The Buie Knife

Obama's Nobel Speech Could NOT Have Been Given By G.W. Bush

Barack Obama's splendid Nobel Prize acceptance speech is winning praise from surprising quarters: Republicans. But their compliments are rather back-handed, that the speech which challenges European pacifists and embraces the "just war" doctrine could have been given by George W. Bush. Not hardly. Obama made a definite distinction between his administration's policies and those of the Bush administration: 

"Where force is necessary, we have a moral and strategic interest in binding ourselves to certain rules of conduct.  And even as we confront a vicious adversary that abides by no rules, I believe the United States of America must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war.  That is what makes us different from those whom we fight.  That is a source of our strength.  That is why I prohibited torture.  That is why I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed.  And that is why I have reaffirmed America's commitment to abide by the Geneva Conventions.  We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend.  (Applause.)  And we honor -- we honor those ideals by upholding them not when it's easy, but when it is hard."

He also spoke of the influence of the non-violent philosophies of Dr. Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi on his views towards peace. He quoted King's Nobel acceptance speech from 1964: 

"Violence never brings permanent peace.  It solves no social problem:  it merely creates new and more complicated ones."  

Obama added: "As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King's life work, I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence.  I know there's nothing weak -- nothing passive -- nothing naïve -- in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King."

Those were not words that George W. Bush could have, or would have uttered.

Thorbjorn Jagland, chair of the Nobel Committee, explained that Obama was chosen for the award because of his commitment, and early steps, to unwind the worst policies and abuses of George W. Bush’s presidency. He pointed to Mr. Obama’s embrace of “multilateral diplomacy,” his offer to negotiate with Iran, his decision to ban torture, his efforts to revive arms control negotiations and address global warming. “President Obama is a political leader who understands that even the mightiest are vulnerable when they stand alone,” Mr. Jagland said.

Why Obama Won the Nobel Peace Prize: A View from Turkey

Tonight on the bus in Kayseri, Turkey, the fellow next to me struggled to speak English. "America...beautiful!" he said. Then, "Obama....beautiful." He reached in his bag and gave me an apple. "Obama... peace prize!" he exclaimed.

"No more English," he said. Then, another phrase popped into his mind. "I love you," he said, waved, and stepped off the bus.

The fellow in the next seat also sought to speak to me, in broken English. "Obama very good," he said.  "Better than Bush...(he) never listened." Then he gestured as if Bush were pushing people away, afraid of opinions contrary to his own. "Bush an autocrat!" 

These statements coming from everyday Turks in an overwhelmingly Muslim country represent, perhaps, the radical change in world perception of America's world leadership. Turkey got into a bitter argument with its longtime ally over American involvement in Turkey's next-door neighbor, Iraq. The Turks felt their knowledge and expertise were ignored by the Bush administration, and they refused to let the U.S. use Turkish soil to launch invasions of Iraq. Their primary concerns were that U.S. action in Iraq would embolden the Kurdish independence movement in Northern Iraq and Southern Turkey, disrespected Iraqi sovereignty, and would potentially destabilize the region. But in the latter days of the Bush administration, the Turks found common ground with the U.S. on the Kurdish problem.

Even so, I was warned before I arrived in Turkey that two subjects I should never bring up with strangers were George W. Bush and American actions in Iraq.

Now, with Barack Obama as president, the Turks feel they can find common ground with Americans on Iraq. They've agreed to let the U.S. use Turkish soil to transfer troops, arms and logistics out of Iraq. Under Obama administration pressure, they've agreed to open their border with Armenia, and acknowledged that genocide of Armenians may have occured between 1914 and 1918, to be determined by an "impartial scientific investigation." An elaborate signing ceremony to normalize relations between Turkey and Armenia was brokered with great drama by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other diplomats in Zurich, as the BBC reported.

Today's Zaman sums up Turkish diplomats' views of Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Will Obama Bring European-style Socialism To America?

In "On Becoming Europe," Victor David Hanson looks at European-style economic "socialist democracy" and finds it wanting, as I suspect I will in my upcoming travels. But he makes the mistake of assuming that Obama wants to bring "socialist democracy" to the United States, which this article by Jacob Weisburg suggests is impossible, out of touch with American history and tradition, and Obama clearly understands that.

Perhaps Obama's Greatest Accomplishment: Dramatically Improved Perceptions of Race Relations

Perhaps Barack Obama's greatest accomplishment so far has less to do with what he's done and more to do with who he is. Just as John Kennedy shattered a barrier for Roman Catholics, Barack Obama's election has meant a dramatically improved perception of race relations between blacks and whites:

For the first time in CBS News polling history, a majority of blacks are casting race relations in the United States in a positive light. Fifty-nine percent of African-Americans - along with 65 percent of whites - now characterize the relationship between blacks and whites in America as "good," according to a new CBS News/New York Times survey. Less than a year ago, just 29 percent of blacks said race relations were good. The percentage of blacks who say race relations are bad, meanwhile, has dropped from 59 percent last July to 30 percent today.

Read the whole thing.

Drill Deeper:

• Voices Reflect Rising Sense of Racial Optimism (NYTIMES)
• Teaching African-American History in the Age of Obama
• Mrs. Obama Visits Students as Motivator in Chief (NYTIMES)
  

Remarkable Slideshow from White House Photographers on Obama's First 100 Days

This slideshow gives you a strong sense of what it looks like from the inside of the Obama Administration:

Click to see the official White House photostream on FLICKR.

Related: Conservative David Frum explains How Obama Wins

Obama's First 100 Days: A Roundup of Links on the Most Productive Three Months Since FDR in 1933

Watch this on Youtube

Nuggets from a few of the many evaluations of Obama's first 100 days:

• Joshua Greene: "A hundred years from now, Barack Obama's first hundred days may be remembered more for his energy policy than for his bank bailouts-at least if things go according to plan. Without a great deal of fanfare or attention, Obama has made significant progress toward overhauling our national energy policy on a scale that's never before been attempted." (Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan)
• Obama, historians say, "has done more in his first 100 days in the White House than any commander in chief since Franklin D. Roosevelt, who entered office in 1933 amid the throes of the nation's last major economic upheaval." 
• The St. Pete Times Obamameter reports 27 promises kept, 7 compromises, 6 promises broken, 63 in the works, and 498 with no action yet.

Obama Supporters Launch Chatham Changemakers

Easter weekend did not deter an enthusiastic group of Obama supporters from gathering in the  Chatham County Superior Courtroom on Saturday, April 11 for a half-day of information-sharing and to launch a new organization: Chatham Changemakers (www.chathamchangemakers.org). I'm the group's webmaster. The group is not only working locally to garner support for President Obama's agenda, but is tackling a plethora of local issues, believing, as President Obama has said, that "change comes from the bottom up." The local issues the group is working on include:

• health care
• energy
• immigration
• education
• transportation
• environment
• economic development and stimulus
• labor
• race relations
• affordable housing
• media and communications in Chatham County
• a SUSTAINABLE community

In addition to Chatham County, I'm aware of active Obama groups in Orange, Durham, Moore and Guilford counties. Perhaps you know of others (if so, post them in the comments section). The ones I know about are:

(1) The Orange County (NC) Campaign for Change has four specific goals

• Expanding voter participation through voter registration and voter education
• Organizing community building and community action projects
• Working with elected political leaders to ensure accountability and transparency to the electorate
• Organize active, collaborative support for President Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise

(2) DurhamforObama.org has three goals and six action steps in its mission statement.

(3) Moore CAN -- An outgrowth of the Obama campaign, this group is working on five issue areas.

(4) Pledge Project Canvass -- Volunteers in Greensboro are going door-to-door to gather signatures in support of Obama's agenda.

Related:

• Nationally, A Resurgence of Interest in Community Organizing

Is Obama A Socialist?

Asked by The New York Times if he's "a socialist," Obama said he isn't:

"It wasn’t under me that we started buying a bunch of shares of banks. It wasn’t on my watch. And it wasn’t on my watch that we passed a massive new entitlement – the prescription drug plan without a source of funding. And so I think it’s important just to note when you start hearing folks through these words around that we’ve actually been operating in a way that has been entirely consistent with free-market principles and that some of the same folks who are throwing the word socialist around can’t say the same."

If, when he became President, "the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me to stay out of it. I have more than enough to do without having to worry the financial system. The fact that we’ve had to take these extraordinary measures and intervene is not an indication of my ideological preference, but an indication of the degree to which lax regulation and extravagant risk taking has precipitated a crisis.

Ray LaHood, Obama's Secretary of Transportation, says of the $40 billion for the U.S. Department of Transportation: "It's not socialism, it's economic development. It is going to provide an economic engine around communities all over America for jobs; good paying jobs; and help people pay their bills...It is going to drive the economies in a lot of states and a lot of communities."

Related:

• 'We Are All Socialists Now'
• 'Great Achievements of American Socialism'

Obama Offers Reassurance That 'Pillars Will Be In Place for Recovery' By End of 2009; Krugman Skeptical

President Obama in his weekly video address described the economic crisis as "a time of great opportunity," if we use it to address long-term problems with our financial services, education, health care and energy sectors.

In a separate interview with The New York Times, he said, "people should feel confident that every time we’ve had an economic challenge like the one that we’re having – although this is one of the bigger ones – that we’ve gotten through it, that the pillars of recovery will be in place this year."

"I think that ordinary families should have learned from the last few years and recent history that if something sounds too good to be true – whether it’s stock market returns or appreciating housing prices – that sometimes they are too good to be true, and that what we should be looking for is steady growth, steady accumulations of savings, steady and prudent investing. And that I think is what you’re going to see emerging after we’ve gotten through the worst of this crisis."

"He foresees "a return to the fundamentals -- hard work, investing for reasonable returns over time, saving steadily for your kids’ college education and for your retirement. All of us, thinking about our purchases and making sure that we’re taking care of the necessities before we go after the luxuries.

Drill Deeper:

• NYT's Krugman: Obama's Behind the Curse -- Needs to Launch A Second Stimulus Package and Nationalize Some Banks Soon:

"Here’s the picture that scares me," he writes. "It’s September 2009, the unemployment rate has passed 9 percent, and despite the early round of stimulus spending it’s still headed up. Mr. Obama finally concedes that a bigger stimulus is needed.But he can’t get his new plan through Congress because approval for his economic policies has plummeted, partly because his policies are seen to have failed, partly because job-creation policies are conflated in the public mind with deeply unpopular bank bailouts. And as a result, the recession rages on, unchecked."

A Time of Reckoning, After An Era of Profound Irresponsibility

To understand where we're going, we have to acknowledge where we're coming from. Barack Obama has sounded a theme that the last eight years have been an "era of profound irresponsibility." In his economic message as president-elect, he observed: