Urban Thought Collective

The emergence of Dick Cheney as the Republican Party’s de facto spokesman shows how committed the conservatives are to thwarting President Barack Obama. Conservatives applauded the President’s two recent foreign policy flip-flops (he now opposes releasing photos of terror suspects being abused by U.S. personnel and he supports the use of military tribunals to try alleged terrorists) but the GOP is still going after Obama with everything they’ve got. Dick Cheney’s speech at the American Policy Institute was designed to defend the Bush Administration’s disgraceful (and probably illegal) policies and, more importantly, to undermine President Obama.

Once again the Republicans have shown that they have no interest in bipartisan cooperation. Their goal is to regain control of the government and their strategy is to fight President Obama on every issue that comes up. Obama gained nothing by reversing course on the military tribunals and the detainee photos. In spite of those concessions, the Republicans are still out to get him and now he’s in danger of alienating the Democratic Party’s liberal base. Worst of all, the policy reversals make Obama appear indecisive and unsure of himself. The Republicans characterized him as an inexperienced junior Senator during the Presidential campaign and, I’m sad to say, he kind of acted like that with those two big 180s.

On the other hand, the President was strong and inspiring when he spoke at the National Archives about the importance of hanging on to our Constitutional values while fighting terrorism. Unfortunately, that speech also came off like damage control. His policy shifts and his inability to convince the Senate to fund the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison forced Mr. Obama into the position of defending his policies. And he wasn’t entirely successful.

The President sounded determined when he explained why he was withholding the detainee abuse photos. But the argument still isn’t convincing. It’s hard to believe that old images of past abuse would incite terrorists to hate us more – especially if Mr. Obama used the pictures as examples of what the U.S. used to do but no longer does. It seems much more likely that censoring the photos could make it easier for al Qaeda et al to claim that the U.S. is hiding something, and to suggest that Obama is up to the same kind of skullduggery that Bush practiced. This almost certainly will be the perception fostered by the continuation of the military tribunals.

But Obama is stuck with these conservative positions, now. He can ill afford to reverse himself again (although I wish he would). He has one more shot at credibility in this area. No matter what happens or who says what, President Obama has to hold the line on closing Guantanamo Bay. If he caves on that issue he will not only alienate more of his core supporters and embolden his conservative opponents, he will raise new doubts about his basic leadership abilities and his qualifications for holding the nation’s highest office.

I voted for Barack Obama because he was a courageous, brilliant leader who was determined to bring about change. I’m not feeling this backpedaling Obama who seems to be going out of his way to win over conservative opponents who have no interest in playing on his team.

Thanks for listening. I’m Cameron Turner and that’s my two cents1

THINK! IT AIN’T ILLEGAL…YET!

Cameron Turner is a Los Angeles-area native whose editorials, entertainment news features and audio documentaries have appeared on national radio networks, online and in print for over 20 years.