Skip to main content

Tan is the New Black



Sorry, I couldn't resist.  Seems everyone is talking about Barry's new tan suit and looking for a clever way to title there opinions.  This appears to be the age we live in when an unexpected choice of clothes creates more stir than what is going on in the world, notable the crisis in Ukraine, which took a nasty new turn, which President Obama responded to, but the glare of his new tan suit was simply too much for reporters to digest.

August is usually a difficult month, with Congress out on holiday (again) and focus on the many Congressional and gubernatorial races around the country.  Obama didn't exactly distinguish himself by saying his administration doesn't have a strategy yet on Syria.  In fact, he seemed pretty low key about what's going on in the world, but I imagine his administration has a pretty good sense of events.

Unfortunately, this administration has been unable to communicate that effectively, leading many critics to think that he has put his administration on hold until after the midterm elections play out.  My impression is that he has opted for Eisenhower's "Hidden Hand" approach, preferring to work behind the scenes with world leaders, rather than out front like many Americans would like him to do.  I see I'm not the only one who picked up on this.  Eisenhower was praised for this approach (in retrospect) but Obama has to endure the many criticisms.

Basically, it is a policy of containment not much unlike that we saw during the Nixon years (who had served Eisenhower before), rather than trying to dramatically effect or inflame situations.  This is certainly the approach to Ukraine, where any attempts to supply the government with arms, would no doubt lead to major escalation in violence.  Of course, this frustrates Ukrainians, who see Russia supplying the insurgents in Donetsk, with the Ukrainian military losing ground it had previously gained in taking back this breakaway province.

Syria and Iraq are similar situations, but the Obama administration seems more free to give military assistance, even if it hasn't unveiled a policy as yet.  In Syria, the situation is reversed with Russia providing military support to the Assad government, which the Kremlin claims it was contracted to do, and the US providing aid to the insurgents, although now it finds ISIS part of the insurgency, which it hadn't bargained for.

I suppose a more somber gray or navy suit, which he normally wears, would have been in order given the gravity of the situation.  However, what his press conference alluded to most was the lack of communication between the White House and Congress, and that now that he is back in town we may see more executive action with Congress on break.  Something, Congressmen have pointedly demanded he not take with threat of another government shutdown.  So, what's a President to do?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer.  Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions.  I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters.  Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs.  Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77.  I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not.  Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud.  -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!