Saturday, February 28, 2009

you wanna fight? i be da man! (snap!)

we've become accustomed to watching political candidates make big promises during a campaign while at the same time thinking to ourselves "yeah, that'll never happen." there is an inherent filter, not so much of automatic distrust (many have that as well) but of hearing politi-speak and understanding, somewhere deep down, that "it just won't be that easy once you get there."

but this week, in his budget and in his video address to the nation, barack obama lays down the gauntlet. this is the sweeping change the country voted for, he says. c'mon! what did you think i was gonna do? i told you about all this stuff during the campaign...and now? what, you thought i wasn't gonna change the country?

remember when we thought this guy didn't have enough "fight" to him? take a look:

in case you missed it, my favorite economist has some pretty nifty things to say about obama's budget proposal. in the clatter of all the cable and internet sniping, it's nice to find a clear, trustworthy voice.

it seems as though obama's been in office much longer than a month and a week. every other day there's some major piece of legislation being signed, or another important speech. this week alone, there was the non-state-of-the-union speech, the release of the budget, and the beginning of the end of the war in iraq. obama began the week with his approval numbers dipping, for the first time ever, below 60% (the sky is falling! the sky is falling!) he's ended the week at a comfortable 67%, two points off his high.

like andrew sullivan, i've learned to stop second guessing obama. because every time i do, he surprises me. i'm not always adept at it, but it's best, i think, to sit back and watch the action from a distance – with some perspective. today might be a little rough and tumble, but just wait until tomorrow.

1 comment:

  1. This is somehing I posted on the BG forum about this very subject. Overly simplistic? Yes. And if you want a real scare about the improbability of real change, go to this link and read the article:

    The Presidential Address to Congress
    I still have a lot of left over anger at our last administration, however, taking a cue from our new President, I'm trying to look at the silver lining in all of this. Did W inadvertently fast track a better country? Comparing our country to an alcoholic, did America need to hit bottom before it could recover? Had W been merely an incompetent President surrounded by self-interested Republican millionaires, we may have ended up with a slightly worse country; one which could have scraped along for decades more before hitting bottom. But we were led by a spectacularly incompetent President surrounded by truly greedy and evil people. When W was first elected I predicted he would go down as the worst President in history, and the Republicans surrounding my sole Democratic self at the party I was at on the east Side of Milwaukee, sneered in derision. But even I couldn't have predicted the absolute failure of his administration. He managed to make James Buchanan look good.

    Things have gotten so bad that I believe Congress and the Senate cannot ignore the mandates President Obama has laid out before them. They do so at their own risk and I look forward to seeing those that ignore them lose in the next election. Everything that is wrong with our country, wrongs that I've witnessed for decades with despair as having no chance of ever changing, are on the table. In this terrible time (and I'm suffering greatly, but perhaps because I've never had any money I've got something of a devil-may-care attitude, so bring it on) I see great hope for the first time in my adult life. I see a day when the bad guys are going to be held responsible and we just might get some respectable leaders to lead our country once again; leaders who believe it is their responsibility to make the world a better place for their constituents and not just enrich themselves and their cronies. And I see the possibility of this change being long lasting.

    So hang in there. This pessimist sees the glass as half full.


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