Not an FDR But a Clinton

Unfortunately, I'm coming to believe that Obama is too much like Bill Clinton. David Michael Green caustically writes about this here:

If that Clinton style sounds harrowingly familiar, it’s because it
is. My sense is that Obama is a lot like a Clinton, though he can be – and
is – mistaken for an FDR for the reasons given above. There is in fact a
difference between Barack and Bill, I’m pretty sure, but not necessarily such a
significant one. Where I think Clinton was in it exclusively for Clinton,
as only a quintessential Baby Boomer could fully be, and thus given to precise
calculations of exquisitely refined political safety at every turn, I think
Obama is more public-spirited. But, crucially, the nothing-burger
tendencies he shares with Clinton seem nevertheless fully present. I
suspect they are driven by his “can’t we all just get along” personality, as
opposed to Bill’s manic attention-craving disorder, but so what? They
still amount to a lot of nothing, delivered way too late.

Whatever the motivation, what I think is hard to deny is that, while
Obama appears to be a real go-getter, he is in fact a mere incrementalist in a
time of real crisis. Despite the fact that George W. Bush’s disastrous and
regressive presidency can make Obama look bold and progressive in contrast, he
is in fact hurling Band-Aid after Band-Aid at national hemorrhage after gaping
wound. And that’s just his best stuff. As soon as you get to what
really matters to the predatory regressive right – the money, of course – Obama
is almost indistinguishable from George “Enron” Bush, or Dick “This is our due”
Cheney.

I’d have a problem with that under normal circumstances. There is
always plenty of work to be done in this very imperfect world, and the last
thing we need is another Clinton who wasted eight years of a presidency avoiding
risk at all costs and accomplishing nothing. I’d also obviously have a
problem with that under ‘normal’ post-Bush circumstances, where so much wreckage
so desperately needs to be undone. But I really object to this
embarrassingly centrist, ultra-cautious pussyfooting when there are so many
critical conditions in crisis mode, screaming out for attention.

I cannot believe I live in a world massively threatened by
environmental catastrophe, and my government is barely even talking about
half-measures, let alone moving heaven and earth with fierce urgency to save the
planet. And the oil guys aren’t even in the White House anymore.
I
cannot believe I live in a world where the economy is imploding and the guy in
charge of the country where the recession is rooted has hired agents of the very
criminal crowd responsible for the problem to produce a solution, and that,
shockingly, the ‘solution’ once again benefits wealthy elites while doing little
for the rest of us.

I cannot believe that I live in a country with a crumbling healthcare
system, and the solution being offered by the “change” candidate-now-president –
to the extent we will see one at all – will forego the obvious model of
universal coverage adopted by all other developed countries in the world, and
will instead slap Scotch Tape on the train wreck of the existing for-profit
healthcare disaster, in an attempt to hold it together a little longer.

For a year now I’ve wondered what Obama would turn out to be – a Bill
Clinton or an FDR. I think we have a pretty good answer at this
point. Indeed, ironically, Obama now seems to be out-Clintoning
Clinton. He not only has the very national crisis that Wild Bill craved,
he’s got about six of them. But always the response seems to be incredibly
tepid and conventional and, well, conservative – as the above examples
show.

This is classic Barackoism: Let’s move real slow. Let’s not
offend anyone. Let’s find the most half-way possible measure, and then cut
it in half again, just to be sure. Maybe we can bring the Republicans
along, even though we don’t need to. Is Wall Street okay with this?

Obama has all the conditions necessary to be a bold and historic
president. He came to office at a time of great and multiple crises.
He promised change and the people gave him a mandate for precisely that
purpose. The opposition is in complete disarray, and is rightly blamed by
the public for the mess Obama has inherited. People are frightened and
hurting, and looking for relief. And, for the first time in a long time,
they’re overtly looking to government for that relief.

The biggest irony may just be this: That Barack Obama’s instinct for
the capillary could be the one thing that has the capability of reaching deep
down into the toilet bowl, down through the pipes and into the sewer system, and
dragging the shit-encrusted Republican Party back to the surface, miraculously
offering it a magical elixir of renewed viability despite its own immensely
successful attempt at party suicide.

Forgive me, Caretaker, but I'm afraid I agree with much of the above.