Posted on 01/01/2010 12:49:35 AM PST by myknowledge
US President Barack Obama's hopes of sparking rapid political transformation in 2009 fell short, yet his bruised administration still dreams of forging historic change in the year to come.
After 11 months in power, Obama is greyer, drained by Washington's acrimony and no longer an untested source of hope for millions, but a commander-in-chief who agonised, then escalated the Afghan war.
Once soaring approval ratings are now under 50 per cent in some polls - dangerous territory for any president. Obama endured a chastening learning curve abroad, and saw an ambitious domestic agenda slow in Congress.
But if lawmakers soon pass health reform offering near universal coverage, Obama could yet claim the most significant debut year of any recent president.
Democratic presidents since the 1930s have failed on health care and even a watered-down bill would rank as the most sweeping liberal social reform since the 1960s.
A freshly minted Nobel Peace Prize also sits on Obama's shelf. Many believe he did not deserve it, but the accolade symbolises his rebranding of the US image abroad.
If Obama's year is judged by massive and unrealistic expectations which greeted his election, it can only be termed a failure.
But viewing 2009 in the context of recent US politics, and the bleak inheritance bequeathed by George W Bush, offers Obama more credit.
On the downside, widespread health reform hasn't yet occurred, Obama will not meet his one-year deadline to close Guantanamo Bay and he has struggled to work through the legal thicket left by Bush-era anti-terror policies.
Unemployment is crippling at 10 per cent, the budget deficit is over a trillion dollars and fears persist of a "double dip" recession and jobless recovery.
Hopes Congress would pass a cap-and-trade bill before the Copenhagen climate summit foundered.
The idea that Obama alone could cleanse Washington's partisan swamp always seemed fanciful - and so it has proven.
Abroad, Obama's attempt to confront Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now looks clumsy, and the Middle East peace process is again stalled.
Obama's critics complain he has made global "apology tours." Iran meanwhile appears to have spurned his engagement push and a nuclear showdown deepens.
One criticism beginning to stick is that Obama refuses to take a stand on key issues.
On Afghanistan for instance, he decided to throw 30,000 more troops into the fight but said they must start coming home in 2011.
On health care and the $US787 billion ($A898.2 billion) stimulus, Obama let Congress draft the details. The result: bloated bills that satisfy neither supporters on the left or enemies on the right.
Practising politics as the art of the possible may however may be a smart strategy to push change through a slim political window.
Obama faced what might be a toughest year for a president in 70 years, a traumatised economy on the cusp of depression and worsening war in Afghanistan.
But the second Great Depression never happened and Obama claims credit for returning growth and the rate of jobs lost has slowed to a crawl.
He also pocketed incremental political achievements.
Obama extended health care for children, outlawed pay discrimination by gender, lifted the ban on government funding for stem cell research, and transformed US reluctance to tackle global warming.
A massive reform of financial regulations is slowly moving in Congress.
Abroad, he sought dialogue, reset relations with Russia, and embarked on the tortuous progress of engaging China and got more NATO troops for Afghanistan.
A big foreign policy victory may be overdue though.
Looming at the end of 2010 are congressional elections, which usually wound a first-term president, and could especially hurt ruling Democrats.
Obama clearly needs to seize control of the debate on jobs and the deficit before Republicans, branding him an old-style big government liberal, can exploit the economy themselves.
After a brutal year, Obama's presidency may be entering a more realistic phase, as the White House can no longer simply rely on the president's personal magnetism and charisma to carry the day.
The theme of biography as diplomacy, of using Obama's popularity overseas and exotic life story - in Asia crystallised into the idea of America's first Pacific President - has also reached its limits.
The stripped-down realism of Obama's Nobel address defending war, and a stark West Point speech on Afghanistan seemed to augur a new tone.
There's a biblical undiscerning reason why BHO the Antichrist has been placed into office:Judgment for America's national sins.
Is Obama God’s Judgment on America?
God's judgment has already settled upon America
Jeremiah 12:17 But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the LORD.
Psalms 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
Stephen seems to have a very rich fantasy life.
Not sure if I would concede, yet, that “commander zero” is the antichrist but this article needs a barf alert.
The article’s author seems unaware that he is hi-lighting exactly WHY we are disgusted with Obama even as the author defends him. This quote is a good example - it points to smoke and mirrors but the author is defensively PROUD of the man.
“A freshly minted Nobel Peace Prize also sits on Obama’s shelf. Many believe he did not deserve it, but the accolade symbolises his rebranding of the US image abroad.”
Oh he acknowledges that it’s largely viewed as undeserved but moves the goal posts by suggesting that the rebranding is what is REALLY important...
Wow. What a ridiculous thing that was.
The people that write them don't tend to be embarrassed by them. The people that read them, that's quite another matter.
Perhaps poor Obama’s life would go a bit easier if he focused on the real job of president (instead of trying to remake a country of 300 million souls into a socialist paradise). He could start by reading the US Constitution.
Article 2, Section 2:
“The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.
Article 2, Section 3.
He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information on the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.
If you are referring to the individual mentioned in the book of revelation, that is only known by God and revealed to us on His time table.
When "the Antichrist" of biblical renown is fully revealed, well let's just say the Ka-KA will have hit the proverbial fan, bigtime.
Maybe not THE Anti-Christ, but certainly an anti-Christ. His entire party thrives on the politics of envy and greed. Don’t like what your neighbor has? Take it from him or destroy it!
Still standing or...still golfing?
That golf course is hell.
If folks are not working there isn’t much he can do. This dependence on government is sickening. Even FR is falling into that abyss. Government has no role in capitalism yet more and more government is asked to help it. The tide has turned.
eyedigress: “The tide has turned.”
If so, it cannot last. It doesn’t matter how many bills they pass. They cannot deny human nature and the laws of economics forever.
nah.. there are quite a few chinks in the armor.
“Wow. What a ridiculous thing that was.” They must be breeding. These articles and comments show that un-stupid is just impossible. Blaming all obama’s woes on Joe Leiberman, Cheney and Bush. “That Was the Year That Was” by GAIL COLLINS http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/opinion/31collins.html
The thief comes inside. The Bandits raid outside. Now their exploits surround and encircle them. - (Hosea 7:1-2)
Foreigners sap his strength, but he does not realize it. His hair is sprinkled with gray, but he does not notice.
The stalk has no head; it will produce no flour. Were it to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it up.
With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction. They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.
Surely the bull of Samaria will be broken to pieces.
Throw out your idol, O Samaria!
maybe not forever, but they are killing all the “old guys” in the system. Work is non-existent and his bailout went to hedge the arab take-down of our monetary system. Why the hell doesn’t he just say it?
Your right to many people think it’s the governments job to support them it’s not, it’s the governments job to protect it’s people.
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