Monday, March 23

In the LA Times, the Opinion section of the paper includes an article written by Joyce Appleby comparing Obama to Roosevelt. It states that in 1934, Franklin Roosevelt felt the same sort of urgency of moving the country in a new direction. He faced hardships left and right, including the rise of Hitler as well as the fall of his New Deal coalition. However, FDR was able to win over the men and women under his presidency by initiating radio talks, and becoming the provider of entertainment and news for many poor people, and keeping tabs of local papers. He was able to reassure Americans that he was strengthening their traditional institutions. Obama is somewhat in the same position FDR was in the past. "Obama's hope for matching Roosevelt's successful record of reform and recovery is going to rest on his pulling off an electoral victory in 2010 like FDR's 76 years ago." Can the current president do the same in 2010?


In The New York Times article, the author Helene Cooper addresses what Obama said on his interview "60 Minutes" on CBS, that a way out of Afghanistan is needed. “There’s got to be an exit strategy,” Obama said. Last month, Obama announced that he would send 17,000 more American troops to Afghanistan this summer. However, in this interview, Obama that this military build up in Afghanistan will lead to the eventual withdrawal of American and NATO troops from the country. Different from Bush's administration mission, Obama's mission in Afghanistan is “making sure that Al Qaeda cannot attack the U.S. homeland and U.S. interests and our allies," where as Bush's mission was promoting democracy, civil society and governance in Afghanistan and toward getting the country to a point where it is not used to start attacks on the United States..

THE WASHINGTON POST


Advisers To Obama Wary of Bonus Tax