Charlie Rose

REMant  01/12/2010 06:41 PM Report

Ppl on the question of foreign policy seem to divide pro- and anti-war. It was fairly clear to me that while he would wait until after health care passed, or was in stride, before wading in, he would follow McChrystal, however, it seems that McChrystal's approach is not exactly as it has been portrayed. That was recently made clear by Scahill's article in The Nation, where the covert side that he had been running prior to his appointment was exposed. I think it may have been this aspect and the Pakistani campaign that made up his mind. I am beginning to think that he has not swallowed the Lewis Sorley line, nor really has McChrystal, or at least I hope not. Some ppl are also saying that this buildup is only a demonstration project, odd as that may seem, but it is perhaps designed as a holding action while the special operations stuff is working. This makes more sense to me as I've said from the start; interdiction of some kind is necessary. LBJ began by hiring Air America to strafe and bomb the Ho Chi Minh trail. However the high tech stuff will probably not be enough, and sitting around protecting static targets is self-defeating as the Special Forces found at Pleiku, the event that spurred the first combat divisions to be sent into Vietnam. On the question of Obama's diplomacy, I do not like the arrogance and condescension I think I'm hearing, starting with the Cairo speech, but also at the Berlin Wall, and just this week with the Indian prime minister standing right next to him. On the economy, of course there has been this Summers-Volcker divide from the start, which it seems Summers won, while it is gradually becoming clear that Volcker is right. On health care, I think they were much too timid about it from the start, and that the analysis was flawed. The deficits have no doubt spooked a lot of independents, but the really stupid thing about all of this is the way the almost completely irrelevant issues of executive pay and bonuses, and the public option, which estimates show will have almost no impact on health care, have obscured the fundamental issues. Ditto the consumer protection business now. As Shelby said on Frontline this week, the soundness of the banking sector trumps the question of credit card interest.