Obama coming back to earth

If I do say so, I think this Register editorial sums up where the Obama administration is at this point fairly well. From Obama's perspective there have certainly been success -- if you consider getting a stimulus package that isn't really stimulating a success, which I presume he does. Guantanamo, as we predicted early on, is turning out to be more complicated than expected. Pelosi and Co. really had to knock heads to get cap-n-trade through the House and prospects are less than sure in the Senate. Whether he'll get some kind of health-care deform -- my prediction is a bit of tinkering around the edges -- no "public option," maybe not even co-ops, probably no universal mandate -- before the end of the year so he can call it a victory, depends to a great extent on what congresscritters, especially the Blue Dogs, hear from home during the recess. They may come back stoked to do the Obama-led transformation or more inclined to resist. I'm guessing more inclined to resist but things will take a while to shake out.

Obamaglow starting to fade

The Republicans are still mostly hopeless, and considering how venal and devoid of principle most of them proved to be during the Bush regnancy, it's hard to feel the least bit of sadness. But the bllom is coming off the Obama rose, not so much because of anything the Republicans are doing but because of doubts from some Democrats. Cap-and-trade, which would be utterly disastrous, imposing huge costs for close to zero benefit even if you're a full-on true believer in anthropogenic global warming, looks as if it's going to die. Although there is still almost no organized opposition, I wouldn't give a thoroughgoing health-care plan much of a chance. The failure to have a plan for Guantanamo has seriously damaged the Obama mystique. And as this Register editorial notes, the "Employee Free Choice Act," or "card check, which would make it inordinately easier to form unions, is likely to go down in flames as well.

To be sure, Obama has taken over entire industries, in ways that do not bode well for a successful return to the private sector, and put in place an immense amount of deficit spending. But I suspect he will prove to be more disappointing thasn advertised to the hard left and less utterly disastrous than feared to the right.

Obama strikes out on marijuana

Here's a blog item I posted on the Register's Orange Punch blog on how disappointing it was to see Barack Obama acknowledge the great interest people who submitted questions online for his vaunted online "town hall" meeting and then dismiss it with a couple of lame laugh lines. I can understand that he has a lot onhis plate and this might not be his first priority, but the issue deserves serious consideration rather than reaching for a guffaw or two. More than 7,000 people have died in Mexico in the last 15 months or so, largely because of our counterproductive drug war. How many more will have to die before more than a handful of politicians and the so-called "mainstream" media catch up with the public on this issue?

I long ago gave up being upset at people reflexively dismissing the idea of marijuana legalization with cheap jokes, even though over the years I have spent a fair amount of time, energy and study on the subject and understand a fair amount about just how expensive, socially corrosive, counter-productive and downright cruel prohibition is. There’s something about pot that seems to demand cheap jokes. But I still reserve the right to be mildly exasperated.

In his online “town hall” meeting President Obama, who might be expected to know better, did what most conventional politicians do, noting the intense interest in the issue of marijuana legalization among those who submitted questions online and dismissing it with a couple of weak laugh lines. I suppose he thought it made him look properly middle-America, but it’s an example of serious unseriousness. The sad thing is that anyone who has given the issue more than a few moments’ thought knows legalzation would help the economy, not only by saving the money wasted on enforcement and imprisonment, but opening up huge markets that could be taxed, not only in marijuana but hemp.

I’m not quite alone in my assessment. Freddie DeBoer growls thoughtfully. Andrew Sullivan calls it pathetic. Radley Balko defends him from criticism. Pete Guither at DrugWarRant rounds up a host of responses. Steven Taylor at PoliBlog is also exasperated. And not surprisingly, the good folks at the Marijuana Policy Project are not pleased. I don’t know what it will take for the “mainstream” media to begin to take this issue seriously.