The Fragile Presidency of Barack Obama

People ask me when the glow of Barack Obama will wear off. I tell them that it is as soon the soaring rhetoric isn't enough. As soon, as he really has to start governing, then the country and the world won't be in the trance they're in. What those currently in a trance don't realize is that a hornet's nest hovers around President Obama. The hornet's nest of world events, policy ideas, as well as all sorts of political dynamics that are ready to explode if handled incorrectly.

First, President Obama will totally own the stimulus and with it the economy. Furthermore, he will already falling short of one of his themes, bi partisanship. In fact, President Obama has been partisan more than once. He immediately signed a Presidential order closing GITMO. He reversed an order and thus allowed for organizations to get money overseas even if that money goes to funding abortion activities.

President Obama is betting that out of control government spending is the way out of a recession. There's a bet I would rather never make. Even if theoretically his idea could work it will have to be implemented correctly. Between the stimulus, the second part of TARP I, and the coming TARP II, President Obama is about to borrow and spend $2.5 trillion. Here's an individual who's never managed more than a Senate office and he is about to lead the government in the execution of this massive spending. Of course, who will be chiefly responsible for all this spending? Tim Geitner. This guy can't figure out his taxes and he's about to manage $2.5 trillion. Does that sound like a recipe for success or disaster?

Then, there's his chief foreign policy initiative. He's going to close down GITMO. He's closing down a prison full of the worst and most dangerous prisoners in the world. Yet, he has absolutely no plan to speak of for what to do with them when it's closed. Does this sound like a recipe for success or failure?

He's sent George Mitchell to the Middle East and it appears that his mission there is to listen.
Any doubts about just how serious the Obama administration would treat global warming were obliterated when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named Todd Stern Climate Envoy for the State Department.


In the June 2007 issue of the American Interest, Washington lawyer Todd Stern and think tank executive William Antholis wrote a memo to the next president. Addressed from the "United States Department of Brainstorms" to "The 44th President of the United States," the action memorandum laid out the case for "creating the E-8" -- a novel international group uniting leading developed nations and developing ones for an annual gathering focused on combating global warming.


On foreign policy, he has no goal yet. Yet, he has sent an envoy to the Middle East. He has broad ideas like getting both sides back to the negotiating table. Yet, he doesn't have any idea for how to negotiate with Hamas in the way. He hasn't said much of anything specific about any foreign policy issue. Now, George Mitchell is in the Middle East to "listen". Does this sound like a recipe for success or failure?

Let's not forget that Vladimir Putin is licking his chops to test the mettle of this guy. With oil prices so low, it's only a matter of time before VVP needs to raise oil prices by stoking some crisis with one of its neighbors. Does anyone really believe that Obama would stand up to Putin in any confrontation?

Lastly, he's created a new policy for interrogations that is modeled after the Army Field Manual. Does anyone really believe that we will get all the intelligence necessary to stop further attacks if our interrogators can't go beyond the Army Field Manual?

There is a hornet's nest forming and soon it will engulf around him. The glow will wear off. Reality will hit and it all appears to be a recipe for disaster.