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Forty-four has had the hardest-ride. Not since Truman, has an incoming American president been crowned with such challenging decisions. Truman had to use the A-bomb. Obama had to stimulate us with $783 billion dollars. This is not to belittle other administrations because all face tremendous obstacles both foreign and domestic at one time or another. Obama was just given very little time to prepare. Or maybe faith had determined that he was born ready for such a position. His accession to the White House was marred by controversy. Allegations of the selling of his Senate seat was the making of the history of a clearly different political story. His predecessor inherited an economic surplus and a world seemingly in political harmony. If one draws the contrast, then one must also draw the comparison: both the Bush and Obama administrations are/were endowed with officials steeped in political savvy. The Bush team could claim notables such as Colin Powell and Secretary of State Rice. Rumsfeld and Cheney were products of the Nixon administration --where bureaucracy was a pseudonym for living. The Nixon administration birthed Watergate and raised a nation of anti-war Democrats.
Obama reached deep into his hat of tricks from the inception of his candidacy, by choosing the democratic strategist David Axelrod, “a specialist in urban politics.” Axelrod, who has worked with notable people such as John Street, Hillary Clinton and Eliot Spitzer, is a veteran of politics and a giant among the members of his craft. He is a legend at creating solidarity within any given turbulent political dichotomy. Obama’s pick for Secretary of State, if not a show of solidarity among democrats, was a show of optimism for the future of U.S. relations with the nations of the world. Hillary Clinton is adept at placing substance over rhetoric as displayed in her initial Universal Health Care Reform plan. By far the most important component of the post campaign team is the Chief of Staff Congressman Rahm Emmanuel. He is a well-versed political insider with a hard earned reputation of financial expertise. With seven years in the Clinton White House, he is a tremendous asset to the Obama administration. Digging deeper and going beyond Obama’s cabinet, Vice President Biden is the “first among equals” when it comes to foreign policy. If the Bush administration team, playfully dubbed the “Vulcans,” was to be replaced by an equally competent team – as Machiavelli suggests is necessary to maintain a strong, viable State – then Obama’s administration has accomplished that act in spades.
International policy has taken an ever so slight turn in a different direction. The lifting of restrictions on the communist state of Cuba is a tribute to the old adage that one good turn deserves another. The first Black president sees fit not to punish the inhabitants of Cuba for the transgressions of its leader. I hope the United States foreign policy initiatives continue to be this pragmatic. As states all over the nation face multi-billion dollar budget deficits, Obama has had to make the economic rain clouds spew water. In this regard he has not done too bad. Targeting the most classic of monetary policy levers he seems to have spent much of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds on labor intensive projects that will ensure the expedient insurgence of cash into the money supply. With surmounting unemployment (rates in the range of 7%-9%), he has followed Roosevelt’s New Deal practices and extended Unemployment Insurance benefits, giving many jobless Americans added time to maneuver as the economy eases back into full employment.
The culmination of the first decade of the new millennium has brought about many rapid changes. Obama is the catalyst for that change. With sweeping domestic policy initiatives such as health care and energy reform, we will not only be looking at a new America but we will be looking at new world through new eyes. As the economic decline subsides and Democrats, who now control both houses in Congress, move toward creating a better America the world watches and waits. Each nation on every continent has a stake in the process of change so let us hope for progress.
NATURAL HAIR AT THE WORK PLACE
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CUT YOUR LOSSES
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NAME ISSUES
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