So far the Obama record is found in three areas:
1) Economic. We were promised a post-September 2008 recovery. We got an economic plan of massive federal borrowing and spending (“stimulus”), massive new federal hiring, a federalized absorption of health care, and radically new regulation and intrusion into the private sector (from the GM bailout to attempting to stop Boeing from opening an additional factory in a right-to-work state). The result is largely hundreds of exemptions from Obamacare granted to corporations, businesses, and unions, 9+ percent unemployment, record numbers on food stamps and unemployment insurance, sky-high gasoline prices, record annual budget deficits, $5 trillion added in aggregate debt, low economic growth, a dismal housing market, and soaring food prices.
2) Reset Foreign Policy. We were promised a multilateral reset diplomacy. We got a national-security policy that has either rejected everything that legislator, senator, and presidential candidate Obama once professed to believe in or ran on (the closing of Guantanamo, curbing the Patriot Act, ending renditions, tribunals, preventative detention, and wiretaps, intercepts, accelerating the Petraeus-Bush plan of withdrawal from Iraq) or hit a dead end with new reset initiatives: the reach-out to Iran, the initial olive branch to the Assad thugocracy, the isolation of Israel, “lead from behind” strategy in the Middle East, trying KSM in New York, and the frostiness to old European allies. Our national approval ratings abroad are little higher than during the Bush administration, and the attitude of a China, India, or Russia to the U.S. is unchanged or worse.
3) The New Civility and Morality. We were promised a new ethos of civility and no-more-red/blue-state divisiveness. In fact, U.S. society has never been more polarized. The beer summit, “punish your enemies,” sit in the backseat, limb-lopping and tonsil-ripping-out doctors, “my people,” cowards, wise Latina, the Van Jones silliness, arresting kids on the way to ice cream, suing Arizona, tea-”baggers” — all that demagoguery and more is trivial in isolation, but in the 28-month aggregate has created an image of a petulant Obama administration as us/them, highlighted by press restrictions on and punishments of any journalists found less than obsequious. And when we factor in the tax problems of Obama cabinet officials and nominees — Geithner, Solis, Holder, Daschle — the record number of golf outings, the revolving-door careers of those like a Peter Orszag, and the quietly dropped ban on lobbyists, there is at best mostly the same old, same old D.C. insider game, or at worst a new petulance and intolerance for dissent.
What is left then of the Obama legacy so far? Killing bin Laden, planned ending of “don’t ask, don’t tell” (whose consequences we have not yet experienced), abandonment of enforcement of the Defense of Marriage Act, quintupling Bush’s Predator-drone targeted assassination program, and not much else.
I think you missed an important part of Obama's legacy (although it is mentioned in a round-about way in the foreign policy section): an "illegal war."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGood morning VDH,
You forgot "transparency".
As in, "This will be the most transparent administration ever." - Barack Obama
Transparent as in, "We have to pass Obamacare before we can read what's in it." - Nancy Pelosi
Any same person who thinks this man has a chance in hell of getting re-elected is either using narcotics or needs to be.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd the whole "no lobbyists" thing.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou overlooked health care reform.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOne can almost hear the ads next year: "President Obama killed Osama bin Laden; Obamacare/cap-and-trade/bailouts/etc. are great!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Any same [sic - sane] person who thinks this man has a chance in hell of getting re-elected is either using narcotics or needs to be." @ Talesin - if you're so sane, why aren't you on InTrade banking against all of those "insane" investors who are betting real money that Obama is going to win. Talk is cheap; put your money where your mouth is. If you're right you could win big! Investors have been known to be wrong in the past.
To VDH's points, all of this is pundit-speak. None of this matters to the average voter. Ultimately people are going to be faced with the choice of Obama vs. Palin.
When the alternative is Palin, people won't care how bad Obama has been. They'll still vote for him. Palin or no, the most important thing here is going to be the economy. And Obama is going to be able to play the "GOP = tax cuts for the rich + they'll cut your medicare" card. So as bad as he is, the GOP will come off looking much, much worse. Points 2 and 3 are just wasted words, and won't resonate with the bulk of the electorate. Add in the bang-up job GOP governors are doing of revealing their hand in FL, OH, and WI and you have the making of a blow out election for the Dems. You'll be lucky if you hold onto the House. Face the facts - the GOP is doing an excellent job of representing the unhinged and angry point of view. Gone are the days of Morning in America Republicanism. Angry and unhinged won't sell. Don't say we didn't warn you!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIsn't this true of the last administration as well? Bush promised a humble foreign policy, no nation building and reaching across the aisle. Every president pledges to clean up the partisan rancor of DC and all of them fail.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSure, Mo. Absolutely nothing happened between the 2000 campaign and the invasion of Afghanistan to set things on a different course.
Conversely, what changed for Obama?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseClose, John. It's going to be "I got bin Laden. Bush sucks. Don't be a racist. I got bin Laden."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGood list of the pluses and minuses. But nobody ever mentions The One's biggest and earliest accomplishment: singlehandedly squashing the swine flu epidemic.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI really admire the tenacity of the Obama acolytes. Moe Coors is a stunning example. The response to VDH's well reasoned and factually supported contention is a combination of "nothing to see hear" and a fantasy cage match.
First, the belief that the voters don't care about the fiscal situation of the country requires some proof. For example, how does Moe explain the shellacking the left took in 2010? Racism?
Next, not only has Ms Palin NOT announced a run for the oval office, but the assumption is that the current Dem talking points will resonate with the public given the dreadful economic climate in which we live. Counting on the public's short attention span as an election asset isn't showing much in the way of leadership.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLet's be fair
No hurricanes have struck the US since Obama became president, temperatures and sea level have dropped, and we have had record snow. Reservoirs are filling up – and all of the damage Bush did to the climate has been healed.
Obama should declare “mission accomplished” and take credit!
h/t to Steven Goddard at Real Science
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWorking title for Obama's post-presidential memoirs:
"FAILING UPWARD TO SUCCESS...THE OBAMA WAY!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"…planned ending of “don’t ask, don’t tell” (whose consequences we have not yet experienced)…"
Laugh. Out. Loud.
Yes, the sky WILL yet fall, be sure of it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe only way Obama wins in 2012 is a scorched earth campaign, there's nothing for him to run on, it will be to just destroy the eventual GOP nominee.
That's why "boring" is actually not a bad thing for the GOP. The voters that decide this election clearly know the country is headed in the wrong direction, and the next decision they will make is if the alternative is acceptable.
Obama is going to have an awful hard time turning someone like Pawlenty into the devil (but no doubt they will try) or try to make him into some sort of extremist. What you don't want for this election is a fire breather that just constantly dishes out red meat to the base.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"What is left then of the Obama legacy so far?"
He closed Gitmo and stopped the seas from rising, and now the world loves us again!
(Captcha for this comment was "one hit wonder". Laughing my Obama off.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseProfessor Hanson as always summarizes the issue very well. But reading the list I'm reminded of my college days. Those late nights/early morning bull sessions about solving the problems of the world. Perhaps like most of those emotionally charged BS discussions they ended when the reality of the real world showed up. Unfortunately with our current crop of over-achievers in DC we're not just stuck with the bill, the clean-up charges will linger for years to come.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@MoreCoors,
"And Obama is going to be able to play the "GOP = tax cuts for the rich + they'll cut your medicare" card. So as bad as he is, the GOP will come off looking much, much worse."
The class warefare rhetoric won't mean much to the 18-20% of adults who are out of work. And $5 gas, along with 12-15% inflation in wholesale food and retail will overshadow the rhetoric for those who do work. I don't think Progressives realize how poorly the President is polling with the voters.
The President is merely banking on the fact that he has a firewall of 40%; supposedly that is his basement. But not even majorities in California, New York, and Illinois will save him if these economic numbers continue. He will lose in a landslide to even Palin if things get much worse.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseClass warfare means a lot to those out of work as well as middle class workers.
The left NEEDS to keep up the hatred of the "rich" by the poor and middle class. They also need those 47% of working Americans who pay zero income taxes to be whipped into a frenzy of hatred towards those who are well off. The left accomplishes this by continuing the lie that "the rich" aren't paying their fair share.
The administration and the DNC know exactly how poorly obama is doing in the polls and they also know that they do not have a majority of voter support on any of the big democrat issues. All the left has is a corrupt media and the ability to slind any kind of dirt, whetehr it's real or not at the closest Republican candidate.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCan I add a couple? The cruel, months-long vendetta against the people of Honduras for ousting one of Hugo Chavez's thuggish cronies. The bizarre belief that wealth can be created by destroying assets, epitomized in "cash for clunkers," whose principal lasting effect was to raise the price of used cars for the working poor.
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