Barack OBAMA vs Thomas sowell (1)

 
Tuesday, June 15, 2010 

 


Oil and 
Snake Oil The big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is bad enough in itself. But 
politics 
can make anything worse.  
.

Just what is Obama going to do in his shirt sleeves, except impress the 
gullible? He might as well have shown up in a tuxedo with white tie, for all 
the 
difference it makes. 

This government is not about governing. It is about creating an impression. 
That worked on the campaign trail in 2008, but it is a disaster in the White 
House, where rhetoric is no substitute for reality. 

If the Obama administration was for real, and trying to help get the oil 
spill contained as soon as possible, the last thing its Attorney General would 
be doing is threatening a lawsuit. A lawsuit is not going to stop the oil, and 
creating a distraction can only make people at BP start directing their 
attention toward covering themselves, instead of covering the oil well. 

If and when the Attorney General finds that BP did something illegal, that 
will be time enough to start a lawsuit. But making a public announcement at 
this 
time accomplishes absolutely nothing substantive. It is just more political 
grandstanding. 

This is not about oil. This is about snake oil. 




Nothing will keep a man or an institution determined to continue on a failing 
policy course like past success with that policy. Obama's political success in 
the 2008 election campaign was a spectacular triumph of creating images and 
impressions. 

But creating political impressions and images is not the same thing as 
governing. Yet Obama in the White House keeps on saying and doing things to 
impress people, instead of governing. 

Once the elections were over and the time for governing began, there was now 
a new audience to consider-- a much more savvy audience, the leaders of other 
countries around the world. 




However impressed the media and the Obama cult might be with the President's 
image, rhetoric and style, leaders of other countries-- allies and enemies 
alike-- are interested in results. 




Even our domestic policies can affect foreign leaders, as Ronald Reagan's 
breaking of the air traffic controllers' strike impressed the Russians with 
what 
kind of man they were going to have to deal with, as former Soviet officials 
said publicly many years later. 




By the same token, domestic bungling by Barack Obama sends a dangerous signal 
to countries hostile to us, in addition to the signal sent by his displays of 
amateurism on the world stage. 




President Obama had barely settled into the White House before he began 
demonstrating his willingness to sell out this country's friends to appease our 
enemies. His trip to Moscow to try to make a deal with the Russians, based on 
reneging on the pre-existing American commitment to put a missile shield in 
Eastern Europe, was the kind of short-sighted betrayal whose consequences can 
come back to haunt a nation for years. 




Obama spoke grandly about "pressing the reset button" on international 
relations, as if all the international commitments of the past were his to 
disregard. 

But if no American commitment can be depended upon beyond a current 
administration, then any nation that allies itself with us is jeopardizing its 
own national security, because dangers in the international jungle last longer 
than 4 years or even 8 years. 




We are already seeing the consequences. Even Turkey-- formally a NATO ally-- 
is cozying up to Iran, now that it is painfully clear that Obama is not going 
to 
do anything that has any realistic chance of stopping Iran from going nuclear. 




If leaders of other nations can't depend on the United States, then they need 
to make the best deal they can with our enemies. They understand that 
preserving 
their nation's security is a leader's top priority, even if Barack Obama 
doesn't.

 

President Reagan's address to the 43d Session of the United Nations General 
Assembly in New York, New York . September 26, 1988. "Mr. Secretary-General, 
there are new hopes for Cambodia, a nation whose freedom and independence we 
seek just as avidly as we sought the freedom and independence of Afghanistan. 
We urge the rapid removal of all Vietnamese troops ...."  
=======================================================
(1)


Thomas Sowell was born in North Carolina and grew up in Harlem. As
with many others in his neighborhood, Thomas Sowell left home early and did not
finish high school. The next few years were difficult ones, but
eventually he joined the Marine Corps and became a photographer in the Korean
War. 

After leaving the service, Thomas Sowell entered Harvard University,
worked a part-time job as a photographer and studied the science that would
become his passion and profession: economics. 



After graduating magna cum
laude from Harvard University (1958), Thomas Sowell went on to receive his
master's in economics from Columbia University (1959) and a doctorate in
economics from the University of Chicago (1968). 

                                          
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