Obama So Far: Good Job!
LOS ANGELES — This is about what I think, expressed cleverly by another columnist, Froma Harrop of the Providence Journal:
"When the pollster calls and asks whether I think the country is going in the right direction, I will say 'no.' When she asks if I approve of the job Congress is doing, I will say 'no.' And when she follows up with a question on President Obama's performance, I will answer: 'Sometimes good, sometimes bad. The guy drives me nuts at times.'
"But when they ask whether I want Republicans to take back Washington, I'll respond: 'Are you out of your mind? We're still recovering from their last round of debauchery — their fiscal irresponsibility, servility toward Wall Street, disrespect for science, contempt for the environment.'"
Harrop says she is a "reasonable woman," who does not care about ideology. And she adds that many voters must agree with her.
Well, I do, even if I do care about ideology.
Then, she says: "Republicans doubled the national debt under Bush. Perhaps they'd like to triple it the next time."
Actually, they have already done that: The national debt tripled during the administration of Ronald Reagan. He made his career by attacking "tax and spend" Democrats. Then he invented "tax and borrow" Republicanism. That was certified as party dogma when Vice President Dick Cheney told President George W. Bush: "Reagan proved deficits don't matter."
President Obama may have driven pundit Harrop a bit nuts last week. "You know, sometimes these pundits, they can't figure me out," the president said, campaigning in Kansas City, Mo. "They say, 'Well, why is he doing that? That doesn't poll well.' Well, I've got my own pollsters, I know it doesn't poll well. But it's the right thing to do for America."
That presidential "insight" was reported a day later, when The New York Times ran the headline "Obama Pushes an Agenda Without an Eye on Polls," over an analysis by Sheryl Gay Stolberg. His mistake, it seems, was doing what he said he would do when he campaigned for the presidency.
The Times analysis focuses on Obama's devotion to his agenda to the point that he ignored the immediate concerns of much of the nation:
"The political context has changed around him. Today, with unemployment remaining persistently near double digits despite the scale of the stimulus program and the BP oil spill having raised questions about his administration's competence, Mr. Obama's signature legislation is providing ammunition to conservatives who argue that government is the problem, not the solution. What Mr. Obama and his allies portray as progressive, activist government has been framed by his opponents as overreaching and profligate when it comes to the economy."
If you happen to think Obama is a reasonable man, you are impressed that he can survive at all in the current political context. His presidency and campaigns are and will be about a fundamental American question: What is the role of government?
Obama has shown what he thinks it is, as Stolberg wrote:
"Mr. Obama has done what he promised when he ran for office in 2008: He has used government as an instrument to try to narrow the gaps between the haves and the have-nots. He has injected $787 billion in tax dollars into the economy, provided health coverage to 32 million uninsured and now, reordered the relationship among Washington, Wall Street, investors and consumers."
That would look great to many — and will to history — without context changers like stubborn unemployment, suggesting fundamental changes in the economy that Obama and the rest of us do not yet understand, and the damned oil spill. That context changer is an example of how much hypocrisy the electorate can tolerate and pundits can understand. The same people who are attached to Reagan's line that the government is the problem, that we need less government outreach, are the people who have been attacking Obama for not doing enough in the Gulf.
Personally, I think the guy, the president, is doing a pretty good job in ominous times. I will repeat that if any pollster wants to call.
Column Archive
A Congressman Reaches Out -- And Ducks!
RESEDA, Calif. — Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat from the 27th District of California in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, is a congressman who is obviously not afraid of his constituents. Many are these days, but Sherman takes out advertisements in local newspapers urging people to come and reason with (or yell at) him at "Town Hall" meetings.
Naturalized On The Fourth Of July
LOS ANGELES — Among the charges leveled against King George III on July 4, 1776, in the Declaration of Independence was this one:
The Special Relationship Is Very Special
WASHINGTON — The 300th British soldier was killed in Afghanistan last week, which means that, proportionately, Great Britain is paying a higher price in manpower and money out there. That's 300 dead in a 10,000-troop commitment compared with the United States' 1,126 deaths with a commitment of more than 94,000 troops right now.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Conspiracy Theories
WASHINGTON — Last Saturday morning, Mike Allen's Politico Playbook, the early-morning blog Washington whisperers wake up to, began this way:
The California Winners: Corporate Power
LOS ANGELES — You can't fool all the people all the time, only about 48 percent. That, rather than the triumph of women billionaires, may be the abiding lesson of California's spring elections this year.
Where Does The Buck Stop?
LOS ANGELES — President Obama, in an impossible position, decided to take a page from the Harry Truman-John F. Kennedy playbook as oil fouled the Gulf of Mexico and the second year of his presidency.
The Republican Political Bubble
LOS ANGELES — In a rather charming video at randpaul2010.com, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Kentucky, Rand Paul himself, a libertarian by birthright, says that he was not named for Ayn Rand. The writer is acclaimed as a prophet by many libertarians, although she once said she would rather vote for the Marx Brothers than a libertarian.
Pentagon Papers II
NEW YORK — Henry Fairlie, the British-American contrarian who wrote for The New Republic and The Washington Post, among many others, derided the publication of the Pentagon Papers as nothing more than a summary of what Americans already knew about the war in Vietnam. To prove his point in those pre-Google days, Fairlie spent hour after hour plowing through newspaper, magazine and government archives, finding stories and public documents revealing the same information the Defense Department was classifying during the 1960s.
Events Are In The Saddle
NEW YORK — Let us now praise famous cliches.
California's Stimulus Package: Meg Whitman
LOS ANGELES — There is a sweet little proposition on this year's California ballot, 15 by number. Authored by state Sen. Loni Hancock, a Democrat from Berkeley, Proposition 15 would institute public financing for one state office, secretary of state.
Are We A Nation Of Crooks?
LOS ANGELES — In this country, you are innocent until proven guilty. OK, so Bernie Madoff is a criminal. But a lot of other people on Wall Street and beyond are only crooks — so far.
Obama In The Quagmire
WASHINGTON — Is Hamid Karzai really nuts? Or are we?
The Lady Of The House
SAN FRANCISCO — Nancy Pelosi was a Democratic Party activist practically from the moment she was born, the daughter of a Maryland congressman. But at 47, the mother of five children had never run for public office — and did not think she ever would. She had promised herself she would never even think about it until her youngest finished high school.
The Power Of Zero
DALLAS — Remember the good old days? Remember when a Republican senator, Olympia Snowe of Maine, said she heard history calling? Well, history did call and not a single Republican answered in Washington. Zero in the Senate. Zero in the House.
Obama's Secret Weapon: The Tea Partiers
LOS ANGELES — The Republican Party of California met in convention last weekend and listened to five candidates for governor and United States senator in the state's June 8 primary election. They fell all over themselves trying to sound like tea partiers.
Students Wake Up In California
LOS ANGELES — Thousands of California students, from graduate students to kindergarten kids, walked out of their classrooms last Thursday to peacefully (mostly) demonstrate against the decline of education in the Golden State. Could this be the start of something big? Something bigger than tea bags?
