If CNN did show the full farewell speech by Pres. Bush, I did not find the time to watch that; I did watch snippets shown on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, and what impressed me, Bush making one of his "this makes sense" statement, that said "if I had the chance to do some things again, I would do these differently." Coming from Bush (!!) that sounded pretty modest, maybe his speech writer's farewell statement.
Bush appeared a little down, spoke in a somewhat subdued voice, and for a change, looked people-his listeners- in the eye, not with that "I told you so" look, he usually shows, but an effort to look at them with a somehow relective mood; he seems to comprehend he is now President for a few days. CNN too noted that relective mood.
Come on, lets give George Bush some credit due..........not every person down the road becomes the President of the United States, this is by any yardstick, any benchmark, an achievement of the highest highest level, just 43 have achieved, and Obama will be the 44th!
Power to the people, yes, but power in good limited measure............we common common folk have got far more of our share of media attention, and have made full use, rather misuse of this..........writing off Bush as "no one will miss him." Look folks, its not plain simple walking down the street, telling our mates at the bar, "support our town football team at the games tomorrow." It takes some things far more to win presidential elections and be a President(!).............and if I recollect correctly, during the final days of the primaries for Bush's second term election, the media called it the most exciting election in US history.
And a President, or any world leader, in most cases, is as good as the team around him. Most of the "behind the doors" decisions are a team effort, or joint failure, but the President has to put up a public image that holds him responsible for all failures, and, "he was a good President" polls showings, if his team did more good.
Obama will be as good as the collective actions of his team...........more good chaps with more good things done, and Obama will ride the wave!
That is exactly why Obama is putting brakes on what people should expect of him, like he now warns the economic turnaround will not be an easy thing and it will take time!
And Obama will most probably come out the winner...........he says he wants to reach accross, he wants bipolar politics, will take Republicans along, and "if you have a better idea how things should be done, I will go along with that" a remark he made a few days back.
His choice of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and some others, makes for more sense than McCain's choice of Sarah Palin! And Obama's "Change" call something new.
And there is Osama bin Laden, with his latest video, or audio?, no "Change" there, his call for Jihad reminds us we are never going to make it fully to a peaceful modern world...............just look at the multiple checks we all have to go through at the airports, good for us, but a constriction of our free movement..........look at the cameras that look down at us in every street in London, and that computerised memory check of our faces............and how we tend to lump/view all "muslim faces", whether actually Muslim or not, with caution and suspicion!
I cant understand why the Americans support the Saudis, where the Wahhabi movement, a very orthodox Islamic movement brought the Saudis to power in the first place. The most striking statement in the wikipedia link is the remark on Jihad, that the Wahhabi intepretation of Jihad precluded that the decision to wage Jihad lies with the ruler, not the individual believer. A very thin line here, Osama Laden declares Jihad as an individual believer!
And talking of Jihad, Israel claims it is at war with Hamas, but it now seems the world must sit up and realise it's as important to see where the war, any war, is fielded.....in this case the whole of Gaza is under fire, the whole of Gaza! How can that be called a war on Hamas?
No comments:
Post a Comment