The President…on Libya.

My initial thought after hearing the speech was… He needs to explain his thinking on subjects like this much more often. He presents a very compelling counter-narrative to the media punditry that passes for conventional wisdom. You can get so caught up in the media experts and what they say and think that you forget whatthe President actually said on the issue. The media tends to characterize what the President means or what he says too often from the point of view of “the entitled American”. And this often takes huge leaps in logic, can be skewed based on ideological purity (especially on the Right), paternalism, militarism or white supremacy and the conjecture used seems to be so foreign and far away from what the President actually says or means. The problem is that either he feels he doesn’t need to explain himself ad nauseum or that he is too busy to explain himself or his decisions. While that previous statement seems to be the type of ill-informed conjecture I was just talking about, I make the statement in support of the President. By not giving a complete picture of the decision or the issue at hand, numerous times, the President cedes the argument to his political enemies who will critique him no matter their own hypocrisy (see Newt Gingrich’s flip flop on Libya) in a political game that is won by those with the biggest microphone. The President can no longer afford to lose this game. I just think he needs to help us all understand why he makes the decisions he makes by creating the counter-narrative that is sorely lacking in the media.

Mr President…can you speak to issues like this more and more often. Recapture the narrative that swept you into office and we all voted for in 2008.
Please!?

March 29, 2011 | Categories: Economics, Must see TV..., Politics | Tags: Barak Obama, kinetic military action, Libya, Newt Gingrich, no fly zone, President, war | Leave a comment