It is always nice to read opinions and commentary from individuals from other parts of the world, especially when it comes to their perceptions of the United States and its presidency.
The past eight years have been next to disastrous for this country in terms of foreign diplomacy and international opinion of this country. And yet, with Obama as president, much of the animosity felt by our neighbors has retreated, and has been restored by optimism; this is a very good thing, in my opinion.
Nevertheless, it is still interesting to examine foreign opinion, and while doing so today, I found one that needs reading.
From Ali Ettefagh, once again at PostGlobal:
Obama, Don’t Blindly Follow JFK, FDR
The biggest mistake that the new American president could make would be to assume his job is to duplicate the 1960s Kennedy Era fused with Johnson’s Great Society in a patchwork of Great Depression populism. Mr. Obama may be the captain, but the proverbial ship is not about to turn and revisit the last three decades of debt-ridden glory and spectacular growth. That will prove to be a folly in the post-Baby Boomer era and it is worth remembering that America was not a serial debtor to foreign countries when FDR, JFK or Johnson were in office. The promise of “change” and talk therapy by the great orator named Obama does not hold promise as long as his cabinet is full of Clintonites who plan to speak for his government with a 1990s retrospect. Rampant deregulation and evaporation of government supervision took hold during the Clinton years, which subsequently gave birth to (now scrawny-looking) busts such as Enron, Worldcom, the dot.com bubble and the Greenspan doctrine of borrow and spend.
As much as Obama has been likened unto past presidents like FDR and JFK, and as much as he himself has attempted to pattern his own administration after some in the past, it almost seems ironic that Dr. Ali Ettefag’s advice for Obama would be cautious of following too closely to the examples of past presidents.
What are your views on this? Is this “good advice?” Or is Ettefagh too removed from the situation to understand it completely?
- Marc
In right-wing fantasy lore, apparently President Clinton’s administration wrecked the U.S. economy. In reality it was Reagan and the Bushes more than anything.
The Obama administration is what, five days old? Give him a couple of years to try and clean up the mess and then you can pass judgment.
rmwarnick, your comment clearly deviates from the purpose of this article.
Firstly, the reason why I think that understanding the perspectives of foreign observers is precisely because their commentary isn’t polluted with the tiresome “Left vs. Right” battle which is so prevalent in our own country; such observations transcend all of that, for the most part, and for that reason I find them valuable.
I know for a fact that Dr. Ali Ettefag’s politics are hardly to “rightwing,” and to make the claim that such opinions rely heavily on “right-wing fantasy lore” is comical.
The author of this piece never makes the claim that the Clinton Administration “wrecked” the US economy. Obviously during the Clinton years, much deregulation took place; this can be attributed to both Republicans and Democrats (If you ascibe to “left-wing fantasy lore,” then it was all Phil Gramm).
If you are “defending” Clinton to me, then I hope you know that I am no serious critic of Clinton. For one, I am highly complimentary of his free-trade policies and multilateral foreign policy style. Sorry, but if you are looking for a partisan, cookie-cutter conflict with a conservative, call up Rush Limbaugh.
I support the Obama Administration as long as I feel that Obama is doing the right thing for this country. Neither Ali Ettefag nor I are “passing judgement,” instead, Ettefag is giving Obama some advice which he feels would help the president to have a successful presidency. And I merely posted such advice.
Maybe you should try reading the entire article before “passing judgement.” Being hysterically protective of President Obama won’t do him any favors, believe me.