This post is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
Speaking about corruption in the Palestinian and Arab world, did you have a chance to watch the opening ceremonies of the Bush Library in Dallas yesterday? Amazing stuff, especially when our former Presidents gather to celebrate the fact that they have Presidential libraries of their own.
Except our current President. He is library-less. President Obama is expecting. His condition: “Library-in-Waiting.”
Not much has been written about this condition as it applies to President’s still serving in the White House. Nor is it surprising that so little attention has been paid to President Obama’s post-Presidential life. After all, the President has just been reelected.
Nonetheless, President Obama’s condition is worth paying attention to. I believe that his recent travel to Israel – and Palestine – had a hidden agenda that was on display yesterday.
First, though, a few words about the corruption theme from yesterday, about Thomas Friedman’s column on Salam Fayyad and the failing promise of the Arab Spring. Corruption is a form of criminality, no question. But if you extend criminality to Albert Camus’s definition – “When crime dons the apparel of innocence” – then we’re closer to our destination.
What should be said about President Bush’s war(s) of choice and the carnage caused? Call it corruption at the highest levels or just plain criminal. You have to wonder about the crowds that gathered yesterday to honor him.
Bush’s view of his library is to let the American people – and history – decide if the policies he pursued were good for America and the world. I think that the verdict is already in, don’t you?
Marc Thiessen, a former advisor to President Bush, said in anticipation of Obama’s remarks at the library dedication: “He’s never going to say this but if he’s being totally honest, he would say that except for interrogations, he adopted almost the entire Bush counterterrorism policy, some of it voluntarily, some of it involuntarily, but most of it voluntarily.” Whether Thiessen is right about interrogations is an open question. On the other counts he is dead right. President Obama adopted Bush’s counterterrorism policies. In his remarks at the Bush Library yesterday, he didn’t admit it.
As he delivered his remarks was President Obama thinking ahead to his library? I assume it will be in Chicago and, no doubt, the bidding has already begun. Which Chicago university will catch the President’s eye?
With all the criticism I have of our current President, think of the faculty and students at SMU. In that hot Dallas sun, I assume many lamented that their university’s name will always and everywhere be tied to George Bush, our warrior (though in his own military service, curiously AWOL) President.
The future of any President once he leaves office is uncharted territory. President Obama’s post-Presidential future is unprecedented. We’ve never had an African American ex-President.
In a country where race matters – still – the salutes that Obama receives as President may be few and far between once he leaves office. Black is – still – Black in America.
So who will come to his aid and assure a post-Presidency that is respected, active and well-funded? Who will cough up the privately donated funds necessary to build a library where former-President Obama can hang out in style?
The President will depend on his liberal constituency for his post-Presidential life. But then he hasn’t exactly served that constituency well. Anyway, most liberals will latch on to another Democratic President or, as likely, will be waging battle if a Republican is elected in the next Presidential sweepstakes.
The one constituency President Obama can count on is the traditional African American fall back – the Jewish community. However, President Obama’s Jewish constituency will only be there for him if the President protects their number one priority, Israel.
As I watched President Obama at the Bush Library dedication yesterday, my thoughts returned to his recent travel to Israel. If you remember, the President threw up his hands and declared himself a lame duck. Nothing could be done about Israel and the Palestinians. It wasn’t worth the effort.
When the President admonished Israeli youth to take a walk in Palestinian shoes, was he really thinking about his post-Presidential life and the configurations of the Obama Library-to-be?
Even the President of the United States worries about his future.
