I generally haven't had very much nice to say about Barack for some time now, but I have to say that I was impressed by his first response to the Russia-Georgia fiasco.
Unfortunately, he didn't seem to quite hold to that position...
When the Russians went into Georgia last week my first reaction was WTF?
I (like probably a lot of Americans) hadn't been paying any attention at all to what was going on in that part of the world. And then suddenly (or not so suddenly as it turns out) Russia was invading her neighbor in shades of 1954 and 1968...or worse, 1938.
So, I did what any self-respecting confused Progressive would do and got on the internet to find out what was going on. Took about 10 minutes to understand things, at least at a cursory level.
In a nutshell: The Georgians were threatening the indigenous Russian population in their country and the Russians invaded to "protect" those folks. Oh, and the Georgians had been queuing up to become part of NATO, which sort of pissed off the Russians. Oh, and this "sudden" action had been in the planning stage for quite a while now. And we had also told the Georgian Prez to not poke the Bear; he didn't listen.
Anyway, that's obviously an oversimplification, but it captures the gist.
So, what would one expect the response from out fearless leaders to be?
Well, Bush sort of hemmed and hawed while vacationing at the Olympics. Not much of a response to his soul-mate, Herr Putin. Just kindof along the lines of (picture finger wagging) "Bad Russia! Get off the Georgians!!" And Russias response was to pee on the Presidents leg.
Then there was McSame, who typically was all nukes and bluster, threatening this and that. Basically he just seemed to be foaming at the mouth. Nothing really useful there.
And finally there was Barack. His response was nuanced, quiet in tone, non-threatening, and looking for an intelligent way forward. Calling on our allies to work with us to look for a solution.
I was impressed...which for me, with Barack, is saying something.
Oh, and the other thing that impressed me was, he took his time! Both McShame and McBush were out there saying whatever the hell it was they were saying, in no time flat. Why think when you can bluster???
But Barack actually took his time and considered what he should say. Excellent, thought I.
Unfortunately, (and this is where I sort of go back to my usual Barack bashing ways) then his handlers got hold of him and he slowly but surely started sounding more bellicose.
Some idiot put Susan Rice on TV to say...well, honestly, I don't know what the f*** she was talking about. But she should lose her talking-head privileges for a couple of weeks. And Dick Holbrook (living up to his first name) came out and said Barack actually had the same position as McCain. There seemed to be a number of DLC types speaking for (and it appears, to) Barack, forcing him into a "stronger" position.
Great...
I think what we have here is a failure to communicate.
Specifically, Barack needs to communicate to his people to STFU! He was doing fine. He was getting ahead of the issue. He was showing some leadership (for a change). He was adopting a thoughtful, Progressive position. Leadership takes time, but I think people were starting to listen.
But the dumb-f***s around him just couldn't seem to handle it. So they made him come out and "clarify" his position (a couple of times) to a more "forceful" stance. Which accomplished just what, pray tell?
Anyway, I'm not crazy about where Barack ended up on this issue...assuming he has stopped modifying his position. But I was really impressed by his initial, unvarnished, and thoughtful position. If we would start to see more of THIS Barack, instead of the over-handled, DLC-clone version, I might actually go back to being hopeful about his Presidency!
Maybe.