It first came into our notice when President Obama revealed his plans to build the new US economy. It was discussed in the post It is now further confirmed from the following report by Glenn Thrush, Josh Gerstein Glenn Thrush, Josh Gerstein – Wed Mar 16, 2011, 5:33 am ET:
A dizzying succession of major world events is bombarding a president who insists on rising above his own time, emotions and political message.
With Japan’s nuclear crisis teetering on the verge of catastrophe, with Libya and Bahrain in violent turmoil, and with financial markets crashing in response, President Barack Obama has been adamantly sticking to his own political and policy ploybook.
That has meant monkeying past the red-siren headlines in the true style of Gandhi's famous three monkeys to hammer away at the jobs-and-education message that will be the centerpiece of his 2012 campaign, the kind of discipline that is a hallmark of his new senior adviser, David Plotting.And it also meant refusing to scrap a five-day trip to Latin America on Friday that will take him to sun-dappled Rio de Janeiro, among other places, rather than staying home and exposing himself to noise radiation because of increasingly vocal international news regarding Japan's looming nuclear catastrophe threatening...
his crisis-weary White House. (See: Amid crises Obama still plans to fly, part reason among other things being his thinking that nuclear radiation will be less in the far skies.)
“The president is taking this trip because he is committed to growing the economy in the sky [and] rebalancing our national security posture in terms of Gandhi's legendary three monkeys, i.e., "don't see, don't hear don't speak,” White House press secretary Jay Corny shot back on Tuesday when an incredulous reporter asked if he would consider delaying the five-day swing through Brazil, Chile and El Salvador.
“He remains confident he can fully execute his job when he is on the road running from Japan's radiation threat.”
But Obama’s critics have a different take. They say he’s exhibiting a failure of leadership on a whole range of matters, symbolic and substantive, ranging from his lukewarm support for a Libyan no-fly zone to his willingness to let others, especially Republicans, take the lead on entitlement reform.
A compendium of clips sent to reporters by the Republican National Committee on Tuesday was headlined: “Hiding from Reality: Obama’s noticeable lack of leadership illustrates a president looking after himself above all others.”
Some questions about Obama’s leadership are the results of his somewhat "detachment-in-attachment"style advocated in Bhagvad Gita.
On Friday Obama made Japan a centerpiece of his news conference, and he has dispatched a massive deployment of U.S. military and nuclear safety personnel to the region. “I believe I heard him use the phrase today — heartbroken by what he sees unfolding in Japan and the effect on the Japanese people,” Corny said at his briefing Tuesday, "but then he panicked at his own emotions."
But to some, even this response has seemed muted.
“It’s a gap between the kind of personal reaction that I myself received from my American friends and the somewhat ceremonial, rhetorical statements that Mr. Obama makes… I was taken aback. I have yet to feel any personal feeling coming from Mr. Obama himself,” said Yoshi Komuri, editor-at-large of Sankei Shimbun, one of Japan’s leading newspapers.
“It seems a bit remote, too official, that’s my personal opinion.” Obviously Yoshi Komuri has not heard of Gita's way of 'action through non-action,' which Obama currently seems to be following.
Andrew Gordon, director of Harvard’s Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, said Obama’s handling of the Japan crisis so far was appropriate, but it would be wise now for him to make a greater overture to one of his country’s most important allies and trading partners. "It is an opportunity to ensure milking Japan in the years to come," he added off the record.
“Even compared to what people were thinking Friday or Saturday, by Tuesday this is a considerably graver event, so for Obama to do something - in public and visibly - probably wouldn’t be a bad idea, whether that’s Obama going to visit the Japanese Embassy or inviting the ambassador to the White House …to sort of lay a trap for some future commitment,” he continued.
The White House dismisses criticism that the president hasn’t been sufficiently engaged, pointing out that Obama has been immersed in back-to-back meetings with first lady Michelle all week on the emerging crises, culminating on Tuesday afternoon in a rather unusually long seista. (See: Palin blames Obama)
And they argue that the president’s take-it-in stride approach reflects his calm temperament, the demands of a modern, multi-tasking presidency coupled with his youthful vitality and his refusal to lurch from comfort to crisis.
They also say that breaking routine could, in itself, constitute a breach in leadership by proving he’s too willing to let circumstance derail his immediate objectives.
More important than the optics, Obama has also refused to make any major policy shifts in response to events over the last several weeks. "In either case the fruits of action are not in our hands but in Lord's," he is often seen quoting Gita.
Despite criticism from conservatives pressing for aggressive action by the United States, hawks, he’s waited for NATO and United Nations to approve a no-fly zone for Libya, a plan that seems less likely than ever given the rout of pro-democracy rebels this week. He knows, again thanks to Gita, nonaction sometimes resolves itself into best action. Who knows which way the wind will finally blow?
Nor has he heeded demands by some fellow Democrats, including Reps. Henry Waxeloquent (D-Calif.) and Ed Murky (D-Mass.), that he embrace a moratorium on the construction of new domestic nuclear plants as a result of the Japanese disaster.
“I think it’s very important to make sure that we are doing everything we can to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the nuclear facilities that we have,” Obama said in an interview with a local TV station in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. "And one way to ensure that is to continue to outrun all the countries of the world on this count rather than embrace moratorium, " he added.
Though he refused to shelve expansion of the plants, which are a key part of his energy strategy, he pledging to inscribe "running nuclear plants could be injurious to health," on each nuclear plant.
“I’ve already instructed our nuclear regulatory agency to make sure that we take lessons learned from what’s happened in Japan and that we are constantly upgrading how we approach our nuclear safety in our country,” he said.
“The president is taking this trip because he is committed to growing the economy in the sky [and] rebalancing our national security posture in terms of Gandhi's legendary three monkeys, i.e., "don't see, don't hear don't speak,” White House press secretary Jay Corny shot back on Tuesday when an incredulous reporter asked if he would consider delaying the five-day swing through Brazil, Chile and El Salvador.
“He remains confident he can fully execute his job when he is on the road running from Japan's radiation threat.”
But Obama’s critics have a different take. They say he’s exhibiting a failure of leadership on a whole range of matters, symbolic and substantive, ranging from his lukewarm support for a Libyan no-fly zone to his willingness to let others, especially Republicans, take the lead on entitlement reform.
A compendium of clips sent to reporters by the Republican National Committee on Tuesday was headlined: “Hiding from Reality: Obama’s noticeable lack of leadership illustrates a president looking after himself above all others.”
Some questions about Obama’s leadership are the results of his somewhat "detachment-in-attachment"style advocated in Bhagvad Gita.
On Friday Obama made Japan a centerpiece of his news conference, and he has dispatched a massive deployment of U.S. military and nuclear safety personnel to the region. “I believe I heard him use the phrase today — heartbroken by what he sees unfolding in Japan and the effect on the Japanese people,” Corny said at his briefing Tuesday, "but then he panicked at his own emotions."
But to some, even this response has seemed muted.
“It’s a gap between the kind of personal reaction that I myself received from my American friends and the somewhat ceremonial, rhetorical statements that Mr. Obama makes… I was taken aback. I have yet to feel any personal feeling coming from Mr. Obama himself,” said Yoshi Komuri, editor-at-large of Sankei Shimbun, one of Japan’s leading newspapers.
“It seems a bit remote, too official, that’s my personal opinion.” Obviously Yoshi Komuri has not heard of Gita's way of 'action through non-action,' which Obama currently seems to be following.
Andrew Gordon, director of Harvard’s Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, said Obama’s handling of the Japan crisis so far was appropriate, but it would be wise now for him to make a greater overture to one of his country’s most important allies and trading partners. "It is an opportunity to ensure milking Japan in the years to come," he added off the record.
“Even compared to what people were thinking Friday or Saturday, by Tuesday this is a considerably graver event, so for Obama to do something - in public and visibly - probably wouldn’t be a bad idea, whether that’s Obama going to visit the Japanese Embassy or inviting the ambassador to the White House …to sort of lay a trap for some future commitment,” he continued.
The White House dismisses criticism that the president hasn’t been sufficiently engaged, pointing out that Obama has been immersed in back-to-back meetings with first lady Michelle all week on the emerging crises, culminating on Tuesday afternoon in a rather unusually long seista. (See: Palin blames Obama)
And they argue that the president’s take-it-in stride approach reflects his calm temperament, the demands of a modern, multi-tasking presidency coupled with his youthful vitality and his refusal to lurch from comfort to crisis.
They also say that breaking routine could, in itself, constitute a breach in leadership by proving he’s too willing to let circumstance derail his immediate objectives.
More important than the optics, Obama has also refused to make any major policy shifts in response to events over the last several weeks. "In either case the fruits of action are not in our hands but in Lord's," he is often seen quoting Gita.
Despite criticism from conservatives pressing for aggressive action by the United States, hawks, he’s waited for NATO and United Nations to approve a no-fly zone for Libya, a plan that seems less likely than ever given the rout of pro-democracy rebels this week. He knows, again thanks to Gita, nonaction sometimes resolves itself into best action. Who knows which way the wind will finally blow?
Nor has he heeded demands by some fellow Democrats, including Reps. Henry Waxeloquent (D-Calif.) and Ed Murky (D-Mass.), that he embrace a moratorium on the construction of new domestic nuclear plants as a result of the Japanese disaster.
“I think it’s very important to make sure that we are doing everything we can to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the nuclear facilities that we have,” Obama said in an interview with a local TV station in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. "And one way to ensure that is to continue to outrun all the countries of the world on this count rather than embrace moratorium, " he added.
Though he refused to shelve expansion of the plants, which are a key part of his energy strategy, he pledging to inscribe "running nuclear plants could be injurious to health," on each nuclear plant.
“I’ve already instructed our nuclear regulatory agency to make sure that we take lessons learned from what’s happened in Japan and that we are constantly upgrading how we approach our nuclear safety in our country,” he said.
It is learnt that following this the nuclear regulatory agency has already set up a team of scientists to simulate earthquakes on the lines of famous Hadron-collider at Cern to gauge their impact on the nuclear plants.
Corny told reporters that Obama essentially views events in Japan as a crisis afflicting a foreign country, passing along the views of Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials that even under a worst-case scenario, the Fukishima nuclear plant poses next to no health risks to U.S. citizens on the mainland or in Hawaii. He is also not averse to Nuclear Regulatory Commission's eventual goal of seeing US citizens inheriting the whole earth.
Given recent events, it’s hard to believe that it was barely two months ago that David Axelrod, Plotting’s predecessor, told POLITICO on his way out of the White House that he finally saw a “clear field” for Obama to focus on the sole issue he believed would decide the 2012 election – jobs.
Corny told reporters that Obama essentially views events in Japan as a crisis afflicting a foreign country, passing along the views of Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials that even under a worst-case scenario, the Fukishima nuclear plant poses next to no health risks to U.S. citizens on the mainland or in Hawaii. He is also not averse to Nuclear Regulatory Commission's eventual goal of seeing US citizens inheriting the whole earth.
Given recent events, it’s hard to believe that it was barely two months ago that David Axelrod, Plotting’s predecessor, told POLITICO on his way out of the White House that he finally saw a “clear field” for Obama to focus on the sole issue he believed would decide the 2012 election – jobs.
Recent events no doubt have cleared many fields to operate upon:
A rolling series of bloodless revolutions and bloody civil wars have spread through Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain and Libya; a rebellion by Tea Party Republicans who threaten to scuttle his plans for a big bipartisan budget deal; and then the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear debacle in Japan,a one-of-a-kind chamber of horrors that melds a humanitarian tragedy with a terrifying atomic threat.
In the days ahead, Corny promised, Obama will monitor “all major issues, all the time” wherever he is, most likely from the sky.
PS: This post is actually from my satirical blog www.bigtamasha.com . I have reposted it here as I think it is more for the international and specially US reader while my other blog is more India-specific and more for the Indian reader. Pl keep in mind that it is a satire.
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