Barack Obama faces difficult second year

He is eventually going to get tired of his way to please people, US political strategist says

By Abbas Al Lawati, Staff Reporter
Published: 00:00 January 21, 2010

Dubai: The year ahead will be a difficult one for Barack Obama until he gets control over Congress, said Morris Reid, an American political strategist who has advised past US administrations.

Reid, who runs a consultancy firm, was speaking at the Dubai School of Government about Obama's first year as president of the United States.

Instead of being too concerned with getting along with his political opponents, said Reid, Obama should "have sharper elbows" and "fight back", adding that the Republican party was out to "destroy" his presidency.

"He is eventually going to get tired of his way to please people," he said.

Obama, added Reid, also needs to build up the courage to hold people accountable for mistakes made instead of shifting the blame "and start firing people".

Second term

Reid spoke mostly about Obama's domestic policy but was met with questions about his foreign policy by the audience during the question and answer session. Questions ranged from Obama's ability to force parties in the Middle East conflict to talk to each other, to whether Obama has already killed his chances of re-election.

"Obama will definitely win a second term," he responded, citing the record of presidential re-elections in recent American history, with the exception of Jimmy Carter, as examples.

"Americans will give him another chance," he said, but warned that the president must fire some members of his staff to regain credibility.

"This is a staff driven leadership, and that's bad leadership," he said.

Asked whether Obama would be able to resist pressure from the Israel lobby in moving forward with peace in the Middle East, Reid responded that he was "tired of hearing about the Israel lobby", and lashed out at Arab states for not getting involved in American politics to influence policy.

"You [Arabs] need to man-up and get your own lobby… Do you know how many times I have spoken to [officials] from the region who plan trips to America and have no agenda? Wanting to be America's friend is not enough - friendships go two ways," he said, adding that an alliance between an Arab lobby and an African American lobby would create "the most powerful lobby in Washington". "You need to fight fire with fire," he said, referring to the Israel lobby.

Pressure

He also said that the Obama administration's decision to make a blacklist of 14 states whose citizens would face more stringent security checks following the December 25 attempted terrorist attack, was "a face saving" move, and that Arab governments needed to apply pressure on the administration to be removed from the list.

"Stop letting America get off the hook. There should be phone calls made on all levels including head of state and secretary of state. You are sovereign nations. Stand up for yourselves and your rights," he said.