Obama's 'change' one year on

Barack Obama entered office with sky-high expectations on the heels of his deeply unpopular predecessor, George W Bush. In his inaugural address on January 20, 2009, the center-left Democrat pledged “an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.”

Obama said that those who elected him the country's first African- American president in November 2008 had “chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.”

Yet as Obama marks the end of his first year in the White House, the country is as divided as ever. The euphoria that accompanied his historic election has subsided, and Obama begins 2010 with approval ratings of around 50 percent, among the lowest ever for a president entering his second year in office.

Every major 2009 vote in Congress came down along party lines, starting with an unprecedented 787-billion-dollar stimulus package in February and ending with massive health care reforms that squeaked passed the Senate and House of Representatives.

Public anger boiled over. The conservative “Tea Party” movement saw thousands flocking to Washington to protest that Obama's big spending plans would bankrupt the government and introduce socialism. Opponents of health reform turned summer town hall meetings into shouting matches and heated face-offs.

What happened?

Matt Dallek, a historian and visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Centre, a Washington-based think-tank founded by a group of moderate former lawmakers, blames the failure largely on “structural problems” that have confounded presidents for decades.

“Obama is far from the first president and presidential candidate in modern times to promise to change the culture and unite the country, and then when he arrives in Washington, unity becomes very elusive,” Dallek said.

Those structural problems include a media environment that has grown increasingly partisan in its coverage of politics, and a never-ending election campaign atmosphere that will only worsen as the country gears up for mid-term congressional elections in November.

1|2|Next Page>>

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email