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What Should Obama's Priority be After Inauguration?

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On January 20, Barack Obama placed his right hand on the Bible, swore to uphold the Constitution and became the 44th president of the United States. The historical symbolism of this moment was enormous, but the honeymoon won't last long. In fact, it may have already ended. With a crippled economy, a war in two countries and divided nation to contend with, Obama takes office at one of the most troubled times in American history. What should his priorities be once the inauguration celebrations are over?

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Unify a Torn World

By: The Rutherford Institute

America Needs a Peacemaker



By John. W. Whitehead

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children...This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”—Dwight D. Eisenhower

The Middle East is a boiling cauldron of violence, ready to erupt at any moment. The civilian death toll is mounting in Gaza, as Palestine and Israel engage in a military showdown. Tensions continue to increase between India and Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks. And the Russians are preparing to sharply increase production of their strategic nuclear missiles as part of a massive rearmament program.

Clearly, what the world desperately needs from America and its new president is a peacemaker, not another warrior.

Media pundits are calling on Barack Obama to borrow a leaf from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal playbook to handle the current economic crisis. However, he would do well to look to Dwight D. Eisenhower for ideas on how to deal diplomatically with the brewing international crisis.

A five-star military general who led American troops to triumph in World War II, Eisenhower believed that an influential world leadership is needed to guide nations toward peace and put an end to war. Thus, after taking office in 1953, Eisenhower used his presidency to show the world that it does not take a powerful military to foster peace among nations. Rather, he favored diplomatic overtures, the most memorable of which were his hosting of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at Camp David and his subsequent 22,000-mile “goodwill tour.”

In the midst of the Cold War, President Eisenhower persistently pushed for peace negotiations with America’s chief adversary, the Soviet Union. To this end, Eisenhower invited the often-caustic Khrushchev for a transcontinental tour of the United States “for one last chance” to move toward peace. Khrushchev’s tour ended at Camp David, Maryland, where Khrushchev and Eisenhower successfully fostered a mutual agreement to pursue diplomatic peace measures between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Following this, Eisenhower embarked on his own global journey. On December 3, 1959, he set forth on a 22,000-mile “goodwill tour.” Within eighteen days, Eisenhower made stops in India, Greece, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Italy, Iran, Morocco, Tunisia, Spain and France. During his journey, Eisenhower sent a message to the international community: “We want to live in peace and friendship—in freedom. We want to help other peoples to raise their standards, to be as content with their lot as humans can be.”

People crowded in the streets to get a glimpse of him. They shouted, “We love you, Ike” in Turkey and “Take back our love, Ike” in Pakistan. In India, crowds prepared for Eisenhower’s reception by decorating their homes with traditional brass vessels, festooned with mango leaves in recognition of a high presence. In New Delhi, the president drew crowds numbering in the thousands and was compared to one of India’s most revered figures, Mahatma Gandhi.

Inevitably, such international goodwill for Eisenhower translated to international goodwill toward the U.S. Yet Eisenhower didn’t rest on his laurels. Instead, he used his standing in the world community to press for peace, calling on world leaders to end the arms race and warning Americans against the rise of the military-industrial complex. As Eisenhower said in his 1961 “Farewell Address to the Nation”:

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

To our detriment, we have failed to heed Eisenhower’s warning and frittered away our global goodwill. The military-industrial complex of which Eisenhower warned (largely made up of private corporations whose existence and profit margins rely on military defense contracts and perpetual wars) now exercises an inordinate influence in the American government, and it is largely exempt from congressional oversight and answerable to practically no one.

Its influence continues to pervade every facet of the American economy. As MarketWatch’s Paul B. Farrell points out, ours is no longer a manufacturing economy or an agricultural economy or even a consumer economy but a war economy, which requires Americans “to surrender 54% of their tax dollars to a war machine.” The numbers alone are staggering: the United States presently spends more than $700 billion on its military, which accounts for 48% of the world’s total military spending. The military-industrial complex has also helped erect a national security-surveillance state while perpetuating a military empire worldwide (American troops are stationed in 147 countries and 10 territories, roughly 70% of the world’s countries).

Thus, while America was once viewed as the hope for freedom, it has since come to be seen by much of the world as a hated, warring, military empire bent on destruction. Yet this, too, can be changed.

In assuming his role as the leader of the free world, Barack Obama has a chance to unify a torn, weary, splintered world. To do so, however, he will have to heed Martin Luther King’s advice and reorder his priorities “so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war.” As King warned in his 1967 Christmas Eve sermon: “Wisdom born of experience should tell us that war is obsolete. We must either learn to live together as brothers or we are going to perish together as fools.”

Smaller Government

By: Brad Miner (The Catholic Thing)

Goverment can be the Disease, not the Cure



I hope that as he takes office President Obama will simply consider what has made America unique: liberty. The world is a pretty sorry place overall, which is why immigrants have always come to the United States: to escape tyranny and chaos and to be free. Throughout history, societies have failed for two reasons: because they became centralized or because they became fragmented. America has thrived—and may continue to thrive—because our unity is based upon our liberty: of the individual, of families, of communities, and of the states. The idea has always been that the roiling, boisterous engine of democracy could rumble on at its best in an environment where power is devolved to the people—not where it is concentrated, centralized in the national government. Every day some 300-million free people make some billions of decisions not directed by anything other than their interests—including self-interest—and their passions, and out of all these interactions emerge quality and diversification and economy such as no handful of legislators, judges, and executives can ever achieve. In a time of crisis such as we are living through just now, there is a great temptation to empower the central authority in ways that our Founders and our Constitution sought to circumvent.

During the campaign and in the lead up to the Inauguration, Mr. Obama has seemed to indicate that only the national government can solve the problem—especially the economic problem—we face. In a speech on January 8, 2009, the President Elect said:

“Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy . . .”

I believe this is wrong, and I believe that the actions Mr. Obama will take as President to enforce that opinion—well-intentioned though they may be—will possibly prolong the economic downturn and will certainly increase the scope of the national government’s authority, which is already vast and frightening. Government ought to be powerful where its action is appropriate, but as it moves into areas, such as the economy, where its actions are inappropriate, it becomes not a cure, as Mr. Obama suggests, but a cancer, its metastases spreading throughout the body politic. If we do not stop government’s seemingly inevitable growth soon, it will spread into every organ of democracy, with the gravest-possible consequences.

I hope President Obama will look out the window behind his desk in the Oval Office and realize that the congressmen, presidential aides, and federal bureaucrats who work in Washington cannot effectively or efficiently run businesses in Michigan or manage schools in Ohio. This is what I hope, although I am not very hopeful.

Answers. 17 helpful answers below.

    • by ken060606 on January 20th, 2010
      voted: Unify a Torn World

      ken060606

      hey who says that Obama can't change what America is facing ? well if you say that then you became the President and why not change position instead ?
      no one can do anything alone ..
      unity is what America needed how can someone possibly do anything if no one believes him ..
      government cant do everything that you wish well if you really want to become true then cooperate with the government evrything follows ..

      No comments. Post one | Permalink

    • by hill9597 on January 11th, 2010

      hill9597

      His first priority will be the same as all other elected officials . . . re-election!

      No comments. Post one | Permalink

    • by opinionatedme on January 8th, 2010
      voted: Smaller Government

      opinionatedme

      The p-Resident should prove his place of birth, or step down.

      No comments. Post one | Permalink

    • by BlackRider on January 20th, 2010
      voted: Unify a Torn World

      BlackRider

      Help unify the world, or help one country. Which one...

      No comments. Post one | Permalink

    • by StellaRoss on January 26th, 2010
      voted: Smaller Government

      StellaRoss

      He should have just been honest and stepped down. Now he is in even sticker situation and he starts making even shittier decisions.

      Pretty good summary about his presidency: http://www.allsucks.com/everything/2010/01/barack-obama-sucks-ass_2.php

      No comments. Post one | Permalink

    • by hallagon on February 15th, 2010
      voted: Unify a Torn World

      hallagon

      The legalization of brothels for all 49 states to give us something to live for.

      No comments. Post one | Permalink

    • by LarryH54 on January 28th, 2010
      voted: Smaller Government

      LarryH54

      How about learning HOW economics and the free market are designed to work? Armed with that knowledge, he could turn the economy around in a matter of months, and truly 'fix' healthcare in a manner that won't hurt anyone.

      No comments. Post one | Permalink

    • by Pilgrim on January 8th, 2010

      Pilgrim

      .
      Job Creation should be #1. Good jobs will pull the US out of this economic downturn.We can build anything and compete if we get rid of junk dealers IE: WalMart.

      1 comment | Post one | Permalink

    • by GREMLIN on January 2nd, 2010

      GREMLIN

      Share your answer...It should be something governmental;and possibly even presidential.So far,all I have heard are social issues;and those are the "priorities" that American families set for themselves.

      No comments. Post one | Permalink

    • by master_mind413 on December 23rd, 2009
      voted: Unify a Torn World

      master_mind413

      unify I think over powers a smaller government at this time, if you look at priority's of course of those against obama they will scream smaller government but a smaller government does not take priority in this situation when most of the world no longer looks at the US in a shiny light

      2 comments | Post one | Permalink

    • by toker101 on December 22nd, 2009
      voted: Unify a Torn World

      toker101

      dude obama is working 4 illuminati secret conspiracy aka devil worshipers check it out on you tube illuminati are extremely clever they also killed micheal jackson type why mj was killed on you tube and get the facts man spread the word please

      No comments. Post one | Permalink

    • by Closed Account on December 18th, 2009

      Closed Account

      A writer can only come up with two options? SIGH!! Fulfilling his campaign promises.

      1 comment | Post one | Permalink

    • by pukapants on December 23rd, 2009
      voted: Unify a Torn World

      pukapants

      The previous administration's policy of "My way or the highway" did much damage to international relationships. As the saying goes, "No man is an island".

      3 comments | Post one | Permalink

    • by JQ1234 on December 28th, 2009
      voted: Smaller Government

      JQ1234

      He can start by resigning...never thought I'd say this, but I think I would have preferred Hillary.

      No comments. Post one | Permalink

    • by prisoner on December 30th, 2009
      voted: Smaller Government

      prisoner

      His Priortity should be saving the economy and ending the Federal Reserve!

      2 comments | Post one | Permalink

    • by slcjh80 on December 29th, 2009
      voted: Unify a Torn World

      slcjh80

      the economy... jobs!!!

      1 comment | Post one | Permalink

    • by ironhand1 on December 14th, 2009
      voted: Smaller Government

      ironhand1

      Resigning.........................

      No comments. Post one | Permalink

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