State of Obama

I was afraid this was going to happen. I hoped it wouldn't. Everything looked so good a year ago when the nation elected Barack Obama as its 44th President. We had, for the first time in a long while, a President who was intelligent and also capable of expressing that intelligence in public. He made us all look good. We could hold our heads up when traveling abroad, rather than hurrying through crowds muttering 'I'm Canadian'.

And he made promises most of us wanted him to keep. Shut down Gitmo. Get us out of Iraq. Finally make some headway on Health Care, and bring us into step with the rest of the world in battling global warming. In general, we wanted him to keep his promises of moving us away from a social and financial system favored under Bush. A system geared towards serving the needs of big business regardless of the effects on the middle class and the poor. It was high time the pendulum swung the other way and gave the poorer four-fifths of the population a helping hand.

And it looked like he could pull it off. After all, the disaffection with the former administration which swept him into office put a lot of other Democrats in office too. President Obama had public support AND a Congress controlled by his own party. No way to loose, right?

Well, sadly, we all overlooked the incredible ability of the Democratic party to wound itself. Repeatedly. Like stepping on a rake and hitting yourself in the head, again and again.

Or maybe we just forgot how fractured the Democrats are. We knew all about that at the end of the Clinton era. Heck, we saw it in 1994. They were all over the ideological map then and still are. Once they achieved the goal that united them in 2008 - of defeating George Bush, they lost no time in undermining each other in 2009 in every way they could.

Meanwhile, the defeated Republicans remain a fairly unified bunch. They vote as a block. They obstruct the Democrats in Congress as a block. And they have looney but powerful allies in the conservative news media who seemingly spin every news story into a tale of failure for President Obama or the Democrats.

The Republicans and their news allies have even managed to turn the State of The Union address into what might better be called a 'State of Obama' address. Something more of a defense of his own first year than a discussion of the condition and future of the country.

How they've done this in the face of a massive Democratic majority (even with the Massachusetts decision) and a still largely favorable public opinion towards the President, would make a good lesson in political science if it wasn't an even better lesson in modern pop psychology and old fashioned propaganda.

Still, we can't give the Republicans all the 'credit' for putting Obama in this position. Not even the Democrats are entirely to blame. The President himself has helped his political opponents put him on the defensive, by failing to follow through on many (if not most) of his campaign promises.

By backing down on issues important to his electorate, most critically concerning the war and health care, Obama has lost focus. He's now a blurry, low definition version of his 2008 self.

So, what is the State of Obama?

If he was the quarterback of a football team I'd say he's chalked up impressive yardage but scored no touchdowns. His passes have gone astray or his receivers have dropped the ball and the turnarounds are hurting the team, half of whom have gone back to the bench. A few have even wandered over to the other side of the field. The fans are restless and the cheers are becoming half-hearted. Some are eyeing the exits. The commentators are already looking ahead to next season and contemplating a new quarterback.

But it's still the First Quarter and the team can rally. Give Obama protection in the pocket and run some good patterns, and, most critically, catch the ball, hold on to it, and score.

Now, if the Demos only had a good cheerleading squad ...