All his fault

It’s fascinating how the right wing looks for desperate ways to fault Obama as the Middle East is erupting in an unprecedent tidal wave of democratic yearning and protest. Time’s Swampland blog observes:

It has been quite a ride, watching the pop-political entertainment machine try to slice the Arab Spring into easy partisan talking points. Glenn Beck has his democracy-is-bad-for-Muslims, Google-is-pushing-dominos-to-the-caliphate theory. Sarah Palin came forward with a muddled call for more transparency from the White House, followed by a more direct shame-on-Obama-for-not-quickly-condemning-Libya-violence Facebook post, which came right before Obama condemned the violence after a delay to ensure the safety of U.S. citizens in Libya. There have been regular cries from the right, at CPAC in particular, that Obama cared more about betraying its ally Hosni Mubarak than confronting the Ayatollah of Iran. (This line of attack has been blunted by the fact that Obama has, in fact, been confronting the Ayatollah with regular statements, and the fact that few of the critics go so far as to actually side with Mubarak.) In the great middle of Republican thought–from Speaker John Boehner to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to 2012 candidate-in-all-but-title Mitt Romney–there has been mostly silence.

Send in Matt Drudge to keep the news cycle spinning. “GADDAFI: OBAMA IS A FRIEND,” reads the banner headline on his eponymous website right now. The link goes to a year-old interview Gaddafi gave with a London-based newspaper, in which the Libyan autocrat said of the U.S. President, “He is someone I consider a friend. He knows he is a son of Africa. Regardless of his African belonging, he is of Arab Sudanese descent, or of Muslim descent. He is a man whose policy should be supported, and he should be assisted in implementing it in any way possible, since he is now leaning towards peace.”

We can set aside, for the moment, whether anything said by a tyrant who has supported some of the most horrific moments in recent human history is credible. The question of how Gaddafi actually feels about Obama is a fascinating one, which is actually well described in the leaked State Department cables published by Wikileaks. In those cables, we see one of Gaddafi’s sons complaining about a lack of support from the U.S., announcing he was “fed up” with his treatment by the Obama administration, and complaining that Muammar Gaddafi had been “embarrassed” on his last visit to New York by U.S. officials. This happened only months before Gaddafi publicly declared Obama a “friend.”

A Defenseless Law?

A lawyer questions the Obama decision not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act.

My central premise could not be simpler.  We have a system of checks and balances for a reason.  Constitutional interpretation is, in all but the broadest sense, the province of the judicial branch.  Meanwhile, one of the checks on executive power is obliging that branch to execute (and, correspondingly, defend) laws duly passed by Congress.  Until the judiciary renders binding authority that casts significant doubt on whether execution of that duty is improper on constitutional grounds, that duty remains intact.  The executive branch fails to fulfill its responsibilities when it fails to defend still-valid law, whether that law is DOMA or Obamacare.

I hope that this is a historical hiccup and not a false loophole to be exploited by future administrations.  Given the tenor of partisan discourse over the last twenty years, my hope in that regard is not substantial.

Beige? Really?

Barack Obama is not a bland personality. So how does he rate such a bland oval office? This is the power room of the most powerful man on the planet. So, beige? Seriously? This office should exude confidence and strength. Am I right? Believe me, Nancy Reagan would never let this happen to America’s royal family. And the furniture…eek! It looks like the mark-down section of Rooms To Go. Those plush sofas! The geometric lamps (They look conspicuously uncomfortable, like two men who inadvertantly walked into the ladies’ room). And that coffee table! I am positive that you pick that baby up at Rent-A-Center. My first apartment had more regal appointments. Just when I thought Obama couldn’t do anymore to alienate the far left, he does his. Snap!

Lying down with the lions

Depending on who you believe, Obama has either deftly played the Iranians like a violin or he has just let the lying-est country in modern history pull the wool over his limpid, doe eyes. Whatever the long-term results from Geneva’s multilateral talks, one thing we should remember is that Iran has probably never been the giant bogeyman that we have imagined it. Juan Cole elaborates:

Belief: Iran is aggressive and has threatened to attack Israel, its neighbors or the U.S.

Reality: Iran has not launched an aggressive war modern history (unlike the U.S. or Israel), and its leaders have a doctrine of “no first strike.” This is true of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as of Revolutionary Guards commanders.

Belief: Iran is a militarized society bristling with dangerous weapons and a growing threat to world peace.

Reality: Iran’s military budget is a little over $6 billion annually. Sweden, Singapore and Greece all have larger military budgets. Moreover, Iran is a country of 70 million, so that its per capita spending on defense is tiny compared to these others, since they are much smaller countries with regard to population. Iran spends less per capita on its military than any other country in the Persian Gulf region with the exception of the United Arab Emirates.

Belief: Iran has threatened to attack Israel militarily and to “wipe it off the map.”

Reality: No Iranian leader in the executive has threatened an aggressive act of war on Israel, since this would contradict the doctrine of ‘no first strike’ to which the country has adhered. The Iranian president has explicitly said that Iran is not a threat to any country, including Israel.

Belief: But didn’t President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threaten to “wipe Israel off the map?”

Reality: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did quote Ayatollah Khomeini to the effect that “this Occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time”  This was not a pledge to roll tanks and invade or to launch missiles, however. It is the expression of a hope that the regime will collapse, just as the Soviet Union did. It is not a threat to kill anyone at all.

Old-fashioned Values

We had a particularly bucolic 4th of July this year in Dallas. A flag-waving neighborhood parade. A fried chicken and watermelon meal with friends. And a church-sponsored sing along full of patriotic songs followed by barbeque and a pie tasting. It all felt so wholesome and small town America. As I sat in my creaky wooden pew watching a gregarious bearded priest lead octogenerian servicemen in George M. Cohan’s It’s a Grand Old Flag, I imagined that outside the narthex doors existed  a quaint, rural town, bustling with salt-of-earth types  chock full of small-town values and homespun homilies. At the barbeque after the musical entertainment, my wife and I shared a table with a group of other church visitors.  They were friendly, plain-spoken folk who shared their names, their hometown origins and their hot-enough-for-ya? pleasantries. Then, as I was returning from the parish pie-tasting, a portly man with a Clark Gable moustache  went off on those damn Democrats. Apparently, President Obama had spent the National Day of Prayer cosying up to homosexuals. Bad move, that. Homosexuaity, J.R. (that was his name, I can’t make this stuff up) informed the table, is the most vile, and perverted form of wickedness ever perpetrated by the Devil. I quietly ate my cherry pie, stared vacantly around the Tudor-inspired Episcopal chapel and listened to J.R. rant. Sure, I could have graciously concurred with J.R. that homosexual sex was a most wicked behavior generally decried in both Testaments and add that it is found side-by-side with those equally wicked heterosexual sins of adultery, lasciviousness, and fornication. I could have pointed out to my dear J.R. how a  good Republican like Mark Sanford had spent Father’s Day dittling his Argentine mistress, behavior uniformly condemned by Holy Writ. Equally Satanically-inspired and far more pervasive in our culture– and perhaps our own personal pasts–than homosexual buggery. I could have cited the Apostle Paul who said that the sexually immoral of both stripes shall not inherit the kingdom of God and its colloary “and such were some of you, but you have been washed.” I could have, but instead , I shook J.R.’s meaty hand and said it had been a pleasure meeting him. After all, had this really been a small town in America, everyone would be talking like J.R. about that damn  gay-loving Obama. I walked out the church’s doors, so happy to live in a big, diverse city. Proud to be an American, if not one of those “True” Americans with their old-fashioned values and their mainstream sins.

Target Practice

I must admit I am amazed at how the homosexuals and gay advocates have pounced on Rick Warren. Of course, homosexuals and I have never agreed on what to pounce upon. But the Rick Warren hysteria has seemed grossly miscalculated. Afterall, he is hardly the crumudgeonly Doc Dobson, wringing his hands over the devious homosexual agenda. He is simply an evangelical cleric who refuses to shred the Scriptures in the spirit of inclusive Kum Ba Ya. Sorry, the man believes that the Good Book is inspired and unchangable. And don’t blame Rev. Rick that St Paul and Moses tend to lump homosexual acts in with bestiality, murder, witchcraft and covetousness. It also takes a dim view of adultery, divorce and other acts from the heterosexual playbook. So take a deep breath and stop acting like a bunch of high-strung Nancies. We were all starting to believe you were nothing more than well-adjusted, balanced American surburbanites who were ready to settle down and nest. Now, we are beginning to remember why we never liked you in the first place. You are the kind of grating, whining, immature and impatient queens that we would never want to see our sons to grow up and be like. Call it a phobia, if you like. But hey, I was born this way.

Gaffe?

Barack Obama has an international upbringing, a biracial heritage and an ivy league education. He is wicked smart and a powerful speaker. So when he says something you can be assured of two things: He is not misspeaking and he is trying to bring people together. So any attempt by the Obama camp to wiggle out of his comments concerning “bitter” blue-collars workers, we should question. This guy doesn’t misspeak. He says what he means and means what he says. But the other thing we should seriously question is his opponents attempts to cast Obama as out of touch with working-class people. The one thing Obama has in spades is empathy. So when he speaks to a group of San Francisco liberals he articulately and candidly tries to explain why conservative Catholic factory-workers may not embrace the benign programs of the liberal establishment. He challenges his listeners to transcend their cultural and political biases to understand the other end of the spectrum. He challenges middle-class white people to understand the plight of poor blacks. He challenges faith-adverse Democrats to embrace faith-based evangelicals. He challenges us all. Because without being challenged, we remain cosy and comfortable in our individual enclaves. And the other guy, is always the enemy. Sadly, frank, articulate challenges from a frank, articulate leader like Obama are always going to make dodgy-sounding sound bites for FOX News and the GOP. But when truth is spoken it is never a gaffe. It is, at worse, an inconvenient truth.

Honest Broker?

Last week, they were floating Al Gore’s name as an honest broker to do something about this Democratic log jam. The week before that, he was going to be the convention’s inevitable presidential candidate after this Obama vs. Clinton thing implodes. This week, he is Obama’s most likely V.P. You win one academy award, and everybody wants you on the marquee. Yup, I’ll sure Gore would jump at the chance to be Vice President for another eight years. After all, Tipper saved the drapes. Too funny! (Photo:  james@jamesrexroad.com)

Foreign policy that listens

It sounded like a line out of a Barack Obama speech. Or a John Kerry speech, for that matter. John McCain’s recent address on international policy was all about us listening more to our allies. About being less unilateral in our global dealings. About not being the proverbial bull in the proverbial china shop. Just one problem. John McCain is far better at grasping diplomacy than doing diplomacy. Like the time he went off on Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the foreign minister of Germany. And Joe Lieberman had to calm him down. You know Germany? One of those allies we need to listen to? (This guy Lieberman is like McCain’s back-up brain or something. Does he live on McCain’s shoulder? Is he like always there hovering. Crazy!) Listen, McCain has got the right idea. But so does Obama and Clinton. The question is who has the right temprement to pull it off. We’ve had enough of hot-headed, knee-jerk diplomacy. Next time, we need to get it right. After all, one day Joe Lieberman might not be there.

Pro-life, Pro-Obama

Used to be, the Democratic Party was the party of the little guy and the Republican Party was the party of the country club set. Then Roe v. Wade changed all that. The Democratic Party became the Pro-choice party and the GOP became the Pro-life party. Recently, those distinctions are not quite as predictable. GOP luminaries like Arnold Schwarzenegger are staunchly Pro-choice. Religious Right leaders like Pat Robertson openly endorse Pro-choice candidates like good ol’ Rudy. And Democratic up-and-comers like Bob Casey show up in the U.S. Senate unashamedly Pro-life. The Republican Party is gradually becoming more known by their views on tax cuts for the country club set, than their position on abortion. And the Democrats keep the “protecting a woman’s rights” rhetoric down to an absolute minimum. So when a Pro-life Democrat like Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey comes out today to endorse a Pro-choice candidate like Barack Obama, the question should not be, “Are Pennsylvania Catholics now going to flock to Obama?” The question should be, “When and why did abortion become such a back-burner issue?”

Obanomics

Obama is like that professor we had in college. The good one. The one that made things interesting. The one who made things make sense. The one who could put the snapshot of now into the big picture of then. That’s what Obama has done in his recent speeches. He put racism in its greater context. He gave us the big picture. He did it again today at Cooper Union where he spoke on the economy. He didn’t just talk about what isn’t working or how it’s all the GOP’s fault. He gave us the big picture. He made everything make sense. He made economics interesting. This is more than a gift for inspiring oratory, this is the gift of a brilliant mind. Imagine, a guy like that in the Oval Office! It’s been a while.

Context

The Easter season is a a good time to reflect on the importance of context. On Friday, a nailed-up Jesus looks pretty helpless. On Saturday, a dead-in-the-grave Jesus looks pretty hopeless. But on Sunday….my, my. Sorta like when you take the time to watch the excerpted sound bites of Jeremiah Wright’s sermons in their actual sermon. When you hear the pastor’s message in its actual context. When you hear what the Reverend is actually saying. And who he is actually quoting. My, my. You see, it wasn’t a sermon full of hatred and violence. It was, in fact, a sermon AGAINST hatred and violence. Funny, the difference context makes. Funny, how FOX News doesn’t seem to care much about context. Funny, how 2,000 years after Christ’s resurrection, some people are still more interested in crucifying than in rising again.

The reluctant Obamacan

Peggy Noonan doesn’t like the Obamas. She sees them as pampered, elitist, yuppified Ivy leaguers who are totally out of touch with mainstream America. The Obamas are liberals. Peggy Noonan is a conservative. But Peggy Noonan is a former speech writer who loves the written and spoken word. More importantly, she is a lover of truth and straightforwardness. And as a student of American politics, she doesn’t come across it that much. So, it was interesting to get her take on Obama’s race speech.

No more Mexican Standoff

As soon as Governor Bill Richardson came out to endorse Barack Obama, the Clinton Campaign quickly issued a statement that this was not a “significant” endorsement. Funny. It was a significant endorsement when Bill Clinton flew out to Santa Fe to unsuccessfully get the good governor to endorse Hillary. Now it’s not. Oh, well. Anyway, it’s got to hurt when a former member of the Clinton cabinet comes out for the other guy. Ouch.