Barack Obama, Beguiler in Residence

Watching and listening to Barack Obama in his address at the White house Correspondents' Association dinner one comes away almost disarmed by the man. He was all at once, open, engaging, comfortable in who he is; plus being downright funny. One would be hard pressed not to like him and want to embrace him. It had the effect of not wanting to criticize him, that it would be too harsh, almost not right. At worst, you want to give him the benefit of the doubt, even when you disagree with some of the policies he's enacted. And this creates an inner turmoil and ambivalence when you take issue with some of those policies.

Yet, real concerns and disagreements exist and can not be ignored. They are as follows:

He has chosen to expand the war in Afghanistan, increasing the number of troops, continued with drone attacks both inside Afghanistan as well as across the border into Pakistan with the resultant killing of more innocents which not only enflames the populations in both countries but broadens the support for the Taliban and exacerbates retaliatory strikes and suicide attacks against our forces and those domestic elements we support. This has quagmire written all over it.

In Iraq he has chosen to bring all combat troops home by August 2011 while leaving 50,000 "support" troops in country indefinitely. The Iraqi government wants all troops removed. As long as we have troops in Iraq, we still occupy the country and real political reconciliation between Shiites, Sunni's and Kurds will remain unresolved, dragging on the conflict indefinitely.

He is closing Guantanamo yet he is keeping other CIA secret sites open. Thus the policy of indefinite detention of suspects outside of U.S courts jurisdiction continues unabated. This is hardly a change from Bush administration policy.

He has openly rejected the use of torture but professes to want to move on rather than supporting an independent investigation of those who authorized torture in the Bush administration from being held to account.

He was silent on Senator Dick Durbin's bankruptsy reform proposal that would have given bankruptsy judges the authority to renegotiate mortgages and keep people in their homes. The banks and their lobbyists strongly opposed the measure and they succeeded with the help of senators that had received huge amounts of campaign money over the years. Yet he continues to support the bailouts of the large banks that created the financial meltdown even though many are insolvent.

Lastly, he is to give a major speech in Cairo, Egypt on June 4 supposedly aimed at the Muslim world and not just the leaders. According to press secretary Gibbs, "it represents a continuing effort by this president and this White House to demonstrate how we can work together to ensure the safety and security and the future well-being through hope and opportunity of the children of this country and the Muslim world." If we are so interested in the "future well-being, safety and security and offer hope and opportunity to the Muslim world", then why are we still killing innocents in that world? Deeds, more than words must represent America. We refer to those killed and maimed in our pursuit of terrorists as "collateral damage" as if these less offensive words can soothe the families of those innocents killed and maimed by our hands.

So are we being beguiled by Obama? There is a truth, actions speak louder than words. The words have to square with reality. At some point they have to merge. If they don't, we must realize the reality doesn't fit the image. He's either the real deal or just another snake oil dealer. You hope for the former. If he's the latter... we need to get the stardust out of our eyes.

So are we being beguiled by Obama?

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future