Photo courtesy of The Nation
Okay, let’s take a closer look at President Barack Obama’s first year in office. Realizing that every possible medium is doing the same thing one year after the historic inauguration, I plan on taking a different approach here. After this turbulent year in politics, who do we have in the oval office? Is President Obama the change we all expected? Was he the transformative agent the masses made him out to be? To put it simply, yes and no.
Barack’s Darkest Hours:
Health Care Reform was and is the president’s major tent pole legislation. So it was curious that he entrusted the entire process to a congressional body fully committed to a partisan approach. The president was determined not to get bogged down in the minutiae and political sniping that engulfed the Clintons’ efforts in 1993. Republicans’ approach was to negotiate in bad faith, never intending to compromise on any legislation. That was enough to stall action, and kick in voter angst– witnessed in town halls across the country. President Obama failed to articulate his ideas for HRC until late in the game, and that resulted in him being outflanked by conservatives, and some members of his own party.
Transparency issues in government have long resulted in voter mistrust. President Obama swept into office promising a new era of open government. The results so far have been uneven. After vowing that health care reform would be debated in full view of the American people, the idea was quickly scuttled. Brian Lamb, CEO of C-SPAN, is fighting to have his network air coverage. The president also claimed that there would be a five day period of comment before any bill was signed into law, but that promise was also broken. White House visitor logs have also been kept a secret for security purposes, but that was a Bush administration policy that was ridiculed by the incoming Obama White House.
The Skip Gates affair was not so much a dark hour, as it was a blunder. Keep in mind that Henry Louis Gates is a friend of the president, and that friendship is what drove him to immediately excoriate the arresting officer in the case. But as an outside party without all of the pertinent facts of the case, it would have been wise for the president to steer clear of commenting. This is usually the president’s modus operandi. He chose to ignore it, and it dinged him.
Jobs, jobs, jobs. If the nation’s unemployment rate continues to hover around ten percent, then this will signal the death knell for any hope of a second term.
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