Peter Baker, the excellent New York Times reporter, wrote an interesting Week in Review piece yesterday contrasting President Bush’s effort at promoting democracy with that of President Obama, who has said nary a word in defense of it and whose administration seems to be downplaying human rights as a centerpiece of American foreign policy (see Hillary Clinton’s remarks in China). But Baker makes one claim that in my judgment is clearly wrong, if widely accepted:
The Middle East, of course, is what led Mr. Bush down this road [democracy promotion] in the first place. After the invasion of Iraq failed to turn up any weapons of mass destruction, he embraced the goal of building democracy there as an outpost for freedom in a repressive region.
In fact, Bush repeatedly articulated his freedom agenda before the Iraq war began. The evidence can be found in many places, including in three prominent pre-war speeches: the 2002 State of the Union address, the June 24, 2002 speech on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and the president’s February 27, 2003 address to the American Enterprise Institute, in which he said this:
There was a time when many said that the cultures of Japan and Germany were incapable of sustaining democratic values. Well, they were wrong. Some say the same of Iraq today. They are mistaken. The nation of Iraq — with its proud heritage, abundant resources and skilled and educated people — is fully capable of moving toward democracy and living in freedom. The world has a clear interest in the spread of democratic values, because stable and free nations do not breed the ideologies of murder. They encourage the peaceful pursuit of a better life. And there are hopeful signs of a desire for freedom in the Middle East. Arab intellectuals have called on Arab governments to address the “freedom gap” so their peoples can fully share in the progress of our times. Leaders in the region speak of a new Arab charter that champions internal reform, greater political participation, economic openness, and free trade. And from Morocco to Bahrain and beyond, nations are taking genuine steps toward politics reform. A new regime in Iraq would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations in the region.
It is presumptuous and insulting to suggest that a whole region of the world — or the one-fifth of humanity that is Muslim — is somehow untouched by the most basic aspirations of life. Human cultures can be vastly different. Yet the human heart desires the same good things, everywhere on Earth. In our desire to be safe from brutal and bullying oppression, human beings are the same. In our desire to care for our children and give them a better life, we are the same. For these fundamental reasons, freedom and democracy will always and everywhere have greater appeal than the slogans of hatred and the tactics of terror.
So the argument that advocating democracy was for President Bush a post-war justification is simply not correct.
On the larger matter of whether events in Iraq have discredited the cause of advocating liberty abroad: they have not. We have learned vital lessons from our experience in Iraq, from the supreme importance of having reliable intelligence, to the need of having the right invasion/counterinsurgency strategy in place when fighting a war of this kind, to the value of having a president who is determined and courageous enough to pursue a change in strategy, even when it comes very late in the day, etc.
But what Iraq has not done is discredit democracy. Iraq’s government is vastly preferable to that of almost every other regional regime, from Iran to Syria to Saudi Arabia. Iraq is now an ally instead of an enemy of America, the birthplace of the Sunni rise against militant Islam, and a nation that does not threaten its neighbors. While its experiment in self-government is still young, fragile, and reversible, what we have seen in Iraq remains stirring. The most recent provincial elections were extremely heartening, and there is reason to believe that, over time, the events in Iraq might even reshape the political culture in the Middle East .
We can all agree that democracy can’t be pursued everywhere, all at once. It’s also true that the Iraqi elections did not, by themselves, put an end to the violence in Iraq. What was needed, and for years what was missing, was the basic security and order that would allow the institutions of liberty to take root. The ever wise political scientist James Q. Wilson cautioned in 2005 that it takes a long time to convert a nation accustomed to authoritarian rule — and Saddam Hussein’s regime was much more malignant than run-of-the-mill authoritarianism — into one that embraces democratic rule. A rapid transition, he wrote, has never been possible and ought not to be expected.
It seems that for many people, the mistakes made in Iraq in the aftermath of 2003 permanently tainted their views of that nation; it is as if they decided the war was wrong and the effort to transform it into a functioning democracy was a mistake, come what may. Fortunately the Iraqi people have, with the support and skill of the American military, carried on; they have continued with the difficult task of self-government. Given all they have suffered through, what Iraqis have achieved is fairly extraordinary, and even heroic. And with the passage of time, Iraq may well demonstrate to the world all over again that freedom is still the best path to human flourishing and the cause of peace. Championing freedom and human rights isn’t easy, but it remains a noble cause. Those who want to make the opposite case — who want to argue on behalf of the benefits of authoritarianism, dictatorships, and tyranny, or why we should be indifferent to them — are free to do so. My hope and expectation is that America will, in the main, remain on the side of liberty. That is, after all, right where she belongs.
Bingo!
Hmm, Snakehead Carville is running the never ending campaign, Turbo Tax Tim is lost on Treasury Island and Hillary is groveling to the Russians. Oh, and Nancy is cursing like a sailor. What’s not to like!
Only 1416 days left of non-stop Che banner waving. Perhaps the adult party can rediscover the first principles that were responsible for Reagan’s success and subsequent popularity.
Boehner is a great deal more impressive than Denny Hastert and while Mitch McConnel is not a great leader he is probably a step up from Bill Frist. Unfortunately, the country is going to have to relearn the lessons of the late 1970′s. Dims talk a great story, but are unable to govern. They ratchet up class envy and call non believers holocaust deniers or worse (one does wonder if they truly would toss a dsiarmed Israel into a pit with nuclearized Persians) and they just cannot resist their worst impulses. Which is that at their very core, they cannot believe in a higher power than themselves and government, and that no one; no one, has personal responsibility for their actions. Conservative excepted of course.
This is why the Obamaniacs are glancing at the Dow with real fear in their eyes. This is why the honeymoon is just about over. They may not be able to think for themselves but basic math is a concept that they grasp. 1/3 of value gone since election, and 20% down since the innagural. Not numbers to go around celebrating. Unless of course you are counting on a cratered world economy to implement a second Bolshevik revolution.
Obama may have studied that history, he certainly hasn’t read up on American History.
I’m not 100% sure that Obama *doesn’t* know what he’s doing. His desire for comprehensive health, energy and education legislation may well be more important to him than our 401ks and the economy as a whole. Is he calculating that if we’re in an economic crisis, he has a better chance of pushing this legislation through? And if he doesn’t do anything to address what most people think is the root of the economic crisis (banking), the longer said crisis will continue and the more time he has to get health, energy, education passed? We all know what Rahm has said about crises.
If true, this is a dangerous political calculation for Obama. At some point, the country will turn on him if he’s seen as doing nothing to help the economy, or even making it worse. The danger though is if he indeed is successful in passing this legislation. If so, my guess would be that we will never see the stock market reach its 14,000 level again and the economy will turn into a European style stagnant one where either its collapse is inevitable or some equally painful remedies must be instituted.
This is all mere speculation of course. As I’ve said before, one of the disturbing things about Obama is that it’s unclear who the guy really is. And I don’t pretend to know what the proper formula to fix the economy is. However, I DO know that I don’t want the govt providing my healthcare, telling me what kind of car I have to drive or paying for the population to get their education (African-American Studies for everyone!). We conservatives need to rally up and do everything we can to stop this agenda, for I fear that if we do not, our lives will take a turn for the worse. And stay there forever.
I keep hearing the music to Sorcerer’s Apprentice…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuVsCRQkXvw
Let’s face facts, this guy is President “Dave” Obama
Or as Rush Limbaugh has said several times, “the man has never left the ‘campaign mode’ of his existence! The press should be ashamed ever to have accused President Bush of being a bad administrator. The executive branch has grown too complex ever again to be managed effectively by a single person!! But Obama has shown he just doesn’t want to be bothered with any of it.
“His Treasury Secretary is a classic under-performer and Obama encourages that tendency by talking about everything other than our immediate recovery needs. He lets Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid do the legislating — and they’ve come up with an embarrassing stimulus and an omnibus spending-bill even Democrats aren’t swallowing.”
Two gems of cuttin’ edge neocomradeliness in about twenty-five words each. What luck!
From here outside the zoo, one notices (A) that few economic sages at Hooverville and Wingnut City are on record as wantin’ That One™ to do anythin’ very proäctive about the Crawford Crash, so “talking about everything other than our immediate recovery needs” ought to be a plus, surely, rather than a minus?
More picturesque is (B), wherein the idea of a Legislative Branch that actually legislates seems to have become blankly incomprehensible to the Commentariat and the Weekly Standardisers.
Now this blankness of one tiny factionette may or may not be typical of Hooverville and Wingnut City and Rio Limbaugh at large. Neofolks whose main interest in Homelandic politics was plainly centered around invasionism overseas rather than the affairs of Lord Mammon closer to home could easily have come to believe in Rancho Crawford’s Unitary Executivitarianism™ in a specially militant and extremist version. The invasionites devoutly believed that Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid and all the Solons and Congresscritters must under no circumstances be allowed to interfere with creatin’ the happiness of the former al-‘Iráq and the Brave New Afghánístán. Or be allowed to act on the basis of incorrect thoughts about the Palestine Puzzle, either.
That was, of course, then. Now that Lord Mammon is in such serious trouble that even Neocomrade J. Rubin has to think about his lordship a little from time to time, it would be ‘natural’ enough, perhaps, for the Commentariat to wish to exclude the clowns of Capitol Hill from that policy zone as well.
On the other hand, it is difficult not to lowly suspect that they’d have been instantly converted to Congressional Omnicompetence on 5 November 2008, if only the militant extremist GOP had attained a workin’ majority in at least one chamber. [*]
But God knows best about counterfactuals.
Happy days.
___
[*] Some señorito at _National Review_ (or thereabouts) once joked under Ronald XL (I think it was) that liberals dearly wished the Supreme Court could be put in charge of foreign policy. Nowadays Five-of-Nine is Wingnut City’s last bunker inside the wicked Fedguv, so it would be easy enough to dust that funny off, and wind it up, and launch it in the opposite direction. (The exercise is left to the student.)
The endless summits, to my mind, are just further evidence that Obama has no idea what he’s doing. He spent a fair amount of time in the campaign honing his sound bites and drawing the outlines of the kind of policies he might like to enact in Utopia. But apparently he put little thought into what he would actually do in the real world. When he does try to do something, it’s idealistic, simplistic, and over-reaching. When he doesn’t know what he wants to do, he holds summits.
What Obama really needs is a Dick Cheney, someone who is intelligent, experienced and capable enough to run the government with one hand tied behind his back. Instead Obama picked Joe Biden. The ironic thing is, ostensibly he chose Biden for his foreign policy experience. But foreign policy is actually where the Obama government has its most experienced hands. Obama would have been better off picking someone who has experience in actual governance.
Finally, his numbers are starting to make more sense.
56% approve and 43% disapprove. That’s probably why he’s getting back on the campaign trail.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/obama_approval_index_history
So, JHM, unable to produce any evidence that Teh One has any capabilities to implement the promises he was elected on and that many who voted for him actually expected that Teh One would try to do resorts to ad hominems, tu quoques and ‘gotchas’. Are any of the residents of The Reality-based Community older than age 11 from an emotional or intellectuall point of view? Seems like they certainly elected one of their own. The children are now in charge.
“What does he like to do? Summits.”
The biggest one so far, with Gordon Brown, was a farce, a botch-job.
The man is incompetent to do anything but run his mouth and write his autobiography, which he also may not have done.
Buyers remorse will be setting in early for a lot of people.
I am hearing an odd and prolonged silence from my nominally conservative friends who voted for Obama for all kinds delusional reasons, based on what Obama was REALLY all about — in their hopes and dreams.
Thanks a lot, guys.
I’m sure that there will be many books written — but few published, due to a combination of government censorship and the coming meltdown of the nationalized publishing industry — about the curious case of Number One.
My two cents (or kopecs): Number One is a hard-core Leftist, highly sympathetic to communist solutions and at a minimum enamored of government control/intervention into everything. At the same time, he’s a generally passive, lazy, party boy — his Mr. Cool persona. But very canny. Thus, all difficult issues — his plan to nationalize health care, for example, or the bogus stimulus bill — are delegated to those with a particular incompetence — the Pelosi/Reid hydra — because he’s too lazy/dim to figure out what to do and because he wants to have someone to blame when, predictably, disaster occurs. Finally, there is the narcissistic Obama, who needs to be the center of attention and adulated at every turn. And he has achieved his life-long ambition — Campaigner-in-Chief.
You’ll notice that I have not yet mentioned foreign affairs. That is because Number One cares little for such matters. Oh sure, he’d like to meet the Queen. And he hates the Israelis. And he loves the idea of the United Nations and all its blather and corruption. In fact, he’d love to run for President of the World. If you think he and his tele-prompter were in oratorical heaven, you ain’t seen nothing until Number One speaks to the UN General Assembly of Dictators. And he’ll savage the military budget and throw away lives on peace-keeping missions impossible. And when the Islamo-fascists hit us again, well, he’ll always have Bush to blame. Of course, he will have a “Post-Nuclear-Bombing of Cleveland” Summit, but it will only last half a day, cause he’s got to take Michelle to dinner in Miami. Etc.
If there is a God, he sure is pi**ed off at us.
“…one of the disturbing things about Obama is that it’s unclear who the guy really is.”
I think it is PERFECTLY clear who this guy really is.
Ridiculous blathering is all that comes from the so-called conservatives now. They have been reduced to a side show amounting to a fringe group of racists, holy rollers, and uneducated Rush Limbaugh fans. That blog piece is a good example of the non-sense coming from the peanut gallery of the right
Obama likes the adulation, the display, and the pageantry of politics. He reads teleprompter well. Other than that, as Jennifer says, he is just not that into governing. He is turning out to be, as was foreseeable, a weak, clueless leader.
The last poster–I’m so grateful to him. I teach college kids to write and tell them not to insult their listeners because only the very inexperienced do that. Insulted people won’t listen. But it’s hard to give freshmen examples that work. Now I find Mr. Swilly stringing together a perfect list of insults, almost as if he were giving a presentation in my class. “Ridiculous blathering” “so-called conservatives” “reduced” “fringe group of racists” “holy rollers” “uneducated” “nonsense” “peanut gallery of the right.” As a string of insults, it’s at least an A-. And the verbs are weak, too.
Mr. Swilly thanks, and my freshmen thank you, too. Very appreciative.
#11 – the “strongly disapprove” number at 31% has doubled since the inauguration, and is now within 1% of its high, which was reached on the first day of the poll, right after the election. At the time, what Rasmussen calls the Presidential Approval Index (Strongly Approve – Strongly Disapprove) was at its own all time low of +8 – also reached a few days ago and now again in today’s report.
Where Obama is still ahead of where he stood last November is in the number you point to, the difference between overall approval and overall disapproval. At +13 its within a few points of where it stood on November 6, however. It’s his low since early November, and represent a down move from highs in the low 40s reached around New Year’s. His overall approval number of 56% is also at his low since early November.
Since our President has informed us that stocks are like tracking polls, I think it’s more than fair to apply “technical analysis” to his poll numbers: He’s at critical support right now, with nothing below. He bounced off this level a few days ago, but if this re-test fails, then the risk of a price collapse rises precipitously.
(Of course, if I were a paid stock analyst at Marketwatch, I’d avoid contradictory terminology like “risk of collapse… rises” in my piece on OBAM.)
The elite journalists, I repeat, got Obama wrong. The troglodytes got him right. As our national drama continues to unfold, bear that in mind.
Now that Obama is in charge, it is time to speak truth to power. Isn’t that what the left always says?
In academia, they talk. That’s all they do.
Their idea of doing something is imposing speech codes, or convening kangaroo courts. But when they really want to show they’re doing something, ——————————– THEY SIGN PETITIONS.
Nothing gets them so riled up as the thought of signing a petition.
Jennifer: You’ve got it, exactly. You are the first commentator, to my knowledge, to put your finger on the key to understanding the weirdness of what is going on in D.C.
Obama perceives his role as Monarchial. He sees himself as the new SUN KING, Le Roi Soleil, around whom the planets revolve. He frankly admits that he is an expert on nothing. He does not have to think. He does not have to analyze. He does not have to plan. He does not have to administer. He does not have to be knowledgeable. He does not have to grasp foreign affairs. As Louis XIV had his Richelieu and Wilhelm his Bismark, Obama has his Axelrod, with his courtiers and departments full of advisors to do all these things and bring their recommendations to him, for his approval.
Like the original Sun King, this leaves him free of the boredom of meetings and late-night slogging over administrative matters, able to relax with his Queen at the beach, or make trips to elementary schools or union halls to demonstrate his Common Touch, his love for his common people.
And then, the part of his Royal Duties he likes best: displaying his only talent, parading and preening before his subjects, enchanting him with his flowery eloquence, reveling their adulation as they reach out to touch the hem of his expensive suits and chant his name in a hysteria of obeisance. It is uncanny. It’s like a throw back to monarchial times. He’s like a Bonnie Prince Barry.
And, of course, the summits, even though, as he has just displayed in his meeting with Gordon Brown, he has zero instincts for diplomacy, and perceives them as opportunities to display his magic talent for charming opponents into fawning acquiescence.
It should be no surprise. Last year, in London after his glorious reception in Berlin, he told David Cameron. in effect, that he “would have lots of people who know 10 times what I do” to do the thinking and and analysis for him.
The truth is, we have a SUN KING in the White House, and that accounts for all the weird ineptitude, false starts, uncontrolled spending and “Who’s in Charge?” that we are witnessing. It sound absurd, and it is absurd, and will be the subject of countless books in the future.
We’re 46 “official” days into the Obama Administration (granted, they’ve been preparing for whatever this is since November – at least), so it’s way too early to declare him a failure.
Here’s the flip side – denying that he’s gotten off to a very rocky start & blaming/attacking the opposition (a la Swilley) isn’t credible.
Someone somewhere once counseled us to pay more attention to what people do than what they say … applied to the current situation, that translates to “the economic decisions/actions of the American people matter far more than polling numbers.”
The Obama Administration is failing to make the case that its economic policies have a snowball’s chance of working …. taxes are going to be raised, deficits are going to explode, constituencies are getting paid off (and we’re being told it’s ‘stimulus’).
Simply put: thus far, the Administration doesn’t know what it’s doing … except when it does, and then it’s doing the wrong thing.
I have been expecting the implosion of this inept administration along abut next Fall, when it would become abundantly apparent that their “policies” are bridges to perdition.
But it appears to be happening already. With hat tip to CK (#20), there is a rapidly rising probability of an imminent, precipitous collapse.
Better now than later, when there’s still time to stave off some of the worst of what might happen.
Say, does he take his foam pillars and halo, making machine with him to these summit thingies? Anyone still think democracy works when so many can be so easily led?
If only he had first run a lemonade stand….
I personally wonder what’s worse for America, a man who’s wrong about everything, in charge or an incompetent man who’s wrong about everything, in charge?
The One, though outwardly cool and composed, is in way over his head. I predict in the next month there will be a headline on Drudge: “President Clinton Secretly Tutoring Obama”.
At this level, it’s not delegation, it’s abdication.
Ahithophel….the good news is, Barak is too arrogant, and far too stupid, to find someone as capable as Dick Cheney. Or perhaps he has one….the man behind the curtain.
President Teleprompter Jesus will not succeed in re-making the world. That fantasy will careen on for a few more weeks or months. Then the awful truth that this guy isn’t able to accomplish anything will come into focus. The power vacuum in the Dimocrat party will enlarge even more, but all the slack will not be able to be taken up by the legislative branch. Then the fighting will be within the advisor groups. Teleprompter will be looking for advisors to help him find advisors. Perhaps he will continue to live the fantasy about all the “resetting” he’s gonna do, but the word will be out: he’s a lame duck at 12(?) weeks.
What happens to us the next 45 months? The good news: Teleprompter will just be going around tryin’ tuh be gravitas-itating. You know, long face, serious looks, finger wagging. The bad news: all the bad things that happen when nobody’s at the wheel will/might happen.
A terrorist nuclear attack? Say goodbye to the economy. Get used to high unemployment. And great greenies! Carbon dioxide emissions will decrease, so get out there and celebrate! You got what you said you wanted!
Well, materialist, only very aggressive traders would think of getting short on OBAM here – if you believe +8 represents support. In my day, you would have had to wait for an uptick anyway, and an uptick would be easy to read as confirming support, action which support/resistance traders might even take as a signal to go long. So, you’d probably want to wait for rather than anticipate the real price break, and the conservative move would still be to wait even longer for a snapback before establishing your position.
On the other hand, the mere existence of the hilariously derisive nickname “President Teleprompter Jesus” might make me desperate to enter early. Kind of makes for a sell signal all by itself.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, OBAM isn’t a stock…
It looks like Mr. Obama thinks he is far more more into the governing that JR does:
“Allies of Mr Obama say his weary appearance in the Oval Office with Mr Brown illustrates the strain he is now under, and the president’s surprise at the sheer volume of business that crosses his desk.”
The American source said: “Obama is overwhelmed. There is a zero sum tension between his ability to attend to the economic issues and his ability to be a proactive sculptor of the national security agenda.
“That was the gamble these guys made at the front end of this presidency and I think they’re finding it a hard thing to do everything.”
He’s working so hard for us you know.
Actually, my theory is more like JR’s. I seem to remember from a news article about Obama before the election that he is easily bored. As State Senator, and yes, even as Senator. Boredom can mean a lot of things….maybe it means that he’s never been very good at “governing”…just too boring.
Now that he’s the proactive sculptor of the national security agenda, I’m getting a little scared.
“Now that he’s the pro-active sculptor of the national security agenda, I’m getting a little scared.
You just don’t get what JR is pointing out. He couldn’t sculpt a play-dough bagel. .He isn’t pro-active on anything other than grandiloquent oratory. A man who could be tired because he’s bored when he is less than 50 days into what has to be the most exciting, challenging experience any American citizen could ever aspire to, is a man of no depth, no imagination, and limited intelligence. Not only is he utterly without talent for governing – he doesn’t like it..he just likes the power and adulation that goes with it.
It sends me muralistic to hear pundits saying, “I know he has a brilliant mind, but…”. He has a magnificent mouth and a colossal ego, but definitely a second rate, chicago machine puppet mind.
We should all be “a little scared” – right across the board.
Teleprompter Barry is obviously aready in over his head. He can’t manage a simple gift exchange with the Brits without offending them, let alone an economic crisis. The Dems blew it by giving him a pass on that Large Executive Experience job requirement. Lousy vetting once again. Now we will all pay.
BTW, excellent, earnestly over-witty satire of a Daily Kos post by JHM, albeit non sequitur for this topic.
JHM Says:
March 7th, 2009 at 10:36 AM
“wherein the idea of a Legislative Branch that actually legislates seems to have become blankly incomprehensible to the Commentariat and the Weekly Standardisers.”
I’ll give you a +1 on that. I’m not certain what the OP’s point was to accuse the legislatures of legislating.
“that few economic sages at Hooverville and Wingnut City are on record as wantin’ That One™ to do anythin’ very proäctive about the Crawford Crash”
Sorry, -10 for you here. If anything, Obama has been more Hoover-like in his rhetoric and policy then anything envisioned by a true fiscally responsible conservative. Ad hominem aside, your swinging at straw men with the rest of your statement. I don’t think there are any republicans that advocate, “Doing nothing”. Hell I would be willing to wager that Most libertarians and conservatives even stand behind spending money in order to get the economy moving again. Highly detailed and well understood spending that address the root causes of the issue, not the porkulus omnibus stimulus xtreme.
Then, I asses a further -18901923490871235 for your innane use of flowery language in order to try and inflate the substance of your post. Just like a lib to provide all fluffy potatoes and no protein to their dialog.