Reply #17: Comparing Obama to Bush is liking comparing Rocky Road to Tooti Fruiti. [View All]

[Mithreal]

Bush reached out to hispanics. He speaks Spanish poorly and has people of Spanish descent in the family. Obama on the other hand has family who are Muslim and lived in a Muslim country. When he reaches out to Muslims he receives high praise and sure, he deserves praise for reaching out with words. However, that praise should not ignore we are also occupying and murdering Muslims.

It is sort of like praising Bush for hispanic outreach while our nation's immigration policy is tragically broken which is even less fair and more dishonest than criticizing Obama for his actions as CIC because that is a President's chief responsibility. So we have this really piss poor immigration policy, but we can reach out to hispanics to lessen the damage we do their communities from busting down their doors, ripping them from their families, and deporting them. But hey, if you catch a few honest to goodness Americans in your dragnet, we will fix that eventually, ICE prisons are cozy after all. We can always make up for it in the rhetoric later. I would not like to be an American that is looked at with suspicion because of my ancestry but that is what we continue to do and people see through the words that are wooden nickels.

President Obama gets to close Guantanamo while still supporting many Bush anti-human policies. And hell, Bagram prison could use another wing, give me an Amen. Americans won't object to Bagram will they, when they find out we hung a NEW MANAGEMENT sign over the front door, but that is like the restaurant in town that used to be my favorite but no longer serves quality and wishes it could get its customers back without having to change the way business is done. American awareness of American hypocrisy seems indirectly proportional to the distance from our borders when it comes to unlawful detention and human rights abuses. We'll just rollout Obama and his version of flack and do damage control again. Do you think Muslims are buying it? I think many are, let's pat ourselves on the back.

If we are going to keep grading Obama on the curve then we should include other Presidents. President Obama just looks like he is getting an A because some are grading him on the Bush curve where an F is a C, and a C is an A. Now what about another President? Why not include others like FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, and LBJ? When I think of what I want to hear resoundingly from a President I think of this phrase, although there are many others, this seems apt.

"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

That is language to turn around our approach to our Terror War. I dare President Obama to use that kind of language and base our foreign policy on Peace. I won't praise less.