As president, Barack Obama can easily identify with the social face of Christianity—its care for the community and the good works it can do in the world. Divorced from fixed moral requirements, Obama sees religion as a force to enact social change. What the president seems to lack is a transcendent faith. There is no heaven and hell in his conception, no final judgment, no destination beyond this fleeting life:
“I thought of Sasha asking me once what happened when we die— ‘I don’t want to die, Daddy, ’ she had added matter-of-factly—and I had hugged her and said, ‘You’ve got a long, long way before you have to worry about that, ’ which had seemed to satisfy her,” Obama wrote in Time magazine. “I wondered whether I should have told her the truth, that I wasn’t sure what happens when we die, any more than I was sure of where the soul resides or what existed before the Big Bang.”
THE DIARY OF FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE
April 6, 2010
I may call him Smokey, but I’ll never have to call him Holy Smokey. Barack and I held an Easter breakfast for Christian leaders here at the house this morning. (Don’t ask me why we are having an Easter breakfast two days after Easter—it’s another one of those Christian mysteries, I guess.) Anyway, this being an election year, Axe wants us to build bridges to the religious types. So we had to go to church last weekend (boring!) and Barack has been working on this Christian breakfast speech for weeks. All these ministers and pastors have been traipsing through the house, adding Bible quotes and prayers to the talk. It’s just too long, if you ask me. Last night, Barack even tried to act out parts of his speech at dinner. I could see that all that talk of blood and dying on the cross was making Mama sick to her stomach. She finally threw her napkin down and stormed out of the dining room in frustration. I wish I could have joined her.
So this morning we go down to the East Room, and Smokey gets up to welcome the religious fanatics. The teleprompters slide in and he’s about to launch into his big speech when one of the pastors asks, “Excuse me, Mr. President, could you lead us in grace?” I had to put my coffee cup in front of my mouth so they wouldn’t see me laughing. The only time I’ve ever heard Barack say grace is when it was preceded by “Will &. . . .” He mumbled and stuttered and ummmed for at least two minutes. In desperation, I got up and said, “Pastor, Barack and I are so moved by your request. But you really should say grace. We’re not worthy. Can I get an amen?” The whole room said “Amen” and the Pastor happily said grace. Smokey owes me big-time.
I told him when we got upstairs: this is what happens when you let the holy rollers get too close. He agreed, and out of the blue, promised that we won’t be putting that Jerusalem Barbie Nativity display up in the East Room this Christmas. It gives the girls and the public weird ideas about the holidays. “Why don’t we set out those snowmen you bought last Christmas instead?” Barack suggested. “We really won’t have to worry about religious displays again until at least 2011. And then 2012 will be ‘O come let us adore him’ time!”
Incidentally, the president did finally decide on a place of worship in June 2009: the Evergreen Chapel at Camp David. In a carefully worded statement, the White House said, “The President and First Family continue to look for a church home. They have enjoyed worshipping at Camp David and several other congregations over the months, and will choose a church at the time that is best for their family.” According to Time magazine, Robert Gibbs made sure to add that the First Family was not “joining” the Evergreen Chapel, as it was not open to membership. That’s a good thing because one doesn’t get the feeling that the president is all that interested anyway.
Nine months later, in March 2010, NBC’s Matt Lauer asked President Obama why the First Family still had not selected a hometown church. The president’s excuse put them, of course, in the best possible light:
Michelle and I have realized we are very disruptive to services. . . . And in the meantime, what we’ve done, there was a prayer circle of pastors from across the country who, during the campaign, would say a prayer for me or send a devotional. And we’ve kept that habit up and, and it’s a wonderful group because it’s a mix of some very conservative pastors, some very liberal pastors, but all who, you know, pray for me and Michelle and, and the girls and, and I get a daily devotional on my BlackBerry which is a, is a wonderful thing.
Let us take his points in chronological order. First, his reason for not choosing a church had nothing to do with concern for fellow parishioners, and everything to do with politics. Choosing any individual black church in the District of Columbia would immediately upset the other black congregations and possibly cause hard feelings. This is the same sort of political calculation that drove Obama to choose Trinity all those years ago: his membership offended no one in his orbit and helped propel him into politics.
Second, the fact that other people are praying for him is nice but fails to answer the question. Indeed, millions of Americans pray for their president regardless of political party, every night. And how exactly is it relevant that a daily devotional is sent to his BlackBerry? One can only imagine the type of liberation theology action items landing in his inbox. “Thou shalt stick it to the rich until the rich actually bleed money from their pores!” “Thou shalt not praise the United States too often if doing so obscures the great sins America has committed across the globe!
THE DIARY OF VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
THE U.S. NAVAL OBSERVATORY
March 31, 2010
An entire day has gone by and not a single gaffe from me. Of course, I wasn’t let out of the compound all day, either Not a lot going on here, so I caught up on my DVR’d TV shows. For some reason, it automatically records all the “Hair Club for Men” infomercials.
Yowza, that Today show interview POTUS did this morning was a home run. “Hey, Matt, I don’t need to go to any particular church,” Barack said. “I get regular blast e-mails from some pastor friends, dude!” Why didn’t I think of that?! Maybe there’s some website number I can visit to sign up for meditations or fortunes specifically tailored to me! If they came from a Catholic-focused World Wide Web domain structure resource thing, and I read them every day, I wonder if that would count for going to Mass? The homilies about all that “respecting human life” baloney are just too much to take. Plus, if I never see a collection basket again, it’ll be too soon . . . Wait . . . Damn it! That doesn’t work because I would still need to take communion. Well, I’ve gotten around that one before. I know—why not get some priest to set up a special home delivery service for the wafers and wine? (You know, sort of the way that other Sunday sacrament—the New York Times—is delivered right to my door!)
I know—I’ll call Cardinal Ted McCarrick and see what he thinks. Since he’s retired he might even be willing to make the dropoffs himself. If he won’t go for it, I’ll give Archbishop Wuerl a call. Worse comes to worse, Giblet can get the Washington Post to dig up some old abuse case—that’s always a good way to soften these guys up. Enough negative publicity and they’ll give you the vestments right off their backs. I mean, all I’m looking for is a drive-by cracker, for God’s sake. I’ve got a lot on my plate, man.
THE WINNING WAY
We are called neither by God nor America to hide our faith or secularize it. Rather, Christians are commanded in the Gospels to let our faith shine in all aspects of our lives.
You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father. (Matthew 5:13–16)
Religious faith speaks to what is central to us as human beings. It speaks to our deepest convictions about this world and the next. The beauty of
America is the freedom we have not only to express our religious faith, but also to practice it and to allow that practice to seep into our everyday life. Religion has a role to play in the health of the republic. As John Adams, our second president, wrote, “It is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.”
There is no shame in permitting our religious convictions to shape our politics, particularly when considering issues that touch on human life, ethics, and morality. In fact, it is a civic responsibility. The challenge in this ever more secular culture is finding ways to express our religious viewpoints so that they have maximum impact. Obama is partly right when he says that quoting the scripture in a public policy dispute is not enough. We must confront the Obamaites on their own terms. The stirrings of our faith must be translated into coherent, well-reasoned arguments that will persuade others and truly advance the “common good” that Obama often invokes, but rarely assists.
With faith as our guide, we can truly help our fellow man to reach his potential today, and to reach that faraway eternal shore that is our shared destination—whether the president knows it or not.
CHAPTER 7
PLAYING BASKETBALL WITH DICTATORS
It certainly felt like something important was happening.
On April 12 and 13, 2010, a fourteen-square-block area of down-town Washington was closed to all but official traffic. Barricades were positioned everywhere. Military vehicles parked at key intersections. Security officers from around the world rubbed shoulders in the big hotels. International reporters crowded into press briefings. Words like historic and ambitious were used to describe the Nuclear Security Summit. The White House created another nifty logo for the occasion, but this time “the Obama magic” did not work. This nonproliferation gathering was a nonstarter.
At the end of the multiday extravaganza, the forty-seven countries in attendance promised to pursue voluntary efforts to secure nuclear materials within four years, presumably to keep them out of terrorists’ hands. Attendees also agreed to the obligatory follow-up meeting later in the year, and another summit in two years. Six countries did agree to dispose of some highly enriched uranium used in civilian facilities—Ukraine, Mexico, Chile, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, and Canada. Americans can rest peacefully in their beds tonight now that we have reduced the risk of Ottawa providing al Qaeda with nukes. Whew!
Meanwhile, Iran, which is racing to get a nuclear weapon, was not even on the official agenda. The only progress that Obama could cite on the Iran issue was when the Chinese leader Hu Jintao actually used the word sanctions. Maybe Obama thought he had softened him up by doing that weird half-bow thing. Full bows were reserved for Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah (April 2009) and the Emperor Akihito of Japan (November 2009).
There was nothing worthwhile accomplished regarding North Korea, either. And completing the trifecta of failure, the impressive stagecraft yielded nothing meaningful vis-à-vis Pakistan, which continues to produce weapons-grade plutonium.
For all the pomp and pageantry, the “Nuclear Security Summit” did virtually nothing to limit the spread of nuclear weapons or to make Americans more secure. Nevertheless, it was invaluable in demonstrating how President Obama deals with foreign policy. As part of its summit coverage, the Washington Post described Obama’s role at the summit as that of a “seminar leader”: “For four hours Tuesday, Obama led a pair of planning sessions to iron out the final details of the communiqué that was the culmination of the summit. He sat at the center of the gathering, calling on leaders to speak, embellish, oppose, and offer alternatives to the plan taking shape.” One European diplomat was quoted as saying of President Obama: “He’s never better than when he’s the teacher.”
In some ways, you can’t blame him. After all, President Obama comes from the Ivy League, and there is nothing that Ivy League professors (and students) like better than a nice, friendly seminar, where everyone sits around and puts forward his views in a careful, pleasant manner. Good times. I used to take seminars myself back at Dartmouth—it was an easy way to pad my schedule with additional credits without having to do a lot of work. Of course, the problem was that by the end of the term you realized that you had wasted a lot of Thursday nights and had not actually learned much.
And that pretty much sums up President Obama’s foreign policy—lots of talk, lots of “breakout sessions,” lots of “my good friend President X” references . . . with very few results. The hard truth is that great nations—or even small nations—don’t change their foreign policy because they had a good time chatting with our president. In the real world, nations change their ways only if they believe that doing so is in their best interest. Diplomacy is a great tool—and one that every president should master—but there’s more to diplomacy than pleasantries and friendly gestures. Diplomatic efforts must fit into a coherent view of how the world works, and must be backed by hard power. President Obama’s view of the world is incredibly naïve, and under his leadership America is growing weaker rather than stronger.
SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE DICTATORS
Obama’s boosters love to point out how popular their guy is with foreign leaders. For example, just before the big summit, on April 9, 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia (Vladimir Putin’s handpicked successor) told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that Obama is “a thinker, he thinks when he speaks.” This statement was widely seen as a compliment for President Obama and an implied criticism of President George W. Bush (who, presumably, was not viewed by the Russian regime as a “thinker”). But look at it from an American perspective. Putin has created a new type of soft dictatorship in Russia. Medvedev is, therefore, for all intents and purposes, merely his mouthpiece. Why would we respect his views regarding our president? Is there any reason to believe that Russia wants the United States to have a strong and effective leader? The fact that men like Medvedev say nice things about President Obama should be seen as a warning, not an endorsement.
Of course, we could see that President Obama would be friendly with dictators even before he was elected. On February 11, 2007, he complained to 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft that the Bush administration had not done enough to reach out to Iran: “The fact of the matter is that Iran currently is governed by an oppressive regime, one that I think is a threat to the region and to our allies, but there are a lot of people in Iran who potentially would like to be part of this broader community of nations. For us not to be in a conversation with them doesn’t make sense.”
In response to a specific question about whether he would use military force to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Obama said that while he would keep all options on the table, “our first step should be a much more aggressive approach to diplomacy than we’ve displayed thus far.”
Obama’s comments sparked significant controversy—and claims that he advocated negotiating with terrorists. But he did not back down, and he has never wavered from the basic notion that the rest of the world holds an immense reservoir of goodwill toward the United States, and that even dictatorial states like Iran will rally to our cause if we simply show them some kindness. Like any good seminar leader, he seems to believe that the highest accolade for an American president is “plays well with others.”
OUR “SORRY” STATE OF AFFAIRS
In accordance with his vision of a more humble America, Obama opened with a blizzard of apologies to the rest of the world for our many sins.
THE DIARY OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE
January 30, 2009
My national security advisor, Jim Jones, and his staff gave me a briefing today. Hillary sat in, too. What a bunch of Debbie Downers. Everything they said was preceded by “Mr. President, we have a problem with . . .” “Mr. President, you need to be careful about . . .” “Mr. President, you’ll want to keep an eye on . . .” Blah, blah, blah, national interest. Blah, blah, blah, danger. Blah, bl
ah, blah, terrorism. It was like listening to one of McCain’s campaign commercials.
I explained to them that I do know something about foreign policy—didn’t I deliver that speech in Germany during the campaign? Don’t the Euros all love me? Weren’t they all pulling for me last year? How hard can it be to cut deals with people who love you?
So I told them: “Guys, I hear what you’re saying, but calm down. That cowboy ‘my way or the highway’ stuff, that’s all finished. I’m gonna charm these folks. Have you ever seen me work a room? I’ll go to these foreign countries, treat them with respect, and speak their language—anti-American.” (No one laughed.) “Talk about regrets for what we did in the past, how that’s all behind us now, and how we all need to work together. They’ll love it. What W didn’t understand is that, deep down, everybody wants to be our friend. We’ve got Hollywood, we’ve got rock ’n’ roll; we’re like the cool exchange students at school.”
They seemed to like the part about using more diplomacy, although it was obvious they wanted to get into a bunch of specifics about Russian politics and Pakistan. Geez! Can’t I have a breather to enjoy the historic nature of my presidency? The world community likes me and I like them.
The meeting was starting to drag so I pushed the button I use to summon Biden whenever I need him to interrupt me and clear the room. I may have finally found a job that Biden can do well.
The Obama apologies were not mere diplomatic niceties. They were part of his plan to convince the world that he was unusually decent and humane—for an American. Even before he was elected, Senator Obama used a July 2008 speech in Berlin to tell a European audience that “we’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.”
The Obama Diaries Page 21
