If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.
I'll give the man credit for "change", though I believe it is hopeless. People did not vote for "change" and "hope" they voted for "something moderately different" and "a new face". Which is what they did in 1976 and 1992. One worked , one did not. Obama is misreading this at his political peril.
Obama's poll numbers are interesting but his list of newly minted enemy's in more telling. No comment on the "enemy's" themselves except to say I wouldn't mess with some of them so early in a first term.
After "hitting the ground running" with last year's work - we now have a better idea of this change thing from the big O. He will, as the economy contracts, save Social Security and Medicare, reboot education, lessen farm subsidies, ensure that everyone gets health insurance, change our relationship to Russia, and the Middle East, change the culture of D.C., fix the auto industry, rewrite the tax code, stop global warming, save the banking system, fix the housing mess, close Gitmo, strengthen the dollar, ensure racial harmony, and cause money to rain from the skies while handing out DVDs to foreign dignitaries.
If he can do all this I will stand, sit, and squat corrected.
While overreaching has its benefits in times like these, doing one thing at a time and doing it well is usually a better idea in the long run. Of course, Presidents can't pick and choose everything that comes their way, but they can choose their priorities. Banking is a must do. Health care is a should do. Much of the rest of the domestic policy initiatives will simply pull focus. In the case of "cap and trade" the damage to Obama will be harsh. It has the potential to be his "gays in the military" issue: damaging his standing, giving his enemies a broad brush to paint with, and will almost certainly fail anyway. Even a compromise here paints him into a "radical" corner. The group he loses most with on this issue? Clinton Democrats - not the GOP.
If everything is a priority, by definition, nothing is a priority.
Obama's poll numbers are interesting but his list of newly minted enemy's in more telling. No comment on the "enemy's" themselves except to say I wouldn't mess with some of them so early in a first term.
After "hitting the ground running" with last year's work - we now have a better idea of this change thing from the big O. He will, as the economy contracts, save Social Security and Medicare, reboot education, lessen farm subsidies, ensure that everyone gets health insurance, change our relationship to Russia, and the Middle East, change the culture of D.C., fix the auto industry, rewrite the tax code, stop global warming, save the banking system, fix the housing mess, close Gitmo, strengthen the dollar, ensure racial harmony, and cause money to rain from the skies while handing out DVDs to foreign dignitaries.
If he can do all this I will stand, sit, and squat corrected.
While overreaching has its benefits in times like these, doing one thing at a time and doing it well is usually a better idea in the long run. Of course, Presidents can't pick and choose everything that comes their way, but they can choose their priorities. Banking is a must do. Health care is a should do. Much of the rest of the domestic policy initiatives will simply pull focus. In the case of "cap and trade" the damage to Obama will be harsh. It has the potential to be his "gays in the military" issue: damaging his standing, giving his enemies a broad brush to paint with, and will almost certainly fail anyway. Even a compromise here paints him into a "radical" corner. The group he loses most with on this issue? Clinton Democrats - not the GOP.
If everything is a priority, by definition, nothing is a priority.
Labels: Barack Obama, changey hopey, priorities
posted by John Smart at
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
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