It's not a minor problem if Barack Obama is afraid to hit back at the racist right wing in America. That includes generals that make disrespectful, insubordinate comments that go without appropriate punishment, which means getting their asses fired the very next day. That includes Rupert Murdoch and his army of flying white monkeys.

The puzzling thing is that Barack Obama seems eager to mete out punishment towards the side that got him elected, even if the accusations against those parties were entirely false. Thus, Sharron Sherrod and ACORN. Is this a form of projection, of trying to appear pseudo-tough, or is he appeasing the white right by letting himself fall for their tricks?

Only Nixon could go to China. Maybe only a white male president can take on the racist white establishment.

Prove me wrong, Mr. President.
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Cows get milked, rubes get bilked,
And fat cats dine on fools and cream.

I suspect it's inexperience, rather than weakness. Remember, Obama rose to this position with very little actual political experience. My fear that he would be at the mercy of his more experienced advisers was one of my main hesitations in voting for him.

Jonathan Alter: To me the most compelling totally unknown story was that in the middle of these intense meetings on what to do about Afghanistan, there was what the White House considered to be insubordination on the part of the military. And they were jamming the President, boxing him in, and when I asked the President about it, he said, “I can neither confirm nor deny that I was jammed by the Pentagon.”
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let's see what happens if anything this time.

To me it's more important in this case to watch what the military and Gates are doing than to focus on Obama's weaknesses, though of course they are relevant.

_{The origin of the universe has not as yet been shown to be a conspiracy theory}