There's been a lot of cynicism over Obama's promise of change. Why should anyone be cynical about that?
George w. Bush has made change about the easiest part of Obama's mandate. Much of what he has to do is to reinstate protections and regulations stripped away by the Bush maladministration. Find out what Bush did, decide if it's not beneficial and then, if warranted, cancel it.
Drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve? Cancel it. A ban on funding for stem cell research? Scrap it. The bellicose Bush Doctrine. Gone. Unilateralism - no more, make way for multilateralism.
Barack Obama will be stepping into stables that simply haven't been dunged out for some time. There'll be some shovelling to be done, a lot of crap to be chucked out. Fortunately much of the current regime's mischief was accomplished by presidential decree, almost by fiat, and much of it can be undone quickly and easily.
The hard stuff - restoring confidence and vitality to the American economy, devising a meaningful climate change policy, introduction of universal health care, restoring balance to America's tax codes - that will take longer but it takes time and effort to come up with the right answers.
Bush and Cheney surrounded themselves with second-rate ideologues and sycophants. If you weren't one you were damn well the other. Corporatism prevailed with the inevitable consequence of wrecking just about everything. Obama, by contrast, is picking the best and the brightest. He's not governed by neoconservative Republican ideological incest.
Bush and Cheney and all their minions set the bar so astonishingly low that Obama will have a pretty easy time distinguishing his administration as vastly superior. That is going to help him build the trust and bond with the American people he's going to need to gain their support for the tough, sometimes unpleasant challenges that lie ahead.
4 comments:
Obama can send an awesome message to the rest of the world on his first day in office by closing down gitmo.
I just happened to suffer through 5 minutes or so of Glenn Beck this evening before I got totally fed up & found another station. I feel sorry for the guy (OK, subtract his outrageous earnings from my total sympathy...) because he's SO delusional. He goes on about how the American people don't want to face up the "bad news," how all the stories about Barack "add up to something," and how, like John Forbes Nash ("A Beautiful Mind") he sees things that "very few other people see" -- no kiddin' Glenn!! He's so sad because beyond the obvious ideological delusion that just won't let go of the past 8 years (add 8 more for Reagan), he's bitter and sad to be left in the dust. He's moved to Fox, apparently, or so he was saying.
May President-Elect Obama have a LONG, SUCCESSFUL and PROSPEROUS presidency, because as goes his presidency, so goes our nation.
Ah yes, Glenn Beck, CNN's "tool in residence." I'm sure FOX is just the place for his ilk.
"Fortunately much of the current regime's mischief was accomplished by presidential decree, almost by fiat, and much of it can be undone quickly and easily."
A most excellent point, MoS. Yes, other things will take time but if given the time I'm sure Obama can do them. He has a lot of heavy headaches to try & fix.
As far as Fox goes makes me wonder how well they will do once the new administration takes over. They won't have "insider" info so easily available & if Obama et al do well in the eyes of the public then Fox will have less & less viewership. Would love to see that channel fade away as well as a lot of the right-wing radio talk shows - maybe in time too.
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