Thursday, September 6, 2012

The Big Lie Part Two: Obama

I admit that I watched and read far more about the RNC in Tampa than I have the DNC in Charlotte because, frankly, the Sideshow madness of the current Republican Party is far more entertaining. Like going to Flea Markets in small country towns, the Human Condition is both grotesque and tender at the same time.

Clearly, Mr. Muslim Obama America-Hater was in for a bashing at this carnival and, naturally, no one pulled any punches. The theme was present in the gleeful misquoting of the president as a backdrop to the show: We Built This. Even those who pretend, for dramatic reasons, to misunderstand what Mr. Obama was saying (the entire infrastructure of a nation that created a context for entrepreneurs to be successful was built by everyone and paid for by taxes). And Mr. Ryan didn't disappoint either. He took a while to get going and build a head of steam that might carry him past his awkwardness of following a charismatic speaker like Rubio, but he found his pace and hit it:

  • Obama robbed Medicare (which Ryan knows to be not true because he has written the same numbers into a succession of his own budgets as a way to continue Medicare's solvency).
  • Obama didn't lift a finger to maintain the GM plant in Ryan's homestate despite promising to do otherwise (hilarious because the plant Ryan is describing closed before Obama came into the White House as any check of the facts will show. And funnier still, go back and look at Romney's Op-Ed piece in the NYT about letting plants like that die for the good of the Market).
  • "[Obama] created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way and then did exactly nothing." (Well now, Mr. Ryan, you know that's not true because you sat on that bipartisan commission and know full well that it died because you and two Republicans refused to support it. Lovely attempt to shift the blame).
That last bullet point is worth noting. As you may remember, 2008 began with America mired in two extremely expensive and tragic wars, the economy was in the worst crisis since the Great Depression and America's place on the world stage, which had started off post 9/11 with immense positive soft power, was so mired in disaster that China and Iran were stronger than ever. George Bush, through his ill-advised adventure in Iraq actually made the Axis of Evil stronger. America was in a bad way, but not so bad that we couldn't rally and climb back to the top, because that's what America does. If we all pitch in . . .

Except . . .Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell got the ball rolling by laying down the primary goal for the Republican Party: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." In other words, if it came down to bipartisanship to save America's economy and standing on the international stage, or partisanship to prevent Obama from ever looking successful the Republican plan was clear: they would take the Low Road of partisanship.

And if you're being honest, you'll note that the last three years have been a stark and nearly hysterical attempt to create gridlock in Congress in order to jeopardize the administration. We've seen it over and over again to the point where America's credit rating was downgraded for the first time in history from AAA to AA + over the absurdism of allowing the temporary Bush Tax Cuts - created in a time before the economy crashed - to expire and raising the Debt Ceiling - something Reagan did eighteen times. It was a cartoonish, adolescent game of brinksmanship that was easily avoided - Speaker of the House John Boehner was all about being noble and bipartisan and solving the problem -  in the beginning, before he was reigned in by Uber Leader, the unelected superlobbyist Grover Nordquist. Suddenly Boehner pulled back from bipartisanship and began playing Playground Tough Guy.

And the economy teetered ever closer to disaster.

The fact that anything got done at all in this climate is remarkable and deserves to be counted as a success, but I don't want to go overboard.

So, Mitt Romney, let's address the single biggest question you raised during your tepid, bloodless speech: Are We Better Off Now? According to most indicators, the answer is Yes. According to The Economist's Report Card:

"Did Mr Obama blow it? Nearly four years later, voters seem to think so: approval of his economic management is near rock-bottom, the single-biggest obstacle to his re-election. This, however, is not a fair judgment on Mr Obama’s record, which must consider not just the results but the decisions he took, the alternatives on offer and the obstacles in his way. Seen in that light, the report card is better. His handling of the crisis and recession were impressive. Unfortunately, his efforts to reshape the economy have often misfired. And America’s public finances are in a dire state."

Looking at Obama's record in the face of the disasters facing our economy, we can see that
  • a bank crisis that threatened to destroy us was offset by TARP bailouts which have been almost completely paid back, and the crisis averted.
  • two massive employers Chrysler and GM were ushered into bankruptcy then provide the financing necessary to reorganise, on condition that both eliminated unneeded capacity and workers. Both companies emerged from bankruptcy within a few months. Chrysler, now part of Italy’s Fiat, is again profitable, as is GM, which returned to the stockmarket in 2010.
  • a stimulus that nonpartisan assessors see as saving or creating 3.4m jobs
  • one disasterous, illegal and unethical war over and done with
  • Osama Bin Laden dead and the war in Afghanistan winding down
  • and unemployment numbers that are back up to nearly where they were before the crash. 


 Really - in comparison with the where we were in 2008 vs. where we are now - yes, we are better off. We're not in The Best Possible Place, but we are no longer on the brink of disaster. You did your job, you didn't blow it. That's not enough to recommend a president for a further term, but it's certainly commendable.

George W. Bush - now he blew it. There's almost no standard you can judge the previous president  by without finding failure and ineptitude and missed opportunity. He had eight years and when he was done we were looking up out of a pretty deep hole. Do you remember that?

Obama is, at best and worst, a mediocre president. He didn't blow it and, in a lot of ways he kept us from sinking.

We survived eight years of Bush - I reckon eight years of Obama won't be too bad.

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