Saturday, December 5, 2009
Obama: One Year In
I saw Hillary Clinton on TV the other day discussing her recent trip to Africa and honestly, the first feeling it brought up with me was how sad I was she didn't become President. It's been almost a year since Obama was sworn into office and I have to say, so far I'm disappointed. Make no mistake, the level of shit Obama stepped into when he took over was incredible. I don't envy anyone who had to try and clean up eight years of moronic decisions under the Bush administration. I certainly didn't expect a quick turnaround. But I guess I also didn't expect that a year later basically nothing would be accomplished. The war in Iraq drags on with no end in sight. And not he's sending MORE troops to Afghanistan. Health care has been mired in Congress and Obama seemed to open discussions on it with an immediate compromise, even ready to discard a public option early on. Isn't that the main part of reform he was talking about? The deficit continues to skyrocket as more and more money is pumped into banks and businesses with basically no new jobs being created. And how about simple issues of equality? Nope, Obama has basically turned his back on the gay community (although I always believed his talk of support was empty). Oddly it seems all this talk of change evaporated as soon as he took office. He now seems to want only to appeal to the masses and in turn is appealing to no one since his supporters are growing aggravated and his detractors still don't like him. I will say, I am glad our standing and reputation in the rest of the world has improved and that makes me VERY happy but that had more to do with him simply winning than anything he has actually done. That was more a win for the American people showing they could actually vote for an articulate, intelligent man after two elections of the polar opposite.
I definitely wish Obama the best and want him to succeed. There is so much he can do and so much we NEED him to do. But my fear that he was all talk and no action seems to be coming to fruition. It's what his record in the senate had shown. Everyone was so swept up in how motivation and inspirational his speeches are. I must admit, I wasn't. I liked Hillary. She may have come off as cold and unrelatable to some (which I think is largely sexist) but I liked that she is who she is and personally thought it could be just as 'inspirational' if a woman has been elected.
Anyway, just thought I'd offer my unsolicited two cents. I'd love to be proven wrong over the next three years but the problem Obama has is the 2010 election could tie his hands if a bunch of Republicans are voted in. It's just frustrating to have had spirits and hopes lifted so high a year ago and have nothing to show for it so far.
