Iran Nuke Site Inspections

[howeird]

Several of the LJ, FB and twitter folks I read are all optimistic because Iran is allowing inspection of their nuclear facilities. Saddam allowed inspection of his alleged WMD facilities, and that sure had a happy ending.
Just sayin'...

Obama's grandstanding at the UN was a cheap political ploy to take our minds off his total FAIL on health care. Comparing it to the Cuban Missile Crisis is bogus - Kennedy didn't go to the UN personally for that, he trusted his very able UN ambassador to challenge the Russians. In fact, it's very rare for a head of state to preside over any UN meeting, and Obama's doing so speaks volumes about his inability to delegate authority, and a lack of trust in his key officials, in this case US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice (not related to Condi Rice, though Susan was a student at Stanford while Condi was working there). It's also a slap at Hilary Clinton, who, as Secretary of State, would normally be the official to replace the ambassador when the administration wants to emphasize the importance of an issue.

I'd like to see Obama succeed, but right now it's not happening.

Comments

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

You know, it really does look as if you're still fighting the candidacy. Let's face it, unless he does something really stupid like maybe having sex with someone, Obama isn't going anywhere for the next three years. If you think Clinton would have done more to bring in single-payer health care, you're entitled to your opinion (though it didn't look that way during the campaign, if I remember correctly), but she didn't get the brass ring and he did.

If he went to the meeting as a cheap political ploy, he obviously didn't think it was very important. If he went to the meeting because he can't delegate authority, he obviously did think it's important. I'm not saying both things can't in some measure be true, but the impression I got from that paragraph was of inconsistency.

You don't like Obama. You've said so many times, and you have perfect freedom to go on saying so. He's not the wonderful wizard of Oz. He's human, he's fallible, he's a politician, and I don't think anyone now expects him to be any more than "much, much better than Bush or John McCain or Sarah Palin," if that. But you're going to be very unhappy for the next three years if you don't reconcile yourself to the fact that he's what we've got. And even unhappier in 2012 if Palin or whoever on the other side gets in.

[howeird]

Not fighting him, just quick to shout "foul" at the bandwagon. As First Lady, Hilary Clinton tried to champion single-payer health care, but this little thing called a hostile Congress and a politically-motivated impeachment got in the way. (She had campaigned on health care for the 8 years she lived in the White House, and her stand on the issue didn't need any more campaigning than her stand on women's rights.)

Obama has a clear majority in Congress, but not a clear idea on what he wants in a health care package. I'm surprised he hasn't called on his wife, who is not just a mother and attorney but also a former hospital administrator, to help with this issue. He's being very passive-aggressive on health care reform.

If he went to the meeting as a cheap political ploy, he obviously didn't think it was very important.
I don't see how you arrive at this. In order for the cheap political ploy to work, it has to be something which at least appears to be important to him.

If he went to the meeting because he can't delegate authority, he obviously did think it's important.
Not obviously - someone who can't delegate authority has a problem deciding the relative importance of tasks, so handles them all himself.

You don't like Obama. You've said so many times
I don't think I've ever said I don't like him. I've said he is not qualified for the job, and I've said he appears to be a tool of the corrupt Chicago Democratic machine. I don't like a lot of things about him, but as a whole I'm neutral about him as a person.

When he does good, like when he pushed through the ARRA program, I give him his due. This just was not one of those times.