President Obama is disadvantaged in seeking re-election next year by the public concern for the U.S. economy and our pessimism about the future of national leaders to have figured out what to do about it.
83% of us are worried about the future of the country. Only 21% of us believe our children will be better off 20 years from now and 57% believe they’ll be worse off. Obama is betting these people don’t see policies working that appear … Continue reading »
What to Make of the “Week From Hell”
We were enjoying life at the foothills of the Teton Mountains of Wyoming while the stock market reacted to S&P’s reaction to our national political leader’s reaction to the Tea Party demands we lower federal spending in exchange for increasing our borrowing. Or maybe it reacted to the decision to delegate the future of federal spending/taxing policy to 12 members of the Congress.
In any event, no one in … Continue reading »
You can put me down for “undecided but leaning against” – if the question is “Does President Barack Obama deserve re-election?” I’ve never met the President and I have close to zero confidence that any of the declared GOP candidates can deal with the leadership challenges facing this country. To say nothing of the “follower-ship” challenges that any Republican in national political leadership faces from the current base of my party. I was watching the … Continue reading »
Posted August 15, 2011 in: Barack Obama, Opinion Page |
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President Obama made the right decision to begin withdrawing U.S. military forces from Afghanistan. As he has regarding Iraq. As he did in refusing to put U.S. troops on the ground in Libya or in any of the growing civil wars in Arab nations of North Africa and the Middle East. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is irate, as are his side-kicks Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT). Conservative columnist George F. Will in … Continue reading »
It had to happen sooner or later. Early in his presidency, Barack Obama hosted a Boston beer-drinking meeting at the White House for Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowly, the Boston cop who arrested the professor after he became a bit belligerent. The Caucus , NYTimes. Last week the president challenged Republican House Speaker John Boehner to 18 holes of golf on the Saturday before Father’s Day. The two will play … Continue reading »
President Obama is now known as “President Whatever” in D.C. The president who was elected on the hope that he can lead to “change we can believe in” seems a victim of forces beyond his control. And the leadership for “change” has passed to Republicans, Tea Parties and voters who want someone to “shellack.”
I want to defend the president based on the size of the problems he was handed by the Republicans. The audacity of … Continue reading »
A majority of Americans are deeply troubled by the polarity they feel from many of their family, friends and neighbors today. They long for President Obama to do for us what he did for the delegates to the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Today, as a president with two-plus tough years under his belt, we expect him to share with us his vision of our future as Americans. President Obama’s campaign speeches speak to “a … Continue reading »
Posted April 24, 2011 in: Barack Obama, Opinion Page |
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I am no stranger to the role of the president of the United States in determining the course of world history. Nor to the value of an informed America in keeping it free. George W. Bush famously characterized his presidency, and himself, as “the decider.” Absolutely. There’s no way on God’s green earth you wet your finger and hold it up to 2012 polls when you’ve been handed a financial calamity, two wars you opposed, … Continue reading »
Many will recall the 9-18-08 White House meeting at which President Bush and his Treasury Secretary from Goldman-Sachs, Hank Paulson, informed the president’s successors, John McCain and Barack Obama that they had just pushed Merrill Lynch over the bankruptcy cliff and would ask Congress to invest in saving both the national financial system and as much of the housing market as possible through large tax spending on big banks and on regulatory reform. They succeeded … Continue reading »
President Obama appeared to endorse a proposal from Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Scott Brown (R-MA) to allow states the option of moving to universal coverage without a health insurance mandate. This at an appearance before the nation’s governors at their mid-winter meeting in Washington. Republican governors generally gave it the brush-off as did GOP House leadership. Democrats appeared to be surprised.
One can’t tell whether this is simply a 2012 campaign strategy developed by the White House … Continue reading »
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