“May you live in interesting times”
Old Chinese Curse
President Obama does not seem like a man easily surprised (except perhaps by his daughters). But the Nobel Peace Prize certainly must have surprised him, as he admitted. What a perfect passive/aggressive way for the Nobel Peace Committee to both praise America’s return to diplomacy, and remind us that much remains to be done. President Obama’s challenges are staggering, and simultaneous. (Roosevelt was in his second term at Pearl Harbor, and had seen the war coming for years. He came to his first term over two years after the crash of ’29, and had watched the Hoover administration’s errors). Obama faces two wars (albeit one we have decided to end) an official unemployment rate of 17% (which doesn’t include all the people I know who haven’t worked since the dot com bubble burst), a banking and credit crisis on a par with the 1907 panic, a worldwide if somewhat less enthusiastic jihad, and the possibility of instability in the nuclear armed Pakistan. Throw in Iran, North Korea, and a desperate and economically brutalized Russia. China and our economic, political, and military challengers there, must seem like a pleasant diversion. I realize I just forgot about Palestine, Israel, and Africa, particularly Sub-Sahara. His refusal to simply ignore problems (which Bush did with virtually everything ) is laudable. Even some of his biggest supporters (of which I am one) feel he should prioritize. I don’t believe he really can. They are all critical to our welfare, and survival. Oh, climate change…
Roosevelt made many mistakes, but we wisely kept re-electing him. As Bush (both of them) made me long for one term limits, I hope we will give this man the eight years he’ll need.
Gregory James
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