Web Letters: How Bold Is Barack?

Obama is bold in some aspects. The PPIP program was far more aggressive than Bush's TARP. The amount of debt and risk that Obama has saddled us with for the benefit of the people who created the current mess was very bold.

The GM bailout was very bold. GM is moving more jobs to China, Canada, and Mexico with that money. Very bold indeed.

I think the fact that Obama hasn't even talked about reforming H-1B visas, which our own government says is full of fraud, is bold. There are now more American engineers out of work than there are H-1B visa holders. I have seen firsthand, as Microsoft laid off nearly 5000 employees (they aren't completely done yet). The guys I saw losing their jobs were hard-working, smart family men in their 50s. In some groups Microsoft restricts hiring to two vendors (usually Infosys, Accenture or Wipro). So every résumé is H-1B. So those Americans will not be getting their jobs back whenever jobs do come back.

The fact that Obama does nothing about this is bold.

Patrick Leahy

Pendleton, IN

Dear Mr. Alterman, thank you for another elegant paean in praise of Barack. They are so rare these days, and yours was a welcome relief from all the Obama-bashing the MSM indulges in. If only they could see, as you see. As Hugo Chávez and the Supreme Leader and Ron Gettleman see: this guy is a milch cow of prodigious generosity.

And thanks for the preview of the years ahead: "the catastrophes [America] faces after eight years of incompetence, extremism and corruption enabled by a proudly clueless but uneducable punditocracy."

fred gill

Oakland, CA

It seems to me that the biggest difference between Obama and FDR is that Obama can't think outside the box. And the GOP built the box.

If you look at his actions (and inaction) so far, there is a common timidity and unwillingness to challenge the status quo or the minority party. Obama now has a supermajority in Congress, a voter mandate, and thirty years of Reagan damage to repair. He has criminal prosecutions to pursue for crimes against humanity. He has a mandate to fix a dysfunctional employer-based private insurance system with a public single payer option.

I don't expect any swagger or broad gestures. However, if Obama doesn't start talking straight, opening up government, and defending the Constitution instead of the top 1 percent, I think he stands a good chance of being a single-term president.

Time to stop equivocating and start delivering, Mr. President.

William W. Wexler

Minneapolis, MN