How voters interpret what President Obama has -- or has failed to -- achieve will seal the fate of hundreds of candidates who are running for office this election day.
Obama and The Daily Show's Jon Stewart did not spare each other as they put on an impressive display of verbal sparring -- punctuated by real answers that provided a rare profile of the president.
The most telling part of the interview was not in the witty repartee. It was in sharing with us how the president's mind works:
"My attitude is if we're making progress step-by-step, inch-by-inch, day-by-day that we are being true to the spirit of that campaign."
Obama believes his administration has made a considerable amount of progress "from an historical perspective," which he says ranks with any legislative session we've seen before. With those statements, a large piece of the puzzle that is our president was revealed.
"Timid" is how Stewart framed what the president considers historically on pace. Most of us may not measure our accomplishments according to esteemed and distant predecessors, but President Obama does. What we may see as plodding, he considers getting it done right within the context of an unhealthy Washington.
Both men were showing us the other night how practiced communicators insert their views, stand their ground, revise the course of conversation, and substitute a positive term or perspective for a negative one.
But able at communication or not, this president won't in the future, anymore than he did in the past, talk candidly to us before he is ready. When he finally does, he'll likely be on his game. He's not so much a mystery or a contradiction as he is a man who's decided whom he wants to accommodate, how long he'll take to do that, and how he wants to be remembered.
There is no rushing this president. Obama clearly moves at his own pace and no amount of criticizing and coaxing will change that. He still believes "Yes we can," but just not on the schedule many of us had in mind.
As in every American politician's reckoning with reality, we the voters will now decide whether such paced leadership is okay -- if step-by-step, inch-by-inch, day-by-day works for us.
In any case, there's something appealing about a person who tells you how he thinks with no apologies and how able he is at living with your inevitable disappointment. It was certainly long-awaited but welcome straight talk for a worried nation.
Kathleen's new book is Comebacks at Work: Using Conversation to Master Confrontation, and she also blogs at bardscove.
You are quite correct in that Obama HAS achieved major legislation during his first term. What I am most concerned about are the back room deals he cut with Big Pharma, health insurers and other Corporate groups we may not be aware of to get his legislation passed. It was not supposed to be an Administration of "business(or politics) as usual and that's EXACTLY what we have in DC now. The best interests of the American people are NOT his first priority and they MUST be. THAT is supposed to be his PRIMARY concern above ALL others. Not politics and Corporate money.
Peace now! Yes we can, and we will. No passes for anyone, Obama is human, but I have faith he will deliver.
If the GOP and their minions had stood behind the president and supported him when he was first elected and the economy was on the brink of total disaster - instead of throwing their entire weight and energy into "causing him to fail" - there is every good reason to believe our country would be much better off by now than it is.
Back in 2009, what was the reason that everyone was saying we couldn't rebound? Lack of consumer confidence. And where did that come from? All the GOP scare tactics (which led to tea parties instead of community building and economic networking). Just imagine if both sides had come together and really done what was best for Americans...
Ha.
We could actually have passed health care that really worked with a crazy idea like that.
And who knows what else.
Ha ha.
Mr. Stewart asked tough questions in a way to challange the President to explain his Progressive mind set. The President did so effectively. Stewart is an intelligent man. He knew or had a sense of how the President would answer his questions before he asked them.
There is no VS.
The President's answer on Health Care showed his hand on how he thinks. Get the framework in place and build from there. Health Care in its present form is temporary. It was designed to be improved upon. It was intentionally flawed in a sense. Get what you can now and improve it later.
Wall Street Reform was the same deal.
Works in progress.
Stewart understands this.
There is no VS.
Me-thinks we'll be seeing some big changes in the next two years. Perhaps not the ones any of us were hoping for or working against. Partly due to our inability to unite and stand strong together as a force for comprehensive, genuine, and perhaps slow change. Either way, it will probably get worse before it gets better.
Again, I still love Jon and Stephen but I think they are starting to believe that they are much much bigger than they really are.
PLEASE VOTE EVERYONE!!!
I agree with him. Please imagine a man who is walking or swimming against the direction of stream of river. What speed or distance can we expect for the man to achieve? What determines them?
It’s not just about the swimmer’s strength and swimming ability. It’s also, or more about the speed and strength of currents of river. The same things apply to the president and Washington, I believe. how stubborn all oppositions have been to virtually every policies unfolded by either President or democrates
When he ran for office, the banks were collapsing faster than any time since the Great Depression. The following year the U.S. seized 20 times the number of banks in any normal downturn. Before the election we had already lost 4,000,000 jobs. From the time he won office until he was sworn in an additional million lost. And even though stimulus passed in amazingly short time, before any of it was enacted, we lost another million jobs.
(Oh, and two wars, the oil spill, Fox, etc.)
Then he had to fight with the stonewall in the senate. Republicans filibustered almost everything and Obama never had the 60 Democrats needed to break it. Kennedy was dying. Franken was blocked from serving. And since the Republicans' game plan was to stonewall, you basically needed 100% of Democrats AND two independents AND at least one or two Republicans to agree for a bill to pass.
But the President and Democratic leaders can't just jam legislation down Congress' throat. The 2010 campaign began the moment the 2008 campaign ended. Many new Democratic congressmen are from districts that lean Republican. The bills that come to the floor can't be so progressive that it makes those seats indefensible. Those congressmen will mostly lose their seats to Republicans this term for voting with the Democratic leaders. It was right, and brave, but you can't blame Obama for those losses.
Would add to your well stated history of the stimulus is that even after enacted it takes time for it to fully ripple through the economy, so the creation of 1.6 million new jobs so far this year is evidence that the stimulus has begun to ripple through the economy.
sorry, but he never said he was gonna give you quick change! I don't know how old you are, but I am only 29, and I have ALREADY learned that anything important is usually very hard to change and takes a while. True strength is in patience and consistency. What you test in him shouldn't be whether the world looks different as of yesterday, but judge how CONSISTENT he is in bringing or trying to bring changes about. And yes, it is step by step and inch by inch. If you think you're so much better at dealing with the loons in Congress, especially those on the Right and the Blue Dog Dems, then by all means, have at it, Hoss! Push Obama aside and show him how "easy" it is to handle them. I predict you will be CRYING and begging to get your old life back!
Please vote everyone!
Who is being audacious? To quote Bertrand Russell: "bald-faced lies"; "brazen arrogance"; "the modern world with its quick material successes and insolent belief in the boundless possibilities of progress."
So, we have a country whose greatest political problem is that no one can remember when we were as deeply divided to right and left extremes as we are today, and Jon you want Obama to come out swinging and dancing like an audacious butterfly? Well, I'm really sorry for everyone who thought Obama was going to do schtick for them. Here's an idea? Why doesn't Barack get angry at the obstructionist GOP? Yeah, the very idea of a black President in the White House getting angry would scare the Sh*t out of them, wouldn't it? Actually, it would scare the Sh*t out of a lot of people. Oh yeah, the GOP would have a feast with that meme. Obama is too smart to make it that easy for them.
But I'm on board with everything you say in your third paragraph...spot on with that. Obama is so far ahead of most of us intellectually (thank goodness) I still believe the history books will recognize him as one of the wisest leaders we have ever had.