Our next president

There was general relief when Barak Obama was elected president. He promised to change Washington, encourage bipartisan government, get us out of Afghanistan and Iraq, keep unemployment below 8% despite the recession, and initiate a new and friendlier relationship with Russia, Iraq and the Middle East. Now almost three years later he has accomplished none of these things.

He has, however, lumbered us with a non-bipartisan, incomprehensible 2000+ page health care bill that adds another trillion or two to the national debt, increased the size and cost of the federal government by around 20%, proposed budgets that, according to the GAO, increase our national debt to more than 100% of our GDP within the next few years, and gotten us into another war in Libya. And unemployment is still stuck above 9%, and the economy is still floundering, despite the stimulus packages.

In retrospect, this even makes the Bush administration look a lot better

President Obama is still a likable, articulate guy, but clearly he isn’t the president we need in these difficult times. And perhaps we ought to have expected that, since he has never run a business, met a payroll, governed a state, or shaped much legislation in his short stint in the Senate. He is eloquent on the podium but ineffective in action. He seems to be, as the Texans say, “all hat and no cattle”.

So now the question is whether the Republicans can find anyone who looks like a better bet. This is certainly an opportunity for them – Obama is beatable in this upcoming election – but only if the Republicans pick a reasonable, moderate, competent candidate who actually understands economics, and not some far-right ideologue.

Otherwise we get another four years of President Obama, which would not bode well for the nation.