Ephraim, you forget the Clinton Administration’s successful Iran policy. After carefully cultivating moderate and reformist mullahs like President Khatami, we got Iran to foreswear sponsoring terror and drew it toward the West.

In the section on Iran on the White House website, Iranian nukes have gone from being “unacceptable” to just “troubling”. And it tells Iran exactly what Obama is going to do about it: offer incentives for Iran to be nice. That’s it. Oh, yeah, and “tough negotiations with no preconditions” just like Obama said, and then said he didn’t say, and is now saying again.

I don’t care how book smart or street smart or farm smart or whatever-smart Obama is or isn’t, but he obviously has never played a hand of poker in his life. All Chimpy Imadinnerjacket needs to do is look on that website and he knows that all we’re holding is a pair ot twos, if that.

Israel’s on its own on this. Obama isn’t going to do squat about it, and now everybody knows it.

Not only a tool, a pansy as well.

Maybe so, but that Warren guy recited the Shema. In English.

The speech itself wasn’t his best, he was better in the final speech before the national election. What did strike me, however, was that this is a man who understands what he’s about and what he needs to do. That’s a significant shift from the guy we just had in there. To put it simply, he is book smart and he is street smart. He has an ideology, is curious enough to learn what he needs to learn but also seems smart enough to understand how to implement.

It’s obvious by now that he envisions this economic doghouse we’re in as an opportunity to implement some major social programs and to bring about changes that would have been much more difficult to implement without a crisis.

You could say the economic meltdown is to Obama what 9/11 was to Bush: a turning point for the nation; a piece of significant leverage over other politicians; a personal and national cause; and a powerful machine to break down solid (political and social) walls.

I think his remarks to Muslim nations were a little scary to a supporter of Israel. Israel is a huge bargaining chip and he may well be disposed towards forcing its hand anyway. There may soon be serious friction between Washington and Jerusalem.

Overall, he made the impression of a strong, confident and capable leader who will try his best. If he fails, it won’t be for lack of ability; he gave the impression that if anybody can do it, he can. I guess I kinda have to eat my preference for Hillary over Obama. Today he was as good as advertised: a beacon of hope and change.

ps A little too much Christianity in there for this Jewish person. Good old Yehoshua/Jesus came up with the Lord a few too many times.

I thought the speech was more comprehensive than any he’d previously given, and therefore took time for me later to go over all the details. Not just content, but complex points of tone and even gesture matter with this guy. I may be biased, but it seems there’s nothing too small to be missed with him.

That being said, I thought it was surprisingly strong on the message to our adversaries overseas. The domestic bits were incredibly pragmatic and well-balanced, but unapologetic about things that lefties will swoon over. Getting back to foreign affairs, though, I liked the bit about an outstretched hand and an unclenched fist. Very poetic, and the Arabs love their poetry.

I left a comment about this on a blog by an unabashed Israeli hawk at HNN who actually liked Obama’s speech. She hated him previously. What he did was to drive a wedge between a pluralistic and solidarity-driven sense of internationalism and Islamist provincialism. He did this more effectively than any nationalist could have done it. I thought it was a brilliant, if creative and untested move. Don’t you?

I almost always appreciate Tom’s thoughts on Obama as they provide a broader sense of perspective. Thanks.

In general, I think we still don’t know if Obama will govern as a closet centrist/pragmatist, or pay regular homage to his Moveon.org constituency. Maybe he doesn’t know yet, either. The stimulus package’s final shape will be a powerful hint, as will his attitude toward an auto bailout.

Certainly the very fact of his swearing-in is an important contribution to history. if he does nothing else, he’ll have accomplished breaking through this last racial barrier. For that we can all be grateful to him.

What did you think?