Apparently, while I was off riding our country's best thrill rides at Cedar Point, the world went on. So, I'm catching up.
The Hammer, on friday, delved into Obama's fall from high, which is rooted in a loss of trust.
Obama unveiled his plans for a grand makeover of the American system, animating that vision by enacting measure after measure that greatly enlarged state power, government spending and national debt. Not surprisingly, these measures engendered powerful popular skepticism that burst into tea-party town-hall resistance.
Obama's reaction to that resistance made things worse. Obama fancies himself tribune of the people, spokesman for the grass roots, harbinger of a new kind of politics from below that would upset the established lobbyist special-interest order of Washington. Yet faced with protests from a real grass-roots movement, his party and his supporters called it a mob -- misinformed, misled, irrational, angry, unhinged, bordering on racist. All this while the administration was cutting backroom deals with every manner of special interest -- from drug companies to auto unions to doctors -- in which favors worth billions were quietly and opaquely exchanged.
But, Teh One pushes on, and on the 24th of September he is going to preside over a meeting of the UN Security Council. Indeed is will be the World's first President. Flanked by Quadaffi, he has set the agenda on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament.
Obama’s agenda preference indicates that he is dead-set against chairing a session on the non-proliferation issues already on the council’s plate — those that name Iran and North Korea. This stretches his “beer summit” technique to the global scale. Naming names, or identifying the actual threats to world peace, would evidently interfere with the spectacle of proclaiming affection for world peace in the abstract. The problem is that this feel-good experience will feel best of all to Iran, which has interpreted Obama’s penchant for form over substance to be a critical weakness. As a Tehran newspaper close to the regime snickered in July: “Their strategy consists of begging us to talk with them.”
So, what does is the aim of this unprecidented move?
The administration’s zeal for the front-page photo-op on September 25’s New York Times has now become a scramble to manufacture an “outcome” for the session. The president’s idea for a glorious finish was described by Ambassador Rice as some kind of joint statement declaring in part “that we are united in support for effective steps to ensure nuclear nonproliferation.”
Such a result would be breathtaking — for the audacity of claiming exactly the opposite of what it really represents. Even allied council members France and the United Kingdom are reported to be very unhappy with Obama’s no-names strategy for his September rollout.
Far from bolstering his flagging image, the president’s group-hug theory of diplomacy deserves the disdain of anyone who can separate rhetoric from reality.
So, Obama gets some nice photo ops of him looking tough and some nice rhetoric for his non-questioning supporters.
Oh, and Van Jones is looking for new employment. Wee hours of Sunday morning? Brilliant!
Update:
Ahmadinejad wants to "debate" Obama publicaly at the UN dealo. Of course, he's ruled out any negotiations over his own country's nuclear program. Ha haa haaa ...
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