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POTUS Didn't Answer Mine, Either

Wednesday July 6, 2011

No big surprise, but President Obama didn't answer my tweet today. Chances are, he didn't answer yours either.

Apparently more than 40,000 Tweeters sent questions to #AskObama, and only 18 made it through to the president during the first Twitter Town Hall today, July 6. Incredibly, one of those tweets was from House Speaker John Boehner. Doesn't he get enough free media time already?

A panel of veteran Tweeters moderated the questions, weeded them out, and sent them on to the president. I'm not a veteran Tweeter, and I only just learned that the old "pound sign" is now a "hash tag." Also, my bio avatar is still just an egg. I did see something that suggested questions had a better chance of reaching the president if they had more "retweets," which I think is akin to a "like" on Facebook. I did get one retweet, which I really appreciate, but it wasn't enough.

In case you forgot, this was my question:

#AskObama: How does trade deficit w/ China impact US ability to craft effective foreign policy with China? How can we fix imbalance?

As expected, most of the questions were about the domestic economy. I tried to ask a question that incorporated both the economy and foreign policy, which I think it did.

Obama did touch on foreign policy a couple of times, first when he said US foreign aid was "a smart, force-multiplying investment" that gave a lot of foreign policy return for relatively little investment. Then he mentioned the need for a new energy policy, which in turn would support US troops by avoiding resource wars.

In the six hours since it ended, critics have said the Twitter Town Hall was too short, Obama's answers were too long, the questions were stale, and the process wasn't really "democratic."

But it was just the first time out, and tomorrow an Obama economic advisor is supposed to address some questions that didn't make to the Town Hall. There will be others of these events, I'm sure. Now, I need an avatar!

Photo: President Obama talks to Twitter Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey at the Twitter Town Hall, July 6, 2011.

Photo by Pete Souza/White House

Tweeting With Obama

Tuesday July 5, 2011

Okay, I've just tweeted the president.

Tomorrow (that's July 6, 2011), the White House is hosting a "Twitter Town Hall" where the president will answer questions, largely about the economy, that have been tweeted to him. I'm sure he will get hundreds of thousands of questions. Probably someone will sift through them and select questions that seem representative of trends.

I've been on Facebook for a while with a personal site, but I've never used Twitter until I registered this US Foreign Policy site for an account a few days ago, so I hope I've done everything right. My twitter account name is JonesGuide77, by the way.

Here's my tweet:

#AskObama: How does trade deficit w/ China impact US ability to craft effective foreign policy with China? How can we fix imbalance?

It's probably a long-shot that the president will pick my question, but I wanted to try. Let's see what happens!

Birth and Death on July 4

Monday July 4, 2011

The United States turns 235 years old today: not exactly old compared to England or France, but quite old, really, for a successful constitutional democracy.

But do you know what other anniversary this is? (Yes, I know Confederates in Vicksburg surrendered to Grant on July 4, 1863, but that's not what I'm going for.)

No, this is the day that two of America's first diplomats -- one of whom was also the first US secretary of state -- died within hours of each other.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, once the bitterest of political enemies and later the closest of friends, both died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after  the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Both men, along with Ben Franklin, had sequestered themselves in a room in Philadelphia in June 1776 and drafted the Declaration, infusing it with Adams' legal savvy and Jefferson's poetic prose.

After the US won its independence, during the Articles of Confederation days, both departed to become ambassadors -- Adams to London, Jefferson to Paris. (As such, neither worked on the Constitution, and so neither is technically a "Founding Father.") They returned, though, when the Constitution became effective, Adams to become vice-president under George Washington, Jefferson to become Washington's secretary of state.

Adams and Jefferson also both became president. Jefferson, in fact, was Adams' vice-president, but by then they weren't speaking. They'd had a horrible falling out over the nature and extent of federal government, trade partners, and whether to support France during its revolutionary era. (Jefferson loved France; Adams feared it, especially in light of the "Terror" phase of the French Revolution.)

Adams was the country's first one-term president; he lost his bid for re-election to -- yes, Thomas Jefferson. In 1801, their hatred of each other proved that the American democracy could actually work. Washington and Adams were both Federalists, so one party had not handed off power to another after the election of 1796. Jefferson, however, was a Democrat-Republican, as polar opposite as you could get from Adams' Federalism. Nervous watchers feared Adams would barricade himself in the new White House and refuse to hand over power to Jefferson. They need not have worried for, while they didn't like each other, they both loved the government they had helped create. Adams rode out of Washington quietly the morning of Jefferson's inauguration.

As president, both men presided over some good foreign policy measures, like a diplomatic end to the Quasi War and the Louisiana Purchase. They also had some horrendous policy failures -- the Alien and Sedition Acts and the Embargo Act, for example. But in foreign policy, as in everything else in the Early Federalist years, they had no blueprint to follow.

As old men, the two struck up a vibrant renewed friendship through letter writing. Time had taken the starch out of both of them, and the political quarrels of their past gave way to the collective accomplishments that held them irrevocably together.

As John Adams' neared death in bed at his home in Quincy, MA, someone told him it was the Fourth of July. He understood the significance of the day, and he proclaimed it "good." He also said, "Thomas Jefferson survives." Jefferson had died just hours earlier.

They both survive, really, as do all the other presidents, secretaries of state, and foreign policy specialists who have come before. They lay down precedents, and their successors must decide whether to follow or break new ground. Foreign policy, of course, is the art of dealing with collective groups of people, and when dealing with people, just like in the early Federalist days, there's frequently still no blueprint.

Happy birthday, America!

Leon Panetta Brings Change and Continuity

Saturday July 2, 2011

Leon Panetta, fresh from directing the Central Intelligence Agency, began heading up the Pentagon as secretary of defense on July 1. His move heralded both change and continuity in Washington.

Panetta took over from Secretary Robert Gates, who served both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama as Pentagon chief. In September, General David Petraeus, who oversaw the surge phase in the Iraqi War and and the past year of the Afghan war, will replace Panetta as CIA head.

The jobs of defense secretary, and to a lesser extent, CIA director, are ones that overlap US foreign policy and military action. That's a given, as warfare is an extreme option in any nation's foreign policy toolkit.

With America's military about to enter its 11th year of warfare since 9/11 and strapped by tightening budgets, Obama's selection of both men for the jobs makes good sense. So does their senate approval.

Obviously, Panetta and Petraeus know the the interfaces between foreign policy, military policy, intelligence, and -- for good or ill -- the bureaucracy that ties them all together. Obama's foreign policy mandates in these areas should proceed will little interruption.

Photo: Leon Panetta takes the oath of office as US Secretary of Defense on July 1, 2011.

Photo by Tech. Sgt. Jacob N. Bailey, USAF/Department of Defense

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