Barack Obama: the new Mr. Dithers
October 29, 2009
By Dr. Stephen Murgatroyd
Columnist
Troy Media
Dr. Stephen Murgatroyd
HARRISON HOT SPRINGS, BC, Oct. 29, 2009/ Troy Media/ — US President Barack Obama is looking increasingly like the rookie Senator from Chicago acting in the role of President. Despite the hoopla and ballyhoo surrounding his historic election, many now see Obama as “on probation” and the report card shows that he is potentially a failing President.
Let’s look at his performance on four files:
The economy: Obama has proposed just one specific piece of legislation and a budget since taking office: the legislation was the US$787-billion stimulus package he insisted on when he arrived in office and the budget is one that places the US so deeply into debt-based financing as to carry the potential of destabilising the world’s bond markets and forcing major cuts in US spending.
Now that the US is officially out of recession, the President may begin to claim that the stimulus funds were the critical ingredient in ensuring the quick recovery, despite the lack of evidence in support of this thesis. Whatever the merits of the theory, the reality is that these same funds may also impair growth.
Indeed, the economic strategy being pursued by the President is difficult to fathom. In less than a year in office, he has tripled the deficit and sent shivers down the spines of bond market traders who have to find buyers for several billion dollars of government bonds each working day. His plan to handle the debt by curtailing government spending once the recession is over and growth returns to the economy looks like, at best, wishful thinking, and at worst, deceitful. Few economists, with the notable exception of Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, think that there is a strategy at all. Whatever the economic framework, it is threatened daily by new commitments coming directly from Obama.
Health care: The President’s desire to see health care reform is, to put it bluntly, a shambles. Rather than propose anything, he left the work of drafting legislation to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her left-leaning friends in the House of Representatives. Pelosi has gone into hiding since the backlash against the health care plan, and Obama is again on the campaign train, this time to try to get something passed to at least appear to have achieved some type of reform.
The so-called “public option,” which involves a government managed insurance scheme, has been “in,” then “out” then “in” again. The hokey-pokey continues: it is “in” the Senate bill at the time of writing, but may be dropped given the opposition of maverick/sometimes Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman. Not exactly an example of focused leadership.
Climate change legislation: His other big agenda item, climate change legislation, has been left to Democratic Senator John Kerry to develop and promote. This is a mistake. Kerry denies that cap and trade has anything to do with government, thinks that the world is imperilled by CO2 and is not at all clear on the socio-economic implications of his own bill. The Waxman-Markey Clean Energy Bill, passed in June and another version of the same thing, is also on the rocks: it is facing hundreds of amendments in the Senate and a filibuster by Republicans. Recognizing that the global summit on climate change, being held in Copenhagen in December, is a bust, the President has repositioned his initiative in terms of green energy and energy security. This file is also a shambles.
Afghanistan: Then there is Afghanistan. Not an easy issue for any President or Prime Minister to tackle, as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown can attest. Nonetheless, the President has to make a decision about whether or not he is supporting a troop surge in Afghanistan by transferring troops who are now withdrawing from Iraq. His Vice President, Joe Biden, who rarely has both feet on the ground since at least one of them is in his mouth, is opposed to the surge but his defence team are not. The American people are, by and large, against being in Afghanistan. The President’s response has been to dither. He has replaced former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin as Mr Dithers.
His approval ratings have fallen 12 points since he became President, despite, or perhaps because of, his almost daily appearance on television. The President knows how to campaign and win votes, which is why he is out supporting mid-term electoral candidates across the US. But campaigning and governing are two different things.
If the people could write a report card right now for the President, it would probably say that he is a strong and effective communicator, a solid campaigner and an imaginer. He has not yet proven himself to be an effective President of the United States. In the immortal phrasing of the millions of teachers who write report cards around the world, “could do better” comes to mind. Indeed, for him to fulfill the promises he made at the time of his election, “must do better” should replace “yes we can” as his signature phrase.
