Challenges facing President Obama

President Obama has found himself in a situation that few could have predicted. Whilst, the Republicans have spent the last four and a half years looking for scandal. One of the biggest controversy since his re-election has been the allegation that the US government has been collecting private data on its citizens.

This information came to be public knowledge due The Guardian’s interview with Edward Snowden. Now what makes this story interesting from my perspective is that the most critical Republicans i.e. Lindsey Graham and John Boehner are now largely siding with the President and they are attacking Edward Snowden.

It does show that some Republicans even though they largely disagree with the President are somewhat prepared to back him on this issue. This is something that has been largely missing since President Obama first got elected.

What concerns me from the UK perspective is The Guardian’s involvement, The Guardian is my favourite newspaper and I love the way they take politicians to task. However in this case I don’t really believe that it’s investigative journalism but more to do with their desperation to penetrate the US market. I sincerely hope for their sake that this does not back fire and that they have not over reached.

As for the actual data collection, I for one do believe that it is necessary for governments around the world to collect this kind of data. However I also have the fear that this data could be misused and I certainly do not want to hear of President Obama in a Nixon kind of scandal. At this stage the President has handled controversy well by reassuring Americans that the US Government are not reading emails and listening in on their phone calls.  

As I think it important for Obama to show real leadership on this issue because IRS issue to me made him look like a little bit of a bystander. However only time will tell whether this data mining issue will be a profound moment in his presidency.