High Expectations & Promises Unfulfilled: Why We Are Disappointed With President Obama
Aug 15th, 2011 | 28 responses
I’ll begin this essay by declaring that it is my view that President Obama has not been the major disappointment that has left many liberals and blacks shaking their heads. I’ll also note that given the watershed 2008 election and the eight dark years before it, our expectations for the next four were bound to be much too high.
Yet I share some of that sense of disappointment.
While acknowledging the realities of the time in which Obama governs — an economic crisis that was inherited and a Republican opposition that has been determinedly obstructionist while not so subtly questioning his ability to lead as well as suggesting his patriotism is lacking because, you know, blacks are less patriotic, I have struggled over this long, hot summer to put my finger on the root of the malaise that threatens to overshadow the Obama administration’s considerable accomplishments.
What I keep coming back to is this: Even though Obama was been a consummate insider and a magna cum laude graduate of the brass knuckles school of Chicago politics, he campaigned as an outsider that would shake up Washington but Washington shook him up instead.
Some examples:
* Obama chose many of the very same insiders who were asleep at wheel or looked the other way as the seeds of the 2008 economic collapse were sewn. Mind you that outsiders would not have had the experience of insiders, but they would have been possessed with an insight that most of the insiders clearly lacked.
* Obama has played much too nice with the Republicans. Presidents lead by example and Obama’s legendary cool has been salutatory. But it became obvious within hours after his inauguration that endless negotiating with an opposition that would not hesitate to bring down the government — and has twice nearly done so this year alone — was a zero-sum game. Besides which, voters had given him majorities in both houses.
* Obama, in part because of the opposition, has been content (that perhaps is not the right word) with a half a loaf when a whole loaf was called for. The passage of a sweeping health-care reform law is the signal accomplish of his first term, but it omitted key provisions in the original draft. Ditto with the economic stimulus.
* Obama has equivocated on the war in Afghanistan. Despite taking out Osama bin Laden, as well as being far more decisive on national security issues than Republicans have given him credit for, he has been reluctant to come to terms with the obvious: The U.S.-led NATO coalition cannot “win” in Afghanistan in the conventional sense and it is long past time to get the hell out. Ditto with Iraq.
* Obama has been an admirable communicator who has been compared to FDR in some respects, and his public addresses at key junctures of his presidency have been masterful and elucidating. But he has been unable to articulate an effective alternative to the Republican narrative. FDR did and it worked.
* Obama’s inability to articulate that alternative is because he has either lost sight of who he is or never really knew in the first place. Labels can be too simplistic, but is he a liberal? If so, why has he governed like a moderate and sometimes spoken like a conservative? Perhaps because he has tried to please both sides — or all sides — too much of the time.
* Obama has been suckered by Republicans on the greatest challenge of his presidency. That is jobs creation in the face of mounting economic inequality. The economy will not begin to recover until millions more Americans can return to work, but they have been largely forgotten because of the Republican mantra that government spending must be cut, whereas an increase in spending is what is badly needed.
* Obama issued go-free cards to Bush administration torture regime perpetrators. His rationale in not ordering the Justice Department to investigate these evildoers is understandable if vexsome. He did not want to begin his presidency with Republicans screaming blue-blooded murder over what they would view as political prosecutions, but they screamed anyway about practically everything else.
If you are among the minority of voters who believed in 2008 that a maverick has-been from Arizona and a wingnut from Alaska were preferable to a fresh face from Illinois and a running mate with outstanding foreign policy credentials, then you not only expected the Democratic challenger to be a disappointment but hoped that it would be.
But it is probable that few of the nearly 70 million Americans who voted for Barack Obama have not been disappointed as I have to an extent and others have to a great extent.
Is it possible that Obama has simply lost his mojo and no longer believes in what he thought he stood for? Or perhaps that audacity of hope stuff was . . . just stuff?
New York Times photograph
28 Responses to “High Expectations & Promises Unfulfilled: Why We Are Disappointed With President Obama”
I think it is a lot easier to believe you can change Washington when you have no idea how it works. Once Obama took office, reality smacked him in the face. Out of inexperience and bad advice from Biden, he turned to his D majority Congress for support…they failed him. His daily national security reports were probably another bucket full of cold reality.
Short, the man had no idea what he was getting into. Audacity turned reality and he had to lead a nation out of an economic crisis while fighting 2 wars that he didn’t start.
I didn’t vote for him, but I think he has done a good job considering the situation he was thrown into…and an insane TP trying to burn him on a cross.
Washington (“Rome”) chews up one President after another.
Obama often sided with liberal Dems in 2009-2010, adding to the public repudiation of them in November 2010. He’s now conceding to reality, angering the far Left, but is inept and amateurish about this, too, or is not quite honest — during the budget dealings, two weeks after class-warfare tax gimmicks had been rejected by the serious players in the negotiations, Obama gave a demagogic appeal-to-losers campaign speech demanding these gimmicks. As well as ridiculous and insulting, it was out of touch not only with the intelligent electorate but also with those negotiating the budget deal (he may never have been a serious addition to these people).
It’s hard to say if the problem was limited to once more being not only out of touch, not only inept and amateurish, but just playing at governing, “winging it” as has so often appeared to be the case.
Good post, Shaun
I am someone who still supports the President. I am a little disappointed with his performance but not for several of the reasons you mention.
I agree with you on the following reasons:
He has not applied sufficiently :”the brass knuckles school of Chicago politics” when it comes to fighting the even “brassier school of GOP politics.”
“Obama has played much too nice with the Republicans…” He should have been much tougher with the GOP rather than “endless negotiating with an opposition that would not hesitate to bring down the government — and has twice nearly done so this year alone”
He has not been very successful in articulating an effective alternative to the Republican narrative…because he has been “too nice” too accommodating, too timid
He has “tried to please both sides — or all sides — too much of the time” rather than doing what he knows is right.
“Obama has been suckered by Republicans on” almost everything, because of all of the above, including the “Republican mantra that government spending must be cut, whereas an increase in spending is what is badly needed.”
“Obama issued go-free cards to Bush administration torture regime perpetrators. His rationale in not ordering the Justice Department to investigate these evildoers is” NOT understandable since “they screamed anyway about practically everything else.”
“But it is probable that few of the nearly 70 million Americans who voted for Barack Obama have not been disappointed as I have to an extent and others have to a great extent.”
I am one of them but for different reasons.
“He has “tried to please both sides — or all sides — too much of the time” rather than doing what he knows is right.”
These sorts of complaints always ignore the possibility that the moderate course might BE what “he knows is right”.
@DLS
It’s hard to say if the problem was limited to once more being not only out of touch, not only inept and amateurish, but just playing at governing, “winging it” as has so often appeared to be the case.
It’s funny he is so hated by the far Right since he probably is about as good of a Democratic president as they’re going to get – weak, malleable, no set goals, no “lines in the sand”, etc. I don’t know that he is playing at being president but I think he is a guy that is more in love with the idea of being president than he is actually being an effective president.
The guy had a Democratic House and Senate for two years and wasted it, devoting a year to a weak and ill-timed ACA. As usual, the left will blame his lack of accomplishments on Republicans, but all he had to do was come up with plans moderate enough to swing some Blue Dogs and Collins/Snowe.
Yep, DaGoat — ludicrous extremism (and “single-payer” as well as even the “public option” is too extreme for the mainstream now; I wrote during 2009-2010 that it might not be ten years or even five years from now, when health insurance fails, but it is currently) was stupid (and played at, at that!), whereas there were any number of sensible true-reform measures (I used to list them on numerous occasions in postings) that were sound incrementalist as well as true-reform measures.
Gee, health care “reform” has failure in common with “stimulus.”
DaGoat wrote:
As I call him, a pretty-boy figurehead*. Style over substance, just getting the faithful to Feel Good while playing(!) the role apparently was all that was considered necessary. (Or did he and his administration expect everybody to Feel Good the way the groupies did during the 2008 campaign, forever?)
* With racial, appealing-to-pathological-Progressive-Racial-Neuroticism PC appeal added as a bonus! oooo
DLS:
Yet again you inject your racist screed into an otherwise generally cogent comments thread.
Please butt out. Now.
Racism was already in the thread when you wrote:
Republican opposition … suggesting his patriotism is lacking because, you know, blacks are less patriotic
DaGoat:
How extraordinarily disingenuous. I point out that there is a rich vein of racism in today’s Republican Party and you accuse me of doing what DLS has done — and repeatedly does.
You are suggesting some Republicans are racist and DLS is saying there was some white guilt involved in Obama’s success. I don’t see what is shocking about either statement, and there is an element of truth to both.
DaGoat,
I missed where the claim that Republicans are racist was limited to “some” Republicans. Could you point me to that caveat? It is, after all, very important given the inflammatory nature of the accusation.
Shaun, thanks for the reality check. In politics it’s easy to point fingers at the person at the helm and look away from the storm that prevents a steady and direct course. Partisans (as we see from this thread) will often jump in when they sense a weakness, but given their propensity for selective ignoring of said storm and their desire to stir up discontent rather than take any personal responsibility for their own failure to help keep the country out of the ruts, they deserve little respect.
Obama still has much opportunity to exercise his leadership skills and I hope he is starting to realize the importance of doing so in a new light – and with more experience under his belt. I’ve criticized him often as of late, but haven’t yet thrown in the towel. It can’t be ignored that the alternatives (presidential aspirants) to Obama, with the possible exception of HRC) have been worse. I’d hate to think it was no longer possible to find leadership sufficiently committed and courageous to buck the storms of Washington, because going with the flow is NOT a solution.
Btw, the “inflammatory nature of the accusation” could easily be based on a long, long record (years) of DLS barraging this blog with his endless dripping sarcasm and insult of all things and persons to the left of Reagan and Eisenhower. Oh sure, he inserts much useful and interesting information along the way, but the over-arching theme of his posting is a consistently, highly negative one.
“With racial, appealing-to-pathological-Progressive-Racial-Neuroticism PC appeal added as a bonus! oooo”
Does that help? How many ways can you read that? Get real.
Good post Shaun, sums up my disappointments in the President pretty well. I still think an OK president is better than another of the GOP candidates, but I hope that Obama will find some political courage and that so will the Democrats he’ll need to get anything done.
Except that Obama’s mistake of giving too much rein to Congressional progressives, as Shannon suggests in the first comment, is what created the storm. Nancy Pelosi created the tea party, and Obama let her do it. He’s now reaping the whirlwind.
President Obama was elected with a significant majority of the people’s vote. The Democrats were in a majority in both houses.
When the President did take his reasonable stance on issues, he was told openly by the minority that they would act as a monolith to do nothing that he wanted and would drive him out of office.
The Democratic Senate supported the minority by giving it the power to ignore the People and the President by imposing an non-Constitutional supermajority requirement on whatever was proposed.
Wake-up fellows, go look in the mirror and see where your real disappointment should be focused.
Hey Logan.
Remember that time when the eight most influential and representative democrats vowed to never pass a budget that was 90% tax increases on the rich and 10% entitlement cuts?
Oh good grief.
President Obama is a great President and will go down in history as such. Never mind that he is the first black president for the United States.
There is no “white guilt” in him being elected President. It’s that he knows how to reflect in words what most Americans want for America. A fact that Republicans try so hard to obscure, but can’t.
The strength of African blood coupled with a first rate legal education and family man has come to power in America AND I LOVE IT!
This president is going to squash fascist neo-conservatism as a political force and shine as a beacon for the virtues of multiculturalism for the world to see and accept. This is a great man.
Strength of African blood?
Da Goat-
Absolutely.
We are what our DNA says that we are, related to one’s specific set of life’s circumstances. Frankly I am amazed as this man directly confronts his opposition constantly without any sign of wearing out. Africans take on life, regardless of how bleak the outlook, with vigor and determination. The heart of an African, in general, is solid gold.
Obama dissapointed me because he blatantly lied after promising the hopes and dreams of a reformed corrupt government and dysfunctional corporate partnership. We did’nt expect to do away with the two races of Americans over night (the oligarchs and every body else), come on…..
what we expected was a fighter, a marcher for justice, a rallying point, a well determined band leader. This was America’s opportunity to show the rulers of this economy that we are serious about changing, and the most visible statement we could make was the election of someone that did’nt fit the status quo…a black or a woman, dammit we were SERIOUS!!!!!!!!
However he too failed us, not only did he turn out a lair, he also revealed the fact that he dosen”t have a backbone, not to mention ba#*s. Honstely speaking not to offend anyone, all due respect, I don’t even think he’s proud of being african american…half any way. He disconnected himself from African Americans in a openly direspectful way, except when politics dictated otherwise. In case you’re wondering I am African American, and I stand by what I say! Don’t vote for this guy like I did.
Staying out of the debate, I just wanted to say “nice article, Shaun”.
Many people seem to forget that Chicago is a one party city where politics is about getting the most government goodies for your own group and fleecing the commuters out of as much tax dollars as possible. Also, Chicago is a city where whites are a minority and that ethnic groups get to loot the city treasury.
Maybe the problem for President Obama is that the U.S. is too white, too middle class, and the tax payer can vote against you and for your enemies.
It seems like the Democrats long term plan is to import and many poor, non-white, third-world immigrants to act like the automatic Democratic voters of Chicago.
Oh, the idiotic lefty charges are almost as old as they are untrue and unfit to make. [shrug] They only (additionally) devalue those who make them (in addition to other misdeeds that come my and other non-libs’ way).
Related:
It would be truly high comedy if some people weren’t serious with this:
http://www.whiteprivilegeconference.com/
It’s deranged and diseased, but with some ebullition, yes, funny, too. (It and what drives it are ridiculous as well as sick jokes.)
I just talked this afternoon to a woman who’d been at the Straw Poll. Her vote – Herman Cain. Probably a reactionary vote to offset her suppressed Republican racism.
I told her I didn’t really much like any of them but if I had to vote I would have gone Pawlenty.
I voted for Obama and will do so again because I see a struggle going on with ‘one’man against trying to separate two parties from going against eachother and a third obstruction- individual companies as well as lobbyists operating in Washington organized by special ‘intersts’ groups that number into thousands upon thousands of firms which contract with companies and groups to represent their interests relying on the tecnology as up to the second advantage via the web. The public
view is being carefully lead through media effects and the game isto create a ever changing picture of variable factions,clever but wholly engaged by such groups as the Tea Party, the problem is to keep doing what Obama is doing right now hanging with the ‘people’ and talking as their voice, will reveal alot in the coming months of a exaggerated far righters with their media mouth-pieces will hammer away at public opinion so much that their design will wear out and their pumped up controveries will only turn the public off . . . once again.