Is Obama Jousting Windmills?
Taking on Titan after Titan in His Address to the Nation
Bank bailout? Auto bailout? Health care reform? Education reform? Ending the Iraq war? Total security review? International diplomatic push?
Is there any major, explosively controversial issue that Obama has not promised to tackle in his “State of the Nation” address? One particularly interesting aspect of Obama’s address is that he does not shirk from criticism at all. He takes the arguments of his strongest critics, calls them out, and rebuts then. This is not what recent American Presidents, especially the last one, have done.
In many ways, it was another fireside chat. It was another “Good Morning, America.” I think the media and blogosphere has described it as both at this point. He was blunt and treated Americans as fellow stakeholders, instead of obstacles to be dealt with.
But many of the points he made were also in his speech at the Fiscal Responsibility Summit that came before this particular speech. My feelings on his chosen set of Titans—and he’s chosen almost every single one—is that Obama is over his head.
His speech was impressive. I was impressed. Even the Republican lawmakers were impressed.
But Obama has always been impressive. And he has not been the first impressive politician to take on these issues. Health care reform. Social security reform. Education. And my own pet cause, American farm policy. These have been the millstones that have destroyed and wasted many a promising political career.
Obama trying to tackle even “unnecessary farm subsidies” alone so overtly gives me some hesitation. Make no mistake, I want these subsidies gone, and have wanted them gone for years. But it has been undeniably difficult, and, for the past decade, impossible to even weaken to any real degree. The politicians who have tried watched themselves become weakened in the process instead. Almost every single issue he has addressed has the same history behind it.
Hope. I really want to believe. But logic and history tell me that Obama succeeding is unlikely.
Regardless, he earned my respect through his straightforward and honest assessment of what we face. He called out and challenged all of the deadly political elephants in the room all at once, without pulling any punches. He has finally convinced me that he is honest. He has convinced me that we actually ended up with a genuine, altruistic individual in the White House.
I am normally wary of the level of power that can be wielded in a crisis. Obama can do a great deal of good, and a great deal of evil. But while I trust him with this power and responsibility more now, I also remember the stimulus bill—another terribly important measure that needed to be passed while in crisis.
He ultimately passed it, but with very little Republican support. Can he pull the same feat against all of these Titans… without either Republican or Democratic support?
He’s going somewhere where his party—both parties—will not follow. History has proven this time and time again.
The stimulus bill was a minor triumph for Obama. But it also demonstrated that in fighting these mystic political beasts, even with a crisis and popular opinion behind him, he is still all too human.
