Obama: The Policies

[Badger Kitten]

Obama has a website up where his administration policies and agenda and info about his team is being updated frequently: he's also asking for feedback.


That was fast, impressive.


http://change.gov/

Just started reading it now

 

[Badger Kitten]

http://change.gov/agenda/healthcare/

policy on healthcare

 

[poului]

r6tufg46rjmv

Rahm Emanuel.

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

Barack Obama and Joe Biden will launch an aggressive diplomatic effort to reach a comprehensive compact on the stability of Iraq and the region.

New Capabilities to Aggressively Defeat Terrorists

Aggressive diplomacy eh? That should go down well.....aggressively defeat terrorists? As against passively defeating them perhaps......

The health stuff sounds more promising, but will the big pharm companies really let them get away with importing cheaper generic meds?

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

Don't often find myself in the position of agreeing with Simon Jenkin's but i think his piece in today's Guardian hits the nail fairly squarely on the head.

The world wept with joy on Tuesday night. Probably more such tears were shed than in all history. The reason was not that a Democrat had beaten a Republican, or that the new man is young and has a gift for turning banality into rhetoric. The emotion was because Barack Obama is black.

I too wept, but I did so because the massive hope loaded on to Obama seems so naive and cannot be justified. The election of this man, mesmeric since I first heard of him in Illinois four years ago and read his memoir, may symbolise the advance of a once-oppressed group of Americans, and by proxy of non-whites the world over. But embracing someone for where he comes from rather than for what he may do has been the hubris of politics throughout history. No service is done to Obama by overstating his revolution as a second coming.

The most overheard media cliche is that "America will never be the same again". Yes it will, as it was when it last elected a Democratic president. Only if we break from the crypto-racist mindset that sees Obama as a black man first and all else far behind can the odds on a successful presidency be assessed.

Grauniad

 

[danny la rouge]

a once-oppressed group of Americans

When did it end?

 

[Miss Caphat]

Don't often find myself in the position of agreeing with Simon Jenkin's but i think his piece in today's Guardian hits the nail fairly squarely on the head.

The world wept with joy on Tuesday night. Probably more such tears were shed than in all history. The reason was not that a Democrat had beaten a Republican, or that the new man is young and has a gift for turning banality into rhetoric. The emotion was because Barack Obama is black.

I too wept, but I did so because the massive hope loaded on to Obama seems so naive and cannot be justified. The election of this man, mesmeric since I first heard of him in Illinois four years ago and read his memoir, may symbolise the advance of a once-oppressed group of Americans, and by proxy of non-whites the world over. But embracing someone for where he comes from rather than for what he may do has been the hubris of politics throughout history. No service is done to Obama by overstating his revolution as a second coming.

The most overheard media cliche is that "America will never be the same again". Yes it will, as it was when it last elected a Democratic president. Only if we break from the crypto-racist mindset that sees Obama as a black man first and all else far behind can the odds on a successful presidency be assessed.

Grauniad

Yikes! whoever wrote that article needs to relax a little, imo.

 

[kyser_soze]

Don't often find myself in the position of agreeing with Simon Jenkin's but i think his piece in today's Guardian hits the nail fairly squarely on the head.

Ditto here, very balanced and well thought out...

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I don't believe for one second that he wept for the reasons he gave, though.

 

[kyser_soze]

I don't belive he wept AT ALL. Maybe he cried from a paper cut or some m/c reason like bad polenta...

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

I don't believe Simon Jenkin's ever weeps, except when he contemplates the death of Thatcher.

 

[kyser_soze]

I think he only does that once a month when his howling at the moon isn't noticed...

 

[Miss Caphat]

I think he's dead wrong. People decided to vote for Obama, a while back, because of his policies, his integrity, etc. Many of us thought he would not be elected because of his race and /or inexperience, and are now overjoyed that racism did not keep him OUT of the White House. Do you see the difference at all?

Like any other president, he needs to get down to business and he has a particularly tough job ahead of him. This race issue will settle down soon, and people will get over it. But for now, people just want their moment, and it is an historical one.

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

Have you actually read the article? Because it really doesn't sound like it tbh.

Dare he stop torture, accept the Geneva conventions, get tough with Israel, change policy on Russia, make peace with Iran? He has promised to get out of Iraq and fast. But he must also unleash a ferocious pragmatism as "war creep" envelopes Afghanistan, and stop making puerile pledges to invade Pakistan and bomb border villages.

Pakistan was visited this week by a man poised to hold the leading role in the Obama presidency, General David Petraeus. It has taken Washington seven years to realise that the keys to the gates of Kabul lie in Islamabad. But that merely indicates how catastrophic it would be for Obama to continue the belligerent campaign line towards that theatre. The region cries out for the quality most lacking in Republican diplomacy, subtlety.

Afghanistan could yet be to Obama what Vietnam was to the last great civil rights champion in the White House, Lyndon Johnson. All Democratic presidents eager for re-election find it easiest to buy popularity and a macho image by acting belligerently abroad. Obama has yet to indicate that he is an exception to the rule.

 

[Miss Caphat]

No, I didn't. I was responding to the excerpt of the article that was cut and pasted and said to "hit the nail on the head", and I still stand by my reaction to that. I was thinking that perhaps part of the reason for Op-eds like that is that Obama's win has been so over-dramatized overseas, I think more so than it has been here. Perhaps because we are all still very worried about the state of our economy.

The other part you just quoted is valid, and definitely the foreign policy issues are concerning. In terms of what a president needs to do to get us out of this mess abroad, I really have no idea.

I, like many other Americans are concerned most of all about whether or not we're going to have jobs and homes, if we haven't lost them already.

 

[Jon-of-arc]

No one in their right mind is expecting him to dismantle capitalism.

^This - what can Obama truly do to make the world a better place? In short, little. Whilst he's better than the other lot, and no one should underestimate the symbolic importance of the first black president of the USA, he's confined to a capitalist framework which has proven resiliant to true reform time and time again. It can't go to far left or right without collapsing on itself.

In short, he couldn't change the world as much as he says he is going to, even if he wanted to (which he probably doesn't...)

Still, his favourite charecter in The Wire was Omar, which is pretty cool. So I guess we can still call this progress....

 

[soulman]

^This - what can Obama truly do to make the world a better place? In short, little. Whilst he's better than the other lot, and no one should underestimate the symbolic importance of the first black president of the USA, he's confined to a capitalist framework which has proven resiliant to true reform time and time again. It can't go to far left or right without collapsing on itself.

In short, he couldn't change the world as much as he says he is going to, even if he wanted to (which he probably doesn't...)

Still, his favourite charecter in The Wire was Omar, which is pretty cool. So I guess we can still call this progress....

No one knows what will happen. It's all conjecture at the moment. He's not acting like other newly elected presidents at the moment, he and the people around him do seem plugged into the zeitgeist. But then that might just be his age...

 

[audiotech]

The President proposes policy, Congress votes on it. The US is bankrupt.

There you have it.

 

[Jon-of-arc]

No one knows what will happen. It's all conjecture at the moment. He's not acting like other newly elected presidents at the moment, he and the people around him do seem plugged into the zeitgeist. But then that might just be his age...

Yes, my analysis is based upon him being unable to break the moulds of recent history.

I'll stick with that for the moment, unless you have a good reason why I shouldn't (apart from the fact that he is black....)

Yes, he has a good PR and spin team. $600million will get you that....

 

[soulman]

Yes, my analysis is based upon him being unable to break the moulds of recent history.

I'll stick with that for the moment, unless you have a good reason why I shouldn't (apart from the fact that he is black....)

Yes, he has a good PR and spin team. $600million will get you that....

Do you not think the moulds of recent US political history were broken when he was elected then?

 

[Jon-of-arc]

Do you not think the moulds of recent US political history were broken when he was elected then?

In what way?

that question does not deserve to be answered until you can be more specific.

 

[soulman]

In what way?

that question does not deserve to be answered until you can be more specific.

I'd prefer it if you didn't try to put some kind of judgement on what people can say on this thread.

Anyway. He broke the mould by using the internet in a way that no other candidate has.

Oh, and he's a black man. Is that better?

 

[gorski]

Single parent family, to boot. Not of money. Going against the party establishment, much better connected than him, apparently and - winning. Then, winning against the mighty Republican party/movement. In a country well known for its troubled history of slavery and racial prejudices.

It still doesn't prove anything in and of itself. He still has to make all the right choices and make them work, just like he did so far.

But will he? Is his heart in the right [!Left!] place? Will he turn out to be a worse Pope than the Pope himself?

Remains to be seen...

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

No, I didn't. I was responding to the excerpt of the article that was cut and pasted and said to "hit the nail on the head", and I still stand by my reaction to that. I was thinking that perhaps part of the reason for Op-eds like that is that Obama's win has been so over-dramatized overseas, I think more so than it has been here. Perhaps because we are all still very worried about the state of our economy.

The other part you just quoted is valid, and definitely the foreign policy issues are concerning. In terms of what a president needs to do to get us out of this mess abroad, I really have no idea.

I, like many other Americans are concerned most of all about whether or not we're going to have jobs and homes, if we haven't lost them already.

but that is the overall point of this thread, to examine his policies, not just cheer from the sidelines. read the article, form your opinion and then begin to demand some positive action(s).

 

[soulman]

I think his use of the internet in his campaign, and now it would seem into his presidency is quite revolutionary in some ways. Let's see how his policies are in practice and who influences him the most...

 

[gorski]

I would use the term R with much more caution. Nothing revolutionary about him yet.

If he manages to be a serious reformer [Swedish style] I think the world could get a bit of relief for a while... I'd be pretty pleased with that, ta...

 

[soulman]

I had to think for a minute what you meant by 'R' word. Are you afraid to say revolution?

I didn't suggest he is a revolutionary, but the use of the internet in his campaign, and now it seems beyond it is revolutionary.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

I think his use of the internet in his campaign, and now it would seem into his presidency is quite revolutionary in some ways. Let's see how his policies are in practice and who influences him the most...

I think the people that actually - and the infrastructure they built - did the work locally, those now wondering what to do next (I know a few people over there who worked on the campaign and that's the big question apparently), are a little more significant than his net based campaign techniques. All those people were highly organised, highly motivated and now filled with a sense of their own power have a void to fill, and in that lay real opportunity.

To me it's this that is the bigger legacy and impact than his skill as a campaigner/politician or the fact he's black (although I don't mean to diminish the historical resonance of that and the intellectual defence his victory can provide against racism) in the long term...

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

The race spin being put on the result is quite wrong. The percentage of black people among those voting on Tuesday was up just two points, from 11 to 13%. Within the white electorate, Obama actually increased the Democratic share. The reported prominence of "the economy" in the minds of voters, against "security" in 2004, gave a natural boost to the Democratic vote. Add the unpopularity of the Iraq war, McCain's reckless choice of running mate, and Obama's brilliant campaign technique to get out his vote, and there is reason enough for the winning Democrat margin.

.

 

[soulman]

I think the people that actually - and the infrastructure they built - did the work locally, those now wondering what to do next (I know a few people over there who worked on the campaign and that's the big question apparently), are a little more significant than his net based campaign techniques. All those people were highly organised, highly motivated and now filled with a sense of their own power have a void to fill, and in that lay real opportunity.

To me it's this that is the bigger legacy and impact than his skill as a campaigner/politician or the fact he's black (although I don't mean to diminish the historical resonance of that and the intellectual defence his victory can provide against racism) in the long term...

Yep and what hasn't really been mentioned here is the amount of young people who got involved in the campaign. What are their expectations?

They're now on a journey and that could well be a journey out of mainstream politics if it fails to deliver...