On Obama

Today I want to share a few articles that highlight my bipolar opinions of our president. The first is a piece by "The Economist" outlining Obama's strategy in dealing with Iran:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2010/08/america_and_iran

I think this article supports my belief that Obama's foreign policy skills have been spectacular. Warming relations with Russia and successfully navigating difficulties with North Korea and China are all significant accomplishments, as are the UN sanctions that Obama helped get through the Security Council. I still haven't decided how I feel about war in Afghanistan, but other than that I am very comfortable with Obama's ability to represent our country to the world.

The second article is from the "New York Times" and discusses the bailouts of the auto industry:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/us/politics/06obama.html?_r=1&ref=politics

While I'll leave formal evaluations of this policy to more skilled macroeconomists, I believe that it is generally bad policy to use taxpayer money to prop up a failing industry. If the demand for American-made cars isn't great enough to ensure the survival of these companies on their own, then the government has no place trying to keep them in business. While I think that the best government policy is generally to avoid any intervention in the private sector, I would at least have more support for spending this money on job retraining or some other venture help former autoworkers. In the end, however, Obama is doing nothing other than spending our money to delay the inevitable.