Adults and kiddies

Despite serious shortcomings in the domestic department, Obama’s handling of the country’s affairs on the road has been masterful. Diplomacy obviously taps his major strengths like calm reasonableness, empathy and charm and exploits his celebrity status. W gave him a terrific honeymoon set-up, too, by being such an asshole. All he needs to do is show up and ask an informed question, and he looks great.

We don’t know how he’ll respond to the inevitable conflicts, but the Somali pirate episode suggests a low-key public stance and competent management. The Fox News wacko brigade plays right into his style by responding with instant hysteria to everything and looking like schoolchildren. They score points with their base, but those of us who don’t put on tinfoil hats each morning can feel that our affairs are being handled by an adult.


Speaking of wackos, I’m not sure what to make of the secession talk from Texas and elsewhere especially since I spend a lot of time in the South where that kind of talk led to civil war and half a million deaths a while back. It’s rather amazing that defending our civil liberties post-9/11 was considered treasonous, but open sedition by the losing side in an election is taken to be amusingly folkloric.

Reports of the resuscitation of ultra-conservative and neofascist groups is always disturbing, too, but that and the secession fantasy all suggest the dying yelps of the beaten who know they can’t get back on top through argument or the electoral process and can only dream of coups or Alamo-style self-immolations. The Republican Party’s kneejerk obstructionism fits this mindset, and while they undoubtedly can run substantial interference, they look petulant and nasty and clueless about why people turned against them.