When he took office, Barrack Obama inherited two wars, banks suffering a near fatal hangover from a binge on power and greed, a meltdown in the financial system via a faltering economy and unrealistic expectations, unions that still fight for responsibility without accountability, a political system that trades integrity for mediocrity by promoting ignorance, and a population that believes each of us and all of us are entitled without consequence as the common good is trampled by shouts of "where's mine?!?"
And now, from left and the right, come accusations of him of not doing anything.
Health reform. Major economic calamities probably averted. Wars winding down. A shift in responsibility back to where the founding fathers intended it to be, to the Congress. Which just now is blaming Obama for not preventing them from spending too much money.
And he got Bin Laden. For a great account of that, read this story in The New Yorker.
Obama was coolly giving no hint of pressure that weekend as he participated in a black tie dinner and checked in on the operation. Our president has more cool than any 20 of the whiny pundits who are now throwing rotten tomatoes. And he ended the operation by thanking the men involved and without putting up a "Mission Accomplished" banner in a photo stunt on an aircraft carrier. Imagine that. The man also has class.
Oh. What? You weren't paying attention? You all need all those stunts to know what to think?
Obama has always held that Congress has a job to do and should do it. The left says this is lack of leadership, and the right says he is failing the country. In fact, his methods have accomplished much that is visible, and prevented some disasters that, because they were not experienced, tend to be discounted.
More importantly, he has forced some accountability back to the institution where laws are made and votes are taken. Just the way Jefferson and Adams and the others intended it to be. "Lead from behind" has become a way of mocking this president. It also may be his way of forcing others in this country and around the world, those acting like privileged adolescents, to step up and do what they need to do.
I believe Obama may go down in history as the greatest president since Lincoln, and I say this on another day of a severe stock market dive (long overdue, by the way, and reflecting many things, few of them overtly political.) Some medicine does not taste good, and it is time we stopped blaming the doctor.
Maybe not. Maybe all of you are right, that Obama can't lead, that we are doomed, and that it's always the other guy's fault. But I don't think so.
Time will tell. Not the headlines of this week or this year, but of several years, and decades. Because that is how long it takes to see the impact of actions on a country as vast and complicated as ours.
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2 comments:
He's doing a great job, and don't let anyone tell you differently, oh wise one. Read this...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/08/obama-national-debt.html
I especially like this line, "...That means the debt that our federal government owes a whole lot of somebodies including China has increased $4,247,000,000,000 in just 945 days. That's the fastest increase under any president ever." Yep, he's the greatest.
I have never shared Eye's enthusiasm for Barak Obama. He deserves credit for taking out bin Laden. Risky and gutsy call. He deserves credit for attempting to reform health care, though the approach (really more insurance reform) is probably not going to pass muster Constitutionally.
It is impossible to know whether Obama's actions averted an even worse economic crisis, but maybe to some degree they did.
None of that is enough.
Extraordinary times require extraordinary leadership and Obama doesn't have the chops. Read Ron Suskind's The Confidence Men. The picture is very clear: The President lacks management skills and is indecisive. He's a consensus seeker in a take-no-prisoners game. There's no way to get around that. That's why he got pushed around by a dysfunctional Congress on the debt ceiling.
Lord knows, America needs hope and change — but Obama isn't the guy who can deliver on that.
Jim Cornelius
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