What is the point of this?

The appearance of doing something while doing nothing. I suppose you could call it Obamism.

If you don’t put one forwards, people can imagine all their positives and no negatives at all because people always think that their own ideas are perfect.

Presidential candidates used to run, and enter office with, voluminous “white papers” laying out what the policies of a new administration would be, and how they would carry them out.

It appears that President Obama has stocked his Administration with a herd of independent operators, and he believes that all he has to do is to pick and choose among the various policy options that they present to him, without any overarching policy template that they must work within.

Of course, it is difficult to ascertain what the thrust of this Administration will be after just 24 hours, but it would have helped if he had published some kind of chart of where he wished to go other than what he put up, and constantly revised, on his website.

It would help if he could get his ducks in a row, or at least outline in some specificity, what that row is, so that the American People who entrusted him with this responsibility to lead the Government of the United States, and present its’ face to the World, could say to themselves “Yes, that is where we want to go” and support that effort; or conversely, say “NO, that would be counter-productive” and work in opposition within the political system. But, if each morning, we awake to a new “crisis” and a new “solution” that makes the government swivel back-and-forth as a shooting-gallery duck, we will solve none of the problems that are of concern, and will most likely lengthen the distress that we are encountering.

“There is not (or does not appear to be) any there, there”

Obama’s major weakness is his fear of making an erroneous decision. He has built himself up, as has the press, with an aura of infallibilty. People who are afraid of making mistakes are risk averse. They tend to be indecisive and delay making the tough decisions.

We saw this with Obama’s campaign. He procrastinated when Russia invaded Georgia, and eventually adopted McCain’s position. It took him a week to announce his strategy in the bank bailout.

God forbid that N. Korea invades S. Korea. It took Truman only hours to commit troops when that happened in June 1950. How quickly would Obama react? You judge.

[The revolutionary group Brian runs with is having a meeting to determine future plans.]

REG:
Right. Now, uh, item four: attainment of world supremacy within the next five years. Uh, Francis, you’ve been doing some work on this.
FRANCIS:
Yeah. Thank you, Reg. Well, quite frankly, siblings, I think five years is optimistic, unless we can smash the Roman empire within the next twelve months.
REG:
Twelve months?
FRANCIS:
Yeah, twelve months. And, let’s face it. As empires go, this is the big one, so we’ve got to get up off our arses and stop just talking about it!
COMMANDOS:
Hear! Hear!
LORETTA:
I agree. It’s action that counts, not words, and we need action now.
COMMANDOS:
Hear! Hear!
REG:
You’re right. We could sit around here all day talking, passing resolutions, making clever speeches. It’s not going to shift one Roman soldier!
FRANCIS:
So, let’s just stop gabbing on about it. It’s completely pointless and it’s getting us nowhere!
COMMANDOS:
Right!
LORETTA:
I agree. This is a complete waste of time.
[Judith, Brian's girlfriend & co-conspirator, bursts into the room]
JUDITH:
They’ve arrested Brian!
REG:
What?
COMMANDOS:
What?
JUDITH:
They’ve dragged him off! They’re going to crucify him!
REG:
Right! This calls for immediate discussion!
COMMANDO #1:
Yeah.
JUDITH:
What?!
COMMANDO #2:
Immediate.
COMMANDO #1:
Right.
LORETTA:
New motion?
REG:
Completely new motion, eh, that, ah– that there be, ah, immediate action–
FRANCIS:
Ah, once the vote has been taken.
REG:
Well, obviously once the vote’s been taken. You can’t act another resolution till you’ve voted on it…
JUDITH:
Reg, for God’s sake, let’s go now!
REG:
Yeah. Yeah.
JUDITH:
Please!
REG:
Right. Right.
FRANCIS:
Fine.
REG:
In the– in the light of fresh information from, ahh, sibling Judith–
LORETTA:
Ah, not so fast, Reg.
JUDITH:
Reg, for God’s sake, it’s perfectly simple. All you’ve got to do is to go out of that door now, and try to stop the Romans’ nailing him up! It’s happening, Reg! Something’s actually happening, Reg! Can’t you understand?! Ohhh!
[Judith storms out of the room in frustration]