We all misunderstand this President. I am starting to understand his method. Republicans disregard him at their peril. While talking heads, left wing bloggers including myself, and the “professional left” have been criticizing this President for a long time he has remained calm, consistent, and adult. This gave us the impression that he was timid and not willing to fight.
The reality is that he may have been one of the few Democrats willing to fight, willing to take a chance, and willing to compromise. He likely had the compass of the timid Democrats, the Blue Dog Democrats, the fighting Democrats, the Right Wing Republicans, and the Moderate Republicans. He likely balanced the policy the best way he could, given the ocean of difference that exists between parties.
When we review the accomplishments of President Obama’s Presidency after two years one can only call it a mitigated policy success. A small list of his major accomplishments include
- Stimulus That Prevented A Depression
- Healthcare Reform No Other President was able to pass
- Wall Street Reform
- The New G.I. Bill
- Food Safety Modernization Ac
- Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Repeal
- START Treaty
- 9/11 Responder Healthcare Bill
- Tax Cut Extensions for the middle class (and wealthy..)
- Much more
This President in a very non bragging manner, more so matter a fact, has accomplished more in his first two year than most previous presidents have accomplished in 8 years. What is of concern is that the mainstream media is slow to acknowledge this fact.
One should expect that progressives will keep the pressure on the President as water still flows through the path of least resistance. That said Progressives will do well to be a positive force for progress and not a corrosive force that not only degrades the citizenry at large but also negatively affects the generation of effective policy. A united Progressive and Moderate flank with differences through victory is much more effective than a divided and failed flank.
My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://amzn.to/dt72c7 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies
Obama’s Got (Found) Game
Howard Fineman | First Posted: 12-22-10 05:47 PM
fineman@huffingtonpost.com | HuffPost Reporting
WASHINGTON – People who play basketball with Barack Obama say he’s more dogged than flashy, more determined than skillful, more adaptable than unique. He’ll trash talk on a dribble-drive with Reggie Love, but in the old days he was a studious, unselfish passer with classroom colleagues at Harvard Law.
And often, they say, he ended up with more points than you thought he’d have. No one noticed until it was over.As in basketball, so it is now: his life on the court is a parallel to the first two years of his up-and-down-and-now-sort-of-up-again presidency.
It hasn’t been pretty; it certainly hasn’t been easy. Pundits, including this one, have dismissed him as a lousy negotiator, a dreamy academic or worse. He’s been a New Dealer one minute, Reaganite the next. He’s been rigidly partisan one minute and too eager to cut a deal with the Republicans leadership the next.
He’s been called a Socialist by the Tea Party and a Wall Street toady by MoveOn. His public standing is weak; the public thinks the country is headed in the wrong direction. Beltway-wise guys think he can be had.
But through dogged patience, and adaptable style and a refusal to panic, the president has piled up the longest list of new laws, treaties and administrative actions anyone has seen here in decades.
That list may or may not get him reelected. The economy is what matters, as will the nature of his GOP competition in Congress and in 2012. The academic comparisons to LBJ and FDR won’t be worth the bluebooks they’re written on if the unemployment rate is 10 percent.
But everyone should accept that the fact that Obama’s got game. Or found it.
He played the first year by dribbling for the most part to the left, cutting deals primarily – almost exclusively – with his Democrats, who had what seemed to be overwhelming majorities in Congress.
That got him a stimulus bill, various bailouts and monumental, if highly controversial, health-care and financial-services legislation.
In the post-shellacking lame duck, he moved right on taxes, which, in turn, created a sense of momentum and confidence that helped him and Democrats pass food-safety and child-nutrition laws and a measure to aid 9/11 first responders.
Perhaps the president’s best move of all was when he was choosing up sides two years ago. He asked George W. Bush’s Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, to stay on – and then passed Gates the ball repeatedly.
