Since President Obama is beginning his re-election campaigning, it seems appropriate to assess how well he has done to date. There have, of course, been a lot of local, short-term issues he has had to handle, and by and large he has done pretty well with most of those, and where he has made an occasional misstep he seems to have learned quickly. And he continues to be personally likable, impressively erudite, and a good speaker.
He has had three major issues to deal with in his first term, in my opinion: (1) the economy, (2) the two wars, and (3) the exploding federal deficit. So how has he done on these major issues?
(1) On the economy, when he should have been focused like a laser on getting unemployment down and the economy moving again, he instead wasted a whole year and a lot of political capital fighting to get the health care bill passed. Leave aside the question of whether the resulting bill did what it was supposed to do, I give him a D for putting his effort toward a liberal ideological goal rather than the urgent practical goal of restoring the economy. Restoring the economy is a difficult and complex task, and economists are sharply divided about the best approach to take, so I wouldn’t have marked him down much if what he tried hadn’t worked very well so long as he was spending most of his effort trying something – I do mark him down heavily for not putting that effort first and foremost in his agenda.
(2) On the two wars in the Middle East one must first admit that there is no easy solution. Perhaps we should never have gone into Iraq or Afghanistan, but that was not his choice. We are in, and getting out is not easy. I give him a B- for his efforts thus far. He hasn’t done anything unreasonable, but neither has he developed and enunciated (ie – sold to the American people) a coherent long-term strategy. And his actions to involve us in Libya , I think, reflect a kind of ad-hoc approach to Middle east policy that is highly dangerous to our long-term interests.
(3) On the issue of the exploding federal deficit, I give him an outright failure, an F. He says more or less the right words, but almost every action he has taken, from the bailout to the health care bill to the 10+% increase in federal agencies budgets that he pushed through in his first budget, has in fact made the problem worse. He appears willing to grudging give in to a token $30-40 billion decrease, which is pocket change in the $2 trillion annual deficit. Where he should as president be leading the effort to control the federal deficit, he is instead becoming an obstacle to finding a solution.
All in all, much as I like President Obama personally, I don’t think I would vote for his re-election unless the Republicans put up a truly unsuitable alternative. (which they might just do!). Based on his first term thus far, I think President Obama (and/or his advisors, which for practical purposes is the same thing) is too committed to his liberal ideological goals to deal practically and effectively with the major issues we face.
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