President Obama seems to be running from policies rather than leading policies. Instead of acting like a President who won office with a huge mandate for "change," he is acting like he is months away from a re-election and fears offending the public.
Politicians in one of the nation's toughest political rings, Chicago, long recognized that once you are in office, you make the toughest, hardest and dirtiest decisions reflecting what you feel needs to be done. It's only in the final stretch before a re-election that you start running government by public opinion polls, adjusting your decisions to reflect greater public consensus.
On issue after issue, Obama is acting like he is soon to run for re-election, instead of being a president with a massive mandate still only months into his administration.
Instead of forcing Environment Czar Van Jones to resign from the post in light of some silly revelations on YouTube" that he once signed a petition supporting the belief that the government may have been involved int he Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Obama should have brushed the criticism off, pointed to Van Jones' clear qualifications to direct that Greening initiative, and pointed out rightly that in today's world of instant commentary and internet archiving, everyone -- and I mean everyone -- has something in their Constitutionally protected right to free speech that might shock, dismay or challenge someone else.
The fact is there are people in this country believe who believe that either the government was involved in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, or had enough knowledge to know the attacks were coming but failed to act.
So what!
Stand by the Van Jones appointment instead of embracing the criticism as if it is criticism of you, Mr. President. Every one of your appointees has said something that will upset someone. Will you force everyone to resign, on a timetable set by the right-wing conservative fanatics who could care less about Van Jones' comments on 9/11 and care only that it is an opportunity to hurt your administration.
The public supports you. It's when you forget that fact that the public starts to waiver. Act like the public supports you, because they do, and they will stand by their president.
Don't back down on the Public Option in your health care plan. Insist that it remains and put the feet of the congress to the public fire. Changing your mind and backing down from an important policy decision is no different than if you put the policy to a vote and lost. The fact is that for your criticis, this isn't about the policy. It is about you. They want to stop you.
Don't let the screaming lynch mob on the far right dictate policy in this country. Shut them down by having confidence in your decisions.
Maybe the President's liberal supporters should stop being kindler and gentler reflecting their better-than-the-Neocons attitude. Do what they did to us. Fight back and fight back at every turn. When they push on Van Jones, push back on their Iraq war crimes. When they say you have failed to lead, point out that this current Israeli-Palestinian crisies is the result of former President Bush's failure to lead in the Middle East. When they point to Sept. 11, 2001, point to the fact that it took place under Bush's watch and his response was not to go after the terrorists but to instead go after Saddam Hussein in Iraq to avenge his father's honor.
Stop hiding the Iraqi deaths. Shove them in our faces and remind us that we are losing soldiers everyday because of the failed policies of the fanatics on the right who did worse than question the identity of those responsible for Sept. 11, 2001. They failed to go after the terrorists.
-- Ray Hanania