Changing The Scenery

It's a time-tested political ploy and it works: when the going gets tough, change the scenery.

With President Obama up between a rock (conservative republican hucksters - or maybe just Glenn Beck) and a hard place (a cacophony of confused dems), the public has begun to view him and his Presidency as, well, perhaps a tad ineffectual. Only a bit - he's built a lot of deserved goodwill, but the doubts have begun to creep in.

After all, he's a Democratic President working with a Democratic controlled Congress. If he can't get a bill passed - even a very difficult one on health care, then what can he do?

The answer is change the channel, pick another subject, and let the stalemate resolve itself (if possible) out of the public eye. So, the President has turned attention to foreign affairs, something he has so far left to Hillary Clinton - who's been conspicuous by her absence from (at least US) news media.

And he's begun with a big move - scrapping the plans to place missile defenses in Eastern Europe. Removing a big obstacle to joint initiatives with Russia, and relieving pressure from those Eastern EU politicos, most of whom were reluctant to host the defenses.

Not content with that feint, the President is jigging further with a plan from the tried and true democratic presidential playbook: get Israel and the Palestinians talking. He's moving to get Netanyahu and Abbas together, presumably to discuss getting some movement towards a form of peace. Good Luck with that one, Mr. Obama- check how well Mr. Clinton did when Netanyahu was last prime minister.

Of course, if these initiatives run up against a wall, fall into quicksand, or perhaps bang into Glenn Beck, the President can always switch back to health care. And leave Hillary to take the heat. Or take on Glenn Beck - she'd 'Hillarize' him, for sure.