Bob Herbert: When Greatness Slips Away

[highplainsdem]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/opinion/22herbert.html

When Greatness Slips Away
By BOB HERBERT
Published: June 21, 2010

-snip-

But there has been no radical change, only caution and timidity and more of the same. The royalists remain triumphant and working people are absorbing blow after devastating blow. More than 1.2 million of the long-term jobless are due to lose their unemployment benefits this month.

The oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, as horrible as it has been, was yet another opportunity. In his address to the nation from the Oval Office last week, President Obama could have laid out a dramatic new energy policy for the U.S., calling on every American to do his or her part to help us escape the insidious, nonstop destruction that is the result of our obsessive reliance on fossil fuels.

He chose not to.

As a nation, we are becoming more and more accustomed to a sense of helplessness. We no longer rise to the great challenges before us. It’s not just that we can’t plug the oil leak, which is the perfect metaphor for what we’ve become. We can’t seem to do much of anything.

-snip-

This column is about Bush as well as Obama, and about many more crises we're facing -- or, rather, failing to face, as Herbert laments: "We have become a nation that is good at destroying things — with wars overseas and mind-bogglingly self-destructive policies here at home — but that has lost sight of how to build and maintain a flourishing society."

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. The last "Great Challenge" we were presented with was the invasion

& occupation of large swaths of the middle east. We really don't have much leftover to do anything else. I don't know what that guy expects.

[DJ13]

2. Our government is paralyzed by the debts they owe their benefactors

Both the President and Congress fear reprisals should they dare to reduce the gluttony of the corporations that paid for their campaigns, but they had better realize that things are getting bad enough outside the DC corridor that voters wont be easily swayed by expensive ads when they're worried about keeping a roof over their heads.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Reality is very depressing.

[mix]

4. k&r nt

[frazzled]

5. I recall that the speech did call on every American

Each of us has a part to play in a new future that will benefit all of us. As we recover from this recession, the transition to clean energy has the potential to grow our economy and create millions of jobs -– but only if we accelerate that transition. Only if we seize the moment. And only if we rally together and act as one nation –- workers and entrepreneurs; scientists and citizens; the public and private sectors.

Okay, it's not super specific, and it was just one part of the speech. But it seems to me this is the way Obama works: he introduces notions and then builds on these ideas in different ways in different contexts. I totally expect to be hearing more about what we can do--in the Town Hall setting he uses so frequently; in WH missives, etc. I know I've already received several emails from OFA asking me to contact my Congress people regarding energy legislation, and to sign pledges. I suppose it would be preaching to the choir to ask me to conserve, because we already do that as much as possible. (Hybrid car that uses half the gas we used to, monitoring heating and cooling, driving less, watching electrical usage, etc.). But I expect to be hearing more about that, too.

[Tarheel_Dem]

6. +1

[depakid]

7. So many missed opportunities

and so many missteps and omissions.

And to conclude, Herbert offers up this bit- which describe the "arguments" presented by some DU'ers in defense of the decline:

We’ve got all kinds of sorry explanations for why we can’t do any of the things we need to do. The Democrats can’t get 60 votes in the Senate. Our budget deficits are too high. Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck might object.

Meanwhile, the greatness of the United States, which so many have taken for granted for so long, is steadily slipping away.

[highplainsdem]

8. +1

[IOKIYAL]

9. Please Spare Me....

I get so tired of this missed opportunity nonsense. Who gets to decide what is a missed opportunity? and who gets to say there won't be anymore? You all think this is the end of his presidency? the end of the world?

Please stop. Please spare me the dramatics.

[Prometheus Bound]

17. His point is that tragedies can also provide opportunities to make things better.

"Who gets to say there won't be any more?"

There's nothing in his essay that said or implied there wouldn't be more opportunities.

[BeFree]

10. Lets see

Is this constructive or bashing?

I'll make it easy on myself and just wait til someone comes along and tells me.

These new rules may make it easier, eh?

[highplainsdem]

11. Well, I wasn't the least bit afraid to post it.

:hi:

[BeFree]

12. You are brave?

Whatever, I sure do like most of your subjects.

[highplainsdem]

14. Thanks! I like yours, too.

:)

[volvoblue]

13. so, many of the left will fall in line with the media

they are so easily led by the msm.
The latest game by the media is 'let's go after Obama and make him pay for not being nice to us" And they know damn well that the left is gullible and depressive enough, easily led into a defeatest mode that they can take the left along with them.

[EFerrari]

19. Rubbish. The best media critics are on the left.n/t

[saracat]

15. Thank you Bob Herbert for speaking out honestly.

[treestar]

16. Oh, baloney

If this writer were President, which he'll never be, he'd have to deal with all the realities. It's too easy to judge from the sidelines and pretend the Presidency is endless dictatorial power and then say how you'd exercise the fantasized endless dictatorial power.

[ecstatic]

18. Such a call would have fallen on deaf ears... let's be realistic

He said we've reached "peak oil," if that doesn't wake people up, what the f8ck will?

As far as the joblessness that continues, well, we're still recovering from a huge recession. if some people on this board had their way, the entire economy would have collapsed (that was somehow the morally superior route for some people). Obama can't force employers to hire... All he can do is continue to offer incentives to small businesses (of which there are PLENTY that many people may not know about). BTW, Herbert sounds really depressed... I refuse to live in his world of "hopelessness."

[MadHound]

20. The truth hurts,

And Herbert is speaking the truth. Obama is not going to be remembered as a great president, and if he's not careful, he's not even going to be remembered as a good or decent president.

[lunatica]

21. If a muslim enemy had created the BP Oil Gusher we'd be at war and every American

would sacrifice for it. But when it comes to what so many think is an act of corporate greed, then not so much. Americans prefer to pray.

[sufrommich]

22. There is a malaise in this country for sure. I love Bob Herbert. nt

[highplainsdem]

23. kick