American Morning
Obama’s $100 Million Test
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/04/23/art_avlon_cnn.jpg caption="John Avlon was director of speechwriting and deputy director of policy for Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign."]
By John Avlon
The Daily Beast
After last week’s tea party tax protests, President Obama acknowledged “a confidence gap, when it comes to the American people. And we’ve got to earn their trust.”
Democrats have been slapped with the tax and spend liberal label for decades – and candidate Obama spent much time on the campaign trail trying to distance himself from that legacy. “When I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely,” he promised, offering assurance to the moderate majority of Americans that his would be an administration dedicated to fiscal responsibility.
Of course, all that was before the fiscal crisis and neo-Keynisan Kool-Aid started to be passed around Capitol Hill, with congressmen chugging it by the billions as the deficit ballooned.
This week, President Obama tried to square his young administration’s record with his campaign rhetoric by announcing a commitment to cut $100 million dollars in wasteful spending at his first cabinet meeting.
Ron Paul: Secession is American
For ten years, Texas was a sovereign territory before joining the United States in 1845. It’s the stuff of legends that the “Lone Star State” could end the ties with the U.S. if its constituents want it that way.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, who's been highly critical of President Obama's stimulus package, raised the possibility that his state may one day secede from the union.
“We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people - who knows what might come out of that,” Perry told reporters last week.
The governor isn't the only one suggesting secession is not out of the realm. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), a former presidential candidate, spoke with Kiran Chetry on CNN’s American Morning Tuesday.
Kiran Chetry: How serious is this secession talk?
Ron Paul: I don't think it's very serious. I don't think anybody called for secession, and I don't think the governor called for it. But he brings up an important issue. The biggest surprise to me was the outrage expressed over an individual who thinks along these lines, because I heard people say, well, this is treasonous and this was un-American. But don't they remember how we came in to our being? We used secession, we seceded from England. So it’s a very good principle. It’s a principle of a free society. It’s a shame we don’t have it anymore. I argue that if you had the principle of secession, our federal government wouldn't be as intrusive into state affairs and to me that would be very good.
Fmr. CIA operative: Torture does not work
President Obama has come under strong criticism from some in the CIA and others for releasing memos that detail some of the agency’s harshest interrogation tactics. Yesterday, the president went to the heart of the spy business to explain his decision.
“I want to be very clear and very blunt. I've done so for a simple reason. Because I believe that our nation is stronger and more secure when we deploy the full measure of both our power and the power of our values.”
Former CIA operative Robert Baer supports the move and says perhaps even more information should be released. Baer spoke to Kiran Chetry via Skype on CNN’s American Morning Tuesday.
Kiran Chetry: You support the move? You think the release of the Bush-era memos on interrogation tactics was the right move and that it did not compromise national security?
Robert Baer: Well, not at all. All of those techniques are in the military manuals, which are on the internet. Most of that information appeared in the New York Review of books in Mark Danner's article, “The Prisoner’s Getting Out.” It talked about what they were subjected to. It's not a secret. None of these techniques are a secret so why not release it? I think what we really need to do is clear the air on torture. My biggest objection is nobody, until now, has presented evidence that torture works and I just don't see it.
Congressman came under fire in Somalia
There are new developments today in the waters off of the coast of Somalia. Another U.S. ship, the Liberty Sun, was attacked by pirates. This time, the pirates were unsuccessful.
Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) is the first American member of the government to visit the country in a decade. His plane came under attack as he left Mogadishu earlier this week. Congressman Payne joined Kiran Chetry on CNN’s American Morning on Wednesday.
Kiran Chetry: You witnessed firsthand what a dangerous place and region this is. Why did you go?
Rep. Donald Payne: I've been dealing with that area for the last 20 years. And I had worked during the past two or three years trying to help them form a new government. They had a government I met with three or four times in Nairobi. They were meeting outside of Somalia, called a transitional federal government. They were not strong enough to maintain themselves. There was another group called the I.C.U., the Islamic Courts Union now called the Alliance that then took over a bit. It’s a complicated story but the U.S. suggested that Ethiopia intrude to bring peace, although Ethiopia is hostile to Somalia so that was really the wrong peacekeepers.
Chetry: You said this trip was largely successful. What about being fired on? What happened?
Payne: Well I think there’s certainly a group, the al Shabab, who may be the closest link to al Qaeda. They do not want to see this government work. That's what it's all about. I think the fact that I went there, that there were no problems during the day. We went around to the various places, met with women's groups, the prime minister, the cabinet people. I believe this was desperation. They don't want to see this new two-month government succeed. I assured President Sheikh Sharif that we would want to engage. They have a plan that they feel they can deal with piracy on the ground, on the land, rather than in the sea, which makes it very difficult. So they will be coming up with a plan in a couple of weeks and will submit it to our government and myself.
President Obama and the "F" word
The music had barely ended at the Inaugural Balls when conservatives took aim at President Obama's big government policies. Since then their aim has only sharpened.
Townhall.com's David Limbaugh may have one-upped his conservative brother Rush by telling a radio audience in San Francisco that the President is the head of a "Gestapo government."
Glenn Beck actually dropped the "F-Bomb" (as in Fascism) when talking about the Obama administration's plan to stimulate the economy. "We're into socialism now (but) that's not our final destination. Our final destination is happy-faced fascism." Watch
And the American Spectator's Quin Hillyer of the Washington Examiner wrote a column in the American Spectator" titled "Il Duce, Redux?"
Hillyer told CNN that when he looks at the Obama administration what he sees are "historical comparisons (to) Mussolini's Italy." He says that "it first started with the takeover of the banks, and when you start taking over banks you've done the very first step that Mussolini did."
The University of California's George Lakoff isn't surprised at the conservative furor over Obama's big government solutions. "This is part of a general conservative mode of operating to get the base stirred up for electoral reasons and reasons of support," he says.
CNN's chief political analyst Bill Schneider says it's unusual that opposition attacks started so early in a new President's term, but that may be because the Democrats have hit a conservative nerve. "The complaints are really about economics, and they are very loud," says Schneider. "But these are things that (are) core beliefs of Republicans."
Lakoff adds that Obama's scrutiny of failing banks and business "is something that conservatives hate, the very idea there is any kind of regulation from the outside."
As for the public, CNN's own polling this week shows that two-thirds of Americans think the President's plan to get involved in how businesses are run is either just about right, or ought to be increased.
What do you think of the comparisons between President Obama's administration and Fascism?
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