Obama and the No Good, Very Bad, Simply Awful Presidency

Remember back in the heady days of 2008? The economy was collapsing before our very eyes and one man offered us two things we were short on at the time: Hope and Change. Obama was drawing massive crowds, the crowds were so large, venues could not fit them. People cried upon merely seeing him. He went from a no-name Illinois senator to bumping Hillary out of the race in just a few short months. Artists created posters and pictures. He seemed like the 2nd coming. He was going to up end all the unpopular stuff Bush did and bring back sanity to government. He was going to make everyone feel better.  

His message was so intoxicating, he despatched with Hillary Clinton like it was child’s play and yet, by the time he left office in 2016, Vox was describing him as the lone-wolf president. Republicans committed to making him a one-term President and when that didn’t work, they committed to stopping his agenda by literally grinding government to a halt. Wave after wave of government shutdowns, sequestration, and other tactics ensued. Legislation was dead on arrival in any chamber he GOP controlled. Once the Tea Party took power in a sweeping election in 2010, the GOP would remain in control of Congress for the greater part of his Presidency effectively ending any chance he had to pass any meaningful legislation.

Sound familiar?

The one area of the Presidency Congress does not directly control was foreign policy. Obama set about repairing the damage done by 8 years of George W. Bush. He made allies feel better and achieved a nuclear arms deal with Iran. He signed the Paris Climate accords that set aggressive goals to reduce carbon output by every country on Earth.

However, he is not as remembered for his “reset” with Russia that allowed the Russian annexation of Crimea or the precipitous pull-out of Iraq that created ISIL or the quagmire that is Afghanistan. He is also not remembered for the drone war on Yemen or the many other drone strikes that he ordered off and one throughout his Presidency. In 2008, the anti-war sentiment in the United States was at fever pitch. By 2016, that movement had all but died out.

Obama never achieved much of the hope and change that was promised. Obama failed to stand-up to Republicans in Congress. Valerie Jarrett has stated the flaw in their strategy. “We always believed that eventually they would come around and compromise.” But the never did and the Obama administration never changed strategy. Even when it came to Constitutional duties, Mitch McConnell and the Senate GOP decided that they were not in the business of filling Supreme Court vacancies during an election year and denied Merrick Garland so much as a hearing. What did Obama do? Nothing. He just stood back and sort of shook his head hoping that they would eventually come around.

The reason why Obama’s presidency was a failure was that he was unable to understand what was happening (the break down of norms) and didn’t change tack. The GOP put up a wall and he just sort of stood there waiting for the wall to move. Bill Clinton faced similar challenges after 1994 and instead of waiting for Gingrich to come around, he would hit the TV cameras and Sunday shows. He would call on people to write or call their congressperson to get things moving. He didn’t wait for the Republicans to give in, he went on the attack. How would 2016 change turned out if people realized that Hope and Change was not held up by do-nothing democrats but rather by Republicans who refused to do their job just because they were committed to one thing and one thing only: stopping Obama however they could.

All of this added up to one of the most hopeful and yet ineffectual Presidencies on record. The only significant legislation was passed while the Democrats were in charge from 2008-2010. After that, the GOP took power and saw to it that Obama would be a do-nothing president. They were incredibly successful to the detriment of the rest of the country.

All of that taken together made Obama an ineffectual president. The GOP achieved their goal and future democrats should not be so blind as to not realize that the GOP will obstruct as long as it suits their needs. There is no bi-partisanship. There is no consensus building. That Washington is dead. The new Washington involves fighting for every inch of policy and forcing action through whatever means necessary. The nuclear option is the option that must be pursued. Too bad Obama never figured that out.