According to the BBC, Still-President Bush has said, in a White House statement,
Hamas has held the people of Gaza hostage ever since their illegal coup against the forces of (Palestinian) President Mahmoud Abbas
Not untrue, but it glosses over (ignores) what Israel is carelessly doing to thousands of innocent civilians. This is expected.
And, also according to the BBC, President-Elect Obama's spokesperson has said:
The president-elect is closely monitoring global events, including the situation in Gaza.
This is all I can find from the President-Elect. There is nothing to be found on either BarackObama.com or Change.gov. The New York Times and Washington Post pieces are both devoid of Obama comment.
This begs a serious question: where is the President-Elect? Obama hasn't exactly been invisible since Election Day. Why is he ducking this issue? For all his talk on international leadership he's being awfully silent at a time when American leadership is as important as ever. I understand he's not the president yet, but sheesh! No comment at all? No generic condemnation of acts of violence on either side? Not to warn Israel to keep civilians safe? It doesn't even have to be differnet from the official White House statement. I just want to hear something.
I think in time you will find the Pres elect will respond to major events in the manor Pres Clinton did, wait for the polls, find the popular side and then weigh in, You can never be wrong. Wait long enough we'll tell him what he thinks.
ReplyDeletetowp:
ReplyDeleteThat's kind of disingenuous. Polling is a blunt tool that gives a vague impression of a very deep and complex issue. If this were the campaign and Obama were silent for this long it'd be called a huge mistake. He has a position--or at least has people who have a position on his behalf. He's just not sharing it. And that frustrates me.
Art:
ReplyDeleteYou and I agree that having our own position is very important. I'm 59 years young and believe me I've seen enough. Look at John Kerrys position on Iraq and look at public sediment you'll see the parallel. Sorry if it seems shallow but thats my position.
Thanks for your concern the the real problem "Where is Obama" its an important issue.
That's an interesting point about John Kerry (and true), but I think the difference here is that Obama isn't running for anything any more. He's in a position of anticipated power, so he's looked to to give deeper, more complex guidance.
ReplyDeleteWhat I saw him say in a press conference today was that he is waiting until January 20th to give deeper statements on Gaza, which leads me to believe he's going to take a sharply different tack from the current administration. Which, quite frankly, I look forward to seeing. If nothing else it will shake things up and maybe that will be enough to get people to move forward. Probably not, but we can, to coin a term, hope.