Obama Week 1 Recap--Action Packed

It's been quite a week politically! The inauguration of President Barack Obama on Tuesday was certainly historic. It is this event that will live on through the upcoming years and decades as a defining moment in our history.

But since that day, Obama has wasted little time getting to work on the issues that face America. In just this week, he has sent a clear message to Washington, and to America, that he will make decisions and take action.

1. Rejection of Torture as a tactic--President Obama made it clear immediately, that he will not accept the premise of allowing Intelligence agencies to use extreme measures on detainees. It's about time. Despite what we see on the show "24", in fact, there has been much evidence to the fact that the intelligence gained through torture has been useless, misleading and inaccurate. And the cost of our image around the world for such useless information just made the whole argument seem crazy, and mis-informed. Obama's decision here was a return to sanity. Thank you.

2. Announcement of the closing of Guantanamo Bay Facility--Once again, the red herring of an issue that some have made of this decision is pathetic. To argue that we don't have detention facilities such as Supermax in Colorado, or other options of what to do with 250 detainees is simply disingenuous. That the ONLY way to deal with these people is to keep open a gulag that the world uses as a symbol of American aggression is an idea whose time has come and gone. Our enemies use this facility as evidence that America is deserving of their hatred. It is time to be done with such things. It is good to see this issue being addressed immediately. I am only sorry that Obama isn't pushing to close this facility in a quicker timeframe.

3. Meeting with Military leaders, asking for plans to withdraw from Iraq--There were rumblings by some that, "once in office, Obama wouldn't push for a withdrawal in Iraq". It is nice to see that he has taken decisive action--asking military leaders for a detailed plan to carefully withdraw from Iraq. It is time to focus on finding the person responsible for leading al Qaeda--the spiritual leader of our advisary--Osama bin Laden. Remember him? No one else seems to. Time to get back to a policy where we go after those who actually attacked us.

4. Possibly reversing course on off-shore drilling--It is good to see that, while Obama can be decisive, that he understands the game in relationship to energy. WE NEED to get off the oil standard. As long as we continue to use excuses to drill more, we will be forever at the mercy of the countries who have the most oil--Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria. Why would we, as a nation, subject ourselves to such a position? The sooner we free ourselves of this senseless policy, the better we will be. Saying no to off-shore drilling is the first step. A sensible, credible energy policy is step 2.

5. Discussion of Stimulus package with Dems and GOP...--It is a good sign that President Obama wants input from the minority party, and is willing to give credence to good ideas. This is what a President should do, and it is something that was not done during the previous administration.

6. ..."I won"--But Obama did something bold in inviting the GOP to the table. He made it clear to them that he won the election. That means that his invitations to the White House to discuss ideas is not tantamount to allowing the GOP leadership to have its way on votes. And Republicans have to know that going back to their constituencies with a message "I blocked the stimulus package of tax cuts, and our last effort to avoid a second Great Depression" is not going to be met with resounding cheers. Still, it was important for Obama to send a message to Congressional DEMOCRATS as well, that they are a majority party, and it's time they started acting like it.

7. Reversing the ban on Abortion funding--This was not unexpected, but has given the Pro-Life movement its new "raison d'etre". There have already been protests at the steps of the Supreme Court, with crowds in the tens of thousands. There is no doubt that this is an issue that will gain attention over the upcoming months. Let's see how this develops (I will look at ways to blog this topic as well).

Quite a weeek. And there's more to come.

Already, the Congress has been aggressively pushing the Obama initiatives, with a move to get SCHIP passed (The House has already voted and passed a bill), Stem Cell Research Funding, and a Stimulus Bill pushing $1 Trillion. All to be voted on before Valentines Day. The Senate has been confirming Cabinet Appointees (Despite John Cornyn's best efforts to slow things down. note to John: Great job delaying Clinton's appointment! Through your efforts, she only won passage 94-2! Great job! Way to go on the Geithner delay, too! Through Senate Republican efforts, Geithner only passed out of Committee by an 18-5 vote! Great job. You only lost by a mile, not in a total landslide! Glad you could waste everyone's time in the process, though!).

The wheels of change in Washington move slowly. Even with a one-party majority, changes don't move as quickly as some would like. But to look back at this week, and all that has happened for President Obama, it is somewhat breath taking what he has managed to accomplish. Here's hoping that this change can continue, and that such bold measures can start to turn the economic ship around over the upcoming weeks and months.