The members of Congress up on the hill live in a bubble of deference and denial. They were shocked when two million people booed Bush, a violation of their sense of good manners but also gesture of a deep disgust---and not just with the Busheviks. The politicians who have been complicit as well as the media that does not ask deeper questions are also on the sh*t list.
Already around the world, there’s more skepticism. There was a wave of disappointment across the Arab world at Obama’s silence on Gaza. And not just from Arabs. Oisha Neuman, an Israeli, writes with a fusion of understanding, admiration and disgust:
“Obama is a complex man, capable of holding ambiguities and contradictions, aware of the vast abundant varieties of experience, knowing otherness, knowing the pain and anger of outsiders, knowing what happens when dreams are shattered… I want to love him. But I fear that he has signed a terrible bargain with his silence, a pact with the devil of power and empire…”
One Washington DC newspaper I read when I was covering the inauguration spoke to that thin line between love and hate, and the ways in our speeded up world that admiration can soon sour. One writer even wondered how long it would take for groups to demand his impeachment.
I am not ready to man those ramparts. Not yet.
On day one, he did freeze Bush changes, move to end the war, close Gitmo, freeze wages, enact transparency rules—all overdue changes. My sense is those millions on the mall know his burden are not light ones, and will give him a chance and keep hopes alive.
At the same time, we journalists need to keep asking tough questions, point to problems, offer solutions, and avoid a rush to judgement. We are descending into tougher times when we need to know what we are for as well as what we are against. We don’t have Bush to kick around anymore. Thank the lawd.
News Dissector Danny Schechter blogs for Mediachannel.org, wrote “PLUNDER: Investigating Our Economic Calamity”and directed BARACK OBAMA PEOPLE’s PRESIDENT, a new film on the grass roots campaign that put him in power. Comments to Dissector@mediachannel.org
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