Obama’s ’dialogue’
“Barack Obama has been toying with the idea of dialogue with the Islamic world for two years now - but he has yet to approach the idea of actually saying anything meaningful,” New York Post columnist Amir Taheri writes.
“At one point, his advisers talked of convening a White House summit with Muslim leaders. When that scheme was exposed as fanciful, they recommended that he attend the Islamic Summit Conference, convened once every three years. But that, too, has turned out to be problematic - so now they are talking of plans for ’a major address in an Islamic capital,’ ” Mr. Taheri said
“But what does Obama wish to say in this dialogue?
“’The message I want to send is that we will be unyielding in stamping out the terrorist extremism we saw in Mumbai,’ Obama told the Chicago Tribune last Tuesday.
“Note that the American president-elect mentions Mumbai - and not the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington or scores of others carried out by Islamic terrorists against Western targets.
“Note also that he talks of ’terrorist extremism,’ not ’Islamic’ or even ’Islamist’ terrorism.
“The reason, of course, is his desire not to ruffle Muslim feathers. And herein lies the fundamental weakness of his position.
“If the terrorism we saw on 9/11 and many other occasions has nothing to do with Islam, then why bring up the issue with Muslim leaders rather than Buddhist monks? Alternately, if this type of terrorism does have Islamic roots, why not give it its proper designation?
“In fact, Islamic feathers need to be ruffled if we are to defeat Islamic terrorism. Muslims should be told that they’ve been too complacent in recognizing the threat.”
Shoe throwers
“As the world knows now, a particularly juvenile Iraqi journalist threw a shoe at George Bush in Baghdad Sunday,” Roger L. Simon writes at pajamasmedia.com.
“Bush characteristically made light of the situation. If there’s one thing many can agree on about the president, it’s that he doesn’t take insults too personally, at least in public. Good thing too, considering all the abuse that has been heaped on him in recent years. I can’t imagine I would have behaved the same way. With my temper, I would probably have picked up the shoe and gone after the dopey journo myself,” Mr. Simon said.
“Well, maybe I wouldn’t have. The clod probably did Bush a favor, making the president look good. And Bush could use it, because I can’t think of a public figure in my lifetime who has been so reviled except Nixon. And Bush never did anything provably wrong. He didn’t cover up an illegal break-in, try to sell a Senate seat or even have oral sex with an intern in the White House (and then claim it wasn’t sex). He just did his job to the best of his ability.”
Defending Jackson
“A lot of assumptions are being made with regard to Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.,” John Nichols of the Nation magazine writes in a blog at www.the nation.com.
“The Democratic representative from Chicago is, after 13 years in the House, earning the sort of attention accorded congressional leaders and presidential contenders. Unfortunately, it comes in the context of the scandal that has exploded around Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich,” Mr. Nichols said.
“Blagojevich stands accused of ’hanging a “for sale” sign’ on the Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
“Jackson was as close as there was to a front-runner in the competition for a gubernatorial appointment to the seat. He had been endorsed by the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Defender and other newspapers, as well as Progressive Democrats of America and individual activists who had come to know him as a champion in the struggle for peace and economic and social justice.
“Jackson says that, when he met with Blagojevich on the eve of the governor’s arrest, they spoke about those endorsements and the congressman’s record - as well as his viability as a Democratic contender in the 2010 race to retain the seat. He denies that there was anything inappropriate about the discussion, and no evidence has surfaced to suggest that there was. But the fact of that meeting - and speculation about the prospect that an as-yet-unnamed ’emissary’ had promised fund-raising assistance to Blagojevich if he made the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson a senator - has made Congressman Jackson almost as big a player in the scandal discussion as the governor.”
After recounting Mr. Jackson’s ultra-liberal record in Congress, Mr. Nichols added:
“I hope Jesse Jackson Jr. gets a fair hearing over the coming days and weeks.
“I hope that when the full truth is revealed he will be cleared.
“I hope that he will be able to continue to serve in the House, and that he might eventually serve in the Senate.”
Hard times
“Call it the gospel of hard times. With all this bad economic news, we’re starting to hear a chorus of voices preaching the cultural benefits of financial crises,” Los Angeles Times columnist Gregory Rodriguez writes.
“Surely it has reached your ears: A recession could force us to spend more time with our families. It could curb the excesses of our consumerist culture, make us learn to live within our means. Heck, it could purify our greedy capitalist souls,” Mr. Rodriguez said.
“A Temple University English professor even has pointed to all the great literature produced during the 1930s: James Agee, Nathanael West, Henry Roth. The list goes on. ’If it’s true that adversity can bring out creativity,’ the professor said recently, ’then the Great Depression was one of the great creative periods of our time.’
“Gee, too bad the housing bubble didn’t burst earlier!
“All kidding aside, along with our abiding fear of hard times, there also seems to be a real hunger for, in Thomas Paine’s words, the times that try men’s souls. President-elect Barack Obama has earned stature points as he wraps himself in the iconography of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. Two national magazines have gone along for the ride, mixing FDR’s patrician chin with Obama’s ears, topped off with spectacles and a cigarette holder.
“But it’s more than just a presidential hero whom people are seeking. It’s the individual and collective heroism that adversity can sometimes inspire.”
• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or e-mail Greg Pierce.
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