The Patience to Govern

What Arianna calls timidity, I call patience.

Campaigning is not the same as governing. In 2007 and 2008, Obama never needed Congressional approval for the executive decisions his campaign made. He never had to worry about securing Joe Lieberman's vote. Governing is more complex, certainly less pure, and noticeably more incremental than most of us would hope. But in American government, even in the midst of revolutionary progressive change, things take time.

It was the same way, by the way, with the Obama campaign. Judging Obama's presidency based on his first 9 months in office is like judging his campaign based on its first five. During that time, as Arianna notes in her column, Obama had difficulty connecting with voters and often felt that the campaign lacked the mojo he had hoped for. He was choppy in debates, often disappointing supporters and worrying campaign aides. And for months and months he trailed Hillary Clinton by double digits, causing such turmoil among his fans that he found himself surrounded by donors and top-tier supporters begging that he change course.

But he didn't change course, despite those who demanded it. He took the long view, saw the road to victory, and never took his eye off that ball.

In that sense, Obama has governed just as he campaigned. Despite calls for him to change strategy by those on the left, including many on this site, Obama has held steady to the strategy he and his team first envisioned. He promised not to forget the middle class, and made good on that promise by saving the economy from a Depression. It took him just 9 months to get the economy growing again. In the meantime, he delivered on his campaign promise to provide a middle-class tax cut to 95% of Americans. He saved the major car companies from collapse, unfroze the credit markets and put the country back on a path to begin job growth anew. Unemployment is still high, to be sure, but all signs point to a turnaround within a year.

Those of course, were not the only accomplishments of Obama's first 9 months, not the only marks of his commitment to the change he promised. He made substantial investments in renewable energy, signed the equal pay act, signed hate crimes legislation and ended restrictions on stem cells. He restored trust to the Justice Department, which is currently conducting a torture investigation, and ended raids on medical marijuana dispensaries.

He promised more openness, more transparency, a different way of operating in Washington, and has to date, presided over the most transparent administration in American history.

His approach to Afghanistan is, in itself, proof of a sea change in the way business is done in Washington. His thorough and lengthy internal debate about the future of that war is focused on articulating a clear strategy that makes sense to the American people and offers a clear and reasonable exit. Politics does not appear to play any role in his decisions, no matter the pressure to decide more hastily.

Around the world, Obama has remade the image of America. In his first year in office, the United States went from the seventh most admired country in the world to the first. He was the first president to chair the UN Security Council, the first to speak in Arabic in a major address.

And of course, there is health care reform, which should pass by the end of this year, and will likely cover 95% of Americans. Any objective observer should consider such a feat to be the biggest domestic legislative accomplishment since Medicare in 1965.

There are those who will complain, as Arianna has, that Obama is more concerned with courting Olympia Snowe's vote than with providing the most progressive policy possible to the American people. But at this point, it's not clear that is what he's doing. We do hear that privately, the White House is pushing for a triggered public option, which would most likely earn Snowe's vote. But I have a hard time believing that winning Snowe's vote is the only reason the White House is pushing for a trigger.

The robust public option that Nancy Pelosi promised would be in the House bill just a week ago is so horribly watered down now that it will actually have higher premiums than private insurance. With higher premiums, there is no way that the public option will actually do anything to control costs. But many on the left would rather the symbolic victory than the policy victory. They would prefer a public option of no real value then a trigger that might have some teeth.

The White House surely must recognize that they are more likely to get a robust public option in the bill, one which will have the intended effect of reducing costs, if they tie it to a trigger. And if the left would stop criticizing the trigger and instead start pushing to define it as a progressive one, the best of both worlds could come to fruition. After all, a trigger that would require insurance companies to reduce costs over the next five years, or else risk a public option tied to Medicare rates, is more likely to actually reduce costs than the one in the current House bill. Does the White House want Olympia Snowe's support? Of course they do. (Let's not forget that that same campaign Arianna is such a fan of was big on bipartisanship.) But in this instance, it may well be that the best policy is aligned with bipartisanship - a true rarity in Washington.

The broader point is this: Obama has accomplished an extraordinary amount in his first nine months. He has kept campaign promises, and in doing so has brought real change to this country in a number of substantial ways.

He had the audacity to win and the patience to govern.

We should be patient too.

 

Follow Dylan Loewe on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dylanloewe

Comments

[upbeatdem]

Thank you for a well-reasoned analysis. Too many people (including Arianna) who supported the President during the election are extremely impatient. This country was not ruined in one year and it will not be fixed in one year (ten months, really). I appreciate your observations.

[Alux]

The House health reform bill does not even take effect in full until 2013 and then does not even pretend to try to cover all uninsured.

I guess that if Obama gets elected to a second term, he can really start to do something. It really does require four years of study at all deliberate speed to get something done. Give the guy a break - the only thing he ever ran was the Harvard Law Review, a student organization (albeit a pretty darn good one).

So what if Goldman Sachs make $100 million most days until 2013.

He needs to learn how to run things in a real organzation before we can really expect or demand he does something concrete.

Hope and same! Yes we can't.

[upbeatdem]

Whine much? If you cannot see that President Obama is doing a lot to help this country which he inherited in a pitiful condition, you do not want to see.

[mamak]

Bullseye!!!! Obama actually takes the job of governance seriously. He needs to govern over a decidedly divided country...which means he cannot re-do a Dubya approach....and instead more like Clinton and Poppy Bush....with an eye on the promises that he mad during the campaign.....

All the complaints from Arianna, Maher and others are actually a reflection of their individual self-uncertainty and narcissism. Critics plane-of-reference if always themselves. Which is why many get so worked up over a simple wording such as public option than to focus on the meat of the policy that will actually cover millions of uninsured Americans and bring competition to the market...no matter what they are called....is the name "public option" more important than the actual desired goal of HCR????

"Eyes on the Prize folks!" -POTUS in DC

[Fi]

I agree, I think he is being totally underestimated, you can't fix 8 years of messing up in 1 or even 2 years.
Patience is called for.

[cgr]

Thank you for stating this so well. I agree. President Obama took the reins of a country in crisis, two wars, verging on economic catastrophe, a miserable relationship with the world community, and he's quietly, systematic­ally...pat­iently...s­et to work with the best and the brightest minds he could gather to put solutions in place.

The dignity, decency and intelligence he models is especially notable when there seems to be an inexplicable madness and incoherence fighting him at every turn. Never nasty, never mean, he simply goes about the business for which we elected him.

The endless punditry saying what he "should" do is laughable when the same pundits were saying he couldn't possible beat Hillary Clinton, or then win the presidency. They presume to know more and understand more deeply than this very thoughtful, brilliant and dedicated man. Silly.

(I prefer Arianna and her HuffPost as a source for the news, not as the news itself.)

[lilguy]

Thank you for this! Huffington post is the first page I turn to when I turn on my computer. The recent decision to downgrade the president at every turn,is causing me to rethink this. I might as well go to one of the republican sites, at least they are honest about wanting the president to fail. Maybe Ariana should run for president, then we will know just how she would govern. I see a president who has a full plate and is eating as fast as he can,even thro he might not like everything he has to eat.

[cgr]

I agree. And the recent snarkiness toward Obama has turned me off, too. He's working at solving incredibly complex problems for his country, while his countrymen lob criticisms or worse.

[sposton]

I bet you wold not call it "patience" if Bush were doing the same exact thing. ;-)

[BrotherTheodore]

You mean like Bush's patience on Katrina?

Obama's Presidency is one quarter through already.

If not now, WHEN?

[todaline]

Ariana, thanks for this medium where every one of us can express our views and mine is that you're wrong (as much as I mostly agree with you) on this one. NINE MONTHS. In 9 months a lot has been done and still a lot to be done. Now, being from the place where the marathon was born you should understand that Obama is more of a Haile Gebrselassie than a Usain Bolt. Bolt will never be able to WIN a marathon and governing IS a marathon. So we should all be PATIENT and wait for Obama at the 26 miles finish line.

[cgr]

Ditto that. Well said.

[unbrokenheart]

Excellent.......

[JoeBridgeman]

thank you.

what is wrong with this website. it censured everything i write, even a simple statement like "thank you." hey you sensurers: what is going on?

[jan4insight]

I feel your pain.

[Shzron1946]

I am so proud to have a president who relies on reason and logic instead of "gut reactions". I prefer to live in a country that thinks before it acts.

[OleLadySquawking]

I often say that "patience WAS a virtue". And that is exactly why I voted for Pres. Obama, cuz he knows it still IS a virtue. Thank you for pointing this out to the restless, got to have it now crowd.

[JoeBridgeman]

thank you for being thoughtful.

[countrygranny]

Excellent post! Thoughtful, provocative and informative. Please continue to write for those of us who have the patience to be governed.