Too Much Transparency?

Just Biden our time in Kabul?

(NYT/AP)

"Although Mr. Obama has said that a stable Afghanistan is central to the security of the United States, some advisers said he was also wary of becoming trapped in an overseas quagmire. Some Pentagon officials say they worry that he is having what they called 'buyer’s remorse' after ordering an extra 21,000 troops there within weeks of taking office before even settling on a strategy."

— Peter Baker and Elizabeth Bumiller, NYTimes

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When the argument was Cut-n-Run™ vs. the Surge®, (and NOT about secretly paying off Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar province), those highly argumentative memes were at least well-formed, group-tested, political propaganda brands that let people latch onto something. Obama's more public dithering over what not to do, instead of what to do, will drive people into Carter-like uncertainty.

Americans aren't educated for debate. There is a supreme being who arbitrates, and CEO's are falsely imbued with omnipotent powers by lay people, even though executives are actually beholden to a board of directors who prefer to work in secrecy.

"Mr. Obama met in the Situation Room with his top advisers on Sept. 13 to begin chewing over the problem, said officials involved in the debate.

"Among those on hand were Mr. Biden; Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates; Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; James L. Jones, the national security adviser; and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

It's where we are on healthcare, now that everything that would be allowed on the table is ostensibly on it; we're just fighting over what NOT to do, instead of what TO do.

The Democrats have the naïve idea that public airing of these quarrels serve the greater good in a healthy debate within a republic, but we're not a healthy republic.

"They reached no consensus, so three or four more such meetings are being scheduled. 'There are a lot of competing views,' said one official who, like others in this article, requested anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations."

We're a babbling mass of confused tribes who believe the hand of God is guiding us by whispering in our fearless leader's ear.

Obama's drawing the wrong conclusion from his win, believing that Americans are hip to transparent public deliberation more than we are used to arguing about pre-defined tokens of brand identification.

A regulated exchange of actuarial products? What the hell is that, and what does it have to do with Communism™ or America © GOP 1776?

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