On...Various Stuff about our POTUS

Take these as you will.

I always want our nation to be successful and this goes for our President, but I wish him success if he handles things differently. For one I think he is too staged. I don't think he can handle a real back and forth with lots of curveballs [SEE the UK paper The GUARDIAN]. There will be events he can't prepare for, sit down and think about and sleep on. Professors are rarely generals. Especially when you must face down Russians, Koreans, and Persians.

Also I have real suspicion when it comes to his motives domestically. (Even beyond Socialism) It is beginning to seem that he desires real power as much as W but in a very different way. Not everyone has come down from Cloud 9 yet but I think they will see how much he is expanding presidential power to unheard of heights. He definitely sees power as something to use and he is just getting warmed up. [SEE WSJ and another Brit's take on power grabs] I don't think he understands business. He sees it as an outsider. He sees the possibilities and positives of capitalism, but he doesn't really grasp how it works and why it works. He's like a kid who finds this great toy but uses it all wrong then breaks it.

And lastly we'll see how Obama handles North Korea. This area I'm most concerned, not about our civil liberties, but our reputation for strength in the world. There will be one rookie mistake (beyond missile shields removal for peace) at least. I'd rather see it with NK than with Iran or Russia.

KOREAN ROCKET
Kim Jong-iL's Gamble
The Guardians Take on Historical Irony

On...Potpourri of Russia, Depopulation, and Dreaming

Just a few articles I read this afternoon that I found interesting. You may as well.

1) Anne Applebaum at Slate.com on the "Reset" strategy apparently being pushed by Team Obama in our Russian Relations. Are they really this naive? I hope it is a brilliant ploy on our part or we're going to have a "Cuba" moment in the near future if the Russian bear smells weakness.

2) Phillip Longman at USA Today goes over a bit of the danger in world of babies and why not enough people are having them and what this will mean. It is also in conjunction with the growing Green Movement encouraging our population to shrink. Start having babies you responsible middle-class Americans!

3) And the last is Andrew Breitbart ruminating on a number of glaring goofs of Team Obama in public relations. The Leno/Special Olympics, British DVD SNAFU, and Iran/YouTube vid are especially glaring. Minor stuff to be sure, but it may hint at bigger things ahead. Gulp. He ends with dreaming about a General Petraeus surge in 2012. The first half is more interesting. I'm not ready to dream about that yet.

On...Words of Freedom

From the Washington Post

Just a little article by Anne Applebaum on "WORDS THAT MATTER," as we near 2009. I wish these articles could be longer and more detailed but it's a nice appetizer to think about. The end has a nice comparison of the historical flow of the USA and that of Russia.