In the opening days of his administration it appears that Obama has stared a diplomatic revolution in the Middle East. Obama has stated that Israel must cease its blockade of Gaza and allow humanitarian supplies and that the Americans need to help the Palestinian people rebuild. Also Obama has named George Mitchell, an Arab American, to be in charge of seeking a two state solution in Middle East. Mitchell is a far superior choice than Dennis Ross, who was seen by the Palestinians as being too much on Israel's side. Mitchell along with James Jones makes it appear to the moderate Arabs that at least Obama is willing to take a impartial stance in any future Israeli-Palestinian talks.

In his inaugural adress, Obama stated that the American people and politicians should be more reponsible in their own lives. However the current wiretapping revalations make more neccessary than ever that Obama needs to prosecute those in the previous administration, who broke the law. On both the Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow shows it was revealed that the NSA wiretapped journalists and organizations that disapproved of Bush's policies. If Obama wants to set an example of responsibility in his administration, he needs to presecute those whe were acted carelessly in regrards to the constitution and American democracy.

Obama has made repeated promises to abolish nuclear weapons altogether much like how Lincoln abolished slavery in the United States. I wonder if Obama was influenced by the anti-nuclear movement in the nineteen eighties. When I was in grade school in the early eighties, there was very strong reaction to the Reagan administration's efforts to increase the US nuclear arsenal. I remember that scientists such as Carl Sagan were on TV warning about nuclear winter and journalists like Jonathan Schnell and Fred Kaplan wrote books about the pointlessness of nuclear war. There was TV docudramas about the effects of nuclear war such as The Day After, Testament, and Threads, which was a BBC production shown on American cable television. So often the Reagan era as being time that conservative ideas  were fully developed, but little is written about how the anti-nuclear movement may have influenced current progressive politicians such as Obama.