General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Breaking - Obama has fugged up the neo-cons [View all]karynnj
(59,522 posts)change because of what was learned at great cost in Vietnam. Changing America's foreign policy has been a goal of a lifetime for Kerry - and very likely why he fought to win the Presidency in 2004 - starting when Bush polled above 75% and going forward when Bush was still in the 60s in 2003. It is fantastic that Obama has taken the political risks - using Kerry's skills both when he was chair of SFRC and as SoS - to try to use diplomacy to resolve this problem and maybe help bring Iran back into the circle of nations. It is never good to have pariah nations - and particularly bad when they are as big and potentially successful as Iran is.
It is amazing to think of how much change can come to the Middle East if Iran moved away from both a nuclear weapon and took additional steps to stop backing terrorists - the latter not being part of this effort, but a logical follow up. If this all happens, Iran will be as much an Obama foreign policy achievement as ACA is a domestic achievement. (Ironically, politically it will initially be as controversial.)
This COULD seal Obama as the best President of the last 50 years. In fact, I remember sitting with my youngest daughter when she had the history assignment of listing the Presidents since FDR in order of how good you think they are. I did NOT want to give her my order, but helped her by suggesting she create a list of big good and bad things they did. The intent was she could then use that netting the bad from the good to create her order. The hard thing was that none lacked something bad and it really was not as easy as it sounded to get any "net" goodness estimate. Mathematically, it sounded so much easier than it was when she tried to do it. (For instance, LBJ's civil rights and great society - Medicare, food stamps, etc are impressive, but he expanded the Vietnam War. I mention LBJ because I never thought in 1968 that I would ever consider listing him as good or even thinking about it.)
I don't know if anyone other than my daughter used this type of approach, but it did force her to really go through all those Presidencies and think of the long term impacts of each and then use her own values to create her order. All they had to turn in was the order.
The interesting thing with Obama is that he kept the economy from going off the cliff it was approaching as he became President and is still working - against great forces - to make it better, he passed ACA and potentially if he leaves relations with Iran more peaceful than they were he will have major pluses. (Not to mention, if he gets an Israeli/Palestinian pact and Syria is stabalized by diplomacy.) Yet, what are his negatives? Seriously when the Republicans are stuck with a recitation of things that all fall apart, it is hard to see them carrying weight when looked at by students 40 years from now.
He might, in retrospect, be seen by our side like FDR - with major achievements and only minor negatives.