It's easy!
1. Come in promising drastic, sweeping changes. Make the masses of countries all over the world love you, even though you haven't done anything.
2. Realize the Bush administration was doing a pretty good job on a number of foreign policy issues, and that there were circumstances and situations that you didn't know about while making promises on the campaign trail.
3. Hold a press conference and declare sweeping changes, which are mostly comsetic.
4. Continue on. (Or should I say...Stay the Course?)
It will be interesting to see how many people pick up on this song & dance. He's done it a few times, with Iraq (we were on our way out before Pres. Obama took office), Afghanistan (again, another Bush policy), Gitmo ("Oh, it's not my fault, my party won't give me the money and no states want the prisoners on their soil, darn, I guess I'll have to keep it the way it is for now and hopefully the media will forget about it") to name a few.
Am I pleased? Yes. I think as far as foreign policy is concerned, our nation was on a fairly good direction with Pres. Bush and I'm glad that Obama is continuing that way. I just wish he would give credit where credit is due. We'll see what happens as he encounters new situations that Condie hadn't already figured out…
2 comments:
While the changes that Obama has made may be only "cosmetic," I think that in diplomacy a little good will can go a long way. I've learned that a good idea packaged incorrectly will fail, while the same idea packaged well will sell. The bush "brand" was what was bad with American policy, not the policy itself. The Obama brand is better than the iPhone.
Totally agree, excellent point Sam.
And let's be honest, in the end, I don't really care who gets the credit, as long as America (and the world) is a safer place to live.
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