In Praise of Obama

There has never been an infant administration so replete with errors, gaffs, misjudgement, so plagued with scandal. We have predicted some of it and documented most of it. Still, we must reserve hope and shed judgement and allot praise when appropriate. Obama’s ag policy gives us a chance to do just that.

In his speech Obama’s farm payments pledge was specific - "In this budget, we will.....end direct payments to large agribusiness that don’t need them." This echoes McCain’s campaign pledge. And Obama didn’t mean agribusiness as in conglomerate, but as in farmer. Still, despite the error, we commend the spirit of this tack, echoing of course earlier comments by Ag Sect Vilsack urging farmers not to rely on direct payments.

From dairymen to grain growers, these guys make welfare queens look like entrepreneurs. Farm-state Congressmen will fight this like the living daylights of course but we can retrieve some hope in Senate Ag Comm chair Harkin’s statement, "I am encouraged that President Obama called for limitations on commodity payments to large agribusinesses." Good luck guys.

Robert Craven