Editor's Pick

Roadblocks to Obama presidency

8 February 2010, 18:00 PM
EDITORIAL
Abdullah A Dewan

Palin in 2012?Photo: AFP

Barack Obama walked into the White House with a vision of hope and change. Yet, no sooner had his first year in office glided into the second, his distracters started saying that Obama will be a 'one-term President' who is 'completely overwhelmed' by the challenges that confront him. The Senate Republican minority would relish nothing more than seeing him "fail and fade." In a January 12 CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 48% of the respondents opined Obama's presidency has been a failure so far, with 47% calling it a success. One wonders how any one can regard any presidency a failure or a success just after one year. The Republicans' adversarial feelings seemed to have galvanised around the $787 billion stimulus package. Their anger has recently been compounded once it was revealed that part of this bailout money was squandered by recipient institutions in paying bonuses to senior executives who had largely caused the crisis. This emerged against the backdrop of an economic decline where millions of Americans still go to bed hungry every night, 45 million don't have any health care, over 8 million are jobless, over 9 million homes are threatened with foreclosure, people are going bankrupt and business are failing. With the costs of prosecuting two wars simultaneously and near unrestrained domestic stimulus spending, the country is sinking deeper and deeper into debt. Although the economy grew 5.7 % in the 4th quarter of 2009, and last month's unemployment rate declined from 10.1% to 9.7%, most people are not convinced about the economy's health. Republican critics are berating Obama for record deficits -- though he inherited most of them from the Bush era tax cuts and deficits spending. George W. Bush took over the presidency with a $230 billion surplus. But his $1.35 trillion tax cut in 2001, a $1.5 trillion tax cut in 2003, and a massive defense buildup through the Iraq and Afghanistan wars transformed a budget surplus economy into a deficit-mounting economy. Republicans falsely assert that Obama tripled the budget deficit in his first year since the deficit jumped from about $450 billion in 2008 to $1.4 trillion in 2009. They forget that most of it Obama inherited from the Bush era and just added an additional $1 trillion. Here is a blunt example of Republican hypocrisy. They're claiming to be deficit hawks, yet having been the majority from 2001 to 2006 in both houses of Congress, they loyally rubber-stamped the Bush agenda that transpired the current fiscal crisis. Many of the same Republicans enthusiastically backed Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cuts in 2001. Now they're standing ready to oppose and crush the Obama agenda with concerns about the budget deficits. Are deficits and the weak economy the only reasons why Republicans say "NO" to everything Obama proposes? Many Republican wrote him off even before he walked into the oval office. They think of him as being far left on all issues they stand for, and call him an "ideology socialist." "A large portion of the Republicans thinks President Obama is a racist, socialist, and non-US citizen. That's the opinion recorded in a poll of 2000 self-identified Republicans nationwide. This manifests the growing far-fetched paranoia encompassing the party and the extreme pressure driving lawmakers further and further to the right from political moderation" (January 2, 2010, The Huffington Post). It may be noted that a disproportionate percentage of respondents are from Republican strongholds in the South (42%), as opposed to the Northeast (11%). Also, this is a poll of self-identified Republicans. Nevertheless, the poll conducted by the Daily Kos reveals how demeaning and hateful some of the Republicans are to Obama. 39% believe Obama should be impeached; 29% aren't sure, and 32% are against such a move. 36% believe Obama was not born in the US; 22% are uncertain, and 42% think he is a natural citizen. 31% think Obama is a "Racist who hates White people" -- the description once propagated by Fox News's Glenn Beck; 33 % are uncertain, and 36% reject such notions. 63% think Obama is a socialist; 16% aren't sure, and 21% reject it. 24% believe Obama wants "the terrorists to win"; 33% aren't sure, and 43% reject it. 21% believe ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) stole the 2008 presidential election; 55% aren't sure, and 24% reject it. 23% believe that their state should secede from the US; 19% are uncertain, and 58% are against seceding. 53% say Sarah Palin (John McCain's vice-presidential running mate) is more qualified to be president than Obama. Given such mentalities of a party's base supporters, Republican lawmakers are afraid to support any Obama agenda. For example, outgoing Florida Governor (R) Charlie Crist, who is running for a Senate seat, has been demonised for hugging Obama once and is now running behind polls. Markos Moulitsas, founder and publisher of Daily Kos said, "This is why it's becoming impossible for elected Republicans to work with Democrats to improve our country. And if any of them stray and decide to do the right thing and try to work in a bipartisan fashion, they suffer primaries and attacks. Given what their base demands -- and this poll illustrates them perfectly -- it's no wonder the GOP is the party of no." At the National Prayer Breakfast on February 5, Obama raised the issue of his own eligibility for office -- saying that people shouldn't be questioning his "citizenship." Talking about the issue of 'civility,' he said, "Surely you can question my policies without questioning my faith, or, for that matter, my citizenship."
Dr. Abdullah A. Dewan, founder of politiconomy.com, is a Professor of Economics at Eastern Michigan University.

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