I praise Obama for selecting a moderate [or near enough] for his first Supreme Court offering. I condemn Obama for continuing to dump our economy down the toilet and flushing. Now, however, we finally get an opportunity to see what sort of President we have when it comes to foreign policies and conduct. This will be interesting and very informative.

Soon he will be going overseas again and on the agenda is a scheduled attempt to talk the Israelis out of the trees . . . or is that the Palestinians? Anyway, it will have to do with the elimination of settlements – can anyone see Netanyahu agreeing to that? – and other no doubt equally doubtful wish list items.

Then, too, after testing an atom bomb last week, the North Koreans are already set to try another long range missile launch test. The ultimate goal is to miniaturize an atom bomb, mate it to a dependable long range rocket [capable of reaching California] and then telling the entire world where to get off.

So Obama is going to be faced with all these opportunities to REALLY give the practical side of Hope and Change a real run for its money, and so what the hell will he do?

What he will do is demonstrate very soon now what sort of foreign policy president he really is. We don’t know if in that regard he has a practical bone in his liberal body. We don’t know if he can even understand a hard liner like Netaynahu [who makes Ariel Sharon look like he had been a liberal wimp] or deal with a madman like Jong Il Kim.

Honestly we don’t know if there is anything at all to Obama except those meaningless Hope and Change speeches . . . and neither do those two foreign leaders.

Now what I think we have here is a cynical Jimmy Carter type. Cynical is good in a president, you understand. But only if that cynicism leads one to grasp for practical solutions. While I suspect that Obama will be a really great compromiser I think that most of these compromises will turn out to be classic acts of liberal appeasement.

We should know fairly soon now. Netanyahu and Jong Il Kim are both ready to laugh in his face. Let’s see how it all turns out for Obama and for the United States. Then we will a fairly clear understanding of the nature of his domestic and foreign policies presidential chops.

Forgive me if I'm wrong but isn't he what you wanted, a practical moderate with few tendencies for rookie mistakes (what you predicted)? So far he fits comfortably in the area under the curve defined by the Clintonistas.

I don't know if the North Koreans follow American politics or not; but if they do will know that the worst possible thing they could do to hurt themselves would be to attack our Left Coast.

Say they take out LA, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. The Democrats would never win a national election again, and then they would have to contend with a Republican president who would undoubtedly be more prone to blow their asses up.

Jack

flushing the economy down the toilet part? I do not consider Obama to be a moderate by any means, the selection of Sotomayor notwithstanding. ONE moderate action DOES NOT a moderate make.

Oh . . . and flushing our economy down the toilet IS a rookie presidential mistake of huge dimensions.

our west coast is the goal NOT to launch missiles. An actual attack on our shores would mean the eradication of all of North Korea and even Jong Il Kim is capable of grasping that fact.

Once he manages to make the ongoing threat real, however, then all liberal presidents will fall all over themselves to give him ANYTHING he desires.

Yes, if there is an actual attack on our soil by NK or anyone else, any American president, even a Democrat, is going to respond aggressively. Even John Kerry would not have been able to get out of it.

I suspect that Obama would too respond too, but only in retaliation. I don't think he will do a pre-emptive strike on them. I hope I'm wrong.

Jack

Both NK and Isreal have been laughing at the USA for decades and they did it on the watch of both parties. Do you know why? Because Americans talk a big game but really do not have the stomach or the will to fix these problems at the price it will take in order to achieve a solution that we would accept. You want to make this a current issue but its not. NK started on this track in the 50s, Ireal was our mess from the gitgo. The bottom line on both is that if you want to attack NK, you must sacrifce SK. If you want to fix Isreal, you must either obliterate all the Arabs living in the occupied territories, move them somewhere else or change the constitution of Israel to make it a secular state. The only sane option at this point is to play a waiting game hoping that the players themselves solve this without our own blood and treasure. That is what we have been doing all along. NK is a bluff. Isreal is a time bomb that will eventually explode once an Arab state gets the bomb. Do not think it will not happen, it will. Then we can see how badly Jews want a homeland at the expense of the homeland itself....

You're right Woolley. The last two presidents basically just talked big and ignored the problem. This one may not have that option.

Jack

Me, I think that you should stick with the straight poliitical gig and stay away, far away, from comedy.

comparing Obama to Bush or Clinton because Obama hasn't DONE anything yet as far as foreign policy goes. These problems are now HIS problems however and while he does have the luxury of ignoring them for a while longer they are only going to get worse and the bill payment is likely to come due for at least one of them on his watch.

Whether he gets active and the effective nature of those actions [if any] will tell us a great deal about the true nature of this new president . . . as will his decision to merely talk and do nothing at all.

dalliances with humor are at least every bit as good and delightful as those of the BOTFers that receive praise for their amateurish efforts up the boohoo. At least my humor has the charm of being fresh and unpredictable. :-)