As President, Obama Is Unafraid to Disappoint His Allies

[Purveyor]

By Dan Balz
Sunday, May 17, 2009

Through much of last year's campaign, Barack Obama enjoyed the acclaim of a politician who seemed adept at making himself all things to almost all people. Liberals, moderates, even some conservatives, Democrats, independents and even some Republicans all found in Obama change they could believe in.

That was the mark of a skillful candidate who leaves enough unsaid to attract the maximum support possible. But it isn't possible to maintain that posture once presidential decision making begins and choices have to be made. President Obama has found himself under fire from across the political spectrum as he has worked his way through contentious and complex issues, from turning around the economy and bailing out banks to escalating the war in Afghanistan and trying to close the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Typecasting Obama has also proved difficult. His ambitious domestic policies lean decidedly left (unless he turns out to be the deficit hawk he says he wants to be). Taken as a whole, his national security policies do not, as they represent the triumph of pragmatism over ideology. His surprise selection yesterday of Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. of Utah as U.S. ambassador to China only underscored that in his foreign policies, Obama is looking to hew to the center.

For most of his early months in office, criticism of Obama has come mainly from the right. Conservatives have described his stimulus package and budget as a blueprint for fiscal and economic calamity. They have opposed his decisions to close Guantanamo, to ban the harsh interrogation techniques employed by the Bush administration and to release Justice Department memos providing legal justification for those techniques. Former vice president Richard B. Cheney has led that charge, accusing Obama of making the country less safe than it was under President George W. Bush.

Those attacks were expected. What has been more surprising is that Obama has gotten himself into a scrap with the left as he has begun to refine those very national security policies that seemed to signal such a sharp break with the Bush administration. The eruption of anger on the left suggests a new phase of Obama's presidency that represents a significant step in his transition from candidate to commander in chief.

MORE...

WP: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/16/AR2009051601162.html?nav%3Dhcmodule⊂=AR