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I woke up at 8:00 this morning.
I jumped up and tried to get my wife up and awake. We do not have cable, so we had to go to her parents house to watch the inauguration, which was to start in half an hour.
I threw on a Barack Obama shirt I bought specifically for this day, out on a quartet of Obama buttons, brushed my hair and teeth (with different brushes), and ran out the door, wife in tow. Before I drove off, I made sure my bumper sticker was still attached: January 20th, 2009. A day that will live on in infamy.
Those who have followed my blog know that I am not a huge fan of Obama. I am, however, a far bigger fan of his than McCain… or Bush. I suppose I support the evil of the lesser over the lesser of two evils.
I watched the inauguration on CNN. The day apeared to be bright and clear, albeit cold (apparently 28 degrees). There were swarms of people– well over two million. I saw many famous faces and many nameless faces, but they all were beaming with pride, joy, and anticipation. I could feel myself smiling, actually.
When Bush came out, to the song Hail to the Chief, I thought I would boo or grimace. I actually had no response. He seemed annoyed or depressed– or both. Nonetheless, he was gracious and kind, as he had been all throughout the transition. This was Bush’s finest moment.
One of my favorite moments was the Oath of Office. Not only did Obama screw up the beginning of the speech, he also was tripped up by Justice Roberts’ screwing up of the Oath. Though the Oath was delivered clumsily, it nonetheless was a moment of levity and importance.
Obama’s speech, which was bold, strong, and extended a hand of peace and friendship to the world, also made reference to the plight of African Americans. His speech was full of allusions to songs and sayings from the Civil Rights movement. Though it was a great speech, I did not really feel like there was an FDR or JFK moment.
After a poem and benediction, Obama walked the Bushes to a helicopter, which was flying him to Edward’s Air Force base where he would be flown to Texas, where he was to attend a welcome home party. As I said to my wife, they can have him. The Obamas and Bushes stood side by side, as Vice President Joe Biden escorted former ( :} ) Vice President Dick Cheney into his limousine, which was taking him home. Then, after farewell hugs, George W. and Laura Bush got into the helicopter. In a moment that caused me to think back to Richard Nixon’s farewell wave, Bush turned and waved goodbye to his Presidency, which now belonged to President Obama and America. As the helicopter flew over Washington, peope waved– not a happy wave, but a wave that seemed to say, “Good riddance.”
I’m very happy today. Change may come gradually, or not at all. But I do sense that Obama will break with Bush’s policies over the last 8 years. I hope he is successful. I hope he does bring change. I am heartened to hear that he wants to appoint a middle-east envoy today, and that he wants to tackle the issue immediately– not just the tension over Gaza, but the overall peace process that has eluded every U.S. President.
Godspeed, America.
I remember very clearly, as a child, being drawn to Bill Clinton. There was something about him– his charisma, his confidence, his energy, his ability to inspire hope– that, even as a second grader, I felt demanded my admiration. I can distinctly remember seeing him on Arsenio Hall playing the saxophone. I must confess that I wanted, with all my heart, to play the saxophone, but I was stuck with the clarinet. All throughout his term, I vigorously defended him. I was even a vigorous defender during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Hillary Clinton once famously remarked that they were the victims of a vast right-wing conspiracy, a comment for which she has since been lampooned by critics for making. I was unafraid, even around ultra-conservative-Limbaugh-die-hard adults, who were much older than me, to quip, “Yeah, there was no right-wing conspiracy. ‘Conspiracy’ implies that it was clandestine. The right-wingers have been pretty open about their attacks.” As I’ve gotten older, the more people criticize the Clintons, the more I love them.
During the brutal 2008 Democratic Primary, Barack Obama was quick to down-play the significance of Bill Clinton’s presidency and the success he achieved for the economy and for world peace. I personally found these attacks on the Clinton legacy to not only be counter-productive, but also, obviously, untrue. That he could make such comments, given that we had suffered through almost two terms of President George W. Bush, seemed ridiculous. One of my favorite remarks from Hillary Clinton, during her campaign, was, “It took one Clinton to clean up after the first George Bush, it’ll take another Clinton to clean up after this one.” President Bush (41) and his predecessor Ronald Reagan had, as Greenspan conceded in his book The Age of Turbulence, “borrowed from Clinton, and Clinton was having to pay it back.” In other words, the so-called “fiscally responsible” Republicans had created such a massive deficit that it threatened to throw the American economy into a major recession– and it forced Clinton to make budget cuts in order to pay down the deficit, which forced him to delay the advances in social programs (education, health care, infrastructure, environment) that he, in his heart of hearts, wanted so badly.
What amazed (and confused) Alan Greenspan (a Republican) was that the Republicans of his time were fiscally irresponsible, while this young liberal democrat named Bill Clinton was pursuing a policy of fiscal conservatism. What also shocked Greenspan, upon meeting Clinton, was Clinton’s grasp of complex and theoretical economics and his understanding of the need to cut the deficit: “Our meeting, which had been scheduled for an hour, turned into a lively discussion that went on for almost three.” He also noted that Clinton “asked a lot of smart questions that politicians don’t ask.” Greenspan wrote that Clinton was “taking a page out of Kennedy’s book,” by surrounding himself with conservative economists. In order to pursue a more fiscally responsible policy, Clinton built a team that consisted of Leon Panetta, Larry Summers, Bob Rubin, Robert Reich, Alan Binder, and several others. Rubin and Summers met regularly with Greenspan to discuss policy and develop new ideas to spur economic growth. The meetings of this team had been described by Bob Woodward in his book The Agenda. According to Woodward, there was “absolute chaos”. It was unstructured and freewheeling: “The arcana of deliberations were torture for nearly everyone but Clinton.” The book depicted a Clinton White House that was “undisciplined” and “indecisive,” but Woodward missed the point entirely.
A person like Clinton, creative and thirsty for information, tended to operate outside of the box. While the policy debates would seem to the outside observer to be chaotic, they were very helpful to not only the President but to his staff, as well. Clinton’s team was comprised of people who didn’t necessarily agree with each other, which was part of the madness. He would encourage them to debate one another, which inevitably would send the meeting into “chaos” as groups of people would break off into their own discussion about the topic. Eventually, someone would halt the debates, call order, and bring everyone back into one discussion group. This “superficial appearance of chaos,” as Alan Binder called it, was actually built on an “underlying logic” that was part of Clinton’s creative process. Robert Rubin also felt that Woodward’s depiction of the meetings as chaotic was overstated: “What might have looked like messy to outsiders [such as Woodward] was actually a process of deliberate open discussion, of smart, committed people engaging in debate as a way of getting to the best decision.” Paul Begala loved the process, saying, “people came in. They argued with passion. They stated their case. The other side stated its case. The President would go back and forth… I thought, that’s the way it ought to be.” Binder argues that the Clinton process was far superior, “because governments make bigger mistakes when the President is kept in a bubble and hears one opinion. Bill Clinton was hearing lots of opinions, sorting out the arguments, and reaching decisions.” The “big mistakes” binder refers to have been evidenced over the last eight years of the Bush Administration.
What I find amusing, therefore, is that President-elect Barack Obama, who criticized the Clinton White House and insisted that Hillary Clinton represented the past, is now following the Clinton blueprint. When President John F. Kennedy asked Robert McNamara to serve as his Secretary of Defense, McNamara demurred, saying “Mr. President, it’s absurd, I’m not qualified.” “Look, Bob,” Kennedy said, “I don’t think there’s any school for Presidents either.” Well, Obama seems to have attended the Clinton School for Presidents. In the last month or so, Obama has surrounded himself with Clinton’s advisors, including Bob Rubin, Larry Summers, Leon Panetta, Robert Reich, Rahm Emmanuel, and many others, including Tim Geithner, who worked with Rubin at the Treasury Department. Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton’s closest and most trusted advisor (Clinton’s Robert Kennedy, if you will), will be Obama’s Secretary of State.
Also amusing to me is the much talked about book Obama read by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals. The media has talked ad nauseam about how this book will influence his decision-making process. Abraham Lincoln, as Obama has done, appointed political rivals to key cabinet positions in order to have robust policy discussions in which divergent opinions were debated until the best decision was reached. Hmmm… sounds a lot like the Clinton process. This is, to be sure, a far better way of crafting policy than was used under the Bush regime, but, again, it is hardly any different from Clinton’s process. It is also, presumably, the way Hillary would have run her meetings.
Though I am excited to see new leadership, and I am encouraged and inspired by Barack Obama, Bill Clinton is still my favorite. If Obama does replicate the Clinton years, you will hear little complaint from me.
On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told a delegation of European foreign ministers that “Before the military operation, the equation was that Hamas targets Israelis whenever it likes, and Israel shows restraint… This is not going to be [any] longer the equation in this region. When Israel is targeted, Israel is going to retaliate.” This would come as a surprise to many in experts in the region who have criticized Israel’s long military occupation of the Palestinian territories.
On Saturday, January 3, 2009, Israel launched its ground offensive into Gaza. There had been talks of establishing a truce: Hamas wants the 18-month blockade lifted; Israel wants the rocket firings to stop.The failure of Hamas militants and Israeli leaders to halt the violence has precluded any such progress in that direction. In the meantime, tanks and ground forces entered Gaza, quickly taking Gaza City. Suspected militant sites have been shelled and most of Gaza’s infrastructure is in shambles. Israeli military officials have also claimed to be striking tunnels (used by Hamas for smuggling weapons), and weapon caches. Hamas has fought back by launching rockets into southern Israel. Three Israeli civilians have been killed, and many buildings, including schools, have been destroyed by Hamas rockets. Since the Israeli ground invasion, two Israeli soldiers have been killed.
Despite Israel’s claim that they are not targeting civilians, the Palestinians in Gaza have suffered tremendously. Since the begining of the Israeli onslaught in Gaza, over 530 Palestinians have been killed– 82 since Saturday. Of that, over 100 deaths have been women and children. In addition to the deaths, over 2,600 people have been injured, and thousands more have fled their homes in order to escape the violence. Humanitarian agencies, such as the UNRWA and UN’s World Food Program, have had difficulty trying to bring food and water to civilians caught up in the violence. Many civilians are stuck in their homes without running water, without electricity, and a dwindling food supply, which they are unable to replenish. In all of the Gaza Strip, there are only two bakeries still open, and there are long lines of people trying to get what little food they can for their families. Hospitals are being overwhelmed and the few medical supplies that they have are being diminished. Some doctors on the ground insist that the body count is much higher, but they cannot get an accurate count because the conflict presents grave danger to ambulances and rescue crews. One ambulance, reportedly, was shelled by an Israeli tank as it was evacuating victims. One paramedic was killed while the other lost his foot.
So, what’s their aim? Well, according to Israeli officials, they want all rocket firings into Israel to stop. But Israel also wants to topple the Hamas regime, which does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. They are attempting to dismantle their weapons supplies, while at the same time castrate their political power. Also, remember that Israel has elections in February. They certainly aren’t forgetting. This is not the whole story, however: right-wing extremists, who have been in control of Israel’s government since its inception, belive that Gaza (and the West Bank) is rightfully theirs, according to God’s promise. Little by little, there is the hope that they will leave the region altogether, assimilate into neighboring Arab countries, and leave all of Palestine to Israel. Settlers continue to build on Palestinian land, homes are demolished, and Palestinian land continues to be taken. What Israel needs to remember is that the more violence it spreads, the more deaths that are caused, the longer the suffering occurs, the more they are pushing the population of Gaza into the Hamas corner.
The violence of the last ten days, or so, stems from the failure of both sides to adhere to the terms of the Egyptian brokered truce, which expired December 19, 2008. However, one must recall that Hamas abided by the terms of the cease-fire until Israel’s November 4, 2008 air strike into Gaza that killed five people and wounded many more. As always happens in this region, tensions and violence escalated through a series of retaliatory strikes.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been pressuring both sides to accept a truce, is now in the middle-east. He made stops in Egypt, the West Bank, and Israel today. He met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, where he gave a press conference condemning both Hamas and Israel. Meanwhile, U.S. UN Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has been instructed by State Department Officials (probably including Condoleeza Rice) to torpedo any efforts by the Arabs to request assistance from the UN Security Council. While French President Sarkozy has been even-handed in his criticism, President George W. Bush has continued his unflinching support for Israel: “I understand Israel’s desire to protect itself. The situation now taking place in Gaza was caused by Hamas.” President-elect Obama has been silent on the issue of Gaza. He has continued his mantra: “There is one President at a time.” True, but, like Representative Barney Frank, I think he “seriously overestimates the number of Presidents we have.” I think that since he is going to be President in… 15 days, it matters what he thinks. Since the Bush camp has decided to sit on their hands, he should at least voice an opinion. Perhaps he does not want to express an opinion that is at odds with the current President, thus undermining anything Bush says, but I think that the violence is such that it requires a response.