Obama the wimp

Obama is a conciliator by temperament. He has the instincts of a lefty community organizer looking to bring opponents together and getting them to agree to compromises. That could be a good thing but only for a conciliator who knows how to deal with the occasional faction that proves to be intractable and uncompromising. Obama does not have that skill. While he may be aiming for a less domineering, more realistic, role for the US his progress towards that goal is almost entirely rhetorical or symbolic. He yields to the neocons. the unreconstructed militarists and imperialists of our time, the entire substance of their demands -- less, I believe, from finding merit in their recommendations than out of fear of confrontation.