How it’s going to be

I’ve been trying not to get too political in my blogging. Not completely as Karen has done but mostly. After Obama’s first week I can’t help myself.

Issue 1; Iraq. I’m for getting our troops out of harms way as expediently as can be done safely. But anyone who possesses an ounce of military sense knows you don’t set a firm timetable. Goals are fine. I fear that Obama will sacrifice most of what our military has accomplished with blood sweat and tears by setting an arbitrary politically nice date. Now the bad guys know they can act nice for a while and we will pull out our combat troops and air support and surveillance. Then they can chop up the remnants that are there for the taking.

Issue 2: Transparency. The headline today was Obama’s closed-door meeting on the economy. H-m-m.

Issue 3: Obama quote: “The executive order on ethics I will sign shortly represents a clean break from business as usual. As of today, lobbyists will be subject to stricter limits than under any other administration in history. If you are a lobbyist entering my administration, you will not be able to work on matters you lobbied on, or in the agencies you lobbied during the previous two years. When you leave government, you will not be able to lobby my administration for as long as I am president."

Well, there is this former lobbyist for a big defense contractor called Raytheon. His name is William Lynn.

President Obama wants him to be deputy defense secretary. So, the Obama administration wants a waiver to its own rule.

That basically means they are saying, we will mostly put tough new restrictions on lobbyists, except when we won't. (Thanks to Campbell Brown for this tidbit)

Issue 4: Bipartisanship. While discussing the stimulus package with top lawmakers in the White House's Roosevelt Room, President Obama shot down a critic with a simple message.

"I won," he said, according to aides who were briefed on the meeting. "I will trump you on that."

The response was to the objection by Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to the president's proposal to give a tax rebate to low-income workers who haven’t paid any income taxes. (remember--spread the wealth)

Issue 5: dissent. Obama has said that he will listen to dissenting views and make his decisions. However, President Obama warned Republicans on Capitol Hill today that they need to quit listening to radio king Rush Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new administration.

I’m sorry to say that after only 1 week I’m losing the hope I had. As long as the republicans agree with the Democrats we have a bipartisen effort. I won, he says. We lose.

Obama still has high popularity. He can go above congress straight to the people like Reagan did and get things done. I don’t like the way he is beginning. I’m waiting to see if his approach to the economy feeds money quickly to productive venues or just lines the pockets of his friends and backers.