- Can we win the war in Afghanistan (what exactly is 'winning' anyway)?
- Will we ever have an economy that is more than a shadow of it's former self?
- Can America trust it's political system and the people that occupy the seats of power?
These 3 hard questions are ones which the White House has not addressed - yet they are the questions which will define Obama and our country for the foreseeable future.
Why are the questions so hard to acknowledge? Why can't they be publicly uttered?
To be quite sure, Obama is making a presentation of the issues in a way which brings to mind the immortal line "you can't handle the truth".
Update: I could be convinced that Obama is handling the truth. He would simply have to block out 15 minutes of each day to meet with a group of the ill, maimed, homeless, unemployed, and undereducated. Then, when Summers talks about Wall Street's 'balance sheet challenges', or the Joint Chiefs talk about 'defense challenges', perhaps Obama will have some of the perspective on 'real challenges' I thought his community organizing gave him.
Our military run amok..
Obama has made a hard move to the right on defense issues, famously caving in to his Generals when they made their public move to influence public policy debate. Surely there is a time when it's right to set straight the constitutional arrangement of the political control of the military - a time to defrock a few uniformed buffoons that have contributed to the military industrial complex's gorging at the trough.
America's $700 billion a year defense budget makes Iran's Revolutionary Guard look restrained in military economic leadership. Unfortunately, Obama cannot assert his command without revealing the truth of the situation - that America cannot sustain our massive armies or the loss of stature that our military hawkishness has wrought.
At least 1/3 of our government spending is commanded by the generals - and with images of Abu Grahib and civilian casualties staining America for a generation, the cost is even higher. That's a hard truth. Can he handle it? Can Obama make America handle it?
Our economy run amok..
When a candidate says the appearances matter, and then appoints the same cozy financial elite to protect their elite economic vision, it begs the question of whether the fox is again guarding the henhouse. Surely the American worker has managed to create a few golden eggs, but it seems that in the last 20 years of no real wage growth we've been left with eggshells and the sulfur smelling ones.
So how many rotten eggs are in America's economic basket? What do we have to throw away to tidy our nest? Will we emerge as a fiscally sound and environmentally and economically sustainable country?
In addition to stagnant wage growth, America has one of the most energy intensive economies in the world, and one which funnels money uphill. Atlantic Business reports that poverty is now growing 5x faster in the suburbs than it is in urban areas.
And it's not just the bad economy stupid. Even in the hayday of 2004, when adjusted for inflation, an American male in his 30's made 12% less than his father. The Brookings Institute has released a dire report on our economy - one which is unheeded at 1600 Pennsylvania it seems.
The hard truth is that people get desperate when they don't have 'hope' - and the American Hope has always been sustained by the idea that individuals will suffer grievance so long as the broad economic curve is positive. But does Obama have the broad feathered wings upon which Americans will entrust their hope? Can he handle the truth of what the Summer-Geithner-Wall Street cabal's economic vision has brought to Main Street?
Our politicians run amok
The collapse of health care reform is the tip of the iceberg, one which threatens to show that DC is out of touch with the idea of real reform. America quickly soured on the idea of 'reform' that was written by lobbyists that spent $1.4 million a day. Even the most financially ignorant know that you don't spend that kind of money unless you're getting results.
Obama's cabinet set the tone for his Administration, and they quickly revealed that they're as dumb as the people they replaced. Dumb as in unable to communicate ideas that show anything more than the same unhealthy inclination to look out for the people that have bankrolled their careers. No wonder Hillary is better regarded than Obama...if anyone has been seen to be dignified and above the Great Bailout Money Grab it's the SoS.
Speaking of bailout, how does a guy like Summers get away with pulling in over $5 million from Wall Street in the year his guy is getting elected by railing against people like himself. And how credible are the 'change agents' when 6 of Obama's aides made over a million bucks a year in 2008 - nearly all of it from the financial, defense, and oil industries.
The tip of that iceberg that was healthcare reform disgust is now even more unstable, a frigid block of voters ready to roll over and show Washington DC America's populist backside.
In reaffirming positions that he so convincingly campaigned against, has Obama already lost credibility with the American public that he is there to bring change? Can he handle the truth that he is increasingly seen as Establishment as the man he replaced? Can Obama see that America no longer trusts the Establishment, or do people like Rahm offer the same twisted view of reality that deluded Obama's predecessor?
In the coming year(s), what type of clothes will our emperor wear and how will he demand we confront our fabrication? Can he, and we, handle the truth so that it might set us free?