Obama Thus Far
June 30, 2010, by Carine Fabius
With more than two years to go, Carine Fabius takes a compassionate look at the president today
I’d rather be in Stalinist Russia, drinking human blood at Satan’s ball than be in Obama’s shoes. It’s been a year and a half since he inherited an America that is only turned on by extremes, sensationalism and exaggeration, along with a people crippled by fear and impatience. Even I, one of his most ardent fans, found myself screaming at the radio during his Oval Office address on the oil spill.
“Say it!” I shouted, “Say it!” I wanted a bold retraction of his previously announced (and obviously dunderheaded) plan to open some offshore waters to oil drilling. I was so disappointed. And then the next day, I heard someone on NPR saying that Obama’s six-month moratorium on deep water drilling was affecting some 50,000 people’s jobs in the already devastated Gulf. Pass the blood, please.
According to the polls, the prez is as popular as IRS agents investigating low income people and parking meter attendants. No one invites him to their parties, and all the girls say he has a small dick. I did my own poll a couple of weeks ago. Four liberals sitting around on my back deck gave him two Cs, one C+ and one B- (he owes me for that B-). No need to ask any conservatives. They decided he was an utter failure when he won the election. They say Independents are leaning toward a D-.
I admit to being very upset with Obama for not performing exactly as I wish on a whole host of issues—kind of like when I wanted him to bring his baseball bat and beat John McCain senseless on live television during the debates—but I’m still giving him his four years. I continue to pay through the nose for bullshit insurance coverage and medical care; however, I love, love, love him for banishing the shameful and disgraceful insurance industry practices known as “pre-existing conditions” and policy cancellations of sick people. This was only the first step, people. We had to start somewhere! Did we think doctors, hospitals, insurers and Americans were going to magically decide that healthcare should not be driven by profits? Before you go calling me a Communist, I believe in profit wholeheartedly, just not as a religion.
Healthcare reform is but one mind-numbing problem on the nefarious laundry list of ills plaguing this country and this administration; and although I confess to wanting to kick some Taliban ass in a baad way; Afghanistan is another. No need to inventory all the issues Obama has willingly taken on to mixed reviews. Who knows why Obama thinks and acts the way he does? Composed, slow-moving and thoughtful as opposed to bold and dramatic, when the times seem to be begging for both; I certainly don’t know, but I call for giving him a break even as we continue to voice our views and objections on the issues we care about. He may not always do what I want but he’s done plenty that I like a lot. He may not be warm and cuddly or stupid (apparently a huge issue for the masses), but if a president’s success is measured, in part, by whether or not people feel like they want to hang with him, having beers at a bar, let me say it loud and clear to the really, really smart guy in the White House, What do you say to an ice cold, extra dry martini, straight up?
June 30th, 2010 at 6:21 am
Obama told America that if we can win WWII and put a man on the moon, we can solve our dependency on fossil fuels.
But there’s a missing piece: the soldiers in WWII had the Pentagon and Neil Armstrong had NASA. What’s the man on the street supposed to do to solve the fossil fuel problem? Is it time for an organized, funded effort?
The following link is to a satirical video, but it underscores this issue in real terms.
Link: You’re Soaking In It
June 30th, 2010 at 6:48 am
All good points, Carine, but I must say that I am heartily tired of people grading the president as if he was a first-grader whose initial report card indicates the extent of his cognitive abilities or foretells his lasting legacy.
President Obama is so much more capable than the American people, herd-instinct animals that we are, will let him be. If someone (usually a Republican) yells, “Obama’s oil spill!” we all stampede in whatever direction Fox News has determined it wants us to go. We have let the rightwing, especially super-big business interests and their henchmen lobbyists, PR firms and news hacks, determine the language and the tenor of public discourse. Enough.
Why President Obama hasn’t simply seized the moment like FDR did is a mystery to me, but I suspect that the threat of assassination has never been more real. There are so many international monied interests who want him dead; interests that have grown like cancers during the two Bush administrations. If President Obama dares to make a grand gesture in favor of ordinary people and/or the environment, he might just be a casualty.
Having said that, I believe that he should take the risk. His ambition drove him to seek the most publicly powerful position in the world; he owes it to all of us who put him there, and to his heritage, to do something besides keep us in a holding pattern of hopefulness.
June 30th, 2010 at 7:30 am
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37937282#37937282
June 30th, 2010 at 7:41 am
We appear to have turned into a nation of two-year olds yelling “I want it now” and throwing all our toys out of the pram when we don’t get our way. Good points made, Carine and Pru, we need to stop grading, start supporting and entering into civil intelligent discourse when we disagree.
June 30th, 2010 at 7:50 am
I personally found the super-charged atmosphere that ushered in Obama’s presidency to be surreal and unrealistic. Did anyone really expect him to live up to the hope an expectations we were projecting on him? The minute he stepped into the Oval Office the left — and the right — began attacking him relentlessly.
We’re a country filled with uneducated, naive and ill-informed citizens — on both sides. I can only imagine that, at this point, he’s thinking: “Michelle was right, this is the dumbest thing I EVER did.”
When he ran for President, the world changed before his eyes. He walked into the two wars and an epic financial crisis. The inevitable BP oil spill — just icing on the cake.
Given the situation the globe is facing, we’ve got an excellent President. Would ya’ll like GW back? Or someone of his ilk? I’m sure that could be arranged and probably will.
I urge you all to spend the next 13 minutes watching Jon Stewart’s recent interview with David Axelrod for a reality check: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/29/david-axelrod-on-jon-stew_n_628941.html
June 30th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Carine, thank you for articulating the angst I, and many others, have been experiencing. Thank you Carla for the great link to Rachel Maddow’s piece “Obama Getting a lot Done,” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37937282#37937282
where in her quick and brilliant style, she reminds us that the huge strides that “have happened in the less than two years of this administration are the biggest or first or most important in generations.” I suggest you watch it (5 minutes well-spent) and then read the transcript (there are some real gems in there)—it gives perspective at this disappointing and difficult time. And thanks Rosemary for the Axelrod/Jon Stewart unedited interview, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/29/david-axelrod-on-jon-stew_n_628941.html more perspective from the inside. Yes, the euphoria of the election and its inherent expectations—unrealistic. Politics is politics. So, I will try to be patient. In the meantime, I’ll have one of those martini’s, Mr. President. Two olives please!
June 30th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
I like my politics like I like my martinis, dry and very cold. C’mon Democrats, help our president move us forward….
June 30th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Ms. Maddow restored my faith,hope, wishful thinking a few nights ago when she listed ALL that the man has accomplished. It was good to see/hear it all in one place. I was going to post it but I see someone has beat me to it. The problem is we expect more from the Office of the President than is in the power of the position. The people are going to have to do the share of it. Come on people now. I will be having my blood martini at the hot ball though. I love the guy and I love that he keeps getting up every morning. I don’t have his job and I still find it hard on some mornings to get up.
July 1st, 2010 at 7:45 am
all i can say to liberals is, keep running obama down and then usher in the empty suit, too-much-white-in-his eyes mitt romney, or mike “goober” huckabee, or worse, in 2012. your friends giving him a “c” have little or no understanding of how washington works – obama has done an amazing job, and if it werent for the oil spill (bush and cheney’s fault) and the general drip drip drip of the fox/republican attack machine, he would already be seen as one of the great presidents of the last 100 years. at the very least, you cant judge any president after a year and a half. wait until his term is up, then start handing out the report cards.
July 1st, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Just to be clear on the “rating” issue, no one was passing judgment on his entire presidency, just on his governing thus far. We can do that if we want to, plus it allows a place from which we can discuss the issues. Unfortunately Tim is wrong about the people who gave him a C. One is my husband (with whom I argue endlessly about his pessimism re: the prez); the other is a confirmed fan of Obama. They are both political junkies who understand how Washington works more than most. While they feel let down on some level (like he’s caving in too much to the party and people that hate him and everything he stands for), they feel even more frustrated that the great communicator has not been able to adequately communicate the historic successes he has achieved so far. They are disgusted that he’s letting them win the PR war; and I have to admit that one is a head-scratcher. Still, I refuse to pass judgment until the end. I believe a master plan is at work!
And I tried to download the transcript of Rachel Maddow’s show so I could send it to everyone I know but couldn’t do it. Suggestions, anyone? (the video wasn’t working for me for some reason.)
July 1st, 2010 at 5:55 pm
if they understand how washington works, how lobbyists influence so much of what gets done, how politics is the art of the possible and of the compromise, then i dont see how they think he gets a “c” after all he’s accomplished. he isn’t the “magic negro”, after all. i think as pru says too, he has to walk softly, or get hit. it’s our heroes who get killed, never theirs. i dont think that’s a coincidence.
July 6th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Here’s the Maddow transcript (no punctuation, sorry)
MADDOW: He signed a bill that gave amnesty to undocumented immigrants. He grew the size of the federal government and the budget, added a whole new cabinet level agency and added tens of thousands of government workers to the federal payroll. He tripled the deficit. He bailed out and expanded social security with a big fat tax increase. He raised corporate taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars. He raised taxes on gasoline. He, in fact, signed into law the largest tax increase in history. He supported federal handgun controls. He called for a world without nuclear weapons. He was Ronald Reagan. As a conservative saint, as the right-wing rock star, as king of the Republican prom in perpetuity, as a transformative figure for people who call themselves conservative, the facts of Ronald Reagan`s legislative record are awkward. Ronald Reagan`s record has in it a lot of things that would get him kicked out of today`s Republican Party, which is not to say that President Reagan was a secret liberal. He was not. What he was, was complex, but accomplished in his own way. With the passage of financial regulation in Washington today, President Obama took to the very un-momentous setting of “Twitters,” as he called it yesterday, to say this, quote, “Last night`s House Senate agreement on Wall Street reform represents the toughest financial reform since the Great Depression.” It turns out that a lot of things that have happened in the less than two years of this administration are the biggest or first or most important in generations. On the occasion of the Wall Street reform announcement today, Taegan Goddard at ” CQ Politics” wrote, “Not since FDR has a president done so much to transform this country.” Even before today`s historic Wall Street reform agreement, President Obama, of course, did what politicians have been trying to do for more than 60 years. He passed health reform, which, for the first time, establishes government responsibility for the health care of American citizens. Consider also the stimulus bill. It didn`t just throw a lasso around our entire economy and yank and yank it back from the brink. It also pumped about $100 billion into the crumbling embarrassment of our national infrastructure and transportation system. It was the largest investment in infrastructure since Ike. For solving our country`s energy problems, something Obama has compared to man walking on the moon, it contained about $60 billion in spending and tax incentives for renewable and clean energy, also a historic investment. It also included an unheralded but giant investment in science and tech, amping up the budgets at NASA, the National Science Foundation, and an experimental energy research agency that was created under President George W. Bush, but never funded until now. President Obama also expanded state kids` health insurance to cover another four million kids. He signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act amending the 1964 civil rights act for equal pay for equal work. He signed a nuclear arms deal with Russia that would reduce both countries` arsenals by a third. He created a new global nonproliferation initiative to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists. He set forth an international way forward on that radical left-wing proposition of Ronald Reagan, a world without nuclear weapons. Then there are the legislative and policy achievements that don`t just build on previously-set precedents, but set new ones. The Hate Crimes Prevention Act, also known as the Matthew Shepard Act. It had languished in Congress for years. The Food and Drug Administration permitted for the first time to regulate tobacco. Better late than never, he dismantled the scandal-plagued Minerals Management Service, broke it into three parts so that the folks who collect money from oil leases aren`t the same ones regulating the industry. And now, it will actually investigate the industry that it was busy schtupping and doing drugs with during the last administration. Obama fired two wartime commanding generals in little over a year. He overhauled the astonishing stupidity of the student loan system in which banks were being subsidized to give loans that were guaranteed by the government anyway, a license to print money. That was ended in the savings put toward actual aid to students. He canceled a weapons program that was bloated, unnecessary and totally irrelevant to either of our current wars, the F-22. Why even mention the cancellation of a single weapons system? Because that never happens. Weapons systems never get canceled. The F-22 did, which is itself a miracle. In each of these achievements and in the list of things he has yet to do “Don`t Ask, Don`t Tell,” closing Guantanamo in each of these things, there is room for liberal disappointment. I sing a bittersweet lullaby to the lost public option when I go to sleep at night. But presidential legacies are complex. Not even the Reagan administration`s legacy is pure as the conservative-driven snow. But Taegan Goddard at ” CQ Politics” was right today about nothing this big happening since FDR. The list of legislative accomplishments of this president in half a term even before energy reform which he`s probably going to get to is, to quote the vice president, “a big freaking deal.” Love this administration or hate it, this president is getting a lot done. The last time any president did this much in office, booze was illegal. If you believe in policy, if you believe in government that addresses problems, cheers to that.