The Eccentric Observer
Old Dominion Tory
Only the naïve would be surprised by Barack Obama’s quiet reversal of his many of his campaign pledges. For example, he said that no lobbyist would have a place in his administration, and then he hired a bunch of them. In the aftermath of that particular about-face, however, came the breezy assertion by Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs that, although the Obama Administration had broken a campaign promise, its ethical standing remained unalloyed because unnamed “experts,” who had said its ethical rules were “the strongest in history,” also had informed the Administration that it would need to make exceptions to its anti-lobbyist rule.
The laughable idea that the Obama White House needed expert advice to arrive at that conclusion notwithstanding, Mr. Gibb’s statement was one in a series of instances in which the still-young Obama Administration’s claims of all sorts of accomplishments as well as possession of the moral high ground cry out for qualification. Indeed, it is getting so that every nearly every policy pronouncement or appointment seems to demand an asterisk. For example:
According
to Joe Biden,
a willingness to pay higher taxes
is a hallmark of patriotism.*
The
Obama Administration
will set and maintain a high bar
in regards to ethics.**
The
Obama Administration
will stop the
“revolving door”
and not be staffed by those
icky lobbyists.***
The
terrorist detention facility
at Guantanamo Bay will close
within a year.****
The
Obama Administration
will not continue the policies of
the Bush Administration
in regards interrogation of terrorists
because they violate our
nation’s values.*****
Afghanistan
soon will be the “main front”
in the war against Islamist terror with
more than 30,000 troops
added to the force there.******
The
stimulus bill -excuse me, the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
-will focus on rebuilding our infrastructure
and creating or saving millions
of jobs.*******
The
Obama Administration
will regain the respect
of our allies.********
The President
will end the practice
of
Congressional earmarks
on spending bills.*********
....
___________________________________________________________________________
*However, having a Treasury Secretary and Trade Representative who did not pay their full tax bills until very recently is OK.
**Having two Cabinet-level officials with murky tax records is completely acceptable. ***Unless, the fixer in question is a “strategic advisor.” Oh, heck, even
of he or she is a registered lobbyist, it’s fine. After all, some animals are more equal than others.
****Even though the Administration is nowhere close to sorting out any of the thorny legal and security issues, such as where to hold the terrorists and how to try them.
*****But if we really, really need to sweat information out of terrorist suspects, we’ll do whatever is necessary.
******The Administration is about to cut the Pentagon’s budget—in wartime.
*******Congress created a trillion-dollar pork-laden mess that will do little to rebuild infrastructure and save jobs and a lot to expand the scope and cost of government.
********So,
it is giving the British and the Australians the cold shoulder and slobbering
all over the Russians and the Chinese.
*********And, as soon as he signs the bloated omnibus spending bill that is larded with earmarks, he’ll get to that reform. Really.
In any administration’s early days,
a gap between campaign rhetoric and the realities of governing is hardly
surprising. However, the Obama Administration* has a habit of ignoring the
yawning gaps before them or, if called on them, denying that any gap exists. If
it doesn’t reverse this trend and quickly (the honeymoon soon will be over), it
risks not merely have asterisks appended to nearly every statement and action,
but also becoming a colossal joke.
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