I must disclose, before I continue with my political analyses that I am mostly a conservative [by nature and not by label and/or definition], and of the independent type, and practically the pragmatic political being. With that said, I hope readers and/or commenters will afford me the liberty of self definition, in the political context. I am a trained scientist and engineer, but also an avid participant in the political discourse. Enough about me.
Mr. Obama has been president for close to two (2) years, and I should confess, he has surprised me with the tremendous successes and accomplishments he has demonstrated, to date. Considering the immense blatant proclamations of opposition from the Republicans in the congress, and down-right treasonous pronouncements from certain radio and television personalities, who seem to root for failure of my cherished, good old US of A, to every proposal coming from the White House. It is note worthy that political historians will rate these accomplishments very high in comparison to previous presidents. In future blogs I will take some of the legislative accomplishments and discuss the merits from a scientist-engineer's mind and perspective.
For this first blog posting, I choose the so called "Tax Compromise Bill" legislation, the president and the senate republican leaders achieved, and other very important legislation, in the so called lame-duck session, as my first analyses.
I believe Mr. Obama thinks like an engineer. President Obama, sees most issues that affect the United States and the natural alignments of ensuing debates, from the concept of first principles, the building blocks of reasoning and deductive inference of outcomes. It was a mystery to me and probably to most political observers, that the democratic leadership in both houses of congress, notwithstanding, a democratic president, did not see fit to table and/or champion one of the defining campaign policy promises of the candidate Obama, of Not Renewing the President Bush era tax cuts for income over $250K, and forcing a vote in the congress to expose the political fault lines in the context of the current US economic and financial status, prior to the last November mid-term elections. Naturally, since I was not privileged to data the democratic polsters and consultants used, I would still surmise that it would have been good politics to at least create that showdown. I am sure Speaker Nancy Pelosi would have cherished the spotlight. I can assure myself that President Obama, my scientist-engineer minded politician and leader would have suggested that the tax cut debate should occur prior to the mid-term elections.
President Obama, subsequently made the deal with the republicans that he only could make. Mr. Obama gathered the facts contained within each component of the deal, established the viability of each proposed component and the practical boundaries and/or constraints on a per component basis, as well as component interactions within the deal he was working out, and projected subsequent [future] deals that had to be considered in future policy implementations, notwithstanding the obvious vehement opposition from his negotiating partners, the republicans, of his approach, all taken into account. It turns out, President Obama and his staff, believe in optimization techniques as implemented in engineering and therefore, factual life of people in the USA. In short, the tax bill compromise [a word Mr. Obama seems not afraid to use, unlike Mr John Boehner, the incoming speaker of the house of representatives], was the optimum outcome for President Obama.
"Don't Ask Don't Tell [DADT]" legislation passed and was signed into law on December 22, 2010, by President Obama. His address before the invited dignitaries during the signing showed echos of why most of USA voted for him for President. The speech was passionate, concise and very emotionally moving, even for 'straight' or 'heterosexual' americans. The debate on this issue was sometimes incoherent, especially from the opposing side, and similarly the conjecture of many Gay Americans on the perceived slow pace of repeal process on the part of the President was noteworthy. I say noteworthy, because certain media correspondents, some notable openly gay, made claims on what they thought was the method Mr. Obama should have used, namely executive order instead of fighting for legislation through the congress, because they were not confident the repeal would succeed in the face of vehement republican opposition. Again, President Obama, my scientist-engineer minded politician and leader, insisted on finding the optimized solution, which when implemented will serve to resolve just about all difficulties and issues associated with the entire DADT policy. As a great constitutional law professor, and a good lawyer, President Obama's approach was to pass legislation that will supersede all existing DADT policy implications and legal challenges, which is exactly what has happened. Bravo President Obama, bravo to President Obama, my scientist-engineer minded politician and leader. !!
As a practical conservative, I am tempted to remark that Mr. Obama has demonstrated the virtues of the glaring need for a well educated and a thinking pragmatist, as the leader of the USA and the free-world, and people like me are grateful in the wisdom of the voting public when we make the prudent choices, such as the selection of Mr. Barack Obama as our President. Bravo to informed electorate, and shame on those who seem to fanatically vote against their own self-interest, believe me that happens..!!
Mr. Obama has been president for close to two (2) years, and I should confess, he has surprised me with the tremendous successes and accomplishments he has demonstrated, to date. Considering the immense blatant proclamations of opposition from the Republicans in the congress, and down-right treasonous pronouncements from certain radio and television personalities, who seem to root for failure of my cherished, good old US of A, to every proposal coming from the White House. It is note worthy that political historians will rate these accomplishments very high in comparison to previous presidents. In future blogs I will take some of the legislative accomplishments and discuss the merits from a scientist-engineer's mind and perspective.
For this first blog posting, I choose the so called "Tax Compromise Bill" legislation, the president and the senate republican leaders achieved, and other very important legislation, in the so called lame-duck session, as my first analyses.
I believe Mr. Obama thinks like an engineer. President Obama, sees most issues that affect the United States and the natural alignments of ensuing debates, from the concept of first principles, the building blocks of reasoning and deductive inference of outcomes. It was a mystery to me and probably to most political observers, that the democratic leadership in both houses of congress, notwithstanding, a democratic president, did not see fit to table and/or champion one of the defining campaign policy promises of the candidate Obama, of Not Renewing the President Bush era tax cuts for income over $250K, and forcing a vote in the congress to expose the political fault lines in the context of the current US economic and financial status, prior to the last November mid-term elections. Naturally, since I was not privileged to data the democratic polsters and consultants used, I would still surmise that it would have been good politics to at least create that showdown. I am sure Speaker Nancy Pelosi would have cherished the spotlight. I can assure myself that President Obama, my scientist-engineer minded politician and leader would have suggested that the tax cut debate should occur prior to the mid-term elections.
President Obama, subsequently made the deal with the republicans that he only could make. Mr. Obama gathered the facts contained within each component of the deal, established the viability of each proposed component and the practical boundaries and/or constraints on a per component basis, as well as component interactions within the deal he was working out, and projected subsequent [future] deals that had to be considered in future policy implementations, notwithstanding the obvious vehement opposition from his negotiating partners, the republicans, of his approach, all taken into account. It turns out, President Obama and his staff, believe in optimization techniques as implemented in engineering and therefore, factual life of people in the USA. In short, the tax bill compromise [a word Mr. Obama seems not afraid to use, unlike Mr John Boehner, the incoming speaker of the house of representatives], was the optimum outcome for President Obama.
"Don't Ask Don't Tell [DADT]" legislation passed and was signed into law on December 22, 2010, by President Obama. His address before the invited dignitaries during the signing showed echos of why most of USA voted for him for President. The speech was passionate, concise and very emotionally moving, even for 'straight' or 'heterosexual' americans. The debate on this issue was sometimes incoherent, especially from the opposing side, and similarly the conjecture of many Gay Americans on the perceived slow pace of repeal process on the part of the President was noteworthy. I say noteworthy, because certain media correspondents, some notable openly gay, made claims on what they thought was the method Mr. Obama should have used, namely executive order instead of fighting for legislation through the congress, because they were not confident the repeal would succeed in the face of vehement republican opposition. Again, President Obama, my scientist-engineer minded politician and leader, insisted on finding the optimized solution, which when implemented will serve to resolve just about all difficulties and issues associated with the entire DADT policy. As a great constitutional law professor, and a good lawyer, President Obama's approach was to pass legislation that will supersede all existing DADT policy implications and legal challenges, which is exactly what has happened. Bravo President Obama, bravo to President Obama, my scientist-engineer minded politician and leader. !!
As a practical conservative, I am tempted to remark that Mr. Obama has demonstrated the virtues of the glaring need for a well educated and a thinking pragmatist, as the leader of the USA and the free-world, and people like me are grateful in the wisdom of the voting public when we make the prudent choices, such as the selection of Mr. Barack Obama as our President. Bravo to informed electorate, and shame on those who seem to fanatically vote against their own self-interest, believe me that happens..!!
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