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Don't Let Me Down, Obama!
Charles Dharapak / AP Photo
After endorsing the president in October, I think so far he’s living up to expectations.
It’s funny: When you endorse (to use a too-fancy term in my case) a presidential candidate, as I did Barack Obama in this space last October, he sort of becomes your responsibility. Back to that in a moment.
Meanwhile, I am delighted, overall, with our president’s first 100 days. I think he has struck a fine tone overseas (trans: the U.S. is less detested than it has been in recent years). He has exhibited the “first-class temperament” that persuaded me he was the man for the job. He is, as I called him last October, “one cool cat.” (The only time he seems to have gotten “furious” was yesterday, over that idiotic Air Force One photo-op-from-hell over Manhattan.)
On the minus side, I think his waffling over prosecuting Bush Justice Department officials for approving the enhanced interrogation methods (trans: “torture”) is detrimental and even dangerous. I thought Mr. Obama was initially on the right track with his “let’s move forward” approach (I applaud him, for among other things, retreating on renegotiating NAFTA) and hope that Attorney General Eric Holder, who did exactly the right thing in castigating the Ted Stevens prosecutors, will decide in the end against proceeding against the Bush-era officials.
Mr. Obama’s spending worries me greatly. If every president who comes into office doubles the national debt, then we are finished. We are burying future generations (trans: our children) under crushing debt.
As to the “your responsibility” bit, above: Whenever I run into a Republican these days, they grab me by the lapels and say, only partially teasingly, “So, are you happy about your guy?”
“Well,” I say, “this spending does worry me, but—”
At this they snort and say, “You’re going to rue the day.”
So when our economy collapses after the deficit is doubled, it will be—my bad!
Otherwise, I am with you, Mr. President. Keep up the good work.
Christopher Buckley’s books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir.
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Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
It's Time for Us to Go
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
A Prize Too Far
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
This is the problem with the republican viewpoint, Mr. Buckley. You suggest that if every president were to increase spending the way Obama has (I notice you're not so eager to mention Bush's spending) we'd be a lost cause.
Why would any and every old president do so? Clinton, the democrat, turned over a surplus to Bush, as his should have considering the prosperity of his term.
Obama has been handed a collapsed economy and surely you know in your heart that the republican idea of saving the day by cutting taxes more on the rich and freezing spending
is, to be kind, simply untenable. The truth is the government is the only institution left standing that can help.
Yet republicans are unwilling to give up their strident small government ideology, even though the times suggest it's necessary, as it has been before in our history. Instead of recognizing that the GOP is busy trying to re-write history to tell us why FDR had it all wrong.
And most aren't buying it. I'm tired of republicans worrying about our kid's future in a fatuous way that disregards the facts. If we dip into depression NOW, my kid won't be going to college. The future is a funny word, means different things to different people.
At least the comments started out sanely. Thanks.
I, for one, would like to congratulate StellaRay for expressing the age old, tired, and worn out remedy for those who seek to profit from other people's future, i.e. "I won't be around to worry about it". That is exactly the attitude which has brought us to our Present Precipice. Party on Garth!
Oh, StellaRay, what do you think of Warren Buffet's 'opinion' that Inflation is now about to rage. Aren't you concerned that your $40,000/year Education Bill will now balloon to $80,000 with a fresh round of Inflation? I'm sure you'll have no problem paying for the increase cost, since you are poised to benefit grandly from a multi-trillion Dollar Rescue package which patches holes in boats, it doesn't raise incomes. What will you do now that your College Bill has doubled? Oh dear, sorry, never mind. You didn't mean to shoot yourself in the foot, it just comes naturally? This is Plaxico Buress defense applied to economics is it?
StellaRay said: "Obama has been handed a collapsed economy and surely you know in your heart that the republican idea of saving the day by cutting taxes more on the rich and freezing spending
is, to be kind, simply untenable. The truth is the government is the only institution left standing that can help."
I say, While I'm not for tax cuts for the rich, when only the government helps it thereby forges the rails in gold, no less, the track upon which a huge, unwieldy, chugging, hiccoughing, controlling, regulating governmental engine bares down on us that EVERYBODY must pay taxes to maintain (with or without the rule of habeas corpus): This is the image of the future, this is what the future means; it means thinking about what we have done in the past and what we must do now to correct our mistakes and how our present choices, therefore, will affect the train barreling down the track toward us in which we will have to ride - unless we jump off the platform onto the tracks in front of it.
Thank you, Mr. Buckley, for once again striking the civilized tone and setting a positive example for political evaluation.
No president is perfect, and I hope that the legions of Obama supporters aren't too disappointed in the deficit of miracles performed in his first 100 days (though Arlen Specter's political conversion might just qualify as a big miracle to some).
As L.B.J. said to all of the power brokers in business and other fields upon assuming the presidency in the wake of John Kennedy's assassination, "I'm the only president you've got, and I need your help." Whatever else people might say about Lyndon Johnson, in the last weeks of 1963 and the beginning of 1964, he recognized that the country was at a dangerous crossroads, and he made certain to reach out to all elements of American society and rally them together. Perhaps less dramatically, Barack Obama seems to have been doing much the same thing, especially recognizing the value of the opposing viewpoints.
We need more conciliatory attitudes in Washington, more bipartisanship, to accomplishing the seemingly insurmountable tasks ahead. Let's hope more politicians "get" that notion.
Nope I don't see it. The grade. I don't see it ...
Come on man. A, B, C, D, E, F , choose one ...
Wolf Blitzer NEEDS to know ...
I give the prez an A so far ... ( my vote in 4 years will be the Ultimate grade ... )
Buckley, I love you.
As the great J.M. Keynes once said, 'when the facts change, I change my opinion - what do you do, sir?' The subtle change of opinion on torture is duly noted and much appreciated. Keep up the good work!
Too subtle to be apparent, in my reading.
Yes, he's done a wonderful job. Except for the following: the all apologies tour of Europe, brown-nosing Communist dictators, bowing to the Saudi king, not appointing a HHS secretary when a plague is brewing, undermining all of our intelligence operations worldwide, showing weakness at every turn, killing the F-22 and all of the jobs that go with it reducing American air superiority into the next century (God help our pilots if we have to take on China), letting the EPA name carbon dioxide as a pollutant (be sure not to breathe out folks), caring more about looking good and being loved than protecting the American people from future terror attacks. Grade F.
F is generous; I think he should have to go back and repeat a grade. But seriously, you nailed it. Obama is a f******g disaster.
Interesting. Sixty-six some-odd percentage of the American public doesn't agree with you.
Perhaps it's because you're an idiot.
Where were your complaints when W was holding hands with the Saudi King or when Nixon was shaking hands with Mao? Not appointing a HHS secretary, have you any awareness at all that he appointed a HHS secretary over a month ago yet a few R's have been holding up the confirmation because of their antiabortion mantra? Let me get this straight we are spending to much money except if we are wasting it on the military industrial complex and now all of a sudden jobs are important but not when we want to waste them on building alternative energy vehicles. Luckily the American people are beginning to become more informed and information always leads to the end of administrations that have no real principles and are only concerned about power.
Wow that laundry list is so painfully devoid of reality-I don't know where to start.
amen! ...yeah that doesn't sound entirely right coming from an atheist, but alas, i use it anyway.
I will point out a good starting place though, the possible cut of the F-22 was proposed by Robert Gates who was appointed originally by Bush. I think it's a good idea for the people that we entrust with national defense positions to make more decisions about what's good for the country and less about what's good for Lockheed/P&W/Halliburton/(insert any military contractor here). The fact that parts for the F-22 are built in 46 states should show be an obvious show of how Lockheed is trying to play the system to make sure it doesn't lose this contract. The same thing was done with the B2 bomber. Don't get me wrong, I love cool airplanes, I'm an aerospace engineer so it kind of comes with the territory. But that love is trumped by the loathing I have for war profiteering and the military industrial complex.
I agree hardrain, I don't even know where to begin. It never ceases to amaze me that the hyperbole of Glenn Beck and like like, takes root. The fact that there is so much misinformation circulating about is disconcerting -- "CO2 is not harmful" "America is absolutely good" "Any cut to military spending is dangerous" -- you're living in a fantasy world.
You are a dangerous idiot (trans: a moron).
Here is an ex KGB agent describing in detail how gov't tools such as yourself would help to destroy America. If you are limited on time (because there are only so many hours in the day to praise Obama), watch the 2nd half.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x32cxf_yuri-bezmenov
An idiot is not a moron.
An idiot is a low-IQ person perceived to have the intellectual capacity of those for an individual up to 2 years of age; then it's imbecile, which is 2 to 7, THEN it's moron, which is 7 to 12.
Incidentally, these old AAMD (now-defunct American Association of Mental Deficiency, replaced by AAMR and now AAIDD) labels are themselves defunct.
I just have to ask- where do you buy the drugs that cause the delusions? You admit that if every president doubles the national debt (like Obama), it would destroy the country, but Obama gets a pass. Oh, you're "worried," but golly he's a "cool cat" with a "first rate temperament." Gag me. This guy is almost surely the most radically leftist president in recent history, but you praise him. Sounds like the messiah effect has taken hold of you as well. Maybe we can expect you to make an appearance as the fainting man at one his rallies....err, press conferences?
The man who bailed out wall street is a radical leftist? Orwell spoke about how dangerous it is when words have no meaning.
Doubling the national debt and burying future generations under crushing debt is worrisome? With all due respect, Chris, you are an idiot. I urge anyone who suspects Chris might be denial to find Dick Morris' article "Obama sows seeds of demise". (There's a link on Drudge).
I don't suffer from Obama Derangement Syndrome and Dick Morris is not my fav pundit, but whew, I can't take junior Buckley's ignorance anymore..
Oh, really. Ignorance? YOU should only be so ignorant. CB is every bit the intellect that his father was (maybe more) - and I'm a card-carryin' lefty Dem who appreciates his thinking and writing (both political and fictional).
thebluesite is typical of someone who just can't give credit where credit is due because he/she would have to admit they were wrong. I have a family full of people like bluesite. They can't see anything good because they are racists who could never admit that a black man could do this job or do it well.
Face your demons.
There was nothing racist (or even racially oriented) in the post written by bluesite, unless the automatic assumption is that the only criticism of Obama has to be racist. IMHO, that's as racist of an assumption as any that a Stormfront poster would have, although aimed in the opposite direction.
It may have been covert racism masked by an ad hominem attack on Mr. Buckley. Scratch a republican, find a fascist.
Yes, if only Obama were white, it'd be a thrill watching him play Ortega's whipping boy! It would be inspiring watching him destroy the whole concept of American free enterprise!
Gosh, how I wish Obama were white so that I could enjoy watching the precipitous fall of the United States of America!
LOL. You disagree with someone and his radical policies, he happens to be half black, so you're suddenly a racist.
How sad that people resort to such nonsense. You're right. I'm a racist. Anyone who didn't vote for Obama is a racist. Forget that I disagree with him on every issue and that I know from history that his ideology has never worked- let's just call it racism.
HEY WOULD YOU SAY THEN TRUMAN, FDR, AND JFK, AND CLINTON FAILED? REREAD YOUR HISTORY.
So, you prefer worry to hope, the destruction of our financial system to saving it, torture and illegal detention to the rule of law, cutting taxes on the ultra rich to providing insurance to children, and utterly incompetent leadership to Obama's passionate virtuosity? Racism stands low on the scale of your unnatural inadequacies.
What type of a blog is this?You mostly post comments like "Buckley, I love you" and "..keep up the good work!" - no serious dissent allowed.
Sad, but I must surmise that on top of being a shallow conformist, you are insecure. I imagine Daddy - whom I admired - is spinning in his grave.
I think I'd like Obama more if our politics wasn't such a childish game. For example, I just went to a panel about Obama's new White House Office of Urban Policy that was created along side the big stimulus and there was one important critique of the stim that was almost completely left out of the discussion: there's a contradiction between the dual-goals of the plan which are:
1. Create jobs for both the economic and social benefits of work
2. Create a transformational Infrastructure that will lead us through this century
Number 2 takes a while (10 years to complete these projects), costs a TON of money, and the tremendous growth it creates doesn't show up until farther down the road. This flies in the face of the immediate needs of number 1. I look at the stimulus as a big investment in society and try to critique it as such, while most people just saw it as an attempt to stabilize an economy suffering from a lack of spending, wall st. meltdown, and housing crisis (and then further saying that the effort will ultimately fail because it just postpones the inevitable). I just wish more people would talk about it from my perspective.
Thebluesite....
This guy is surely the most RADICAL leftist president in recent History"... By what measure?. And what would you do differently?. It takes RADICAL ideas to get out of a hole with no ladder, lest you not forget who shoved us into that hole.
Sorry Conservatives, people like Obama and TRUST him, of course after what we had the last 8 years ANYTHING would be better but none the less he gets a B from me...
He might be the most radical leftest president in recent history so long as we all agree that he is in no way whatsoever a radical leftist. In historical terms Obama stands somewhat to the right of center in his economic policies and stated goals. He is to the left of Bush and Clinton, though not by much.
His spending just worries you? And when the country is destoyed its 'MY BAD"??/ wow shame on you. You are a complete idiot. Have you noticed the markets, industry and media is dieing?? All while Obama spends without creating even 1 job. Unemplyment keeps rising as the media keeps their lips firmly planted to his backside . Keep puckered.
Bull's eye Buckley. Loved the Keynes quote noted.
I'm not thrilled with the deficit spending, but at least most of it's spending on useful things we'll be glad to have. (hooray for high speed rail!!) And since McCain wanted even more tax cuts for the wealthiest, his projected deficits (even without this spending increase), according to the CBO, would have been even greater and nothing to show for it.
Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with our very smart President. I give him a B.
One hundred days is a poor measure of a presidency. I think our new president is off to an OK start, but I'm not expecting miracles. Indeed, I fully expect the economy to be the number one issue in 2010 and 2012. I hope I'm wrong, but I think we're in for a pretty long haul...
If he prosecutes the torturers he will go down as one of the greatest. At worst he's as good as most of them were.
Question: are your abusive booze-bag parents still dead? And, how's the book selling?
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
For so many years I was accused by conservative friends of being a moral relativist, of believing that some things are bad, yet should remain legal, in regard to issue such as abortion. I generally conceded the point.
It was not until I realized six or seven years ago that we were torturing people that I wasn't a relativist, but an absolutist that had the good fortune to have never seen an absolute evil such as having to deal with the fact that the greatest country in the world was torturing people, a taint that corrupts healthy tissue like a virus caused cancer, creating not only a tumor, but spreading to other tissues as well.
Without prosecutions, without investigations, open hearings, we will never dig this infected tissue out of our culture or government. It is an absolute evil, and I cannot conceive of how anyone that considers themselves a moral or ethical person can rationalize any position that allows it to stay hidden within our government, laws, or society.
Jonnan
I don't really understand how people can both consider themselves as ethical human beings and be against
Mr. Buckley, you continue to honor your father's memory and provide a light to those of us on the ideological right who find little comfort in the serpentine embrace of the GOP as it now exists.
Clearly no one in mainstream America is listening to the frothing lunatics on the extreme-right fringe. We need someone to speak up for principles of restraint in spending and to remind the public that government needn't be enormous to offer solutions to big problems.
maybe i am too "liberal" or have too many "student loans"
but if the deficit, (used for things other than defense spending), is such a worrisome idea, and so burdensome on the future generations - then where was any outrage for the past eight years? We've been left with generations of problems, and heaven forbid we give someone the chance to try and solve them, even if it means spending money now rather than desperately later.
I don't rate it a success when the president of the greatest and most beneficent nation to ever grace the Earth communicates that America is inferior to Saudi Arabia, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. I think it's a f*****g embarrassment that he tells our greatest historical ally that they are just one country out of hundreds, unentitled to any esteem. If you're truly happy with what he's done overseas, then you must be some kind of idiot savant, whose one talent is NOT political analysis. I know: it's your brilliant ability to exhibit pretentiousness.
It seems you could have found a less ethically destructive way to get out from your father's shadow.
typical Republican sevant--reduced to name calling when they don't get their way!!!
chris,
Obama inherited a trillion dollar deficit racked up by Republican administration over the last 8 years---keep that in focus the next time your Rep cronnies grab your lapels---our guy can only do so much in the time he's had to do it---like you, i think he's done a fine job so far --very proud to be an american again--next time I visit brussels i won't have to keep my mouth shuit so they don't know i am----
Thank you.
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