The First Month
In catching up on my Sunday morning reading, I came across this at VelociWorld:
One wonders if Barack Obama has a master plan to address his myriad concerns as he assays to transform America, or even if he has any plans at all. His approach thus far has been rather scattershot, what one generally calls not thought through. I find this lack of preparation shocking, especially in light of the fact his many supporters were rending their raiments during the transition period, and were lamenting the failure of George Bush to resign his office immediately so that the new Age of Reason could commence forthwith.
In other words, what we've seen so far from the Obama administration is what we should have expected: the flailings of a thoughtful, highly-educated man with lots of ideas about how government (and the world) should run but with no actual experience on how to implement any of them.
Yes, I know I'm being unfair. One month is nowhere near enough time to discover if any of his ideas will actually pan out. But when you consider the shoddy vetting of his appointees, his ham-fisted attempts at bi-partisanship and his trumpeting of an enormously expensive "stimulus" bill that no one has read or fully understands, you don't have to be a George Lucas character to say "I've got a bad feeling about this". So far, he's come across as the Man With The Big Plan who leaves the sorting out of the details to his minions.
And when your minions happen to be - to paraphrase Reggie Jackson - "born, but not yet convicted, liars", there is no confidence that anything good can come from this.
As a candidate, Obama was the political equivalent of the Chevy Volt: a bright, shining vision of government as a green, sustainable vehicle to usher us into the future.
As President, he's discovering (or will soon discover) that the Volt is an overly-hyped, overly-inflated, overly-priced piece of automotive vaporware developed by a bankrupt company with an obsolete business plan. It does not and will never exist as an affordable, mass-production product until someone figures out how to sell all the existing vehicles that continue to pile up in loading docks, parking lots and dealerships around the world.
Obama, who sees every problem as a Nail with government just the Hammer to address it, no doubt has a Big Plan for this. Let's hope that this one is a little more "thought through" than what we've seen so far.
posted by VermontGuy @ 5:28 AM
8 Comments:
Although this is the honeymoon, I see you rose very early to post your disillusionment, VermontGuy. My suggestion, get more sleep, and when you're awake, try to lay back and enjoy it. Maybe you'll learn to love it eventually.
I have a feeling I'll need a brain-scan, a memory wipe and probably a lobotomy to learn to love this.
Pretty kinky.
The MIB neuralizer should do it in one. Oh, and with regard to "his ham-fisted attempts at bi-partisanship," I submit that "ham-fisted" is a satisfactory starting point for improvement over "non-existent."
Now wait a minute. Bush was one of the most bipartisan Presidents of our lifetime. He passed Ted Kennedy's education bill. He worked with Democrats against his party to pass an immigration bill. His TARP bailout package was just what Dems wanted, and was only slowed down by House Republicans. He reguarly worked with the Dems on a number of projects, only to have them attack him harshly when he didn't give more. Also, the Patriot Act and the bill authorizing use of force against Iraq were both widely bipartisan in the voting.
Meanhile, Obama gave nothing, not one bit, to the Republicans in one of the hugest spending and cultural bills in American history. He gave it to Nancy Pelosi and said write it yourself, and she did, not only completely shutting out Republicans, but not even allowing some Democrats in on the process. Obama did the same with Harry Reid. Then they all acted surprised when Republicans rebelled.
Wait a minute yourself. I never mentioned Bush because I didn't mean Bush. I meant that Obama and the democratic Senate leadership were somewhat hamfisted in their bi-partisanship attempts, but that it already was an improvement over Pelosi's non-existent efforts. E.g. they stripped the provisions about the National Mall and family planning before even bringing it up for discussion in the Senate.
I think it's safe to say that there is no bipartisanship in DC right now and maybe that's a good thing. After all, the responsibility for a bill should be with the people (and the party) that championed it. So, let the Dems have their moment.
Already the 2010 elections are starting to look very interesting.
And QG, the problem is, when to use the neuralizer? It's only been one month and I think repeated doses may kill enough brain cells to turn me into a California Democrat.
Forecasters are saying 2009 will be a bad year, but things should bounce back in 2010. Perfect timing for the Democrats to take credit.
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