Monday, December 14, 2009

The Presidents: #28


#28: Jimmy Carter
Term: January 20, 1977 - January 20, 1981
Grade: C-

I suppose this could be considered a controversial pick, as Jimmy Carter is near the bottom of the list for many people, especially those who lived through his term. However, I think this grade and ranking is defensible because a "C-" is still not a good grade, and because I don't think Carter's term was as bad as people think it was.

Many of the issues Carter faced were around before his presidency, and he certainly tried to fix them. Sure, he deserves to be criticized for his "Malaise" speech, and his handling of the Iran hostage crisis was not something to be proud of. Still, he was the last president to even try to reasonably handle the environment, he signed a bill that preserved a large portion of Alaska for posterity, and he deserves credit for the Camp David Accords. I suppose most of his grade is for effort, even if his execution was significantly off.

In the end, Carter's greatest failing was a general lack of ability to work with Congress. Reading Ted Kennedy's memoi, I got the feeling that Carter just didn't want to work with Congress. Had he been more understanding and more accommodating to Congress, he probably wouldn't have faced the challenge from Ted Kennedy in 1980, and might have been in a better position to handle the Reagan Revolution. I'm not sure that it would have prevented the mess of the Bush 43 Administration, but it might have helped.

The Presidents: The List

Here is the list of the Presidents, in order of my ranking.

1. ??????
2. ??????
3. ??????
4. ??????
5. John F. Kennedy
6. ??????
7. ??????
8. ??????
9. ??????
10. ??????
11. ?????
12. ?????
13. ?????
14. ?????
15. ?????
16. ?????
17. ?????
18. ?????
19. ?????
20. John Adams
21. ?????
22. ?????
23. ?????
24. Benjamin Harrison
25. ?????
26. ?????
27. ?????
28. Jimmy Carter
29. ?????
30. ?????
31. ?????
32. ?????
33. ?????
34. ?????
35. ?????
38 (tie). Millard Fillmore
38 (tie). Franklin Pierce
38 (tie). James Buchanan
39. George W. Bush
40. Richard Nixon
Inc. James Garfield (Inc)
Inc. William H. Harrison (Inc)
N/A Barack Obama

Monday, December 7, 2009

Not Everything is as it appears in Honduras

Check out the latest update from The Field on the mess in Honduras. It appears the recent election there isn't exactly reaffirming the positive power of elections. I can't say I agreed with the acceptance of the election by the U.S. State Department before, and this certainly doesn't help.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

On Afghanistan




Honestly, I'm not sure where I stand on Obama's escalation plan in Afghanistan. I am very conflicted about supporting Obama on this. It isn't a surprise to me that this is Obama's plan, just a minor disappointment. Still, the worst part of this is that I'm not sure he had any choice that was better.

Simply put, the options in Afghanistan are a shit-sandwich buffet. Your only solution is to pick the most edible one, and hope it stays down. Is an immediate withdrawl the best? I'm not sure, although I am skeptical of it. I suppose I was hoping for some totally creative and awesome way out of this, but that is the worst kind of wishful thinking.

The fact is, the mess left by the previous administration is huge, and only Democrats seem willing to fix it these days. One of those messes, and arguably the biggest foreign policy mess, is Afghanistan. Had we focused our efforts on stablizing Afghanistan during the better portion of this decade instead of starting a stupid conflict two countries over, Obama most likely would not have had to deliver his speech last night. I recognize the mess we are in, and also understand the appeal and potential benefit of a stable Afghanistan.

However, when I look at Afghanistan, it is very hard to be optimistic about our chances. The forces of history are against us in this land that has stymied many empires. Granted, maybe our focused effort will be different, but I'm not so sure. The terrain, the complexities, and the downright bad feelings just seem to be far too much for me to have much hope for the success of our mission.

Despite the President's arguments to the contrary, I can't help but see the similarities between Afghanistan 2009 and Vietnam 1965. What happens if General McChrystal comes back to President Obama next year with a message that success only needs 30,000 more troops? At what point do we say enough? How can we continue to ask so much of our soldiers without a real sense of results?

What happens if we do our jobs well, but Karzai and his cronies fail miserably? Are we going to pull shit like the CIA did with the coups in South Vietnam? At best, this situation will probably end up like the DMZ in Korea. At worst will have a repeat of Saigon 1975. I hope I am wrong, but I just can't feel optimistic about that.

On top of my misgivings in regards to foreign policy, I also worry about about how this will affect the administrations domestic agenda. We have significant systemic problems that need to be taken care of here at home, and every dollar spent if Afghanistan is one less dollar we can spend on those problems. The Health Care bill is taking an incredibly long time to get through Congress, and what might eventually get passed won't exactly be our nation's greatest triumph. How can we rein in reckless financial behavior, establish a sensible and fair immigration policy, or develop real environmental pro when we are stuck in a money pit halfway around the world?

With all of these considerations in mind, I am willing to cut President Obama some slack. I really think he and his administration is trying to make the best decision possible in a bad situation, and is trying to right the wrongs of the past decade. They deserve time to try this new strategy. I can't deny the people in this administration have more information than I do, and I hope this privileged information is being used properly. If not, there will be hell to pay.

Regardless of how you feel about the decision, you must recognize the brazeness of this decision. It puts the war squarely on Obama's shoulders, and quite possibly could be the defining decision of his Presidency. I hope it will go down as the right decision. For now, I'll give the President my support, while making sure to keep a close eye on the situation. As always, it is our right to change our mind with new information or new circumstances. A stable Afghanistan is good for the world. Hopefully this will be a time for a new path in history.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The Presidents: #20

#20: John Adams
Term: March 4, 1797 - March 4, 1801
Grade: C

Grading the first four Presidents is a complicated task, considering who the Presidents are. Each one played a vital role in the founding of our country before they became President. It is hard to detach their roles during the Revolution and/or the Constitutional Convention from their administrations, all of which fail to live up to those other accomplishments.

Tonight I take on our 2nd President, arguably the most complicated President of the first four. Maybe I am far too influenced by reading John Adams fairly recently, and maybe I like Paul Giamatti too much as well. Still, I don't believe John Adams' administration is defined entirely by the reprehensible Alien and Sedition Acts.

True, he signed these bills into law, and deserves scorn for doing so. These laws are an embarrassment to our nation's history, and it is why he isn't ranked any higher. He doesn't deserve the entire blame for these acts, as they were passed by a very Anglo friendly Federalist Congress. Still, he was the President, and ultimate responsibility rests with him.

However, John Adams deserves credit for keeping us out of a very nasty war with Great Britain or (more likely) Napoleonic France. Getting involved in European politics at that time would have made us as independent as the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Naples, and would have ruined our great experiment in Independence. He also gets credit for keeping Alexander Hamilton and the high Federalists from taking over and establishing a bad precedent, quite possibly even extending to a military dictatorship.

By standing for the right path, he was despised by Jefferson and his Democrats, and by Hamilton and his Federalists. He wasn't very popular as he lost the election to Thomas Jefferson, and left Washington early and without pomp. Still, he left willfully and showed that we could peacefully transfer power to an opposing party. He wasn't exceptionally good, but he wasn't exceptionally bad. He was in the middle, and that is where John Adams belongs.