Kaus on Obama

kaus on Obama ...

A few weeks ago, Obsidian Wings catalogued Obama's "wonky" efforts. He's against loose nukes, avian flu and unregulated genetic testing! That's impressive, but follows a standard good-Senator's path of picking off a chewable, discrete problem and pushing a rifle-shot, programmatic solution (typically involving creation of a small new federal office to control nukes, prepare for avian flu, or establish gene-testing standards, etc.). It's not the same thing as confronting deeper, bigger, less easily addressed problems: How to structure the health care system, how to pay for entitlements, how to confront the terror threat, the rise of China, the problems of trade and immigration, the increase in income inequality at the top.

Josh Gerstein of the N.Y. Sun makes a better case: Obama listens to Samantha Power and Susan Rice on human rights, Gerstein reports. He wants to talk to Iran, he discounts the Chinese military threat but surprisingly, for an early Iraq war opponent, he has said he'd favor "launching some missile strikes into Iran" if that was the only way to stop "having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons." (Does Iowa know this?) He's unpredictable as well on trade. What's less clear is whether that unpredictability reflects a developed world-view or ad-hockery that's fine in a Senator but in a president, not so much.

More talk on these issues, please. And no fair "transcending" them!

Unpredictablity of any sort is a plus when it comes to #2, of course. But so far Obama isn't close to meeting the Joe Klein Piss-Someone-Off Test, despite the efforts of his press boosters to claim he has. Tom Maguire points to a comical attempt by the New York Times, where a mini-profile by Jefff Zeleny declared:

He has demonstrated an occasional willingness to break from liberal orthodoxy, including his vote to confirm Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state, which at the time infuriated liberals (13 Democrats opposed her).

Wow! As Maguire notes: "So Obama boldly stood with a mere 86 fellow Senators .... " P.S.: What's the word for trumped-up contrarianism? Sister Fauxjah? ...

I fully realize that Kaus will pan every Democratic candidate for President (unless perhaps Bob Kerrey makes another bid). And I don't quote him here to merely echo a slam on someone who isn't the candidate that I presently support. I'm more than willing to give Obama a fair hearing and I'd love nothing more than to think I had a solid fallback candidate worth supporting. Of course, they can't all be as solid as 1992, when I had Clinton, Tsongas, & Kerrey in the mix.

But the nature of complaints that Kaus has with Obama tend to overlap with the questions I have of him myself. There's a side of me that looks at the mish-mash of policy ideas that Obama has to offer and thinks it would be far better for him to take a pass for now. But at the same time, it's impossible to dismiss the optimism that he has a tendency to draw out of others. I just wish the people who were so sunny on Obama knew what it was that they were so sunny about.

Besides, how could I not applaud a line like "Sister Fauxjah"? That's just classic.

Kaus, of course, has numerous gripes with Hillary too. Fine. It goes with the territory. Just a shame that part of Kaus' territory doesn't include pointing out the far greater shortcomings of the guys on the other side.