[The Telegraph, U.K.]
Die Presse, Austria
The 'Miracle Man'
on Pennsylvania Avenue
"His
foreign policy has so definitively broken with that of his predecessor that he has
actually given substance and meaning to the once empty slogan 'new beginning.'
The U.S. will once more be respected and assume the leading role that it lost
under Bush."
By Norbert Rief
Translated By
Jonathan Lobsien
April 27, 2009
Austria - Die Presse - Original Article
German
For the past 100 days, Barack
Obama has been president of the United States. And over that time, his problems
have only grown larger.
With nearly $800 billion, he
initiated the largest banking and economic program in history; he banned "harsh
interrogation techniques," had secret prisons shut down and ordered the closure
of Guantánamo Bay within a year. He withdrew troops from Iraq, initiating the end
of that hated war, and sent more fighters to Afghanistan. He completed three
trips abroad - two which brought him to major international meetings - and
offered his hand to the Islamic world.
He visited Europe and South
America, met with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, appealed directly to the Iranian
people and eased travel restrictions on Cuba. He lifted the ban on state
funding for stem cell research, made environmental requirements mandatory and
initiated a major environmental summit that began yesterday. And he even got a
dog. By way of comparison, all George W. Bush did in his first 100 days was withdraw
from the Kyoto Protocols. …
Barack Obama has accomplished
a lot since January 20, when he was sworn in as 44th President of the United
States. His foreign policy has so definitively broken with that of his
predecessor that he has actually given substance and meaning to the once empty
slogan "new beginning." The U.S. will once more be respected and
assume the leading role that it lost under Bush.
Not since Franklin D.
Roosevelt, historians reckon, has there been a president in his first few months
who proposed and accomplished a program as full as Obama's. And since
Roosevelt, certainly, there haven't been as many pressing issues.
Barack Obama must do nothing
less than reform the market economy and redirect it to prevent future episodes with
similarly disastrous consequences for the world. That task alone would be
enough for an entire first term, if not a second one as well.
The multibillion-dollar
programs of the Obama Administration have apparently helped curb the downturn. In
any event, last week the U.S. Federal Reserve said it was cautiously optimistic.
Even more important, though, is the feeling that the 44th President is speaking
directly to the people: with events like those conducted during an election
campaign, from town halls in South Carolina, to a video address on YouTube, to
the first appearance of a sitting president on a talk show, Obama never misses
an opportunity to show off his rhetorical power and charisma.
The result is a nation that is
again optimistic: more than 70 percent of U.S. citizens, according to a survey
by the Washington Post, believe the country under Obama is headed in the
right direction. And that helps us all: if the Americans are confident they will
start buying again, and when the largest market economy in the world goes
shopping, machines across the globe start running.
But the price is high: U.S.
debt will jump to almost $10 trillion during the Obama years (if he's president
until 2017). But there is no real alternative to these billion dollar programs,
without which banks would go broke and fall like dominoes, undoubtedly
resulting in even more devastating consequences and creating a ticking time
bomb that would put the American economy under sustained pressure for years to
come.
Even in foreign policy, there
are plenty of pitfalls awaiting Obama: Iran and North Korea are reacting to his
outstretched hand and offer of dialogue by sticking out their tongues.
Afghanistan has become "Obama's war," just as the Iraq War was Bush's.
The U.S. military hasn't been able to celebrate any great successes there, and major
problems in the region are imminent if Pakistan, as many predict, is plunged
into chaos by the Taliban.
We must bid farewell to the
notion that Barack Obama and his charismatic style alone will make everything
better. There is no "miracle man," as Austria's minister of social
affairs noted. There never has been one on Pennsylvania Avenue. Obama still has
more chances to fail than succeed. Just how close victory is to defeat will be
known in another 100 days: That is precisely the amount of time that passed
between Napoleon's triumphant return to Paris and his defeat at Waterloo.
CLICK HERE FOR GERMAN VERSION
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
May 4,
2:45am
]
