Politico is collecting ideas for the Inauguration Speech. They are varied and amusing.
There is this one:
I want President Obama to invoke the miracle of the jet that crashed in the Hudson River without a single life lost. I want him to use this as a metaphor for what America can be again. A place where highly-trained professionals like the pilot use their best judgment, and we can rely on the well-educated brainpower of Americans to secure our future. A country where dedicated public servants take their work seriously and are always prepared to serve. A nation where miracles can still happen because of the talents of our people and our ability to work together across divides, and under the most challenging circumstances, to make a difference.
In a word: no. The last thing we need is everyone thinking about near-death experiences, sinking, and why they never want to fly again. Should it come as a surprise that this idea came from a Harvard professor?
There is this one from Mark McKinnon:
We need a true call for sacrifice. No time for sugar coating. Everybody’s got to give. But the new boss has got to ask. Hard times demand hard choices. And President-elect Obama has to level-set expectations between what he promised during the campaign and what is now possible, realistic and pragmatic. He’ll take some heat, but easier to fade it now when he’s got the helium of historic approval ratings to keep him afloat. In short, he’ll need to give hope a haircut. President Bush has been incredibly gracious during the transition and Obama should return the gesture during his remarks by acknowledging that despite their differences, they share a core sense of decency and humanity.
Boy, that makes a whole lot of sense and would be illustrative of the bipartisan, non-ideological notes the Obama team has been sounding. I fear however that we’re not going to get a dose of undiluted realism on Tuesday.
Then there is this one from Donna Shalala:
I hope he also says something about immigration reform. It is time to get that done.
Yikes! Even if you favor comprehensive immigration reform you have to think that would be a horrid topic — too pedestrian, too divisive, and just wrong. It isn’t time for this, not for a while and not until you get everyone to stop panicking about their own jobs. Other than that, great idea.
Well, it is fairly obvious that President Obama is going to deliver a lofty, inspirational message that will have the MSNBC anchors tingling all over. And if he reminds us that government power is an imperfect instrument which should be used wisely (with the law of unintended consequences firmly in mind), offers some praise for President Bush and the progress we’ve made in winning an historic battle against Islamic terror, acknowledges that bipartisanship means more than lip service to one’s opponents, and gives some suggestion that he is pivoting away from the unseriousness of a campaign to the serious business of making hard choices – well then it might be a very memorable speech indeed. But please no plane crashes.
Maybe the administration will finally recognize that Egypt and the Gulf Arab states are desperate to keep nukes out of Iran’s hands, and are not going to refuse to do their share to the effort until Israel is forced to cough up a Palestinian state. Or, for that matter, for Israel to give the Golan to Syria.
Egypt and the Gulf Arabs might want to wean Gaza off of Iranian aid, but the notion that Arab support for confronting Iran must wait for a Middle East settlement- purchased, of course, at the risk to Israel’s security- does not hold water.
But for Chas Freeman and, possibly, for Obama, the Iranian threat will never match what the conflict they imagine to be the engine of Islamist misbehavior in the world.
So, in the Arab world and international community, it all depends who is in the crosshairs. If it is Israel, then Iran is only making civilian fuel. When the Arab governments realize they are the target, then Iran is a deranged mullahocracy trying to build a bomb. Funny how that works.
J Street will save them.
WHy don;t these wealthy arab astates absorb the ‘palestinians’?
At a minimum, why is an almost bankrupt USA giving a billion to the ‘palestinians’ while the arab kleptocracies look on?
If this is not a form of ‘jizya’ tax on the USA, penance for having Jahoodi friends, what is it?
Strange world we live in, we are hated, yet we are needed to clean up the messes. Per haps #4 is on to something, we could tax them – a reverse Jizya?
and we should care why? a bunch of nuts in the middle east don’t like each other. they never have and they never will
Yes SR, “Egypt and the Gulf Arab states are desperate to keep nukes out of Iran’s hands” and its the reason why they will pursue nukes once Iran has them. They know that if the day ever comes when Israel and the US are ‘neutralized’, Iran will seek regional hegemony to deal with Russia and China.
Once Iran gets the bomb, regional nuclear proliferation results.
In a world of greatly increased nuclear proliferation, it’s just a matter of time till fanatic Islamic terrorist groups gain access to nukes. Once they do, they’ll use them. First upon Israel, the proverbial ‘canary in the coal mine’ and then upon the US.
Lester’s denial notwithstanding, it’s as predictable as a Japanese Kabuki play.
All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
Second, it is violently opposed;
and Third, it is accepted as self-evident. — Arthur Schopenhauer
When you’re one step ahead of the crowd, you’re a genius.
When you’re two steps ahead, you’re a crackpot.” — Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
“Once Iran gets the bomb, regional nuclear proliferation results”
again, who cares. I live here not there. let them nuke each other to death for all I care.
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