Although many people have said it before, we can now label Obama as nothing but a cheap suit. Taking to office with a huge mandate for change, we’ve seen nothing but a Kevin Rudd style all-talk-no-substance approach to governance, which recently culminated with this unsurprising speech backing the ACTA, MPAA and the notorious RIAA.
Want some proof of the Kevin Rudd style of government – take a look at this:
“This morning, I signed an executive order instructing the federal government to use every available federal resource in support of that mission. That order has created an Export Promotion Cabinet, made up of the Secretaries of State, Treasury, Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor, along with our USTR, our Small Business Administrator, the Export-Import Bank President, and other senior U.S. officials whose work impacts exports. That cabinet will convene its first meeting next month.
I’ve also re-launched the President’s Export Council, the principal national advisory committee on international trade. And I named Jim McNerney, the President and CEO of Boeing, as its chair, with Ursula Burns, the CEO of Xerox, as vice chair, and I look forward to their recommendations.”
More hubris added to a bloated bureaucracy, the net result being no actual change – very Rudd-like.
You can read more commentary on the dubious speech here and here but it is altogether clear that with such sound bytes as this:
“Our single greatest asset is the innovation and the ingenuity and creativity of the American people”
and being followed by this:
“..That’s why USTR is using the full arsenal of tools available to crack down on practices that blatantly harm our businesses, and that includes negotiating proper protections and enforcing our existing agreements, and moving forward on new agreements, including the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement..”
Thus linking a carefully gilded sentiment to the secretly negotiated ACTA, and in one broad stroke giving support to a process which most people object to. How can Obama make such a statement when the ACTA itself is not available to be reviewed by the public?
You can read the full text of the (now infamous) speech on the Whitehouse Website.
