The domestic agenda is clarified; foreign affairs isn't so murky either but also bad.

• http://tinyurl.com/cbvxp2
  
• APRIL 3, 2009
• Obama's Domestic Agenda Gains Clarity
• A certain grandiosity contrasts with his steady hand on foreign affairs.

• By PEGGY NOONAN

Barack Obama was elected in part because ... he seemed something refreshing: a mystery... sometimes it's better to be a great enveloping fog, something your enemies get lost in...In foreign affairs he has shown the impulses of a moderate: watching (Iran), waiting (Iraq), beefing up (Afghanistan), standing down (the nomination of Charles Freeman ...). His attitude at this week's summit was one of welcome modesty, which might or might not have tipped into a mea culpa (he agreed that America bears great responsibility for the world economic meltdown, and that some previous U.S. foreign policy attitudes have been poor). Or perhaps that's a you-a culpa... ****Blaming Bush for all that is dodgy remains high on his priority list.**

... The tagging was done, definitively, by...Tom Coburn, ...(who)wrote, "I believe President Obama has proposed the most significant shift toward collectivism and away from capitalism in the history of our republic. I believe his budget aspires to not merely promote economic recovery but to lay the groundwork for sweeping expansions of government authority in areas like health care, energy and even daily commerce. If handled poorly, I'm concerned this budget could turn our government into the world's largest health care provider, mortgage bank or car dealership, among other things."...

Mr. Obama had a strong closing news conference in Europe, and it looks to have been a successful trip, marked at the end by an air of relative and surprising G-20 unity. The president will get some bounce from it, as they say, and it may be considerable. But then the Europe trip speaks of the part of his administration, foreign affairs, that is marked by an air of moderation...******

The redoubtable Peggy Noonan is a touch off-base in her remarks, especially referring to Obams's "steady hand in foreign affairs." (Pehaps this was editorial title license since she said very little about Obama's foreign policy except to term it "moderate.")

The "fog" about Obama's domestic agenda was created only by media denial of what was obvious from his voting record and pronouncements about the advantages of "fairness" in capital gains tax increase even if it produced less revenue. His collectivist, redistributionist and big-government proclivities were clearly defined despite the fog, artificially created.

The "steady hand", however, is very doubtful because it's steering steadily toward a maelstrom.He has recently denied the "special relationship" with Britain and treated PM Brown rudely and off-handedly. Sarkozy and Merkel seem lesser fans than before.Getting $1T to the IMF for distribution we-know-not-how may seem strong but, given the IMF's sorry record,is likely to be folly.

Obama's predilection for world citizenship, apparent in Berlin last summer, is being furthered as President. American sovereignty is actually being put in play. Harold Koh, recently nominated as legal counsel to the State Department, and rumored to be Obama's first pick for the Supreme Court, is on record as saying that the Constitution and American law should not be the sole basis for legal decisions and that even Sharia law could be considered.

Obama's politically-correct denigration of the war on Islamo-fascism from the already-too-neutral "War on Terror" to "Overseas Contingency Operations" and "terrorism" to "man-caused disasters" is appeasement of threats from Islamist extremism. Moreover, his fawning outreach to the Iranians is likely to trigger a nuclear arms race among Arab countries.His open hostility to Israel and her new government promises to drive them to desperate measures against Iran.

In short, the steady hand steers away from friends and toward the Charybdis of enemies.