I thought Obama's response to Cheney's critiques was excellent. Basically he just said that Guantanamo had done nothing to make us safer and that the Bush policies had damaged our place in the world, but delivered it convincingly with some good one liners.
I was a little less convinced that Obama has a solid plan to take on the economy and the whole AIG fiasco, but I think he was trying to connect to all of us "main-streeters" and show us that he understands how we feel about the economy and the Wall Street bonuses, which he did a pretty good job on. One thing he mentioned was that he had taken to reading ten of the thousands of letters that he recieved every day before going to bed each night, which does make it seem like he is at least trying to pay attention to us common folk.
It's interesting that this interview came out a day after Thomas Friedman blasted Obama's (and Congress's) handling of the AIG situation in his column. Friedman said that Obama should have gone on national TV for a fireside chat where he tells us:
exactly how deep the crisis we are in is, exactly how much sacrifice we’re all going to have to make to get out of it, and then calls on those A.I.G. brokers — and everyone else who, in our rush to heal our banking system, may have gotten bonuses they did not deserve — and tells them that their president is asking them to return their bonuses "for the sake of the country."I think Obama took a step in that direction with his interview, but he is certainly capable (as he showed in the interview) of doing more to instill confidence in the American people. I think Friedman is right that Obama needs to be more of an inspirational style leader, after all, that is why he was elected.
Anyway, enough of my unsolicited political commentary. The U.S. is getting hammered in the WBC, I need to find something better to do.
