He's So Damned Smart

On the same day that I deflated over the news that the Obama Department of Justice used the same state secrets defense in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to prevent a full airing in a rendition case that the Bush administration had used, I rushed home tonight to watch the news conference Barack Obama promised this evening. And although I have issues with some of his appointments and some of his policies to date, I have no problems with how he conducted himself at this press conference: intelligent, charming, integrity.

Or is it that we are so relieved that it isn't Bush?

What I focused on was his refusal to talk down to people. Without sounding like a policy wonk, or a professor, Obama spoke clearly about his intentions for the stimulus package and how he would assess its success: creating jobs, loosening credit, stabilizing the housing market, and stopping the job contraction. When asked about foreign policy, Obama was unflinching in his commitment to diplomacy and multilateralism.

Can I exhale yet? Well, not quite.

Without sounding like he was still on the campaign trail, but sounding like he is the President of the United States, Obama refused to answer questions he wasn't ready to answer: like whether there are nuclear arms already in the Middle East, whether Patrick Leahy's "truth and reconciliation" proposal was something he could live with, and whether he had nixed the idea of prosecuting Bush administration officials for violating American law and the traditions we hold dear.

He asked for some time to review Bush era policies and put his own in place. I hope that's true regarding the use of state secrets to defend against rendition, to end warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, including news media, and holding everyone--FBI, CIA, NSA, and the military--to using humane techniques of interrogation.

Dick Cheney is a "has been." He's gone. We need to stop paying attention to his cries of "the sky is falling." He is setting up a defense of "it's a political witch hunt" in the event Obama decides to prosecute Cheney, Addington, Gonzales, and Bush himself for war crimes.

Fear makes people stupid, and it will take time, we must have patience, but I suspect we can change our culture to be more engaged, more cognitive, and more tolerant.

If iPods and iPhones can change how people communicate with each other, don't you think we can change our culture to bring out the best not the stupidest in each other?