Barack Obama: A time for global action
Monday, March 23, 2009
WASHINGTON: We are living through a time of global economic challenges that cannot be met by half measures or the isolated efforts of any nation. Now, the leaders of the Group of 20 have a responsibility to take bold, comprehensive and coordinated action that not only jump-starts recovery, but also launches a new era of economic engagement to prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again.
No one can deny the urgency of action. A crisis in credit and confidence has swept across borders, with consequences for every corner of the world. For the first time in a generation, the global economy is contracting and trade is shrinking.
Trillions of dollars have been lost, banks have stopped lending, and tens of millions will lose their jobs across the globe. The prosperity of every nation has been endangered, along with the stability of governments and the survival of people in the most vulnerable parts of the world.
Once and for all, we have learned that the success of the American economy is inextricably linked to the global economy. There is no line between action that restores growth within our borders and action that supports it beyond.
If people in other countries cannot spend, markets dry up already we’ve seen the biggest drop in American exports in nearly four decades, which has led directly to American job losses. And if we continue to let financial institutions around the world act recklessly and irresponsibly, we will remain trapped in a cycle of bubble and bust. That is why the upcoming London Summit is directly relevant to our recovery at home.
My message is clear: The United States is ready to lead, and we call upon our partners to join us with a sense of urgency and common purpose. Much good work has been done, but much more remains.
Our leadership is grounded in a simple premise: We will act boldly to lift the American economy out of crisis and reform our regulatory structure, and these actions will be strengthened by complementary action abroad. Through our example, the United States can promote a global recovery and build confidence around the world; and if the London Summit helps galvanize collective action, we can forge a secure recovery, and future crises can be averted.
Our efforts must begin with swift action to stimulate growth. Already, the United States has passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act the most dramatic effort to jump-start job creation and lay a foundation for growth in a generation.
Other members of the G-20 have pursued fiscal stimulus as well, and these efforts should be robust and sustained until demand is restored. As we go forward, we should embrace a collective commitment to encourage open trade and investment, while resisting the protectionism that would deepen this crisis.
Second, we must restore the credit that businesses and consumers depend upon. At home, we are working aggressively to stabilize our financial system. This includes an honest assessment of the balance sheets of our major banks, and will lead directly to lending that can help Americans purchase goods, stay in their homes and grow their businesses.
This must continue to be amplified by the actions of our G-20 partners. Together, we can embrace a common framework that insists upon transparency, accountability and a focus on restoring the flow of credit that is the lifeblood of a growing global economy. And the G-20, together with multilateral institutions, can provide trade finance to help lift up exports and create jobs.
Third, we have an economic, security and moral obligation to extend a hand to countries and people who face the greatest risk. If we turn our backs on them, the suffering caused by this crisis will be enlarged, and our own recovery will be delayed because markets for our goods will shrink further and more American jobs will be lost.
The G-20 should quickly deploy resources to stabilize emerging markets, substantially boost the emergency capacity of the International Monetary Fund and help regional development banks accelerate lending. Meanwhile, America will support new and meaningful investments in food security that can help the poorest weather the difficult days that will come.
While these actions can help get us out of crisis, we cannot settle for a return to the status quo. We must put an end to the reckless speculation and spending beyond our means; to the bad credit, over-leveraged banks and absence of oversight that condemns us to bubbles that inevitably bust.
Only coordinated international action can prevent the irresponsible risk-taking that caused this crisis. That is why I am committed to seizing this opportunity to advance comprehensive reforms of our regulatory and supervisory framework.
All of our financial institutions on Wall Street and around the globe need strong oversight and common sense rules of the road. All markets should have standards for stability and a mechanism for disclosure. A strong framework of capital requirements should protect against future crises. We must crack down on offshore tax havens and money laundering.
Rigorous transparency and accountability must check abuse, and the days of out-of-control compensation must end. Instead of patchwork efforts that enable a race to the bottom, we must provide the clear incentives for good behavior that foster a race to the top.
I know that America bears our share of responsibility for the mess that we all face. But I also know that we need not choose between a chaotic and unforgiving capitalism and an oppressive government-run economy. That is a false choice that will not serve our people or any people.
This G-20 meeting provides a forum for a new kind of global economic cooperation. Now is the time to work together to restore the sustained growth that can only come from open and stable markets that harness innovation, support entrepreneurship and advance opportunity.
The nations of the world have a stake in one another. The United States is ready to join a global effort on behalf of new jobs and sustainable growth. Together, we can learn the lessons of this crisis, and forge a prosperity that is enduring and secure for the 21st century.
Barack Obama is president of the United States. A Global Viewpoint article distributed by Tribune Media Services.
The Week We All Became Americans, Again
The last time the world sympathized with Americans, the tallest buildings along the Eastern seashore came crumbling down. Instead of channeling that sympathy into a powerful but positive force to unite the world and usher in the new century, President George W. Bush turned his back on his campaign promises and gave in to the Neo-Conservative’s Project for the New American Century (PNAC), dividing Americans and creating a wedge between America and the rest of the World through the use of powerful but overwhelming and indiscriminate force.
In the seven years that followed, what ensued was the most devastating period in American history, resulting in:
- Two wars that killed nearly 5,000 American soldiers and over 100,000 innocent Iraqi and Afghani civilians.
- Violation of the Geneva conventions with examples of human rights abuses and atrocities in Abu Ghraib prison along with lurid stories of torture in Guantanamo Bay.
- Failure to come to the rescue of thousands of mainly African Americans in the wake of the Katrina hurricane natural disaster in New Orleans.
In the past year alone,
- A housing crash that spiked foreclosures and created hardship for millions of Americans.
- A financial meltdown that has evaporated 50% of people’s retirement money, rivaled only by the Great Depression.
- Last but not least, the highest unemployment in nearly 15 years.
- Perhaps worst of all, over the long term, was the damage done to America’s reputation and standing in the world.
Undoubtedly, George W. Bush’s Presidential terms will go down in history as the Decline of the American Empire. This statement by of itself speaks volumes for two reasons:
First, that is “terms” in plural, which suggests that a majority of America’s electorate felt that his first term was not disastrous enough to merit a new leader.
Second is the realization that many around the world actually cheered on America’s fall from grace and decline, not because of what America stood for, but for what America had done this decade.
With power comes responsibility and accountability. As such, it is very important for Americans to understand how much America’s standing in the world fell in 2004 when they re-elected President Bush to a second term. While historians will note that this was a result of Karl Rove’s bring-out-the-vote strategy of appealing to the Conservative Right; in the world’s simplified view, Americans re-electing Bush signaled their approval with his policies and his politics. As a result, not only did the world respect America less, they suddenly wished it harm.
While America’s heavy-handed and plain foolish reaction to 9/11 eroded the world’s support, the Bush re-election took the disdain for America one giant step. Overnight in November 2004, the world’s sympathy shifted away from the victims of 9/11 to the very same agents of Islamic extremism who lashed out at ordinary Americans and wished them harm.
But this week, four years later from the battlegrounds of Ohio, that all changed, forever.
Suddenly, the clash of civilizations that the neo-conservatives and Republicans were pushing for the past decade evaporated with an Obama victory:
After all, how can “Radical Islamists” try to instill hatred for America when the President was born to a Kenyan Muslim who immigrated to the United States, married a White Christian American, and along the way paving the path for their son’s improbable journey?
Obama’s nomination, let alone election, is a game-changer, not just because he disarms America’s enemies, but because he brings back onto American’s good side those citizens of the World who lost hope and respect along the way.
It is said Americans vote for the candidate that best makes up for the shortcomings of the incumbent. In this case, President Bush’s lack of worldly curiosity and ineloquence all but guaranteed a victory for Barack Obama.
With that victory, comes redemption for America. The redemption comes not just for the excess force and arrogance towards Muslims and Arabs over the past eight years, but for the past three centuries of injustice and racism towards Blacks.
On this point alone, it is worth noting that everything about Obama’s win was unbelievable. For his white grandmother to pass away the night before, as if to serve as a reminder for “White America” that Obama was indeed biracial, born to a White mother, could not have been scripted any more aptly in Hollywood. Surely for news networks to flash images of Obama’s white grandmother on the eve of the elections might have played a role in tipping North Carolina and Virgina - Virginia! - over to Obama’s column.
Barack Obama didn’t simply cruise to victory on the electoral map, his percentage gain in the popular vote was nothing short of breathtaking, as well. When was the last time that the Under-30 crowd outvoted the Over-65 demographic? Obama has been nothing short of transformational, and thanks to the fact that he is entering the White House at one of the lowest moments in American history, the stage is set for a resoundingly successful first White House term.
By winning 52.5% of the electoral vote, he far surpassed former Democrats Jimmy Carter (1996, who won 50.1%), Bill Clinton (1992: only 43% after Ross Perot splintered the vote with 18.9% and 49.24% in 1996). But he also surpassed the vote garnered by George W. Bush in both 2000 and 2004: in 2000, President Bush got only 47.9% of the vote versus the 48.4% that Al Gore obtained (Mr. Gore lost, because President Elect Bush won Florida’s 25 electoral votes, earning him 271 vs. VP Gore’s 266). In 2004, Bush earned 50.7% while John Kerry earned 48.3%.
With one casting of their votes, the American people showed that while imperfect, they were no longer becoming the rogue nation of the world, evidenced by the images of Katrina and Abu Ghraib, but in one fell swoop managed to overtake the world as a symbol of hope and beacon of tolerance, as it had over the course of its history.
Before McCain said the “fundamentals of the economy are strong” and picked Palin to sink his chances, Obama ensured to win in Iowa during the Democratic nominations… here is a speech that many say propelled him to convince voters than “white voters” would in fact support a Black President:
Jeffrey Hart becomes the latest conservative to endorse Barack Obama: A speechwriter for Reagan and Nixon—who worked at the National Review for four decades—on why he’s voting for Obama.
Read on:
Republican President George W. Bush has not been a conservative at all, either in domestic policy or in foreign policy. He invaded Iraq on the basis of abstract theory, the very thing Burke warned against. Bush aimed to turn Iraq into a democracy, “a beacon of liberty in the Middle East,” as he explained in a radio address in April 2006.
I do not recall any “conservative” publication mentioning those now memorable words “Sunni,” “Shia,” or “Kurds.” Burke would have been appalled at the blindness to history and to social facts that characterized the writing of those so-called conservatives.
Obama did understand. In his now famous 2002 speech, while he was still a state senator in Illinois, he said: “I know that a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, of undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without international support will fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than the best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al Qaeda. I’m not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.”
Burke would have agreed entirely, and admired the cogency of so few words. And one thing I know is that both Nixon and Reagan would have agreed. Both were prudential and successful conservatives. But all the organs of the conservative movement followed Bush over the cliff—as did John McCain.
More.
Well, this is some perspective:
The notion that there might be “racists for Obama,” as one Democrat called them, comes against the backdrop of a country whose white voters largely accept the notion of a black president.
“The economy is trumping racism,” said Kurt Schmoke, the dean of Howard University Law School and a former Baltimore mayor. “A lot of people who we might think wouldn’t vote their pocketbook because of race — now they are.”
“If you go to a white neighborhood in the suburbs and ask them, ‘How would you feel about a large black man kicking your door in,’ they would say, ‘That doesn’t sound good to me,’” said Democratic political consultant Paul Begala. “But if you say, ‘Your house is on fire, and the firefighter happens to be black,’ it’s a different situation.”
“The house is on fire, and one guy seems like he’s calm and confident and in charge, and that’s the only option,” he said.
The latest in a long line of newspapers to endorse Obama.
Best part: “Obama was 8 years old…” accompanied by his picture.
I must say: I am admiring and respecting Barack Obama more and more for hitting back against the Republicans’ lies. Oddly enough, John “did you know I was beaten by the Vietnamese” McCain is saying - via Chief Traitor to his nation and party - Joe Lieberman, that he won’t touch Reverend Wright. Bull-f’n-shit. Considering that McCain’s cronies, including Sarah Palin, have uttered worst things… I think that is just setting up the table for the Wright attacks which will come soon as the polls suggest Obama’s lead is growing.
If this happens, heck, even if this does not happen, I think the time is nigh to emphasize John McCain’s poor judgment and poor taste. The media is talking about things like his selection of Sarah Palin as his VP choice… but why stop there? Let’s get deeper: John McCain’s personal and professional closet if filled with skeletons.
Poor Judgment
Why is John McCain’s mug one of the five pictures amongst the Keating Five? From Wikipedia:
The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The five senators, Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, John Glenn, John McCain (R-AZ), and Donald W. Riegle, were accused of improperly aiding Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of an investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB).
The result of the collapse of Lincoln Savings and Loan was that 21,000 mostly elderly investors lost their life savings. After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee determined in 1991 that Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, and Donald Riegle had substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB in its investigation of Lincoln Savings. Senators John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised “poor judgment”.
Let me boldface that: “poor judgment”.
What else are examples of poor judgment? Well, how about singing “bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran”.
How about “poor taste”?
John McCain left his first wife to marry upwards: a younger, richer and hotter heiress of a booze fortune. Read more here.
The facts speak for themselves, McCain is the epitome of “what you see is NOT what you get” and a non-stop manifestation of poor judgment and worst taste.
I don’t for one second suggest that the Obama camp should unleash these messages, but folks like you and me who are sick of the nonsense spewing out of Palin’s trashy mouth sure can.
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