As for Obama, his performance thus far has been about consolidating his legitimacy. The guy looks, sounds and acts presidential. But he's a centrist from whom I expect only one major policy initiative in his first term. I'm almost certain it will be a domestic policy such as health care reform, and if I had to bet, I'd say that health care would be the one.
Look for no major foreign policy initiatives out of an Obama administration. No leader will risk his/her entire agenda on some foreign policy that moves too far ahead of the electorate, and Americans as a whole are abysmally ignorant of what goes on overseas, or why that may be important. Wilson managed it, as did Franklin Roosevelt, and Obama could possibly stand as tall as either of those two, but in the US, the public foreign policy debate starts at such a low level, I expect little.
One caveat: there is a debate. People like Bacevitch, Brainard, Kissinger, Powers, and many more are publishing, and receiving limited readership. But they are not making the talk show rounds. If and when they do, we may see something, not before. Right now, I would expect US foreign policy to continue being centered on national security, as 9/11 is still the backstory of every US foreign policy discussion. The one foreign policy wonk I've seen speaking on TV news is Robert Kagan, and he's a leader of the foreign-policy-as-a-branch-of-the-Pentagon crowd. That's where Americans stand right now.
Obama is thus far a tweaker. A problem such as fixing a broken national security system is where he feels much more comfortable. This is how his inexperience manifests itself, and I must commend him on his prudence in this.
For now. "It Can't Be Just About Us"--Frank Schnittger, ETian Extraordinaire
For my part, I'm amazed and welcome this development, even while I wonder how this is going to play in Jerusalem. I'll have to check Israeli news for comment, but I recall vividly the Israeli UN ambassador (I think it was the Israeli ambassador) calling Jimmy Carter a racist for talking to Hamas.
Update: I'm now watching a report on BBC World, of the Israeli security forces forcibly removing hardline Jewish settlers, and reports of fighting among the settlers and their supporters after nightfall. A remarkable development, it's long past time Jewish moderates take a stand. "It Can't Be Just About Us"--Frank Schnittger, ETian Extraordinaire
There are damned few US bloggers worth paying attention to, other than to keep track of what lunacy we're now up to.
Permit me to promote Ed Brayton of Dispatches from the Culture Wars. He's a Libertarian civil liberties activist and autodidact legal scholar, but he doesn't unduly plug his economic policy preferences and he does a damn good job of cutting through the bullshit on the "culture wars" front.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
Libertarians are a mixed bag though. In the last special election for the Massachusetts 5th Congressional District (which I live just over the border of), there was a candidate from the "Constitution Party," sort of a libertarian analog, who ran on the platform that income taxes were unconstitutional.
Total nutjob. "It Can't Be Just About Us"--Frank Schnittger, ETian Extraordinaire
