Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
posted to rec.boats
|
|||
|
|||
Press Conference
I thought Obama's press conference last night was very interesting and also very revealing, now having 100 days under his belt. A few impressions: Very much in command and demonstrating superb leadership qualities. (I have to admit, I misjudged him during the campaign cycle) Expressed a new level (for him) of respect and understanding of military personnel from top to bottom in terms of their commitment, professionalism and pride in doing their job, however distasteful. I found this particularly interesting because although he has paid the obligatory tributes before, last night's comments had a different tone and respect. It's as if he has learned something in the past 100 days. Good for him! Although on the record of opposing it (and outlawing it) he is still struggling with the use of torture question. It's obvious. He's still reading specific past rationales of it's use or not by other world leaders. At one point he was specifically asked if he would authorize torture if he knew a major attack on the US was imminent and the torture of someone would provide the information required to advert the attack. His answer was complex. The first words out of his mouth was that "First of all, I will do anything required to protect the people of the USA". (paraphrased) But then he went on to say that the USA needs to maintain a moral high ground and that options other than torture are available. But. He did *not* rule torture out. His acknowledged first priority is to protect the USA and it's people, and he will do "anything required" to accomplish that. Interesting. It's a tough one, and again he is demonstrating a level of understanding and wisdom that only comes with having the reigns of responsibility in one's two hands. He's beginning to realize that now *he* is the decider, not the polls, media comments, Olbermann and other armchair generals. Those of us in the media reporting and analyzing and those of us armchair critics cannot possibly understand the pressure on someone like the POTUS in deciding these types of questions. As a commenter pointed out, the chance of the USA using a nuclear device on another country is virtually zero. However, the concept that they *could* be used have never been removed from the table. Final observation. Pakistan. Obama has identified the Taliban in and around Pakistan as a major potential threat because they could gain control of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. He commented that we can "not allow" a band of rouge, militant groups to establish political control over a government whose country has nuclear weapons at their disposal. Hmmmm. This sounds familiar. Indeed, Obama has had a crash course in the "real" world in the past 100 days. Believe it or not, it's for these reasons that my confidence in his abilities to be a good, strong POTUS, while still pursuing a goal of diffusing world conflicts has gone up significantly. I am still having problems with his plans for fixing the economy however. Can't afford it. Over and out. Eisboch |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
ICW conference scheduled........ | General | |||
A conference at sea | Tall Ship Photos | |||
AIS 2006 Conference Presentations on the Web | Electronics | |||
SCA Coaching Conference | UK Paddle | |||
Sailing conference for women, MA, early June | Cruising |