Moving toward the center

Is President-elect Obama tilting toward the “center”? Meaning, by doing so is he positioning himself between the liberals and the conservatives and subsequently, among other promises he made, moving away from the vow he made during the Democrat Party campaign run-up to the presidency, to cut billions of dollars from U.S. military funds?

Here’s my revised reasoning.

I wrote a letter to the editor about senator Obama on Nov.10, 2008, titled “Terrorism with Obama,” lamenting his vow to gut our military during the Democratic campaign, when he becomes our president. This “gutting” will not only threaten the Mariana Islands’ hoped-for military buildup and with it the economic windfall certain to follow in the coming years, but also impair measures to protect the islands from external and internal threats, whether from terrorists a mere 1,500 miles due west of us or from the three communist nations bordering the Pacific that have guns and missiles pointing in our direction. And now he is the President of the United States.

So what does the coming four years bode for us?

In my letter I offered to send to interested readers a YouTube video of Obama unequivocally stating he would cut the military budget. The response by those readers desiring to view that very chilling YouTube video of him making that promise—letters from Saipan, Guam and around the world—has been overwhelming. They cannot believe he did say it, and they wonder why the new U.S. president would leave us (America) defenseless as did president Carter from 1977 to 1981.

But something strange has happened since Obama won the presidency: he shifted into neutral.

President-elect Obama, by his ongoing selection of Cabinet members, is surrounding himself with appointees that will leave behind the far-left, anti-America faction that now dominate both houses of Congress. President-elect Obama has nominated (as of this writing) not his personal “cronies” of ill reputation, but those of pragmatic bent and with deep experiences (Washington insiders) in matters he is decidedly weak in—not the idealism and the “change” he portrayed that won him accolades during the run-up to the presidency (which sent the liberals jumping up and down in glee)—and of a centrist view closely knit with former President Clinton who, too, moved to the center after his election and (in my personal opinion) did a good job the eight years in office. Without the personal (sexual) scandals that dogged his tenure, that is.

Though president-elect Obama desires to bring new ideas to the table, he is wise enough to understand now is not the time to experiment and has moved to deal with military and foreign policies from the center—without the political extremism he has vocalized. That alone tells us something about him. His learning curve is sharper than I originally visualized. And I am not as much concerned with the other political doubts that have been heaped upon Obama, as I am worried about that which can immeasurably affect us here in the Marianas. Will the new president really govern from the center—which would help us here in the Pacific—and not follow up on his early threats to gut our defenses?

Where will we be after President Obama is sworn in on Jan. 20, 2009? His game plan is evolving dramatically. We can only wait and watch. Only time and patience can tell.