Two Views on Obama

My son Nathan and I both worked and voted for Obama last year.  However, since then, we have seen and interpreted political developments in a very different light.  We recently exchanged the followed emails.

Nathan to Carl

You never focus on the Republicans. Sure Obama is only taking half measures, but not a single republican supports anything good. Ever. Financial reform? Yeah right. You talk like Obama is a king or something. But he is constrained by the fact that Republicans and congress are the ones who, you know, have to pass laws. Congress, in particular, the republicans, are what is keeping things from changing. But yours and everyone elses relentless focus on Obama allows the republicans to get off scott-free.

Carl to Nathan

My serious disappointment with Obama is at least in part due to the fact that I want him to succeed in what we thought he was going to try and do. If he doesn’t succeed in reforming the economy (including the serious reform of the financial sector), this opportunity to begin to remake our economy will have disappeared. And as I’ve said from the beginning, it will damage Obama politically (which is what seems to be happening), and make the return of the Republicans that much more likely. Obama had a chance to be an FDR, in my opinion, but he has not gone in that direction. Instead he decided to be a Clinton. His political appointments in the economic and foreign policy area stink, in my opinion. All this has been a huge frustration and disillusionment to me.

The Republicans are a joke right now. And the last thing I want is for them to get back in power. But who is responsible for the dismal political prospects for Democrats right now? It’s not the Republicans. It is widespread disillusionment with Obama and the Democrats. They are becoming a joke, too.

Nathan to Carl

For my part I don't want to become like the Bush-supporters who praised everything that the leader did. Criticism of Obama is good. But there should be more criticism of the people who are enemies of the good.

I guess I don't really agree that Obama could have been an FDR. That was the point of my post a few weeks ago about the timing of the financial crisis. FDR came in after the disaster happened. America was destroyed and desperate for a change. Just talking to people, I don't think that Americans are ready for the kind of change we want. The only way it could have happened was if a total meltdown took place under Bush. Then Obama would have had more power. As it is, he is just trying to hold things together.

So what if Obama had went for the FDR model anyway, and appointed more liberal advisors? It would have been a high-risk, high-reward strategy. He would have either succeeded spectacularly or flamed out entirely. He would have been fighting with everyone at once: the Republicans, the banks, moderates in Congress, big business, foreign policy hawks and the media, which is controlled by all of the aforementioned groups. Maybe he would have won. Or maybe they would have ganged up on him and he would have lost big time. He would have been a failure in his first year of office with no hope of recovery.

High-risk, high-reward is not Obama's style for better or worse. He is going to doggedly pursue a middle course that makes incremental change. He is going to do it by avoiding unforced errors like Clinton and Carter had.

After Obama's first two years its realistic that we will have gotten a stimulus that helped avoid a Depression, decent health care reform, moderate financial reform, closing of GITMO, at the least a big alternative energy push (or at the most cap and trade), education reform, an improvement of America's standing in the world, better cooperation with China and Russia, the removal of weapons in Eastern Europe, and a drawdown of troops in Iraq (probable), among other accomplishments. In the big picture thats pretty good for two years. Its the most positive change we've had in this country in 45 years. It looks dark now but, if job growth returns in the spring, my prediction is that the Democrats will fare better in 2010 than it looks like right now.

Somehow I've become the eternal optimist!