Ummmbama
(today’s post: 240 words)
I’ve only followed politics (to any degree) for 10ish years. I don’t know many details about past Presidents. Maybe this is off-base but from what I understand, I can’t imagine any President since JFK capturing the attention of the world as much as Barack Obama has.
I almost wonder if Obama is embarrassed by the obsessive adulation. And I wonder if the US and the world have realistic expectations of the Obama administration.
I’m not saying Obama is a bad President waiting to happen. On the contrary, I think he’ll do very well. I expect he will aggressively improve: job conditions and the financial well being of the country - especially the lower- and middle-class; health care and, within one term, substantially increase the number of those who are covered; relations with foreign nations.
“Improve”, of course, is the key word in each of the prior statements. I’m expecting solid progress, not miracles.
Which brings me to the point. Obama is on top right now. And I think he’s a confident, hard-working, passionate “fighter” who will kick ass the way he best sees fit for this country. But is that enough to live up to the lofty expectations? Or do I have this backward? Maybe as “the first African-American President”, he just has to remind us every now-and-then that he isn’t George W. Bush.
I think I might enjoy remembering this thought process in four years.
Possibly related posts:
- Political Disenfranchisement / Disillusionment Read an interesting political comment on a message board: For...
- Foreign Obama? (today’s post: 250 words) I’ve been waiting for the Obama...
- Israel (today’s post: 415 words) I do follow international news, a...
- Am I a Commie? The process of self-discovery toward the understanding of my political...
- President Bob I’ve decided to run for President. Here’s my stance on...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Nope, expectations are way too high internationally and within the US. I read an article about how Kenya is expecting Obama to end the African wars and cause a surge in the economy from American tourism. I’ve heard a lot of rhetoric about how he is uniting the nation, but he only won the popular vote by ~1% more than Bush did in the last election. And I get the impression that people are expecting his policies to have immediate impact on the economy, the Middle East, terrorism, and international relations just because they’re different than Bush’s.
Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m getting at Kam! You watch the news on TV and people are talking like next the start of 2009 means they’re going to have a high-paying job, low taxes, and awesome health care.
But if they read the studies they’d know that, on the topic of health for example, the best guess is from the Lewin Group study:
That’s good, solid progress. Needed progress. But not a miracle. And certainly not everyone will have health care or be able to afford it. I expect similar growth in other areas Obama focuses on.
This stuff can’t happen over night. McCain got laughed at during the debates when he said he could accomplish some task (was it alternative energy?) in a ridiculously short period of time. People respected Obama’s more measured estimate. But will they hold?
I don’t know. I think you’re probably right, Kam. Obama may be everything he said he was going to be and people may still get very down on him. I guess that’s the fickle nature of it.
Strange coincidence! I just found this article at Slate, which seems to saying some of the same things:
http://www.slate.com/id/2204243/