And now, to be serious, what exactly did you expect from the guy? Miracles?
Miracles, no. I did, however, expect that by now a clear roadmap out of the country's difficulties would be emerging.
What's emerging is either not to my liking or it lacks clarity.
I expected bolder leadership similar to Clinton's. For example, Clinton was able to look down the road and see that the US couldn't and shouldn't maintain it's military expenditures.....bases all over the globe, nation building, efforts to fortify countries that should be allowed to sink or swim on their own. I think Clinton reduced the number of military personnel by close to a third. Of course, Bush reversed that and the numbers of personnel have steadily increased back up.
By now I, perhaps unreasonably, expected Obama to have been making the case to the public for a significant military downsizing. Maybe similar to the argument Ron Paul campaigned on. And then Obama laying out the roadmap for how this orderly downsizing would progress. Instead, Obama seems content to either maintain the military status quo or even expand a little.
I'm just disappointed, and my confidence is waning. The speech last night did nothing to change this. Before the election, I was sure that the country was on a long term path to financial armegeddon and it was going to take really bold leadership and shared sacrifice to change the trajectory. Looks to me like the country is still bumbling along on the same path. |
