Obama - Year 1 Review

My daughter recently texted me (that's how teenagers communicate these days) and told me that she had to do a report on President Obama's first year in office and needed my help. I texted her back that I would have it to her by Friday. She sent me back an "lol" (laugh out loud) and said it had to was not suppose bias. Now that would be a challenge!

I took this opportunity to actually review he President' first year and what it tells us. We can review each of his campaign promises and determine if he kept of broke the promise, why or the promise was broken or not and where credit can be assign for the successes or blame for the failures. An exercise like that would be too tedious and like my daughter said, would be too difficult without an extreme bias. After the recent State of the Union address, I would rather choose to look at some obvious characteristics of this President's administration which will give us more insight to his first year.

1. From his inauguration speech to his campaign to bring the Olympics to Chicago to the recent State of the Union address, this President has used the first person pronouns more than any President in modern history. The media fell in love with Obama from the first moment he stepped foot on the national stage and built him up to a point that the man has become a narcissist. Apparently, he has read his press clippings and heard guys like Chris Mathews proclaim physical reactions to hearing him speak and believes he is the only guy who can right the ship and lead this nation. In the State of the Union, he took the opportunity to not only scold the republicans but also the democrats and even the Supreme Court. He is the only one doing the right thing and everyone needs to shape up. In response to his falling popularity and failure at the polls since his election, the White House claimed they have not communicated the message as well as they should so the President will become more visible. The guy has made 411 speeches or interviews in his first year! Unless he makes his life a reality show I am not sure he can become any more visible. (I probably shouldn't give NBC any ideas.)

2. President Obama entered office with a popularity rarely seen in American politics. His party had a majority in the House and a super majority in the Senate. The media loved him and refused to vett him like any other politician. The American public was behind him and he had an aggressive agenda yet one year into his term one in ten Americans were now unemployed even after the massive stimulus bill, the health care bill was now on life support after the election Scott Brown to the Senate ending the super majority and other agenda items have failed to make progress. With everything going for him the lack of success shows lack of leadership. He can make Oprah cry after hearing him speak but he cannot even garner a consensus among his own party. If he can't get the choir to follow his lead how do we expect the congregation to be in tune?

3. Candidate Obama made many promises on the campaign trail but the one that resonated with most people was changing the way Washington worked. The American public feels that our government is for sale and that things are done in Washington when it benefits the ones making the laws. The fact that a bill cannot be passed without individual congressmen inserting a pork project having nothing to do with the bill's subject irritates Americans. Yet, the omnibus bill included over 9,000 earmarks and the stimulus plan was more about benefiting the lawmakers and their supporters than stimulating the economy showing that Obama is playing the same game and its politics as usual. If the stimulus was about stimulating the economy then most of the money would have been scheduled to be spent in the first year when the economy needed a jolt. People want to see the government run with principles, similar to the way businesses are run. If the government was a business they would have been bankrupt long ago as opposed to just the morals of the one running the government.

President Obama ran on a ticket of "Hope and Change" and after a year all we can hope for is that the American electorate will make a change as soon as possible. The experiment has failed!