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?

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, not...

Dylan in America

Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan. Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose. Looks like only yesterday. Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.

Team of Rivals Reading Group

''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005

Dispatches from Vilnius

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