In her column last Sunday, "Fie, Fatal Flaw," Maureen Dowd makes a good point that President Obama does not want to compromise so much that his ideals get blurred out of recognition.
Quoting Leon Wieseltier in the New Republic, she comments: “'The demotion of human rights by the common-ground presidency is absolutely incomprehensible. The common ground is not always the high ground. When it is without end, moreover, the search for common ground is bad for bargaining. It informs the other side that what you most desire is the deal — that you will never acknowledge the finality of the difference, and never be satisfied with the integrity of opposition. There is a reason that ‘uncompromising’ is a term of approbation.'"
Dowd continues, "F.D.R. asked to be judged by the enemies he had made. But what of a president who strives to keep everyone in some vague middle ground of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, without ever offending anyone?
"F.D.R. asked to be judged by the enemies he had made. But what of a president who strives to keep everyone in some vague middle ground of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, without ever offending anyone?
"White House advisers don’t seem worried yet that Obama’s transformational aura could get smudged if too much is fudged. They say it is the normal tension between campaigning on a change platform and actually accomplishing something in office.
"Yet Obama’s legislative career offers cautionary tales about the toll of constant consensus building.
"In Springfield, he compromised so much on a health care reform bill that in the end, it merely led to a study. In Washington, he compromised so much with Senate Republicans on a bill to require all nuclear plant owners to notify state and local authorities about radioactive leaks that it simply devolved into a bill offering guidance to regulators, and even that ultimately died. Now the air is full of complaints that Obama has been too cautious on health care, Afghanistan, filling judgeships, ending “don’t ask, don’t tell,” repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and rebuilding New Orleans; that he has conceded too much to China, Iran, Russia, the Muslim world and the banks."
For the President to fulfill his promise, every now and then he needs to take a stand on core principle - especially when we're talking about human rights. But Obama appears to be all-too-ready to compromise even there. As 73-year old former Czech president Vaclev Havel said recently about Obama's caving to Chinese dictators by failing to meet with the Dalai Lama during his recent visit to Washington, “It is only a minor compromise. But exactly with these minor compromises start the big and dangerous ones, the real problems.”
