David Broder: “Obama honeymoon is over”
Two months into his presidency, it is far too soon to make any judgments about Barack Obama’s prospects.All we really know is that he has assembled the rudiments of an administration and launched a batch of ambitious but unproven initiatives.
But it is not too soon to say that the Obama honeymoon period is over. His critics in Washington and around the world have found their voices, and they are subjecting his administration to the kind of skeptical questioning that is normal for chief executives once they settle into their jobs.
Obama still enjoys broad public support, but it is stronger for him personally than for his policies. Some of those policies are bafflingly complex, and all of them are untested.
Among those who follow government closely, there has been an unmistakable change in tone in the last few weeks. These are not little Limbaughs hoping that Obama fails. They are politicians and journalists measuring him with the same skeptical eye they apply to everyone else.
I think the shift began when Obama moved beyond the stimulus bill to his speech to the joint session of Congress and his budget message. For the first time, the full extent of his ambitions for 2009 became clear — not just stopping and reversing the steep slide in the economy but launching highly controversial efforts in healthcare, energy and education.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com …
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Comments
Agreed on the food safety act. American culture is rife with ignorance and a desire for instant gratification, which has led to overwhelming obesity and ill health, not to mention a self- and celebrity- obsessed culture with no skill, no talent, no trade, that PLAYS like the Jetsons but WORKS like the Flintstones.
Here are 2 points that show , in my opinion, 2 issues were P.Obama can make a difference ( Food Safety ) and make a mistake ( Toxic Assets ) :
President Obama is making Food Safety a key issue : it’s about time Washington D.C. and the White House even talks about this !!!!
The FDA and the Agriculture and Health Dpt.’s have been for a long time the territory of the Pharmaceutical Industry and their partners in the Junk Food Industry - if we don’t get sick with junk foods , sugar sodas and “modified” foods they can’t sell us the medicines - so even when the new appointees may mean fresh air at the FDA, President Obama and VP.Biden must stay involved, these new appointees and some of their co-workers at the FDA are still too close to the Industry they regulate, I DON’T EXPECT ANY OF THE FOOD CHANGES THAT AMERICA’S KIDS AND ADULTS DESERVE AND NEED TO HAPPEN ,it’s more of the same,although i hope to be wrong and these new appointees really do something,we’ll see.
The Financial Meltdown was no accident, it was a deterioration of knowledge, understanding and vision by all of us, not just the media and the incompetent corrupt Regulators in D.C .and N.Y.C. ( ….hey ,Mary Shapiro at the SEC, you still a Board member of Kraft-Nabisco Co. based in Switzerland for tax purposes and the biggest junk food seller in the world ? are you still making 500.000 dollars a year as a Director of that company among others ? ) , it was and is a national meltdown, where criminals have been selling us dog waste wrapped in caviar paper and most consumers never asked a question, so between junk foods and stupid TV , 45% of the population is mentally ….underwater…… so we need an urgent Revolution in Foods,with natural fresh choices in schools, job sites and specially all the fast food joints that workers use every day, we must help everyone be able to have at least one serving of fresh fruits and fresh vegetables every day, at least one every day !
Again, thanks to President Obama for his attention to Food Safety, now the difficult part starts, making sure his revolution message gets into the FDA, the root of the disaster.
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About the new “stimulus” in the works , here is a simple solution to start:
Just start moving all the “Toxic Assets” to a Federal Special Bank, no need to pay anyone to do this basic initial move.
In my opinion, President Obama,Vice-President Biden and Congress can right now put all the toxic assets from every financial institution in a Special Federal Holding Bank supervised by Congress and the White House - where in 2 to 3 years they will be very valuable while collecting some income and may be re-purchased again by these same banks later - and just without these toxic-assets in their books the stock of all these Institutions will go up 15 to 30 % in weeks, just the Legislation action will make the bankers and investors see with confidence ,with clarity and there will be no need to pay anyone, including the Hedge-Funds that got us into this financial mess ,any money, because just getting the Banks to download that “Toxic Financial Waste” is worth 2 trillion dollars for these Institutions, why pay them too ? the Banks can get the market value and some interest off from their books losses.
And because if the Obama-Biden Adm. gives the money away ,the day after,the Media ( the same Media controlled by these same Hedge-Funds ) will blame the Obama-Biden Administration of incompetence and corruption for giving the Hedge-Funds a 2 trillion dollar gift for “nothing”, so I urge President Obama,VP.Biden and Congress to first pass those assets to a Federal Special Bank, and then see how the market value of these Institutions goes up day by day, there is no need to give more money to the Hedge-Funds, but of course the Geithner-Bernanke-Summers-Orszag-Shapiro-Shumer group is only interested in getting another shot of USA Taxpayers money to the Hedge-Funds in their organized group which is bankrupt : with A.I.G. , Bear Stearns, Lehman , Merrill and Madoff out of the play and the War contracts winding down , they are a bit down too , right ? enough is enough !