Muleskinner

Issue date: 11/19/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Drew Woolery: Muleskinner Barack Obama, then a presidential hopeful, speaks at a rally in Kansas City, Mo. UCM faculty and students are now speaking out about his first year in office.

Media Credit: Holly Wright: Muleskinner This week's front page of The Muleskinner.

It has been nearly one year since President Barrack Obama was handed the keys to the White House. During this time, he has been faced with important issues that have required tough decisions-something that some argue he is an expert at skating around. However, there are still others who believe it is too early to become critical of the president's performance in office thus far, and that Americans are forgetting the progress already made.

At nearly a quarter of the way through his term, many people in the United States are conducting personal evaluations of the progress he has made. The president is being met with harsh criticism from members of the opposing Republican Party, as well as from others who initially voted in his favor.

The president reached his pinnacle of approval rating of 69 percent in January, but a recent Gallup Poll, conducted Nov. 9 through Nov. 15, showed his rating had dropped to 53 percent. With the economy showing minimal signs of progress and looming answers to the Afghanistan and healthcare quandaries hanging over their heads, many Americans seem to be growing tired of waiting for action to be taken that produces visible results.

"I think that with any new president, especially one that came in on the tide that Obama came in on with his message of hope and change, that you are always going to have a drop off-he can't please everybody forever. I think it was only realistic to expect that," said Mikey Tyler, chairman of the College Republicans at UCM.
Further, some claim that it is entirely too early for Americans to become critical of the president and that they may be expecting too much, too soon.

"Really, with any administration, you can't judge it based upon one year," said James Staab, chair of the Political Science Department. "After three plus years, when the president decides if he wants to run for re-election, I think it's at that time a more informed analysis can take place. It's only fair, really, for people not to be too quick to make a judgment."

PROGESS ALREADY MADE
Staab also indicated that because of recent negative attention, rooted in the administration's indecisiveness about healthcare reform and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that many Americans may have forgotten about what has already been accomplished.

"Because healthcare hasn't been accomplished, and the issue of Afghanistan, people are forgetting that there are some things that have already happened," Stabb said. "The markets have bounced back, there was the Supreme Court appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to the high-bench, who is the first Latina appointed to the Supreme Court.
Also, in the area of civil rights, I think that the president has had some great accomplishments-the Fair Pay Act has been modified to allow for discrimination claims of unequal pay in terms of gender discrimination cases and, just recently, the hate crimes law was modified at the federal level to allow for enhanced sentencing in reference to victims that are picked on because of sexual orientation."

Most notably, the President has also made gains in the arena of international relations by reaching out to countries the United States previously had no relationship with. He is also trying to strengthen our country's relationship with China.

"I'm quite pleased with [Obama's] steps toward increasing our presence abroad, especially reaching out to countries that previous administrations hadn't reached out to, such as Iran and North Korea," said Justin Grandfield, a senior Political Science major. "I know that he faces a lot of difficulty economics-wise because he doesn't have a strong economics background, but he's doing what he can with the advisors that he has."

However, some aren't as impressed with what the administration has accomplished thus far.

"With the exception of the stimulus bill which he passed in the spring, he hasn't had any large legislation passed," Tyler said. "The house has passed both cap-and-trade and the healthcare bill, but neither one has gotten through the Senate; neither one has been signed by Obama. So as far as actual legislative accomplishments, I don't feel like he's done a whole lot. Our republic was designed to move slowly, but at the same time, Obama has overwhelming majorities in the house and the senate and he should be able to accomplish more than what he has."

In reference to the stimulus bill, Staab said the economy is making a subtle comeback and cited the bill, in large, as the reason for this. However, adversaries of the bill claim that for such minimal results, puts us in a dangerous position-raising the national debt to more than $12 trillion and increasing the United States' reliance on China, who lent the stimulus money.

THE WAR
One of the major issues on the administration's agenda is the war in Afghanistan, which has caused some Americans to become critical of the President, perhaps due to the lackadaisical way in which the war seems to be being dealt with.

"I think the way that the administration is handling [the war] is representative of the way they deal with everything else and people are getting frustrated," Tyler said. "[The administration] doesn't take a firm stance, as far as I've seen, on very much. [Obama] wavers on different things, dependent on the mood, and I think that's what he is trying to do with the war in Afghanistan-decipher what the mood of the American people is.

Although Staab argues that intellectualism is a positive attribute for a president to have and that great care must be taken in reference to the war, he said he also believes that the administration needs to make a move on the issue.

"I think that the administration does need to make a judgment [in Afghanistan] one way or another, but I think that we need to have a clearly defined mission of what we are trying to accomplish there," Staab said.

HEALTHCARE REFORM
Aside from the war, another point of contention has been the issue of healthcare reform and whether governmental control of the system is putting too much power in the government's hands-some have even indicated that they believe Obama's reform plan may be based upon socialist ideologies.

"The problem with socialism is that everybody has a different interpretation of it," Tyler said. "Some people believe if the government builds a road, that the government is socialist because everyone benefits from the use of that road. I think there are certain things the government is expected to take care of and Obama is trying to stretch that with the healthcare reform. That's where you start to see the backlash and the use of the term socialism because people don't like that governmental intervention."

Staab, however, believes that those making these types of claims are taking it a little too far.

"The issue of healthcare of course is huge, perhaps as large as Social Security was in its time, and it will be an overhaul," Stabb said. "But is [the reform plan] socialist in nature? I think not.

Although not exactly commenting on the proposed healthcare plan's alleged socialist qualities, Tyler did offer his outlook on why he thinks that it wouldn't work.

"The bottom line is this-your not going to make people more prosperous by dividing wealth, you can't multiply wealth by dividing it and that's what they are trying to do is take from the rich and give to the poor. While everybody loves Robin Hood, he wasn't grounded in any type of economic reality," Tyler said.

However, there are still others that believe that the proposed healthcare reform is based on a sound platform and that it would only help Americans in the long-run.

"What Obama seeks to do is emulate European policy of socialized healthcare in Sweden, for example. I think that they are good plans and policies," Grandfield said. "They guarantee the pursuit of happiness for every individual in this country, because an individual cannot be happy if they are bed-ridden or ill and can't afford healthcare."

FUTURE POTENTIAL
In reference to Obama's rise to the top and his successes thus far, Tyler gave his viewpoint.

"Certainly a freshman senator becoming president of the United States is relatively unheard of. I think Obama is learning as he goes, but there have been growing pains," Tyler said. "You know, I think that it was a perfect storm for him, he was inexperienced but America wanted someone inexperienced because we had a president who was the son of a former president, who was the son of a former congressman.

"The American people wanted somebody new and fresh and that's what Obama gave them. Had he been real experienced, I don't know that he could have even won. I don't know that he would have had the celebrity and the swaying power that he had because he would have had to take a stance on some issues that may have kept him from getting elected," Tyler said.

Staab, a little more optimistic about the president's potential said, "There are a lot of issues on his plate that he's dealing with. I think it's a little unrealistic, particularly based upon some of the major issues he was given by the previous administration, to expect to see major results. I think all-in-all he's doing a great job and I think we need to get three years into the administration in order to really make an accurate assessment."

Grandfield also agrees that it is too early to tell whether the actions taken by the president will ultimately affect the United States positively in the future.

"Because he hasn't even been in office a full year, we haven't seen enough of what he is able to do," Grandfield said. "He has inherited two wars and a massive economic crisis that has not just been forthcoming during the previous administration, but in the Clinton administration as well-it's been coming for a long time.

"We probably won't see the benefits during his administration, whether it's four years or eight years, because we are going to have to put in a lot more regulatory institutions that way we can watch over what's going on economically, it's going to take a long time for us to turn this back around. If anything, I would ask Americans to take a step back and look at the presidency as a whole later on and not just as a segment now-it is just too early to tell," Grandfield said.

Varner also believes that we need to give the President more time to prove himself and that a certain level of respect comes with doing so.

"Americans tend to be impatient, I feel like even if you may disagree with what he's trying to do or that he may not be moving fast enough for you, he's still the president and there is a level of respect that needs to be given," Varner said. "As Americans, we need to be patient and give him more time, we need to give him respect. If you don't feel like things are going the way you want them to, think about how you can help the situation by being positive."

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