With the wind seemingly at our back, it’s still hard sometimes to be a persistent critic of Barack Obama. Vindication often comes at a terrible price and the solace of being proven right is nothing compared to the anguish we feel for the American nation that is suffering and in decline. And it’s more than a little gut-wrenching to see so many otherwise intelligent people unable to break with the mythology of Obama.
Andrew Rawnsley, writer the British newspaper The Observer, is an apt example of an otherwise capable thinker captured by the delusion of Obama.
They won't give him a break – literally so. Barack Obama has reached that point of his presidency when he can't even join his fellow citizens in the all-American tradition of the August vacation without taking a hit. One group of critics attacks his choice of destination: Martha's Vineyard on Cape Cod is too swanky for them. Another band of hecklers says he shouldn't be on holiday at all. Chat-show host David Letterman wisecracked: "He'll have plenty of time for vacations when his one term is up."This sounds ominous. Obama is becoming so unpopular that the kings of network light entertainment can suggest he will be a one-termer. Some of the panjandrums of punditry say the idea is no joke. In the midterm elections in November, the polls are currently predicting big gains for the Republicans who combine being furious and fired up with being hypocritical and nihilistic. The Republicans seem to have a very good chance of taking control of the House of Representatives and the possibility of seizing the Senate too. If the Democrats go down in big numbers, it will be seen as a referendum on the man in the White House.How did this happen? Obama has many more positive entries in the ledger than negatives after 18 months in the Oval Office. He has delivered landmark change to healthcare. The reform may not be perfect, and it may not yet be very popular, but that is a big legislative legacy all by itself. Healthcare reform utterly defeated Bill Clinton in his first term. Other modern presidents didn't even try to address one of America's most intractable problems. In the face of ugly and unyielding opposition, Obama brought it home.
I sometimes want to cut the president some slack on what seems like a trivial issue of the first family’s vacation habits but I’m also sympathetic to the passionate criticisms of the president and first lady. Unemployment is unacceptably high—and will possibly remain so for a decade—and the housing crisis continues unabated. Americans are suffering and while the job of the president is exceedingly difficult, I can understand how some marvel at President Obama’s frequent vacations in the midst of such economic hardship. (There’s also the hypocrisy of liberal critics of George W. Bush who maligned the 43rd president for his frequent downtime. We can’t ever forget this.)
Mr. Rawnsley also parrots a point that is rapidly gaining currency among the president’s defenders in the press: The passage of ObamaCare was historic—whether the American public is wise enough to realize it or not. First off the rush to bestow fulsome praise on the president for signing health insurance “reform” is as laughable as it is tin-eared. Up until Sen. Scott Brown’s shock triumph in the race to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat, the Democrats enjoyed a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and a pretty sizable one in the House of Representatives as well. And yet the Democrats barely got the job done. And since when is it laudable for a recalcitrant president and thuggish congressional leaders to shove a monster entitlement program down the throats of the citizenry despite massive resistance? Is this the new standard or will it be abrogated once a Republican president takes the oath of office?
Flawless, he isn't. But all in all, Obama has largely turned out to be what he promised to be: a creative, pragmatic reformer.Abroad, he has also scored some successes. He has reset America's relationship with Russia, partly in the hope of tightening the pressure on Iran. He will welcome the Palestinian premier and his Israeli counterpart to the White House on Tuesday to kick off the first face-to-face talks in 20 months. He has repaired America's reputation and relationships with Europe. He has reached out to the Muslim world, sought to strengthen alliances in Asia and striven to work with, rather than against, other countries and international institutions. The world no longer lives on edge for fear that a crazy idea might pop into the head of the White House, a welcome change from the Bush years.
The Obama administration: “creative, pragmatic reformists.” I suppose that’s one way to describe them but it certainly isn’t the most common description. “Pragmatism” can mean all sorts of things so I won’t quibble with Mr. Rawnsley on that score. But creative? An administration whose modus operandi has been to abdicate the crafting of massive legislation to wild-eyed congressional committee chairmen? Some of us would call that lazy, not creative.
And while President Obama’s radiant personality has its theoretical advantages, it hasn’t produced much in the way of diplomatic progress and success on the world stage. Iraq: While the president has insisted he’s made good on a marquee campaign promise, many of his comrades on the left assert otherwise; Iran: Despite the conciliatory tone the president struck in his Inaugural Address and his administration’s numerous attempts at outreach, Iran treks along unmolested towards its putative goal of nuclear weapons; Afghanistan: The war is going badly, and the president appears to be an on a collision course with his second hand-picked commander Gen. David Petraeus; the list goes on and on.
There’s a lot more in Mr. Rawnsley’s piece and I would recommend readers look at it in its entirety. It’s an interesting exercise that demonstrates how out-of-touch a certain class of the president’s defenders is. The same folk who assured us Republican candidates wouldn’t prevail in New Jersey last year and in Massachusetts this year have been reduced to the pathetic admittance of the “possibility” that Democrats will lose Congress.
Let me be clear: Republicans will capture both houses of Congress. The presidency itself may go the way of the GOP soon thereafter. Despite what defenders like Mr. Rawnsley believe, it’s not because the American people are unable to appreciate the brilliance of Barack Obama. We understand our president perfectly well—all too well if anything.
