Saturday, January 23, 2010
Thinking About Obama
The other thing I've been pondering is how I feel about Barak Obama. I will admit to a good deal of disappointment, particularly with his unwillingness or inability to convince the wing nuts in his own party that politics is he art of the possible not the art of the "they got theirs now I'm gonna get mine." (As always, Democrats are their own worst enemies). I also don't like the occasional appeals to the know-nothings, as when he panders to those who see the money-center banks as the cause of all of America's ills. But in the end I guess I still like Barak. He's a model of reason and restraint compared to the Tea-Partyers, and he is actually trying to do something about stuff inside and outside America that is plainly broken. Moreover he is doing so for the most part with a degree of candor and class that is remarakable in 21st century American politics. The fact that he has so far not resolved any of those issues is nether surprising nor mostly his fault. America has become almost as ungovernable as California. I'll give him another year.
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2 comments:
Good one. He's my take:
Obama's 1st year - for me, largely a huge disappointment, which I assign equally to him and "us", with very sparse positive highlights.
First, the good - I like his positions on the international front, especially those in the first 6 months, though now they seem increasingly "unclear".
But domestically, "OMG", what a fumble. He certainly was dealt a bad hand, but I "hoped" he was up to parsing and dealing with the challenges more adeptly.
Republicans in the congress have played their hand in a careful, and in the short term, effective, Machiavellian fashion, to the detriment of the Democrats, but more especially, the country and the hopes for greater rather than less civility and good governance. But Obama missed a major opportunity to transform our political front, by allowing his "coalition" of Republicans, Independents and Democrats to be re-divided, post-election. His team had the right vision, in attempting to convert "Obama for America" into "Organizing for America", but the field operatives (at least in the NJ area) didn't "get it", and continued their partisan ways, as winners usually do, becoming traditionally one-sided re the ways forward, to the detriment of the (fragile) unity that Obama's candidacy created.
To be sure, Dem leaders in congress modeled this "bad behavior" for the nation, making the Republican congressional intransigence much less "singularly odious", and allowing the usual divisiveness to return.
If, instead, Obama had remained focused on those who had brought him to the White House (this coalition), he could have continued to inspire them to DEMAND more sensible, less partisan change from their congressional reps, and so could have forced congressional leaders on both sides to work together as they should, for the benefit of the people and the nation. Instead, tea parties, and a focus on 60 votes has destroyed the spirit of opportunity that Obama's candidacy and election created.
You remind me of another bright start tht has fizzled: the Middle East. I thought the Cairo speech was spot on - but no follow-through. His problem may be that he has had to do triage on his plans.
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