Setting aside for a moment the fact that Obama is completely untested in the heat of high-level decision-making and therefore has yet to show us whether he is actually capable of matching the high-falutin’ rhetoric with bold action, let’s instead remind ourselves of a few salient facts about “Dubya” which may show him to have been a much better president that current polls suggest.

For a start, he is a victim of the Twentyfirst Century ceaseless search for novelty. People get tired of the same face. Of all the judgements on him which people have rushed into print with here and elsewhere, there is not one which seems to be aware that it is far too early to make any assessment whatever of his legacy. It will be at least 10 years before the light of history will shine strongly enough to permit such a thing.

There are some other things that we do know now however. One is that by taking the War on Terror to Al Qaeda and its allies in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan, he has achieved his principal objective, which was to stop terrorists attacks on American soil. While the loony leftists and the appeasers rant about the deaths in Iraq, they fail to observe that this week, peaceful provincial elections were held ion that country for the first time, with all the factions taking part. This was because US trained Iraqi soldiers and police ensured that there was safety in the streets.

Blair and Bush have been vilified by those numerous commentators who actually believe that murderous terrorists like Bin Laden are really only maladjusted and misunderstood and will settle down if given a year’s free subscription to the New York Times. The truth is that these people are in retreat because of the determination of the Coalition of the Willing to hunt them down and force them to defend themselves instead of allowing them to prey unhindered on the innocent, as the UN is prone to permit them to do. While we must accept that there have been far too many civilian deaths in Iraq (mainly Iraqis on Iraqis) since the invasion there, at least Saddam is no longer free to slaughter 400,000 of his own innocent people with mustard gas. Dictators around the world with the blood of thousands of their own people on their hands are no longer able to sleep as easy in their beds as they once were. A number of them are now before international courts but only because US and British and other forces have spoken to them in the only language they recognize, that which comes out of the barrel of a gun.

Finally Bush is being blamed for the US financial meltdown when in fact is Bill Clinton who fired up Freddie Mack and Fannie May to issue housing loans to all sorts of people who had no capacity to make repayments.

Bush never flinched from what he believed and I for one (though I am possibly the only person in NZ who does) admire that. He didn’t falter even when some maniac journalist threw a shoe at him at a Press Conference, which everyone, especially the anti-Bush journos present, reported the next day as a huge laugh. Would it have been as funny if the shoe had been packed with high explosive and had killed the man at whom it was aimed, and half-a dozen journalists as well?

Thanks to Bush and Blair, some Western democracies have demonstrated a willingness to stand up the Mad Mullahs, and the world is a safer place for that.

9/2/09

Hogwash. As you’re no doubt aware, slavery was only effectively abolished in the US at the conclusion of the Civil War. As for voluntary abolition of slavery being a drain on the British economy, Britain supported the South, and benefited from slavery, as the “Manchester cotton trade” was seen as vital to its economy. If you’d been around then you’d no doubt have been part of the cheer squad.

As for the pernicious influences of “post modernist theory”, if you waste your time reading such nonsense then more fool you.

“Even the President of the United States sometimes stands naked”

I thought he spoke well, but seemed a lot faster than normal?

Time will tell, but in reality he is the front man for team Clinton.

I was wondering what you mean’t, the comment seemed very, well, namby pamby and not you.

I stand corrected!

>>>
Owen McShane (537) Vote: 2 0 Says:
January 21st, 2009 at 11:56 am

expat,
“transformational” was in quotes to indicate a certain irony derived from the fact that Obama is something of a walking cliche to whom such terms come naturally and frequently.

However, I have always been interested in the power of images and I am sure that Obama and his friends will be thrilled by a new “aircraft/New York” symbol – complete with New Man Hero – at just the right time. Think of Dame Whina Cooper on that long dusty road. Think of the EarthRise which unfortunately did much to promote the notion that the Earth is a fragile crystal like sphere and hence helped launch a new religion, and so on.

Inaugarations bring on ephinanies by the hundred – I just wanted to get in first on this one. Let’s see if it catches on.

We will not apologize for our way of life, you know how it goes.

Post of the week.

It’s as simple as that. Heads down , arses up.

And remember, Obama has already won against his American enemies. Their tired old has-been mantra; being a bum.

Obama has bummed them out!!

Weasel words. Most kids I know are are a bloody sight better informed than those you fantasise about, and are well aware that slavery existed in the ancient world. As it happened, Britain had outlawed slavery before the American colonies’ declaration of independence. As Dr. Johnson noted at the time of the revolutionary war, “How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?”

I accept that Bush wasn’t defeated in an election, but that impresses me as a comment of genuine grace about a political opponent from the departing President.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/postmodern-recessions/

It’s all down hill for Obama from this point on.

Krugman disagrees with this. Somewhere in his area on the NY Times you can find graphs he produces to show the recovery was far longer than otherwise claimed. Sorry. Can’t find them at the moment but its worth looking regardless of whether you agree with him or not.

http://www.kottke.org/09/01/the-countrys-new-robotstxt-file

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If he governs as the idealogue he clearly is then we’re all in a for a rough ride and a long recession. If he governs as a pragmatist and listens to experienced real world economists who dont have an agenda (ie not following Hoover who turned the post 1929 crash from a recession to a depression by raising taxes and restricting trade) then the economy could recover quite quickly (Reagan’s tax cuts in 1982 saw a quick bounce back from the stagflation of the Carter years and Bush’s tax cuts saw a post 9/11 sharp contraction recover into economic growth for all quarters of his presidency from then on excepting the last 2).

Regardless of ideology, Obama’s inauguration does represent a stunning chapter in US history and closure on the issue of the disconnect between the lofty ideals of the Declaration of Independence and reality of Jim Crow.

Obama’s soaring rhetoric will not solve the problems he must now manage. He can no longer vote ‘Present’ as the proverbial buck stops with him. Islamic fundamentalists will merely switch their anti-American hatred to the new President as he can offer no concession that would ever appease them.