The youth vote was instrumental in securing Barack Obama the win on Nov. 4, 2008. But with the President comfortably settled in at the White House, this generation of voters and supporters of candidate Obama must learn to become the critics of President Obama. By blogging Obama’s first 100 days in office, we hope to remind the new administration that just because the election is over, doesn’t mean we’ve stopped paying attention.
Day 3 — Jan. 23, 2009: Friday news dump
The Global Gag Rule
The Obama administration is already good at burying news, and they’ve only had one day to practice. On their first Friday in office, Obama’s team has already made good use of the Friday news dump — doing something late Friday knowing that barely anyone reads the Saturday paper — when Obama signed the executive order reversing the Global Gag Rule.
The history of the Global Gag Rule, or Mexico City Policy, could be considered amusing, if not for the fact that when it was in force, it deprived global NGOs from the money they needed to offer top-level family planning care in the world’s least developed countries. The law, when signed by Reagan in 1984, took away all U.S. federal funding for NGOs that either offered abortion, included abortion counseling in their family planning services, or lobbied their government for abortion rights. President Clinton signed an executive order reversing the rule on his first day in office. Then President Bush brought it back on his first day.
It was generally expected that Obama would quickly reverse the rule. Yet Wednesday passed with no action. Thursday, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, ended and the Gag Rule was still in place. It wasn’t until Friday late in the afternoon, in a signing that lacked the usual flurry and hype, that Obama finally signed the executive order to reverse the Gag Rule. Obama’s decision to delay the signing until Friday is telling. It suggests that he is not as dedicated to protecting choice as progressives who voted for him would hope.
It may seem unnecessarily harsh to criticize Obama for doing the right thing, but doing the right thing at the wrong time is almost as damaging. Being willing to spend the political capital on important issues that affect large swathes of the world’s population would prove dedication to the issues. But Obama’s tack instead suggests politics as usual.
Bonus: On Wednesday, Obama issued new ethics rules that included regulations on the hiring of lobbyists. By Friday, watchdog groups were asking the Senate to hold off approving Obama’s nominee for deputy defense secretary. Reports NPR:
[William Lynn III, deputy defense secretary nominee] was a registered lobbyist for Raytheon, a prominent defense contractor, within the past two years — a violation of the executive order signed by Obama on Wednesday.
The chairman of the Armed Services Committee issued an ethics waiver, not just for Lynn but for another nominee, on Friday. It’s nice to see that Obama’s own rules are granted so much weight only three days into his administration.