Iraq: C-
Plans to reduce troops to 50K. Much more than the 10K he spoke of on the campaign trail, but a step in the right direction. We are pulling out of the cities, which is to say, instead of being targets in a slow-burning civil war, we will now be sitting idly on the sidelines. So what are those 50K troops for? Secure Iraq’s (Exxon’s) oil fields? Keep employment numbers up? Make funny faces at Iran?
Afghanistan: B-
Will increase troops and try to implement a smarter policy that relies less on bombs and more on engaging (bribing?) local leaders and securing (depopulating?)border with Pakistan. That would be nice. Maybe if instead of 40K more soldiers than promised were left in Iraq, he sent 40K engineers to Afghanistan to build infrastucture, we might have more luck winning hearts and minds. Apparently is far too much to ask that Afghanistan be democratic or that women be given any civil rights or that it not flood the world with cheap heroin. If we could accomplish the single task of not allowing Al Queda a safe-haven, we would at least be looking out for our own interests, if not the Afghanis’.
Torture: C-
Has (re)outlawed torture, but will not pursue an investigation to put the crimes of the previous administration into the public record, much less bring charges against anyone. At least now when the CIA tortures people, they are supposed feel bad about it.
Energy: B+
Strong support for the Cap/Trade Energy bill in the House. Conservative critics say it is too expensive and liberal critics say it is too weak. So, by the Goldilocks theory of political negotiation, it is probably just right. The question is, will it make it though the Senate? Hopefully it will work in tandem with the Stimulus Bill's promotion of green entrepreneurship. If we can export cutting edge energy technology to Europe, Asia and burgeoning economies around the world, and the Energy Bill puts some modicum of brakes on carbon emissions, we can save the world and our own bottom line.
Government Secrecy: F
Has already used the same twisted logic that Bush’s lawyers came up with to stonewall judicial orders. As with our presence in Iraq and the CIA’s actual torture policies, it is a foregone conclusion that the President is above the law. It doesn’t matter how obviously unconstitutional it is, how many Americans disagree with it or whether a Democrat, a Republican, or for that matter a Whig is in office, they will always lie, cheat and steal.
TARP/Bailout: F
I don't have a problem with Obama giving money to the States to spend on our country as our citizens see fit. It is all the money going to private businesses (GM, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Fannie Mae, etc...) that I find criminal. FOX News calls Obama a “Socialist”, but that implies our cash was buying us some control over these companies that are supposedly so necessary. Honestly, at this point, a little genuine populist tyranny would be refreshing. But I don’t see anyone making decisions about the use of private capital for public good; I just see old friends divvy up almost a trillion dollars between themselves. The Federal Reserve/Treasury/FDIC’s power-grab isn’t ambitious enough to be real Socialism or even Fascism, it’s more like cronyism hiding in plain sight: you scratch my back and I cut you a check from the public til. To put it another way, if giving away a couple hundred billion dollars gave Obama the political leverage to give the SEC some teeth, you could call the TARP the price of doing business, but it seems like there will never be the resources to investigate even obvious fraud, rating agencies and auditors will always operate with systematic (profitable) conflicts of interest and the guy asleep at the wheel will always have a 24 karat air-bag. Where is Naomi Klein with a little outrage at the manipulation of a national crisis for narrow personal gain?
Guantanamo: F
Will eventually close our Carribean gulag. Has already made it clear that a change of venue will not affect the underlying policy of holding foreigners in solitary confinement forever without any due process because our immoral, illegal, counter-productive policies have made it impossible to convict them in even the most biased court.. A the end of the day he seems to be saying: “I didn’t make this mess, so you can’t really hold it against me if I can’t fix it”. Possibly things will change on a “going forward” basis, but that would require the CIA to act thoughtfully in the interest of our national security.
North Korea: A
Unlike the “hawkish” previous administration that shot our wad occupying the one place in the Middle East we knew Bin Laden isn’t hiding, the one place that actually lets UN inspectors in, the one place where we already maintained a no-fly zone and a tight embargo, Obama is using our navy against a country that actually has WMDs and is dying to sell them to the highest bidder. If we start policing North Korean shipping, will they retaliate against South Korea or Japan? How committed should we be if the North Koreans try to escalate the issue? Conversely, will our best efforts at interdiction be enough to stop them from selling missles or nerve gas? And while we are playing bad cop with one hand, should we also send them food aid to relieve some of the pressure on their government and move them towards something like détente, or is that just encouraging dangerous actions? It is a complicated situation that has real consequences for our long-term security and I am not sure what the right answer is, but at least the policy bears some relationship to it’s stated aims.
Health Care: B+
This, along with energy policy, is his real test. He seems to be standing firm on his support of a publicly funded competition to HMOs, which is probably the straightest line to decent medical coverage for every citizen. Like the energy bill, we’ll have to see what happens in the Senate. If he can lead the Congress to some version of socialized medicine, that will be his permanent legacy and all else will most likely be forgiven. If he fails the history books will only have a sentence or two about his background and his eloquence, characteristics that are incidental to leadership. But if he succeeds he will be remembered as an FDR with a jump shot, or a JFK with actual accomplishments... BHO, a man for the ages. I am not holding my breath, but I am keeping my fingers crossed.
