October 7, 2009--My President
Offline I have been hearing from friends that my recent questions, my criticism of President Barack Obama is not helpful. That it is playing into the hands of his bigoted and ideological opponents who only care about his failing; who, in the words of Republican South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint want to “break” him. At a time when they are lying about him, calling him outrageous names, even threatening his life, it is our responsibility to show support for him.
I do continue to support him as I feel I have supported every president during my adult lifetime. Even those with whom I had fundamental disagreements. I came to feel that George W. Bush was the worst president in at least 100 years; but for the most part I supported his education policies and his leadership after 9/11, including the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan, though not his economic policies and ruinous war in Iraq.
Having said this, my support for President Obama continues to be more than the support I, as an American, have offered to all of my, our presidents. I was enthusiastic about his candidacy, did all I could to help him get elected, have been inspired and moved by his vision and soaring words, and continue to endorse almost all of his agenda.
But I am worried that he has thus far not shown the forceful leadership required to get important things done (on health care as one huge example) and has appeared to waffle and be indecisive about even larger issues such as what to do about our failing efforts in Afghanistan and more significantly, Pakistan. Even today, a report in the New York Times (linked below) about his meeting yesterday afternoon with congressional leaders about Afghanistan indicates that he is looking for “a middle ground.”
Not the right and best course of action but some policy in the middle, triangulating between those who want to see us begin to embrace the reality of the situation—for thousands of years outsiders have not been able to defeat or occupy Afghanistan—and begin to extract ourselves and those views, such as his own generals, who are calling for further escalation.
Seeking the middle ground should not be his goal. Or that of a courageous president who came into office promising change. Lyndon Johnson was always attempting to juggle the urgings of his generals in Vietnam for ever more troops with the swelling anti-war sentiments of the people. And we know the disaster to which that straddle led. Defeat and humiliation. From which we still have not recovered. John McCain and his hawkish ilk serve as a case in point.
How, some of my friends are saying to me, can you be so critical of Obama when he has been in office for fewer than nine months? I say that for his most critical domestic policies—not just health care but also the economy, education, the environment, and financial industry regulation—he in effect has just three months remaining before everything grinds to a further halt and the midterm election campaigns begin to suck up all the political and media oxygen. Even now, on half the radio and TV talk shows, it’s all about 2010 and the presidential contest of 2012. How many seats in Congress will the Democrats lose? Will General Petraeus run for president? What about Sarah Palin’s chances? And it is disturbing to hear that Obama’s closest advisors—his Chicago inner circle—are already discounting the likely Democratic loses in 2010 and focusing on how to get him elected to a second term. All after only eight and half months in office with very little of his agenda accomplished.
And then in whispers some of my friends are saying, “He is our first black president and shouldn’t we thus be extra careful about criticizing him?”
I, not in a whisper say, “This is of course a great thing. It shows that Americans are capable of transcending our past. But I care more about his being an effective president than an African-American president.”
And thus I will continue to do what I can to hold him to the same high standards he has set for himself. Looking for real evidence of not just change we can believe in—that was great for campaigning—but by expecting him to bring about the changes we require if we are to survive and once again thrive.
I do continue to support him as I feel I have supported every president during my adult lifetime. Even those with whom I had fundamental disagreements. I came to feel that George W. Bush was the worst president in at least 100 years; but for the most part I supported his education policies and his leadership after 9/11, including the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan, though not his economic policies and ruinous war in Iraq.
Having said this, my support for President Obama continues to be more than the support I, as an American, have offered to all of my, our presidents. I was enthusiastic about his candidacy, did all I could to help him get elected, have been inspired and moved by his vision and soaring words, and continue to endorse almost all of his agenda.
But I am worried that he has thus far not shown the forceful leadership required to get important things done (on health care as one huge example) and has appeared to waffle and be indecisive about even larger issues such as what to do about our failing efforts in Afghanistan and more significantly, Pakistan. Even today, a report in the New York Times (linked below) about his meeting yesterday afternoon with congressional leaders about Afghanistan indicates that he is looking for “a middle ground.”
Not the right and best course of action but some policy in the middle, triangulating between those who want to see us begin to embrace the reality of the situation—for thousands of years outsiders have not been able to defeat or occupy Afghanistan—and begin to extract ourselves and those views, such as his own generals, who are calling for further escalation.
Seeking the middle ground should not be his goal. Or that of a courageous president who came into office promising change. Lyndon Johnson was always attempting to juggle the urgings of his generals in Vietnam for ever more troops with the swelling anti-war sentiments of the people. And we know the disaster to which that straddle led. Defeat and humiliation. From which we still have not recovered. John McCain and his hawkish ilk serve as a case in point.
How, some of my friends are saying to me, can you be so critical of Obama when he has been in office for fewer than nine months? I say that for his most critical domestic policies—not just health care but also the economy, education, the environment, and financial industry regulation—he in effect has just three months remaining before everything grinds to a further halt and the midterm election campaigns begin to suck up all the political and media oxygen. Even now, on half the radio and TV talk shows, it’s all about 2010 and the presidential contest of 2012. How many seats in Congress will the Democrats lose? Will General Petraeus run for president? What about Sarah Palin’s chances? And it is disturbing to hear that Obama’s closest advisors—his Chicago inner circle—are already discounting the likely Democratic loses in 2010 and focusing on how to get him elected to a second term. All after only eight and half months in office with very little of his agenda accomplished.
And then in whispers some of my friends are saying, “He is our first black president and shouldn’t we thus be extra careful about criticizing him?”
I, not in a whisper say, “This is of course a great thing. It shows that Americans are capable of transcending our past. But I care more about his being an effective president than an African-American president.”
And thus I will continue to do what I can to hold him to the same high standards he has set for himself. Looking for real evidence of not just change we can believe in—that was great for campaigning—but by expecting him to bring about the changes we require if we are to survive and once again thrive.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
6:04 AM
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