Politics is hard. Especially when you have a 60-vote Senate filibuster, a remarkably united wall of Republican opposition, and an army of powerful lobbyists working against you. Oh – and coming to power in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression doesn’t help either.
Many on the left argue that Obama had a mandate for transformational change – and if only he had made use of his ‘bully pulpit’, taking his show on the road to convince the American people to support his bold proposals, politicians would have had no choice but to stand with him.
I disagree. I’m not sure about you – but over the first year of Obama’s Presidency, I recall him doing so many town halls and Presidential press conferences that people stopped paying attention. Anyone else remember the media questioning whether Obama was “overexposing himself”?
Let’s review Obama’s record. He began his Presidency by bringing America back from the brink of complete economic collapse. He passed a stimulus package (that the left said was too small and the right said was too big), bailed out the auto industry (what a socialist!) and expanded Bush’s bank bailout to ensure that credit didn’t completely dry up (which nearly nobody agreed with, but was the right thing to do).
He then took on health reform – a monumental policy objective that Democratic President after Democratic President has attempted and failed for 60+ years. Obama’s natural instinct to make incremental progress rather than shoot for the moon and fail was clear from the beginning. He constantly sought compromise, merging the best Republican ideas with modest Democratic proposals in the hopes of achieving bipartisan consensus. While he did fail to appreciate the depth and breadth of Republican opposition, he eventually got the job done.
It was a grueling battle that nearly destroyed Obama’s Presidency and sucked up almost all of his political capital. He tried passing admittedly weak climate change legislation, and failed. He passed financial regulatory reform, but only after an army of lobbyists watered it down. He couldn’t convince any States to take Guantanamo detainees, and the facility remains open. He tried to repeal the Bush-era tax cuts on the rich but had to back down at the last minute to prevent the country from defaulting on its debt.
Yet notice what he has been able to accomplish. He ended torture. He made massive investments in clean energy technology and substantially increased fuel-emission standards. Gays can now openly serve in the military. He managed to save America from defaulting on its debt while securing $500B in military cuts over the next decade. He also effectively ended two wars, united a previously divided world against a dangerous Iranian regime, dismantled Al-Qaeda and supported popular revolutions around the world.
Is Obama perfect? No. Could he have done more? Perhaps. He also could have fell flat on his face (in fact, he nearly did). Given what he was up against – he gets a pass from me. Four more years.
