Month: June 2009

Last week, the Obama White House was opened for a day to NBC cameras,  and Brian Williams speaking with Obama and other top officials, as the nation got a sense of what a normal day at the White House is like.

It was a very impressive and complicated situation that Americans witnessed who watched this two hour documentary over two evenings.  It seems to me that it had the effect of convincing Americans, who have an open mind,  that we have a President and administration working overtime trying to deal with multiple problems inherited by this young, vibrant President.

While this internal look at the Obama Presidency was,  of course, designed to promote a positive image of the administration,  it is hard not to be optimistic about the future ability of the government to bring real progress in both domestic and foreign policy.

The silliness of the GOP continues, as represented by Sarah Palin saying that if the U.S. Government comes to the aid of states in trouble, such as California, then the state governments will be dictated to by the national government, and the states will lose all influence under our system of federalism.

Also, Rush Limbaugh has declared that if the Obama administration controls the banks,  they will soon control the news media and be able to manipulate public opinion and control what we learn about government actions.

And Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma says Obama speaking to Muslim audiences in the Middle East is an "UnAmerican" action, whatever that is supposed to mean.

The Republican party has a few moderates with rationality, but somehow the whackos and the extremists seem  to still have a much greater input,  and the recent statements by several Republicans that Sonia Sotomayor is a racist only makes the whole party seem ever more silly and hopeless as a serious opposition party.

President Obama has endorsed a plan for celebration of President Ronald Reagan’s centennial of his birth on February 6, 2011,  and did so recently in a public meeting with his widow, Nancy Reagan.

Mrs. Reagan was in Washington D.C. to commemorate the fifth anniversary of his death,  with the unveiling of a Reagan statue in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol,  with the statue a brilliant depiction of Reagan by an excellent sculptor.

Although I disagree with much of what Reagan represented and accomplished, he is certainly the best Republican President since Theodore Roosevelt,  with the possible and debatable exception of Dwight D. Eisenhower, so the celebration of his heritage is perfectly appropriate, and will likely include a US Mint Silver Dollar to commemorate his Presidency.

Somehow, I find it hard to believe that Reagan, were he alive and understanding of what was going on, would approve of the extreme right swing of the GOP, particularly noticeable since the defeat of John McCain in the presidential election of 2008.  He may be said to be their hero, but I imagine that he would disapprove of much of what has happened in the past George W. Bush administration and in the early months of the Obama Presidency regarding the Republican party.

President Obama has  recently moved toward advocacy of a public health plan available to whoever wants it, a step beyond what he promoted in his Presidential campaign.

While he suggests that most people will want to keep their employer based plan of health insurance,  it is a fact that many employees are losing health care coverage or have inadequate plans offered at work.

Also,  there are millions of people who pay exorbitant premiums on personally purchased health care plans.  And of course, there are nearly 50 million people who have no health insurance at all. 

It is a well known fact that many people who go bankrupt do so because of outrageous health care bills, even those who do have health insurance plans.

So it is very positive that Obama is going the extra mile,  and calling for public health care opportunities for those who want it, no matter what their status on health care at the moment.

President Obama will be traveling to the Middle East this week to give a speech to the Muslim world from Egypt, designed to change the relationship between the Islamic world and the United States. 

He is also going to visit a Nazi concentration camp in Germany (Buchenwald), and commemorate the D Day Invasion 65 years ago, which was the beginning of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

These are important moments, as Obama wishes to promote constructive relations with the Islamic world as a result of the interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the concerns about the Taliban’s growing power in Pakistan,  the threat of Iran developing nuclear weapons,  and the ever present Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

In the midst of this, we cannot forget the sacrifices of World War II veterans who are rapidly dying off after 65 years since their sacrifices at Normandy, and the constant reminder of the Holocaust represented by Hitler’s Final Solution, which is still a reminder of the need to protect Israel’s interests with a hostile neighborhood always the reality.

The challenges to Obama in international affairs will be closely watched, and this trip is therefore of great significance.  It will, in many ways, set the tone for the rest of the Obama Administration, whether four or eight years in duration.

I will comment on his trip when I return from my own trip to the city of Boston and its nearby environs,  an area so significant in the creation of our nation and continuing to take the lead in so many ways in modern American history and politics!