Former President George W. Bush used to talk about the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” He was talking about education in the United States.

But these days, that phrase could easily refer to the U.S. government’s attitudes towards Afghanistan. Just look at the following phrases from American officials this year.

“We never promised Afghans a perfect democracy,” “Afghans have lower expectations in terms of security,” “we have to recognise Afghanistan will always remain a poor, conservative land with a low-level insurgency,” “our goal in Afghanistan is simply to prevent al Qaeda using its territory to attack us.”

All perfectly reasonable in many ways, but hardly a compelling manifesto to win Afghan hearts and minds.

The concern is that there has been such a concerted effort to lower the bar in Afghanistan this year, and to downplay what is achievable, that failure sometimes seems almost inevitable.

The United States convinced Hamid Karzai to agree to a run-off election, but failed to convince him to clean up the Election Commission that had perpetrated the fraudulent first round. That made more controversy almost inevitable.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs just declared Karzai the “legitimate leader of Afghanistan” and that the world could take heart that the laws of Afghanistan had prevailed.

Abdullah Abdullah and many Afghans would surely take issue with that bold statement. The laws of Afghanistan do not allow for elections to be rigged and for perpetrators to go unpunished.

Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies argues that the Afghan decision is the “defining test” of Obama’s leadership.

“President Obama will have to take personal responsibility for the outcome of the war in Afghanistan, betting his historical reputation and second term on the outcome,” Cordesman said.

The United States, some experts argue, needs to show a clear and unwavering commitment to winning the war in Afghanistan — and demand a clear and unwavering commitment from the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the same goal.

Half-measures will never work. Weakness or a lack of commitment will embolden the worst elements of Karzai’s government, encourage the Pakistanis to keep playing both sides, and be exploited ruthlessly by the Taliban.

It isn’t just a question of how many troops are sent, but whether there is a coherent strategy that will leave Afghanistan standing on its own two feet.

If the war, as Obama once said, is one of “necessity,” then it is surely time for what Cordesman calls “real leadership.”

Much as the president likes to find a middle road, there simply does not seem to be one any more in the Hindu Kush.

What do you think is the best route for Obama to take through this potential minefield?

Photo credit: Reuters/Morteza Nikoubazl (Afghan man dances in celebration of Karzai’s victory),  Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Protest group Code Pink near White House on Halloween)

The big presentation — that’s 1,990 pages — of healthcare reform legislation by Democrats in the House of Representatives last week didn’t boost public support, with more voters still opposed to the effort, according to a new Rasmussen Reports opinion poll.

Just to recap where things stand: House Democratic leaders are hoping to move their bill to the floor for debate by late this week, it includes a government-run public insurance option. In the Senate, Democratic leaders are waiting for cost estimates on their legislation, which also includes a version of the “public option.”

The latest Rasmussen poll found that 42 percent of those surveyed favored the healthcare plan proposed by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats. That was down from 45 percent a week ago and unchanged from two weeks ago.

Looking at the Rasmussen historical chart, support for healthcare reform has hovered between 41 percent and 46 percent since mid-September.

In the latest poll, conducted after House Democrats unveiled their legislation last week, 54 percent opposed the legislative effort on healthcare reform. That was up three points from the previous week and unchanged from two weeks earlier.

Opposition to healthcare reform has hovered between 50 percent and 56 percent since mid-September.

“Perhaps the most stunning aspect of the numbers is how stable they have been through months of debate, town hall protests, presidential speeches, congressional wrangling and more,” Rasmussen Reports says.

Has your view changed on healthcare reform either way? If it did, why?

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Photo credit: Reuters/Joshua Roberts (protesters of healthcare reform legislation)

Elections in the East, elections in the West.

Hot off the wire: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been declared re-elected.

Afghanistan’s election commission made the declaration after Karzai’s opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew and a run-off election was canceled. “The Independent Election Commission declares the esteemed Hamid Karzai as the president,” the commission’s chief said.

This will no doubt increase the pressure on President Barack Obama to roll-out his new Afghanistan strategy earlier rather than later, now that he knows who the United States will be dealing with.

Matthew Hoh, the former State Department employee who quit last month in protest over U.S. policy in Afghanistan, told NBC’s “Today” show that the Karzai news was “disappointing” and despite the investment of  a lot of U.S. resources, “we didn’t get what we put our troops there for.”

Closer to home (just over the bridge from Washington) it’s the day before the election for Virginia governor and (up the highway a bit) the election for New Jersey governor.

Like it or not, Tuesday’s elections will be seen by some as a referendum on the policies of Obama, who has attended campaign events for the Democrats running in the two governor races.

Republican Bob McDonnell is leading in Virginia over Democrat Creigh Deeds. In New Jersey, incumbent Democratic Governor Jon Corzine is in a close race against Republican Chris Christie, with the Independent candidate, Chris Daggett, playing a spoiler role.

What do you think? Should the two governor elections be seen as a judgment on Obama’s policies?

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Photo credit: Reuters/Ahmad Masood (Karzai in Kabul on Nov. 2), Reuters/Jim Young (Obama at campaign rally for Deeds on Oct. 27)

The White House glowed pumpkin orange on Saturday when the Obama family turned 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue into Halloween central, complete with a giant stuffed spider dangling from a web above its front door.

More than 2,000 local area children and their families were invited for the traditional trick-or-treat event.  

The Obamas spent about 30 minutes handing out cellophane bagfulls of boxed red, white and blue M&M’s. The boxes bore the presidential seal. Also tucked in was a home-baked orange-glazed cookie and, in a nod to Michelle Obama’s efforts to promote healthy food, dried apricots and cranberries.

The president didn’t wear a costume for his first Halloween in the White House. Michelle Obama went as a cat woman, complete with leopard-print top and furry ears on a headband. Daughters Malia and Sasha were there for the fun, but were not stuck with any candy line duties. 

The scene was worthy of a Hollywood extravaganza. Bubble machines blanketed the North Portico, the ceremonial entrance to the White House. Pumpkins, some carved and candle lighted, lined the marble steps. Behind Obama stood a white-helmeted storm trooper character from “Star Wars,” along with the film’s Chewbacca, the hairy, apelike “wookie.”  

 Entertainers from the Chicago-based Redmoon Theater and other companies wove their own thrills and chills for those in line. A brass band clad in skeleton suits belted out a free jazz-style funeral stomp. Outsized figures on stilts simulated moving trees. Women in butterfly suits maneuvered inflatable, 10-foot (3-meter) snow-globe-like spheres on the White House lawn.

To heighten the Halloween effect, the White House was flood-lit through orange filters. Giant pumpkins weighing as much as 1,000 pounds (450-kg) dotted the 18-acre (7-hectare) grounds.  And the big, black spider hung hauntingly between the tall white columns framing the front door.

After handing out the treats, the president welcomed the children of military families chosen by the armed services along with the kids of White House staff in the East Room.

Then Susan Rice, Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations, caught his eye. She was decked out as the Disney character Goofy. “Can people please not take a picture of my ambassador to the United Nations,” Obama joshed photographers gathered to one side. He fretted aloud that U.S. diplomatic efforts might be spooked by the sight of her.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Halloween at the White House)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton griping about Pakistan while in Pakistan.

She says it was “hard to believe” that no one in Pakistan’s government knew where al Qaeda leaders were hiding. She talked about her tough talk in a series of morning television interviews, and said on CNN “trust is a two-way street.”

Top military brass coming over to the White House this afternoon. President Barack Obama meets with the military Joint Chiefs of Staff on Afghanistan and Pakistan this afternoon in the Situation Room (so you know it’s important).

Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are also down to attend the meeting where they are all expected to go over recommendations on troop strength and strategy.

No definitive word yet on when Obama will issue his decision on a new U.S. strategy on Afghanistan, so the waiting continues…

On the economic front, consumer spending fell in September and sentiment turned gloomier, underscoring the fragile nature of the economic recovery, while signs emerged that manufacturing activity may be picking up.

And it’s Halloween weekend so there will be plenty of ghosts and goblins out on the streets, may all your spirits be friendly ones…

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Photo credit: Reuters/pool (Clinton in Lahore, Pakistan, on Oct. 29)

President Barack Obama is letting it be known that he was not pleased with the way his trip to New York with wife Michelle last May became a political issue.

“Everything becomes political,” he told The New York Times Magazine in a story to be published this Sunday. “What I value most about my marriage is that it is separate and apart from a lot of the silliness of Washington, and Michelle is not part of that silliness.”

Republicans had criticized the trip as an expensive extravagance during hard economic times. Obama and Michelle flew Air Force One from Washington to New York for a night out on the town.

Obama told the magazine that the date-night flapdoodle was the one time that life in the White House annoyed him.

“If I weren’t president, I would be happy to catch the shuttle with my wife to take her to a Broadway show, as I had promised her during the campaign, and there would be no fuss and no muss and no photographers,” the president said.

“That would please me greatly.” He went on to say: “The notion that I just couldn’t take my wife out on a date without it being a political issue was not something I was happy with.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Obama and his wife Michelle return to Washington after visiting New York for dinner and a Broadway play in May)

Disengaging from Afghanistan is the option President Barack Obama is the least likely to adopt as he closes in on a new strategy in the eight-year war he calls one of “necessity.”

But on Thursday, at one of the countless policy conferences in Washington to discuss the president’s choices, some experts suggested withdrawal was the best route — and they said it would not necessarily impact efforts to fight al Qaeda.

Harvard University’s Stephen Walt called the argument for disengagement “fairly compelling,” while conceding it was not the most popular.

His tally of the costs: $225 billion since the Sept. 11 attacks, with more than 850 U.S. soldiers killed and thousands wounded.

“The costs are going to be large at a time when the American economy is not exactly robust,” he told the Capitol Hill conference organized by the Rand Corporation.

Even if  the United States “won,” al Qaeda would still have a safe haven in neighboring Pakistan as well as in Yemen, Somalia or other nations where they like to hang out, Walt said. If U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan, “it is not obvious that it  will significantly enhance al Qaeda’s ability to go after us.”

The CATO Institute’s Christopher Preble was also in the “big skeptic” column when it comes to sending in more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. He said the big question Obama needs to ask is whether the mission in Afghanistan is essential for U.S. national security — which most experts argue it is.

“Has it become a case of we must win the war because it is the war that we are in?” asked Preble. “We must narrow our focus. We don’t need a large-scale, long-term presence to degrade al Qaeda’s capacity in Afghanistan.”

Countering Preble and Walt, was Afghanistan expert Jim Dobbins who argued that the consequences of pulling out would be an escalation of the civil war, a region further destabilized and even more misery for the Afghan population. “You will see hardship that makes what you see now look like prosperity,” said Dobbins, with the Rand Corporation.

Also pounding on the withdrawal drum was the anti-war group Code Pink, whose representative pressed Senator Carl Levin to follow public opinion and push for a pull-out.

But Levin, who is calling for more U.S. and NATO trainers to go to Afghanistan to double that country’s police and army forces, said Obama was doing his best to advance the country’s national security interests.

“When President Bush decided to go to Iraq, public opinion supported him. I don’t’ think you did. I didn’t either,” answered Levin to Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin.

On Friday, the commander-in-chief  meets his military chiefs to hear recommendations on troop strength. Officials say his deliberations are coming to a close in what will be known in decades to come as Obama’s war.

Which side of the fence are you on?

Photo credit: Reuters/Omar Sobhani (U.S. soldiers patrol in Kandahar), Reuters/Mohsin Raza (anti-U.S. protester in Pakistan in May)

President Barack Obama returned in the early hours from a trip to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware where he saluted the flag-draped caskets of 18 soldiers and Drug Enforcement Administration agents killed in Afghanistan this week.

Journalists were allowed to see the transfer of the last casket. Reuters correspondent Ross Colvin was there and reports that it was cold and blustery as Obama stood at attention and saluted as six soldiers carried the casket, bearing the body of Sergeant Dale Griffin of Indiana, off the plane and onto a waiting van.

With at least 53 killed, October has been the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Afghanistan and public opinion polls show increasing weariness of the war.

Obama is still mulling a new U.S. strategy on Afghanistan and whether to send more American troops as General Stanley McChrystal has requested.

Back in Washington the other major issues continue to bubble. The House of Representatives unveiled healthcare reform legislation that Democrats say will reduce the budget deficit by $30 billion over the first 10 years. It includes a public option.

This is another step toward the ultimate negotiations between the House and Senate that must take place to resolve differences between their separate, and currently different, healthcare bills.

And big economic news out today. The U.S. economy grew in the third quarter for the first time in a year, unofficially ending the worst recession in 70 years. Third-quarter gross domestic product grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate.

Is the economy out of the woods?

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Obama salutes as casket of soldier killed in Afghanistan is transferred at Dover Air Force Base)

Kind of a quiet day at the White House today. Hey, why not plant a tree?

President Obama was on hand for a commemorative tree planting on the White House front lawn.

There’s always a good tale behind these things and here’s this one: Benjamin Harrison planted a Scarlet Oak tree in the same spot in 1889. There it stood through good times and bad, triumph and tragedy, rain and shine, and, well, you get the idea.

Then it rotted straight through and tumped over in a 2007 rainstorm. George W. Bush planted a Scarlet Oak in the same spot as a replacement in 2008, but it didn’t take hold.

Thus came Obama with a Little Leaf Linden tree donated from Halka Nurseries Millstone Township, New Jersey.

It’s supposed to be a sturdier tree so maybe this one will take root. We hope so, because in Washington, if you want a friend, get a tree. Wait a second, that doesn’t sound right.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Obama plants commemorative tree at White House)

The APEC summit gives world leaders a chance to play a little dress-up and trade-in their typical business suits for the traditional wear of the host country.

This year it’s in Singapore and we’ve got a description, but no photos yet, of what the leaders will wear for the group shot on Nov. 14.

Long-sleeved linen shirts with mandarin collars for the men, and a V-necked blouse with elaborate embroidery and lace for the women will be sported by President Barack Obama and the leaders of the 20 other nations attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next month.

This year’s outfit was created by local Singapore designer Wykidd Song, the Straits Times reported, and is inspired by the Peranakans,  a local term for the descendants of the Chinese who settled in the Malay Archipelago from the 17th century.

“The Peranakan culture is a rich blend of the Chinese and Malay cultures with some influence from the Portuguese, Dutch, British, Thai, Indian and Indonesian cultures as well, ” the Singapore Tourist Board says on its web site.

And there’s a choice of color –  blue, red and green.

Some of the world’s most powerful leaders don some of the world’s most distinctive outfits at the annual APEC group photo shoot.

At the 2008 meeting in Peru, they wore traditional ponchos, and other years have featured long silk tunics or leather jackets.

PHOTO CREDITS: Bush in poncho, REUTERS/Pilar Olivares; Bush, Putin, Hu in traditional Vietnamese outfits at 2006 APEC summit, REUTERS/Reinhard Krause.