We’ve given a Steve Clemons a lot of shit over the past few months, and I do tend to think that the “Rahm is the bogeyman” stuff he was pushing was overblown. But this piece is good (WARNING: Politico link) and comes from a very different place than many of you might expect:
Obama is changing the direction of global gravity. He is also confronting Iran without the shallowness of bombing vs. sanctions vs. public humiliation that his administration has been flirting with. In the past week, and over the next month, Obama is showing what a U.S.-led world order should look like.
This is a huge shift, for the world hasn’t had much faith in America’s abilities to deliver. For example, in taking on strategic challenges like getting the Israelis and Palestinians on a two-state pathway; or ending the anachronistically simmering Cold War conflict in U.S.-Cuba relations; or persuading Iran to forgo a nuclear weapons track, most of the world has seen an America unable to achieve the objectives it sets out for itself.
In recent years, this has translated into a sense that the United States is a well-branded, globally important but underperforming country, whose influence is weakening — more like a national version of General Motors than Google.
cleek
interesting adjective choice.
Mike Kay
What does Roger Clemons know about foreign policy?
BTD
Steve was great on Countdown the day the new nuclear posture was announced.
Steve is a good analyst. You do not have to agree with everything he says or writes to give him his props.
Zifnab
Hey, look at that. When you win, you get better political coverage. And it feels fantastic to see competent leadership at the top of the US Totem Pole… finally.
Redshirt
Don’t worry – the Repugs will do everything they possibly can to make sure these positive changes don’t stick.
Ash Can
For all the people who were wondering why Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, Clemons nicely lays out the answer in this article. The Nobel Committee recognized his potential for this right off the bat.
Comrade Jake
Then you read the other “John” Cole, and you appreciate that actual progress on Iran remains elusive.
JGabriel
Between Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly and Steve Clemons at The Washington Note, it’s a real pain in the ass to remember which Steve is with which Washington Website.
One of them should should change his first name or his city.
[/cranky]
.
DougJ
@Mike Kay:
He’s always been good on foreign policy, at least in my experience. He headed up the drive to keep Walrus Bolton out of the UN.
BenA
@Mike Kay:
He did pitch in Canada AND he’s from Texas, which is practically Mexico… He’s a foreign policy wonk when measured on the Palin scale.
Pangloss
@Ash Can: I think it was because 2008 was a down year for peace. Like when Zoilo Versalles won MVP.
GregB
For all of the endless jingoistic chest thumping on the right, you’d think they’d have had a great run during the Bush era.
Let’s recap:
*China knocks a US plane out of the sky and then gets an apology and delivers the plane back in well examined chunks.
*9/11-the worst attack on US soil by a non-state actor in history.
*North Korea goes nuclear.
*Iran gains regional boost after their neighboring adversary is taken out by the Americans.
*Hezbollah becomes part of the Lebanese government.
*Hamas gains control of Gaza.
*Russia invades Georgia.
*Al Qaeda sets up shop in Yemen.
*International piracy becomes a cottage industry off the Horn of Africa.
Heckuva job.
Zifnab
@Ash Can: *cough* bullshit *cough*
Clinton and Carter would have received the same reward, by that logic. The Nobel was awarded to the United States for not electing another war-crazed evil jackass. I’m sure they saw Obama’s potential and all that, but it’s really rather absurd to start passing out prizes inside the first 100 days in office. The nobel committee wasn’t omniscient on this.
Tom Hilton
@Ash Can: exactly. When I hear about the new START treaty, or the Ukrainian HEU deal, or this conference, my first thought is: he’s earning his Nobel prize. (And I think nobody is more aware than Obama himself that he needs to earn it.)
thereisnorule6
@Mike Kay: he pitched in Canada for a short time.
Linda Featheringill
My, my. The boy CAN write, can’t he?
It is very reassuring to have competent people in government positions. I fuss and complain and argue when I disagree with them but I also am quite happy that they are not complete idiots.
Pangloss
@GregB: Yeah, but that’s only because Bolton wasn’t able to lop off the top 10 floors of the UN.
Randy P
@Tom Hilton: I think it’s really great that Obama won the Nobel, but I have to admit that award did confuse me. I think the stuff you do to earn a Nobel Prize ought to come before you get the Prize, not after. If the prize was all about faith that Obama will restore our leadership and stature in the not-blowing-stuff-up part of international affairs, I share that faith. I expect he’ll go down in history as one of the greats. He may already have earned that place in history in his first year. But I would rather have seen the prize awarded in 2010 or 2011, after those accomplishments.
What I mostly liked about the award was the way it made GOP crazies heads blow up. That’s always fun.
Edit: From the Clemons article
What’s that all about?
ChrisS
Does anyone else remember a Bloom County comic strip with Opus disguised as America’s top-secret plan to topple the Soviets? He was dressed like a soviet peasant woman, but had a secret stash of McDonald’s and Mickey Mouse ears. I really wish I could find an image of that.
Randy P
Grammatical nitpick from the article:
My inner Grammar Nazi says that this should be “has shown” and there is no time when “has showed” would be correct. Am I wrong?
Peter J
Zifnab, they gave him the Peace Prize to put pressure on him to actually do what he said he would do.
Now, he can’t back down, if he breaks his promises, an unearned Peace Prize will become a gigantic burden on his legacy.
I think it was masterful pick.
Clifton
I would like to encourage those rekindling the Nobel decision to simple read the speech Mr. Jagland delivered in introduction to awarding the prize. He was very straight-forward about it.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/presentation-speech.html
PS. The lack of enthusiasm from the left for the work this administration has done on non-proliferation is astonishing.
Cat Lady
I think Hillary, Uncle Joe and Obama are clueing everyone in the global diplomatic community to what awaits if the Palinistas are given the keys to the car again with the Scheunemann/Kagan/Krauthammer/Abrams navigation system ready to run. That’s as good as a nuclear threat right there, and frankly, less predictable, since The Quitta has already said cyberattacks are nukable.
Maude
@Randy P:
You’re right. Good on you.
PeakVT
[Obama] still needs to find a way to deal with the Iranian leadership’s paranoia about Western regime change efforts.
Withdrawing all troops from countries that border Iran would solve most of that problem.
Tom Hilton
@Randy P: I agree that the prize was premature. That said, I think it’s paying off nicely. I think it was intended not just to predict greatness but to nudge Obama in that direction [edit: which point was already made in #21–oh well]. And to his credit, I think he really is trying to become worthy of the honor.
Mike Kay
I’m tired of all these positive features on Obama. It’s always positive.
When are we gonna hear any criticism of Obama?
gwangung
@Clifton:
Really.
You’d think that this was because they can see no way to play more-progressive-than-thou with this or something like that.
Mnemosyne
@ChrisS:
Actually, I think it was Bill the Cat, not Opus. Remember, Bill was the one who was dating Jeane Kirkpatrick.
Ming
@gwangung:
Oh, Gwangung, surely not…
Heh. It’s worth noting that O worked with Lugar on securing loose nukes — as a U.S. Senator, well before the Nobel.
IndieTarheel
@Cat Lady: Acutally, that was the other half of Bachmann-Palin OveurDone who was ready to nuke the cyberterrists. It’s not the crazy eyes that make her look insane, it’s the batshit insanity that makes her look insane.
Randy P
@Clifton:
Remember the name Valerie Plame, formerly-undercover CIA operative until she and an entire CIA cover operation were blown by the Republicans for short-term political gain?
Know what she was working on? Loose nukes. Keeping nukes out of the hands of terrorists. I’m amazed that nobody hit the ceiling over that direct strike AGAINST national security by the GOP.
JCT
@Randy P:
Yes. IOKIYAR. The all-purpose answer for the times we live in.
Rick Taylor
Personally I think any kind of confrontation with Iran is misguided. They have every right to pursue nuclear energy; we’re just making up rules for them to follow with no basis in international law. Plus when Obama tells them they have an opportunity to join the civilized community of nations it sounds incredibly condescending to my ears; excuse me, but which nation was it that invaded a country in the region under a false causus belli, creating millions of refugees?
Having said that, a misguided policy followed sanely and competently is infinitely preferable to the same policy followed recklessly.
Steeplejack
@Randy P:
You are correct, sir.
– Former copyeditor/lifelong grammar Nazi.
Rick Taylor
__
Fixed.
PanAmerican
@Mike Kay:
Try nyceve’s rec post at the GoS. It’s a mean spirited, eight ball of crazy – with a donation button!
Paula
@Mike Kay:
Hmmm, to be fair, teh prog blogs seem busy speculating on Dawn Johnsen not being recess-appointed and then withdrawing her nomination to the OLC.
Which I don’t get. I mean, Harold Koh was just as big a critic of the Bush Admin and he managed to get in via a cloture vote without too much fuss.
Elisabeth
@PeakVT:
Or shutting up members of Congress who jokingly or not suggest bombing Iran.
Elisabeth
@PanAmerican:
Thanks but no thanks. Also.
robuzo
“At a political fundraiser in the fall of 2008, a congressional candidate introduced me to Rahm Emanuel and explained that I was an expert on Kyrgyzstan. Emanuel quipped that if one of his daughters ever needed to do a book report on an exotic land, he’d give me a call.” ( http://www.salon.com/print.html?URL=/news/feature/2010/04/09/guide_to_kyrgyzstan_uprising )
Emanuel may not be the bogeyman, but he sure is a dick, in addition to being not very prescient.