Looks like Obama is about to cave once again, this time marching us, against his own better judgment, waist deep or more into the Big Muddy of Syria. Well, you can’t blame the man. He knows he’s only setting us up for trouble down the road, but the man is under a lot of pressure:
For two years, President Obama has resisted being drawn deeper into the civil war in Syria. It was a miserable problem, he told aides, and not one he thought he could solve. At most, it could be managed. And besides, he wanted to be remembered for getting out of Middle East wars, not embarking on new ones.
So when Mr. Obama agreed this week for the first time to send small arms and ammunition to Syrian rebel forces, he had to be almost dragged into the decision at a time when critics, some advisers and even Bill Clinton were pressing for more action. Coming so late into the conflict, Mr. Obama expressed no confidence it would change the outcome, but privately expressed hope it might buy time to bring about a negotiated settlement.
(via Heavy Pressure Led to Decision by Obama on Syrian Arms – NYTimes.com)
Obama has, for reasons that are unclear, never been terribly good about resisting pressure from those with whom he disagrees, also known as those he can never please. But, give the man credit, he’s great at resisting pressure from those with whom he purports to agree. In fact, it’s almost a badge of pride, for after all, how better to establish your beltway bona fides than to disagree with the dirty hippies, that annoying group of people who most always turn out to be right.
Consider the following. Bill Clinton, whose wife helped get us into Iraq and who himself apparently favored that ill-fated endeavor, apparently has credibility with the current president sufficient to help force him to get us mired in Syria. But how much influence do you think Al Gore, who has considerable credibility on climate issues, will have on the ultimate decision on the Keystone XL Pipeline:
Al Gore has called on Barack Obama to veto the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, describing it as “an atrocity”.
The former vice-president said in an interview on Friday that he hoped Obama would follow the example of British Columbia, which last week rejected a similar pipeline project, and shut down the Keystone XL.
“I certainly hope that he will veto that now that the Canadians have publicly concluded that it is not safe to take a pipeline across British Columbia to ports on the Pacific,” he told the Guardian. “I really can’t imagine that our country would say: ‘Oh well. Take it right over parts of the Ogallala aquifer’, our largest and most important source of ground water in the US. It’s really a losing proposition.”
(via Reader Supported News)
Fact is, no amount of pressure from his supporters can move this president, no matter how much he may agree with them in the abstract, or purport to agree with them. He is, in fact, impervious to pressure from the left. There’s always some impediment to doing the right thing, so long as one Republican or conservative Democrat has a problem with such an outrageous course of action.
President Obama on Wednesday night laid bare the political dilemma he faced in deciding the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada as he told a group of high-dollar donors that the politics of the environment “are tough.”
Mr. Obama appears to be leaning toward approval of the pipeline, although he did not specifically mention it to the donors. But he acknowledged that it is difficult to sell aggressive environmental action to Americans who are still struggling in a difficult economy to pay bills, buy gas and save for retirement.
“You may be concerned about the temperature of the planet, but it’s probably not rising to your number-one concern,” Mr. Obama said. “And if people think, well, that’s shortsighted, that’s what happens when you’re struggling to get by.”
…
The challenge for Mr. Obama is to find a way to balance the political demands of supporters like Mr. Steyer, who has criticized the pipeline, with the insistence of Republicans, Canadian officials and some unions that the pipeline will create jobs and lower the cost of fuel in the United States. The president also faces pressure from some members of his party who argue that the economic benefits of the pipeline are too important to ignore. Last month, 17 Democratic senators signed on to an amendment backing construction of the pipeline. Included in the group were seven senators from conservative or swing states who are up for re-election in 2014.
(via New York Times)
It’s not really a challenge, as there’s no contest. Obama will cave. He believes more in the fake urgency of the need to balance the budget than in the real urgency of the dying planet. And since when has a Democrat caved in to union pressure except when the unions are aligned with corporate interests?
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