Looking Back on the Obama Phenomena
I was late to the party. What you say? There are a lot of parties out there so I could expect nobody knows what I mean. On Tuesday of this week President Obama will be visiting the Detroit metro area to give his speech about who knows what. I’m sure he cannot come to Detroit without saying something about the auto industry. If I could go watch him speak I would go. Yes, I was late to the Obama party. The question is, does President Obama have what it takes to keep his love affair with the American people and the greater American world going?
I really like President Obama. It wasn’t always that case. I was sure that the next president of the United States would be Hillary Clinton. In fact, I thought it high time that the United States get a female President. I have always maintained that women make better politicians than men. My reasoning was that man are always worrying about their testosterone while women have a natural tendency to listen more. Needless to say, I thought Hillary Clinton embodied all that and would make a great President. Well, it’s all in the rearview mirror now.
President Obama changed me. For instance he won me over because I was very impressed with not only his speeches, but his grasp of public policy. However it was a lot more than that. What I like best about a candidate Obama was that he was cool and I don’t mean that in any trite sense. What I liked about him was that he had a grasp of knowledge and he could answer almost any question with the degree of command that was very unusual for any presidential candidate. It certainly wasn’t present in vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin although I think she has been unfairly treated. Needless to say, that’s how Barack Obama won me over.
The question is how is he doing now? I know that there has been many challenges in world history for new Presidents. Take past President George W. Bush for instance. A few short months after he was inaugurated in 2001 he faced 9/11 when the world changed. Love him or hate him he did what he thought was right, a tall order. Obama on the other hand was handed an economic calamity, a once in 70 year financial meltdown to repair. He was also handed two wars to solve and he finds himself controlling parts of the American auto industry. I even read last night that the United States federal deficit is over $1 trillion. How this man can continue to smile is beyond me.
The point being the economic times we are in continue to baffle and I’m sure President Obama at times thinks that too. In the last week President Obama was in Russia, this was followed by a trip to the G-8 in Italy. After that he made his first visit to the continent of Africa when he landed in Guinea. Then he flies home and makes an announcement about a new surgeon general and will be in Detroit on Tuesday. I’m tired just writing about that. It’s no different than past Presidents, but Obama seems to do it well.
The critics have been many and I understand why. The economic calamity, although first supervised by former President Bush doesn’t really have any easy answers. Many people felt bailing out General Motors and Chrysler was a bad thing to do. Many ordinary Americans felt baling out Wall Street was giving the fat cats everything I wanted. There’s certainly hasn’t been any easy answers. In many ways it is hard to believe that Obama has remained popular through these terrible economic times and under these difficult circumstances.
I do not know what the road ahead will be like for President Obama. One thing I have thought is that he is too overexposed. In other words his “coolness “is in danger of looking more like being a media hog. For instance he is so good in front of a crowd with a speech and I think at times it’s easier to do that than remain behind the scenes. The American comic Bill Maher was roundly criticized for saying someone of the same thing. He said get off TV and get working. I understood what he meant but when you have a media star like Obama, I think his handlers always want him in front of the camera.
Of course it is still very early in his Presidency and maybe the test of time will turn that black hair white. I don’t know. If you had asked candidate Obama back when he announced his candidacy whether he would be controlling General Motors and bailing out Wall Street as President I’m sure he would have fallen off the stage. I’m sure being leader of the free world in his mind never called for that type of action. The challenge for President Obama is to focus on how he wants to change the United States. The tripwire for failure continues to be the bad economy, which was handed to him on a plate. Yes I was late for his party but I think the American people made the right choice. In a couple of years we’ll see if he maintains his popularity.