Obama, like Clinton, Will Not Be Jimmy Carter 2.0

There was concern in the days leading up to and including the early Clinton presidency, according to Hunter S. Thompson in his account of the 1992 United States Presidential Campaign, Better Than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie, that Bill Clinton

“might fail utterly, like Jimmy Carter, and bring another 12 years of greey Republican looting…. That is what happened when Carter lost control of his presidency and got stomped by Ronald Reagan in 1980…. Jimmy was humiliated and the Democratic party was demoralized for 10 years. It was horrible. And it will be worse if it happens again. Jesus! Another populist Southern governor with no sense of humor, no grasp of how to rule Washington or balance the budget or deal with the Arabs or even what to do with his lovely iron-willed wife.” (198)

However, Clinton proved his mettle, and although his presidency had its speed bumps and scandals, he will be remembered as one of the best presidents of the 20th century. After eight more years of “Republican looting” under Bush II, Obama was seen as a shining light to lead the Democratic party in the early 21st century. But when his legislative goals began to run into trouble in Congress earlier this year and his poll numbers began to slide, the media began to question his efficacy. With the ridiculously over-hyped health care debate being continuously fueled by lies, fear, ignorance, lack of education, and the incessant “analysis” of the “signals” being sent out by the White House, it might appear that another populist Democratic president is poised to embarrass himself with legislative failures and problems controlling a Democratic Congress.

If one looks at the facts, though, the situation appears much less dire. The President has already had success with his stimulus package, as evidenced by the dramatic slowdown in the economic free fall. He still enjoys a great deal of popularity with Americans, and has not yet been in office for a year. Furthermore, the health care bills in the House and the Senate have not even gone to conference yet, and with the public option still enjoying overwhelming support in the House and with the administration, it is still very likely that it will be included in whatever final form of the bill ends up going to the President. Additionally, even if the health care bill does not end up covering all of the President’s goals, if things continue going well for his administration, he could win even more seats in both houses of Congress after the midterm elections. This would enable him to convert more of his promises to policy, and perhaps enable him to extend the health care reforms currently in development.

Before the media paints an early end for our young President, perhaps they should let him fight a few major battles. The legislative process is too often hampered by misrepresentation of issues in the media, such as yesterday’s insistence in the headlines that the White House was no longer strongly backing the public option, which today was shown to be inaccurate. The President still has much to do, and if he is given a chance, he will be able to do it successfully.