My 2010 New Year's resolution is to judge President Obama by his actions, and not by his words.
Sure, it'll be hard to do. Very hard. His smooth words and ringing sentiments are usually metaphorical water for the thirsty, food for the hungry, liberal manna for the Democratic masses. It's difficult to separate the substance of the 44th U.S. president from his extraordinary eloquence.
Indeed, his transcendent ability with the orated word first brought him to national attention with his charismatic 2004 Democratic convention speech when he pronounced to startled, thunderous liberal acclaim:
"The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States... But I've got news for them..."We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we've got some gay friends in the Red States."
But five years later, Obama has done absolutely nothing to either help his "gay friends," or to scale back the intrusiveness of the Patriot Act.
He campaigned brilliantly in 2007-08, and won our hearts and minds with seemingly sincere promises for wonderful ideas, including:
- Health Care for "All" - "Quality, affordable and portable health care coverage for all"
- Iraq War - "Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months."
- Jobs - "Barack Obama believes we need to double federal funding for basic research and make the research and development tax credit permanent to help create high-paying, secure jobs."
- Rural America - "Obama will invest in rural small businesses and fight to expand high-speed Internet access. He will improve rural schools and attract more doctors to rural areas."
But health care legislation is struggling, in large part due to hs presidential silence. Mr. Obama often alludes to ending the Iraq War, but 120,000 U.S. soldiers remain quietly stationed there. Until lately, jobs creation has been a back-burner issue for the Obama White House, and new federal funding for research is anemic. And new investment in rural areas... education, small businesses, doctors... is zilch.
The list of Obama's other grand plans followed by half-completions, slipping timelines, and missed deadlines goes on and on and on... Think Guantanamo Bay detention camp closure, think green technology, think teacher residency and mentoring programs.
Just today in colorful, TV-ready remarks, President Obama lambasted bankers for failing to do their part to "rebuild our economy" after Americans saved banks and bankers from imminent disaster.
If you heard Obama's bitten words, you were definitely on the President's side. But where's the follow-up action-plan by this President, who bailed out the bankers with no-strings billions, turned a blind-eye to their obscenely rich bonuses, and hawks toothless "reform" of the banking industry?
Where are Obama's post-hot air mandates for banks? Does he still naively believe that bankers will change their ways out of conscience and fear of presidential scorn? Or is Obama's can-do fierceness reserved for TV cameras?
(Look closely at the photo, above, of today's meeting. How many frowning, worried bankers do you see? I see exactly NONE.)
If you listen to Obama's soaring words or read his masterly speeches, it's oh-to-easy to confuse his utopian thinking with boots-on-the-ground reality.
Yet last night, President Obama told Oprah that he grades himself "a good solid B+" for his first year performance in office. My first reaction was to wonder about the President's self-aggrandizing grade inflation.
But then I realized: President Obama seems to confuse polished wordsmithing and speaking with the heavy lifting of actual leadership. And he doesn't seem to grasp that anyone can sermonize; the hard task of principled leadership takes more effort, more energy, more commitment, more involvement, more boldness.
As I stated before, my 2010 New Year's resolution is to judge President Obama by his actions, and not be blindsided by his words. Based on his actions in 2009, I grade his first year in office a shaky C.
And I pray that in 2010, President Obama snaps out of his dreamy cocoon of ivory-tower intellectualizing, and starts providing the sharp-edged, hands-on leadership that everyday Americans desperately need and deserve. He failed to do that in 2009.
Comments
Obama is too concerned with his popularity to ever be a true leader.
But he still beats John McCain.
That was a great article Deborah!
I am neither a liberal nor a conservative, but I like much of the country hoped for change. And if we received any change it has only been negative change.
It is great watching Jon Stewart compare the speeches of former President George W Bush and President Obama.
As Jon says “I love when he does Bush covers”.
It is frightening at a minimum. Maybe when our country collapses we can see a true leader take over. Obama has proven to be a great speaker and horrible leader.
Bush spent money that we didn’t have. Along comes Obama and spends three times as much, and you give him a C? Do you then give Bush a B? You don’t even need to answer. I’ll answer for you, whatever.
Allen –
“Along comes Obama and spends three times as much, and you give him a C?”
Not quite correct.
The increase in the federal debt during George Bush’s last year in office was just under $1T. The budget deficit for this year will be between $1.4 to $1.6T.
George’s last budget predicted a $.5T deficit. Unfortunately, his budget did not include extrabudgetary concerns like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which were handled as special appropriations. Iraq and Afghanistan have line items in Obama’s budget.
FWIW.
Great point RT!
When you actually count all of the spending rather than picking and choosing what shows up in the budget they both spent more than we could ever imagine. They both are fiscally irresponsible liars, or as we commoners call them, politicians.