The Third Bush Term?
On the domestic front, I’ve been pretty happy with the Obama administration. It’s impressive that they have accomplished so much good in the face of unwielding nihilistic opposition. They passed the stimulus bill – could have been bigger, could have been better targeted, but they passed it, and used public demand to stop a downward spiral in private demand (see the Blinder-Zandi study noting that without the combined monetary, fiscal, and financial sector interventions, there would be 8.5 million fewer jobs, and GDP would be a whopping 6.5 percent lower). They passed a momentous health care reform bill, which will expand coverage to 32 million more people, end the scandal of widespread rationing by cost, and curb the growth of future health care spending. And they passed the most sweeping set of Wall Street regulations in generations – not perfect, and watered down by dealings with swing Republicans, but significant. Sadly, no action is forthcoming on the all important climate bill, but still, not a bad innings ove rthe past two years. It has certainly lived up to expectations.
But on the foreign front, I’ve been grievously disappointed.
Sure, the torture might have stopped, but the torture regime lives on, and the warrior culture at the top echelons of power has barely diminished. The military commissions – which barely differ from the Bush administrations versions - are at this moment making a travesty of justice. In one case, the judge simply decreed that the sentence be kept secret. But the most egregious case is that of Omar Khadr. Khadr was a 15-year-old boy arrested and tortured by the American invaders of Afghanistan. His crime? He threw a grenade at American soldiers. Now, while I will not condone this violence, surely this can be described as legitimate defense – attacking a purely military target who has invaded your country? It is certainly not terrorism. But it gets far far worse. Here is the ACLU’s Jennifer Turner:
“Khadr, then 15 years old, was taken to Bagram near death, after being shot twice in the back, blinded by shrapnel, and buried in rubble from a bomb blast. He was interrogated within hours, while sedated and handcuffed to a stretcher. He was threatened with gang rape and death if he didn’t cooperate with interrogators. He was hooded and chained with his arms suspended in a cage-like cell, and his primary interrogator was later court-martialed for detainee abuse leading to the death of a detainee. During his subsequent eight-year (so far) detention at Guantánamo, Khadr was subjected to the “frequent flyer” sleep deprivation program and he says he was used as a human mop after he was forced to urinate on himself.”
And today, the military commission judge refused to throw out “evidence” received under this torture. This is the standard of a banana republic. I expected this from Bush-Cheney, but shame on Obama.
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I second that: Shame on Obama.
If they weren’t waging dirty and immoral wars, they would not be American. But then again, the entire Anglosphere is like that.
Highly recommend “Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War,” by Andrew Bacevich, published last week. The book inspired the most recent post on my new blog, The Fever Chart. Sadly, President Obama has completely bought into what Bacevich terms the postwar American “credo,” which holds that it is America’s unique mission to “lead, save, liberate, and ultimately transform the world.”
at least president Obama’s SCOTUS nominations will guarantee abortion will be legal, thats a positive isn’t it?
Any remorse for your presidential vote yet?
There were plenty of people at the time who made the case that the only real difference between the candidates was who they would appoint to the supreme court.
Under a different president, we would have pretty much the same crappy policies, both foriegn and domestic, we have now, but we would finally have a pro-life majority on the supreme court.
Sadly, Amen…
Wretched Obama coldly and deliberately promised more than he ever planned to delive, and, come November, he and his party will pay a terrible price for this.
He is–and probably always was–a tool of the establishment and apparently lusts after their approval as badly as LBJ did, following the Kennedy assassination–and the result is going to be the same: some modest social progress followed by a quagmire in the Third World.
Your analysis of the domestic front, MM, is seriously flawed because you leave out Obama’s most significant (and, ultimately, catastrophic) failing: his “stimulus” “stimulated” only the banksters, came with almost no strings attached, and so has utterly failed to stem unemployment. This was actually more important to most Americans than a reform of health care.
One other thing you overlooked, as well: Obama’s failure to deliver on his Cairo commitment to the Arab/Muslim world, to be an “honest broker” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict means that Israel is now better positioned to drag the United States into war with Iran.
Overall, this President deserves a C-, at a moment when the country definitely needed an A+ Presidency.
There will always be one very major difference between Bush and Obama. Bush created the situations Obama is trying to deal with. Even if Obama deals with those situations exactly the way Bush did, or Bush would have had he somehow been able to serve a third term, he’s Obama cleaning up a mess made by George Bush.
Just ask yourself — if this is a third Bush term, would you actually prefer Bush to be back in office serving it himself? I don’t think so. And of course the real alternative was a first McCain term.
Too late. Cindy Sheehan rightly called him a war criminal three days into office.
President Obama has also claimed the authority to assassinate an American citizen away from a battlefield–a power his predecessor didn’t claim to have. Change we can believe in…
Ben,
Are you seriously arguing that McCain would have been better? Are you kidding me? We would be mired in a far deeper recession, there would be no health care reform, and the US would more than likely be joining forces with the odious Netanyahu regime to start a war with Iran. No thank you.
Oh yes, I forgot. Abortion is the only issue that the Supreme court rules on. There really isn’t anything else, is there? No, Citizens United and the gun rulings are nothing to get worried about.
But, MM, without regard to other issues it is regrettable that we do not have a Supreme Court majority willing to overturn Roe, is it not? Or does the fact that abortion is a hobbyhorse of the right mean it’s a negligible issue for you?
President Obama has also claimed the authority to assassinate an American citizen away from a battlefield–a power his predecessor didn’t claim to have.
Kyle,
Obama did not claim he has the authority to authorize the assassination of American citizens.
From the Times
It is not as if Obama can decide on his own that he wants to put someone on a hit list.
That would a very positive step, Mark, but so would many other things.
Agreed.
Any remorse for your presidential vote yet?
Not one iota.
And on the domestic front, MM missed some important positives. The Lilly Ledbetter Act regarding pay discrimination against women was the first bill the President signed and was shamefully opposed by the Republicans.
The Student Loan reforms ended a needless giveaway to the big banks.
The Credit Card Consumer Protection Act limiting the ability of banks to swindle cardholders.
The Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act, an important first step to cut needless waste from the Defense budget
David,
The same article you quote begins thus and is what I had in mind:
“The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them, intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Tuesday.”