Barack Obama, the Human Being

Last night an Indian man sat down by a table in the United States to eat food prepared by a Swedish chef who was originally born in Ethiopia. This is indeed a global world. The Indian man was of course Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attending U.S. President Barack Obama’s first state dinner in Washington; the White House guest chef was Marcus Samuelsson. Guests included Hollywood heavyweights such as Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, actors Alfre Woodard and Blair Underwood, media personalities Katie Couric and Brian Williams, as well as political friends and enemies, including John Kerry, Bob Casey, Bobby Jindal, Richard Lugar and members of Obama’s cabinet. Jennifer Hudson sang, the National Symphony Orchestra played and I bet a political deal or two was made after dessert.

It was a festive break from the current Obama-bashing that seems to go on now as people begin to realize that they haven’t elected a god president but a flawed human being who may not always do what they expect but still have their collective best interests at heart. Why is this a surprise to people? Obama’s approval rating has declined and more people are beginning to consider voting Republican, which doesn’t bode well for next year’s midterm elections. There is much to get agitated over, even though it may not matter much in the long run (people seem to have forgotten how clumsy the Clinton Administration initially was, and the fact that Ronald Reagan raised taxes, something the GOP now pretends never happened). Here are some of the grievances being discussed right now:

Health care – The problems surrounding this issue has in my opinion little to do with the President. At every turn, the Republican Party has made sure to fuel lies and misconceptions, not least through Sarah Palin. Their efforts have been successful, completely overshadowing legitimate debates over the state of the health care system in America. Charges of “socialism” and claims of the system being “the best in the world” have made it impossible to take Republicans seriously on this issue. In the end, some form of universal health care legislation will probably pass Congress though, which will be considered a major victory for Obama, even though some liberals and all conservatives will have gripes.

Afghanistan – Republicans, including Senator John McCain, are trying to hector the President into sending more troops into Afghanistan, but Obama has insisted on the need to slow things down and ponder the consequences of doing so. We still don’t know what he will do, but he will tell us within a few days. It is an incredibly difficult question and far too many pundits have opinions on the issue. I really don’t. Afghanistan is more complex than Iraq and I don’t know what the best option is. But what we expect from Obama is clear leadership – regardless if he chooses to send more troops or not, he must formulate a clear agenda for our mission there. And I say “our” because we are a lot of countries there now.

The economy – Republicans love to leave out the fact that President George W. Bush supported huge stimulus packages as much as President Obama, but it’s a fact that the packages are despised by liberals and conservatives alike. Still, the economy is showing signs of recovery… all that’s needed now is finding jobs for all those who are still unemployed. It’s a slow process, but in the end it doesn’t matter all that much who’s in the White House; capitalism has a life of its own, for good or bad. Senator McCain may grandstand now, but I’m sure if he was elected he’d be in pretty much the same position (which isn’t an altogether bad one).

National security – There are times when President Obama looks like a captive of the bad old days of the Bush presidency; he has learned that it isn’t as easy as he thought on the campaign trail to revoke the old policies. Time Magazine recently had an interesting behind-the-scenes article on the resignation of White House lawyer Greg Craig that turned out to be a somewhat painful read; hopefully, Obama soon learns how to control “the beast” rather than let it control him. Another rookie sign is the fact that Guantanamo Bay looks like it will be open for business longer than expected… but at least Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be tried by a civil court. The loud complaints from conservatives is a good sign.

Smaller issues – President Obama is definitely trying to repair ties to the gay community after initially failing to have “don’t ask, don’t tell” revoked. He has promised to make the policy disappear and I’m one-hundred percent sure that will happen… even though I don’t really understand why it should take such a long time. Another disappointment from Obama lately has been the failure to sign the Ottawa treaty banning the use of land mines. The U.S. hasn’t used land mines for many years and has even spent a lot of money to help get rid of land mines that pose threats to civilians all over the world, but the U.S. military still has millions of this diabolical invention stockpiled and could still use them. There is however no point in keeping them since almost every other Nato country has signed the treaty; using them in a war would pose great problems. The Obama Administration has failed to explain why the treaty shouldn’t be signed.

Almost one year has passed since Barack Obama was elected President. Much remains to be done, but everyone out there complaining should ask themselves one question. Would America be a happier place with John McCain as president? If the answer is yes, then I’m sure there’s a Sarah Palin book-signing happening somewhere for you to attend, with plenty of Kool-Aid on offer.

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