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CORRECTING THE MISTAKES.
Joe Klein puts this nicely:
And let it be recorded that Obama's first act as President was to correct Chief Justice John Roberts, who managed somehow to mangle the 35-word oath of office, misplacing the word faithfully, as in "faithfully execute the office of President ..." Roberts then mangled it a second time, Obama raised an eyebrow, and Roberts moved on, a bumpy beginning and something of a metaphor: one of the new President's functions will be to correct the mistakes of George W. Bush's benighted tenure. Obama made that very clear in his sharply worded address, which contained few catchphrases for the history books but did lay out a coherent and unflinching philosophy of government. Nearly 30 years after Ronald Reagan heralded the onset of his conservative age by saying "Government is the problem," Obama announced the arrival of a prudent new liberalism: "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified." Conservatives assume such tasks — employment, health care, retirement — are the province of the market. We have had 30 years of paeans to the wonders of free enterprise, but Obama made it clear that markets are not an unalloyed good: "This crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control. The nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous."
But enough of the inaugural. It's time for governing. And as Spencer Ackerman notes, Obama has actually done a surprising amount of that already. "Take a look at his first not-even-48 hours in office," writes Ackerman. "He's suspended the Guantanamo Bay military commissions, a first step toward shuttering the entire detention complex. He's assembled his military commanders to discuss troop withdrawals from Iraq. He's issued a far-reaching order on transparency in his administration that mandates, among other things, a two-year ban on any ex-lobbyists working on issues they lobbied for. And now he's shutting down the CIA's off-the-books detention complexes in the war on terrorism." It's amazing how much evil can be undone with the stroke of the executive's pen.
COMMENTS (7)
Nicely, but completely wrong. Typical of the other Klein, alas. The first "mistake" was that Obama interrupted the Chief, which threw the latter off and he then bungled the word order. As he corrected himself, when Obama hesitated (doubtless noticing Roberts's error), he then got the order right. But Obama, now thrown off by the Chief, then repeated the Chief's original mistake. So, both men were nervous and contributed to each other's flub. The Messianic revisionism that Klein is reaching for does not match the facts. Something more like Obama's post-partisan willingness to muddle through with his political rivals as well as his allies would, but that wouldn't feed the ongoing need to imagine that everything associated with Bush was bungled (it wasn't) and everything associated with the new president represents shimmering perfection.
Posted by: Bill | January 22, 2009 10:33 AM
I am, of course, very pleased that Obama is pursuing transparency. But doesn't it frighten you (Ezra) that the same pen which can fix so much can also destroy so much?
This is why I've not been able to get joyful about the new Obama administration. The executive branch has all the power in the world: *it can run secret prisons in far-off countries*, for instance. Doesn't that scare the crap out of all of us?
We shouldn't be particularly pleased that life and death depend on whether the president is a nice guy.
Posted by: Steve Laniel | January 22, 2009 10:38 AM
This is why I've not been able to get joyful about the new Obama administration. The executive branch has all the power in the world: *it can run secret prisons in far-off countries*, for instance. Doesn't that scare the crap out of all of us? We shouldn't be particularly pleased that life and death depend on whether the president is a nice guy.
This is all true, but the robustness of the executive's power has deep roots in our history, and it isn't going anywhere any time soon. It would take something on the order of a constitutional amendment to change it. Given that fact, about the best we can hope for is that the president is a nice guy.
Posted by: jeebus | January 22, 2009 11:06 AM
Given that fact, about the best we can hope for is that the president is a nice guy.
Which means we need major reform...now.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 22, 2009 11:16 AM
...major reform...
Yes, because the Congress is a paragon of efficient and wise governance.
Our checks and balances were finely tuned and have been honed further since their inception. I think it's a testament to the robustness of our system of government that 8 years of Bush did not distort it beyond repair.
I'd be interested to see what kind of concrete suggestions to reduce the authority of the President you would recommend.
Posted by: Ilya Lozovsky | January 22, 2009 11:25 AM
Yes, because the Congress is a paragon of efficient and wise governance.
It's important to remember that "efficiency" was not a goal the Framers had when they wrote the Constitution (and "wisdom" not something they wanted to depend upon). They worried that efficiency could too easily slip into despotism.
Unfortunately, the "reform" needed is for Congress to do its job --- for Congress to be more jealous of its own power, instead of yielding so much to the Executive. I don't know how to achieve that.
Perhaps devolving some executive power? I've seen the suggestion that the Attorney General should be an elected office (as it is in many states), giving that office greater independence (and perhaps more willingness to investigate other parts of the Executive branch).
Posted by: dm | January 22, 2009 12:06 PM
I think it's a testament to the robustness of our system of government that 8 years of Bush did not distort it beyond repair.
Assumes facts not in evidence.
Posted by: spot check billy | January 22, 2009 3:42 PM