What’s Obama Doing? Nothing?
by on 5 Sep 2009
The cocktail party circuit is muttering about Obama, “He’s not doing much.”
I had written about Obama before he got elected, when he was the dreamer, the hoper, the most intelligent, stylish, revolutionary, when, in simple party terms, he was “amazing.”
Since he’s come to power, I’ve read in bits about Obama but wasn’t totally clued in to what he was doing. Then, recently, at a cocktail party, I heard, “He’s not doing much,” a kind of condensed expression of a perception that Obama that was not living up to his promises. I was shaken up and decided to wade through the detail and get to the bottom of this comment.
What has Obama been upto since he got elected?
He has: Signed an enormous stimulus bill, closed down Guantanamo, demanded regulation of private equity and hedge funds, developed plans to safeguard failing housing and banking, proposed big healthcare reforms, saved General Motors, passed a pro-poor tax policies in his budget. To accumulate detail, it’s not like Obama has not been doing much.
But, as George Packer in his New Yorker article puts it, his actions have been so varied that it’s hard to define them under the head of a broad trend or philosophy. He has been activist in some decisions (Guantanamo, taxation, home owners relief, healthcare), American nationalist in others (General Motors) and pragmatist and conservative in yet others (refusing to nationalize banks or allow government to give loans).
He has, Packer points out, tried to regulate the financial system, impose regulatory and “fairness” controls on it, rather than remake it altogether with a sweep of nationalization. Obama’s not giving large dole outs to the poor, but he wants to enact a tax on the wealthy as one of the ways to provide affordable health insurance to uninsured families.
All in all, Obamaism is “elusive”, Packer says. It confuses because it cannot be clubbed together and explained in one sentence.
Most recently, Obama has gotten flack for his healthcare reform. His critics say that he hasn’t been clear on how exactly he plans to cut costs in healthcare and make the system more effective – how will he cut swollen doctor’s salaries, reduce drug costs, restrict unnecessary high-tech procedures? Will private insurers be able to provide the plan or will it be a public plan? The details of healthcare reorganization are mind boggling. Healthcare is, after all, an issue that tripped up even the Clintons. Meanwhile, the New Yorker and the New York Times are goading Obama to stay strong on healthcare reforms.
Still, it’s true that it remains to be seen how much of healthcare reform will pass, and how much of Obama’s financial regulations will actually be put forward and passed. Reform tends to be so complex and raise so much resistance – as opposed to war in a foreign country, or cutting taxes – that, as Alan Blinder points out in his NY Times article, it tends to suffer.
So, in some ways, our disillusionment at cocktail parties is understandable: Against all odds, Obama, the pinner of all our dreams, must do SOMETHING. Something that we can all talk about.
The democratic presidents are always the big losers - Charles Blow, another NY Times columnist, points out that people tend to trust Republican Presidents more in the first polls after election. (After election, George Bush had a public opinion rating of 55%, Clinton 24% and Obama has 20%.)
Perhaps it’s just this – the Democrats are complex with all their little, detailed reforms and leave us with little to chatter about. George W. Bush’s entire presidency could, at most points, be put in one word: “Terror” pronounced eyes wide in a Texan accent. But, forget about a word, it’s harder to put Clinton’s or Obama’s presidencies even down to a sentence. And this, in everyday coffee, cocktail party terms, doesn’t make for reassuring conversation.
For more, check out:
Alan Blinder on Why Reform Suffers
Charles Blow on Presidential Trust, Democrats Vs Republicans
Before he got elected 50% of this country was PRAYING this %$&% clown Barack Obama would not get elected. he has NEVER owned a business, started a business…….DONE NOTHING and he hated The United States (he still does). We said he would go down as the worst President in U.S. History. Now….we will be proven right. The man has been and always will be a disgrace to this country of ours.
15 October 2009 at 8:41 PM