Sunday March 29 Obama on CBS and other thoughts:

President Obama was the guest on “Face the Nation.” I missed a good part of it thanks to a friend, but did catch some of the program. Obama was focusing on Afghanistan and Pakistan and the comprehensive strategy he proposes to create an international community instead of racial or religious motivated environment. There are a host of contingencies to deal with and Obama knows that the issue is not one with easy solutions. His goal is to defeat our enemies, those who attacked America.
 
He says as a student of history he knows the US has overextended in the past, severely weakening our ability to win or influence areas where we are forced into being the foreigner intervening in issues and politics of a region.
 
Paraphrased, he feels we have to win and achieve our goals in our won national interest while not causing a situation that can, over time, make things worse.
 
He says that while Iraq may be the least of his military worries, the plan must not be weakened and we need to stay the course with our cooperative and withdrawal plans. He is confident that we are moving in the right direction.
 
On Mexico, Obama says the main thing we need is better enforcement on weapons, drugs and illegal immigration. We need to assist our own cities, towns and states threatened by the Mexican drug cartels and to support the Mexican government in any way we can. It is, just as Afghanistan and Iraq are, a threat to our national security. He does not see it as an existential threat, but one of safety and security for Americans who are in harms way. He is considering increasing National Guard troops on the boarder, but is resistant to a military force instead of civilian law enforcement if at all possible.
 
The middle class tax cut will exist for two years under the stimulus plan. Obama strongly feels the cut should be permanent to offset the flat lining of the income of average Americans. He will resist congressional efforts to sunset the cut. Congress rejected his proposal in the original budget, so he is looking for other ways to pay for the cut.

Of course where I start off there seems no real help. Those very poor are being offered what Republicans are calling socialism in the form handouts, and the very wealthy see buyouts, loans and golden parachutes. Money here in Nevada patching roads will not put one ounce of food on my or my families plate, not will help in any area but education.

The bailouts ignore small states and those states deep in recession crisis by requiring matching funds that are not there, larger populations impacted or look at things form the relatively low unemployment of 8% or top-heavy mortgages of ten percent. It was not greed that led to Nevadans being 25 to as much as 50% top heavy in their homes, it was a recession that ended the availability of money for businesses, and thus pushed us to unemployment levels pushing 12% and under-employed in excess of 50%. We are being punished for gambling we did not do just because me live in a state where gambling is legal. Most Nevadans know that even Keno is a long shot and that the casinos were not built on making other people millionaires. We tend to be conservative, but are treated as if we are irresponsible and wild and immoral.
 
On the Wall Street bonus outrage, Obama says that we should not legislate out of anger and tax unfairly. He says the healthy expression of anger did get fifty million of the bonus’s back, but it is important to keep out eye on the ball, the push to get the economy moving, to get credit flowing again, and not be bogged down by short-term gratifications of our legitimate frustrations. It is unfair to blame all bankers, most of who are doing good work and a key part of their communities. He says they need to understand the average mom who hears about multi-million dollar bonuses and tax payer dollars being used for things the average American cannot even dream of affording or taking advantage of. There has to be a sense of mutual obligation and mutual help. He says we have to see a recovery of the financial sector for the average American to see any recovery or stability in his or her own lives.
 
Thomas Jefferson once said that the presidency is a splendid misery, bringing increasing drudgery and a daily loss of friends. Obama says he has stained friendships, because very decision counts, and his presidency is not a caretaker presidency in any sector of the responsibilities of the office. President Obama says he does not have the luxury of putting friendship first, which his friends, so far, have understood.
 
American have to make difficult choices and unwanted sacrifices. He feels that all of those who serve at any level or in any capacity of government, need to kept hat in mind. Perspective must be kept on the average American and those who are disadvantages in this time of war, recession and change.
 
On to my field of study…
 
Is President Obama redefining communication? NPR reports that Obama seems to relish the job and thrive in it, despite his agenda. He is blitzing the people with Obama all the time using the modern equivalent of Roosevelt’s fireside chats or Kennedy’s inviting television cameras into the White House. It is a generational change. Teddy Roosevelt made his name at a time when newspaper subscription and adult literacy were exploding, Roosevelt used radio, and Kennedy and then Reagan used television to become great communicators and iconic presidents.
 
Obama is comfortable with everyday language, and like Reagan and Roosevelt, he is conversational so it feels as if they were in the same room, neighbors sitting in the presidential living room or sitting over coffee in a coffee shop.
 
The overexposure complaints are coming from traditional Washington and from his critics. That said, the reality is that Obama cannot keep up this pace due to repetition, ratings drift, and the sheer pressure of what a president needs to do in his or her job, particularly with so many issues on the table in what can really be called multiple worldwide crisis situations.
 
What may be missing is the Rhoades Scholar insights and common man drawl of Clinton or the actor’s calmness of Reagan.
 
Is Obama the first Internet president? Could he have been elected without the Internet, e-mail, text messaging and his ability to cross media from live events to television to radio to use of the net?
 
Can overexposure through the net and media deflate his presidency? If you are a traditional beltway journalist the answer is a resounding yes. But from main-street what will the answer be? And does his ability to use the media also inspire rapid and overly vicious counter attacks using the same media? The more you say, the higher your exposure, the greater the response in return.
 
The observations about presidents are my own, with help from a man who advised three former presidents, David Gergen or NPR news. He is the director of the Center for Public leadership at the John F Kennedy School of Government.
 
The BBC focus this morning was on how disconnected and insolated American views of what is happening around the world are. The were open in blaming the decline in money invested in the media, the number of media, media consolidation and the rise of the Republican Era since Reagan and including both Bush’s in the ethnocentric age in America.
 
They pointed to how the US, even under Obama, is the new France, putting our interests first, feeling that our way is the only correct way and evangelizing for what we believe in (in our case capitalism and an American style of democracy).
 
Americans, they say, know little of European, much less Asian or African history, cultures, economics and politics. What we do know are snapshots taken as if on a vacation, with little context and only passing interests.
 
The result, according to commentators on the BBC, is that the strongest nation on earth, the economic and military leader, continues to make many mistakes, even under a new administration, isolating the rest of the world and seeding resentment from the common man to the highest government leaders. We are too arrogant and at the same time blind.
 
The BBC pointed to the irony that Americans are more dependent on foreign powers then ever before, for food, low price goods and that American companies are international, many owned by foreign interests.
 
Yet the world gets smaller in our Internet linked age, as products are manufactured and shipped from across the globe and delivered to your doorstep only days later. We are linked as never before.
 
Perhaps that is why the earmarks of Franklin Roosevelt’s day no longer exist. While isolationist in nature and politics, Americans gave openly to those in need half a world away, and armed the world’s armies. We bought war bonds, and gave up in the name of the greater good, whether it was to help the victims of the dust bowl or sacrifice so that our troops could have fuel, food and carry some part of home with them.
 
Today it is as if we were not at war, as Americans prefer Wal-Mart to employing American workers, even as our own jobs are in danger. American businessmen instead of boosting our own economy send trickle down funds overseas. We bail out huge greedy corporations while letting the Eastern European economy collapse and Americans lose their homes. Who are we? What have we become?
 
Today’s headlines are led by confirmed cyber terrorism and international spy intrigue. Ghost Net is a Chinese based cyber-warfare network that has infiltrated over 13,000 key corporate and government computers in 103 countries around the world. Not only does the worm they planted steal information, but also it allowed the organization to listen in and even watch the goings on in the offices. US locations were involved. The primary target appears to be the personal affairs and political dealings of the Dali Lama, leading experts to suspect Chinese government involvement. While there is no proof, the reality that China has been retooling its military to take on the world’s most powerful technology and military, the US and our allies, seems to confirm a Chinese military involvement.