CBS - "Obama's Good Week at the U.N." - But Did Obama Miss The Chance To Scare The American People?

[TomCADem]

Interesting obervation by Marc Ambider that truly highlights the difference between President Bush and President Obama. If Bush was still president, he would be ignoring the U.N., and using the recent brake up of a terrorist plot to place the American people in a state of fear in order to justify military action abroad, erosion of civil rights at home, and the reduction of tax rates for the very rich. While some so-called progressives insist that there is only a marginal difference between President Obama and President Bush, I personally think that there is world of difference between the two administrations.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/24/politics/onthemarc/main5338308.shtml?tag=stack

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The most remarkable story of the week -- the most important story to most Americans - was not the story that featured the President of the United States and the leaders of the world. The FBI and NYPD may have broken up the biggest domestic terrorism plot since Sept. 11. And this administration, deliberately, chose to stay in the background, chose to let senior law enforcement officials take the lead, and did nothing to generate the sort of panic and fear that the office of the president, when marshaled to discuss these types of things, can bring to bear, even by accident.

In general, President Obama had a pretty good week, and for that, he can thank the contingencies of timing. The United States was chosen to chair the meeting of the United Nations Security Council, and a while ago, the White House decided to focus on nuclear proliferation. They could have chosen climate change, or poverty, or development -- but administration planners believed that of all those existential threats, the most good could come from a meeting and resolution dedicated to ridding the world of nuclear weapons.

It just so happens that Obama himself, the first president of the nuclear age who grew up with a nuanced view of American power, "appreciates the gravity of the threat in ways that previous presidents have not," a senior administration official told me yesterday. There may be something to that, Obama exceptionalism aside, but history is conspiring against nuclear proliferation in a way it never has before. The advent of stateless terror, the easy and rapid transfer of technology across borders, the diffusion of nuclear know-how and the isolation of rogue regimes have convinced leaders of the world's most powerful nations that the status quo is unsustainable. Even Russia and China, with vested financial and security interests in Iran and North Korea, are recognizing the basic logic: in a world where nuclear weapons move freely, the chances of a destabilizing nuclear explosion are growing.

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[SpartanDem]

1. This really does show how different they are

with Obama there is no chest thumping, no need for false bravado. I knew Obama was truly different after the Somali pirate incident there is no way that Bush wouldn't of flown out and put on a uniform to congratulate himself, Obama instead afterward gave all credit to the Navy.