly America, owe them trillions of dollars. To transpose Von Klausewitz a bit, "economic manipulation is merely an extension of sly diplomacy."
2.Afghanistan. That war is seemingly unwinnable. There is too much drug money at stake for both domestic sides to divvy it up. Even the Russians had to finally go home with shoulders slumped. Whether Mr. Obama can get it right is open to serious question. The American puppet government there as well as the terrorists and their allies, as well as corrupt war lords, will continue to divide up the drug money and terrorize hapless peasants into growing ever more poppies. It is a cash cow and the terrain and the legendary fighters defending it are rugged. There is no satisfactory solution in sight. And Bin Laden is lurking very nearby.
3.North Korea. The paranoid, unstable leaders there, led by a particularly neurotic chap, will likely continue to present Mr. Obama with fitful nights, because they are full-charge in the international nuclear and rockets business, because these chaps will take money from anyone. At some stage, Mr. Obama, as with the Middle East and perhaps elsewhere, will be severely tested, and will have to make a decision whether to strike to protect national and international security. In some of these challenges, it will be a very tough call, but we only have one President, and he better be right.
4. Iran. This oft-derided country is full of intelligent, cultured, educated peoples, but the unhappy land is controlled by the Mullahs and the legacies of bad American foreign policy and diplomatic decisions. Whether Israel actually and unilaterally strikes Iran's many nuclear facilities, now well hidden and in multiple sites, is an open question, but the betting is, it probably will. One cannot imagine the sanguine Mr. Obama going along with Israel on this, except when American interests are directly threatened. But other smart presidents have made costly mistakes.
5.Al Qaida. These fanatical folks will continue to try to strike, be it by small, tactical stolen or home-grown nuclear weapons, horrible biological goodies, or the most harmful kinds of chemical compounds. Their operatives are smart and sophisticated, willing to lose their lives to achieve martyrdom and sleep with the 1,000 virgins, minus Viagra, and they don't give up. But some terrorism experts are warning about another likely tactic: cyber-terrorism, read that as the ability to shut down a lot e-switches controlling planes, banks, defense facilities and much more. The hit list is long and the worry is very real.
Now for an equally zany try at some of Mr. Obama's myriad domestic headaches, but before the long list, this one:
Putting America in Its Former and Great Role: One of Mr. Obama's greatest tasks - for which he has every qualification and America's ardent desire - will be to restore the respect and admiration that once was America's, prior to the almost systematic destruction of these decades-long givens by George Bush and his accomplices of very strange mindsets. The latter include the notion of a "unilateral executive," essentially Fascism 101, advanced by some of Dick Cheney's bright young men, among them David Addington. This Bush-practiced legal theorem proposes that the President ist űber alles. John Woo, now a law professor at UC Berkeley and another devotee of this ultra conservative view and myriad revisionist causes, as well as the architect of the infamous "torture is o.k." memos, as well as other former White House underlings who will no doubt still protest loudly from the sidelines that Mr. Obama has never, and does not now, understand how to use the Constitution for best advantage, that is in behalf of their half-baked theories of public policy and how to run things in general properly from the Oval Office. They will find --- perhaps even to their collective dismay --- that America will not only take years to live down these deliberate emasculations of the U.S. Constitution but that they likely will be both costly and ghastly once our military men and women are captured by capable enemies. The Dick Cheney "I know what is right for America and you don't" (coming from someone who had five convenient draft determents) appeared to overwhelm the insecure Mr. Bush, when he was not seeking further direction from his primary instructor, the Lord. Presumably the JFK-installed Red Hotline Phone was not necessary during Mr. Bush's two terms, since he could clearly hear the Lord via the fillings in his incisors, assuredly not in his wisdom teeth. As is the case with Richard Nixon, and it is the awful price of democracy when it is practiced by voters who are insufficiently educated in verifiable facts, people, not penguins, voted for the likes of Mr. Nixon, as they did for George W. Bush. It is said that father George H.W. Bush is disappointed in his son's accomplishments, or lack of them, in the White House, already now named The Black House by political wags. But such disappointments expressed by fathers or not, will not help correct the disastrous heap of disasters, failures, and foul smelling Bush anti-Constitutional adjutants whose ghosts will stink up the White House for years to come.
"Obama is not drama," are among the buzz words in Washington. One of his favorite books is Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, detailing the shenanigans of the rivals for his presidency that Lincoln cleverly and successfully put into his Cabinet so they could play in his presidential playpens to his advantage. The Pulitzer Prize-winner is one of my favorite books, too, for one cannot but have admiration for Mr. Lincoln's mind, eloquence, and humanity, as we now admire those same qualities in Mr. Obama.
Mr. Obama has all the qualities to be a second Lincoln, who spent most of his time presiding over a divided America and an unending war. That will not be Mr. Obama's legacy if he will ease America's deep domestic divide, racial and cultural, unify the country, and restore sufficient respect throughout the world for his country. He may well have two wars that do not quite wind down during his presidency, no matter how clever his generals. And he stands to have continuing economic travails and provide catch ups for a myriad of severely neglected domestic programs.
Lincoln learned to be a top military strategist, better than his generals. Mr. Obama, despite having never served, certainly has the mental ability to do that as well. Jack Kennedy, a war hero, never trusted the military and was often ill-served when he did. The military apparently does not fully trust Mr. Obama, for some have it, he did not serve, is far too liberal and does not understand military men or matters properly.
Obstructionists Against Obama. These will not only include entrenched conservatives, of whom there are many since the country is still culturally divided and they are bright, powerful and have money, but some 14,000 lobbies as well, who will be there long after Mr. Obama returns to Chicago. The road blockers will also include a Congress with a current approval rating of 9%, because of the influence of lobbyists who supply the dear politicians with lots of money on which to campaign for re-election. The obstructionists may also include 17 intelligence agencies who will serve the new President with varying degrees of competence but who do not necessarily like him, and the Department of Defense, which also may not really like him, but whose employees, especially the career military officers, will go with the flow to advance their careers.
The auto industry will have to be bailed out. There are no alternatives. Ten percent of U.S. jobs rest on it and 20% of U.S. sales. It's a no-brainer. The only question is, what will be the quid pro quo, smart and effective, or an enabler for a continuing drainage ditch to nowhere? Sure the Michigan delegation in Congress voted these errant Big Three management guys all the goodies they wanted, including their unions, which in part helped to bring on this mess. That's aside from the fact that the Big Three for years were producing the wrong kind of cars. But bail out we will, because bail out we must.
The joke about inflation in Washington once was, "give it over to the Post Office. They won't get rid of it, but they sure can slow it down." It is this combination of Washington inertia and self interest that despite Mr. Obama's best legislative efforts and direct appeals to the American people, may well slow him down. If that happens, Americans will ask, what happened? And they will not fully understand why. Mr. Obama has tricky acts ahead here, keeping the country strong, cutting back on weaponry that is not all that efficient and costs too much, making the military modern, lean and mean and smart, and at any minute of any day, possibly sending American men and women in harm's way. Being Commander- in- Chief is an awful job. Being President in 2009 is an awful job, but someone must do it, and the world is blessed that Barack Hussein Obama is competent enough, wise enough, pensive enough, eloquent enough, visionary enough, well-read enough, hopefully courageous enough, to do it, and do it well.
God speed, Barry Obama. God speed, America. And as Betty Davis said in the movie, All about Eve, hold on to your seat belts, it may be a bumpy ride
But fear? That went out with Sam Rosenman's great words for FDR. Americans may be naive, but they are tough and determined, ingenious and spirited, and ever optimistic, especially now that because they have to a great degree with Mr. Obama's election freed themselves from racism and hopefully, completely from Mr. Bush. And let us hope that anyone is a fool to think otherwise.
Mr. Lincoln made rhetorical history when warning that "A house divided cannot stand."
Mr. Obama will have to rebuild a nation and a world from a White House trashed by the previous tenants. But, thankfully given the American spirit and his gifted leadership, he will not have to do it from scratch. As with post- 9/11, we Americans are up to any task, anytime, anywhere. That is but one reason why the world dislikes us: hubris. But now, once more, it may even learn to like us again, at least a little.
Michael Sommer, formerly Senior Partner of the Democratic presidential consulting firm, Sheinkopf Communications, New York City, has advised several U.S. Presidents and presidential candidates. Now Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and at Yale and Stanford universities. He currently is also a Visiting Scholar for National Security at the East-West Center, Honolulu.