66 for 44
by Dalitso Njolinjo
I am going to start of by stating that Barack Obama is the smartest American politician since Ronald Reagan. Democrats searched years to find their own Gipper, the go to guy for pressing home their liberal message, Obama is it.
Since his inauguration you have seen the Republican machine try their very best to undermine and smear the President. Whether it was producing no votes in the house for his stimulus package, undermining his genuine bipartisan efforts (someone please tell me how many times Bush or 1st term Clinton visited the opposition, at their own quarters to hear their proposals) and throwing every word in the dictionary that sounded remotely scary at Obama and his agenda (SOCIALIST!).
On top of that you have the media keeping Obama ‘Honest’ (seriously CNN where were you during the Bush administration). You have every cable news host becoming a Nobel Economic laureate and pushing Obama to do exactly what the Japanese did during the early nineties (They stopped stimulating their economy and caused ‘the lost decade’, ‘the lost generation’).
I usually watch Morning Joe (it gets posted on the net around three here in the UK) to sample American political discourse. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it but it’s like taking necessary medicine, you just do it. But on the 31st March 2009, when the results of the Washington Post/ ABC poll results were released, the look of utter flabbergastery on Joe, Mika and Pat’s faces was priceless.
66%. ‘Obama is going to bankrupt us.’
66%. ‘The federal government has no right to fire a CEO of the private sector.’ 66%. ‘Do we really want government run health care?’
66%. ‘We are on the road to socialism’
66%. ‘Should the President really be on Leno?’
Obama is the smartest American politician because he is marching to a drum beat which the rest of the Washington politicians and media either haven’t heard or disregard as hip hop tomfoolery.
Lets forget that a huge consensus of economist say that Obama hasn’t done enough to stimulate the economy, lets forget that these endangered CEO’s companies are now partially owned by the American government, lets also assume that the majority of people labelling Obama a socialist do not know what that the term means, but lets tackle the most ridiculous accusation thrown at the president, should he have appeared on Leno at all?
Well I believe yes, not only should he have appeared on Leno, I believe he should plan to go on The Daily Show and Colbert Report. Why?
Because citizen needs to be engaged with the political discourse in their country. The president should be the one leading the political conversation and he should be explaining his policies to as many people as possible. He needs the Leno audience to understand why he is bailing out the Banks on Wall Street and how it will improve the economy, he needs the Daily Show crowd to understand why he is committing more troops in Afghanistan and he needs the Colbert soldiers to understand why he feels the country needs a health care system. These people were disengaged during the Bush years and look what happened.
I think it is heartening that Obama is still in Campaign mode. Seriously, would you like him to disappear for 4 years into the oval office and only reappear when he needs your vote? Would you like him to turn recluse in the White House and become tone deaf to the rest of the country’s woes? Would you like him to only pay attention to the same old media, that have destroyed the 4th estate of the United States of America, that they no longer report honest and important news but only partisan rhetoric and talking points?
66% of Americans say no to the paragraph of questions above and say, for now that Mr 44 is doing a good job.
For those that love politics and study political communications with a fine tooth comb, Obama is Jordan. History and statistics say that he has to make a mistake and his numbers have to come down sooner or later.
Dalitso Njolinjo lives in Northamptonshire, England. He is an aspiring writer and communications consultant. He writes that he “enjoys all things politics, sports and French. The ungodly trinity.” He also writes on his own blog.