A year in the White House is the time Barack Obama has been so far. Since he became, a year ago, the 44th President of the United States Obama has faced a near constant stream of crises, with mixed results: The Dow Jones industrial average has gone up 33%, but the unemployment rate — now at 10% — has risen at the same pace. Obama sent more troops to Afghanistan, while planning to take home troops from Iraq. Americans still praise the President as a "strong leader" who is "honest and trustworthy," but about half of the country thinks he has been irresponsible with federal spending and not focused on their top priorities : jobs and the economy.
By far the biggest issue now facing Obama after a year in office is that his time for doing things may already be over. The surprisingly narrow Senate contest in Massachusetts on Jan. 19 seemed to arise the point: America still wants change, and Obama is not the only vehicle. On his anniversary, as Obama's aides recalibrate for the years to come, here is a look at what the President has been able to accomplish and what he still hopes to do.
Moreover, Mr Obama's most coveted legislative aim, the creation of a sort of national health service, remains elusive. The Wall Street Journal, the newspaper here of serious money, has just savaged the Bill as perhaps the worst inflicted on the American people since the era of Roosevelt. Its projected cost – $1.055 trillion over 10 years – is regarded as madness when America has a level of debt so astronomical that it (just) exceeds, per capita, that of Britain; and few outside a hard core of Obama devotees see it delivering what is needed, where it is needed.
Internationally, the lustre has worn off, too. Mr Obama might have won the Nobel Peace Prize, but the less said about that the better. The award was apparently decided in February, days after he entered the Oval Office. He gave up his missile defence system in eastern Europe: we all imagined the Russians would give something in return, but we are still waiting. More recently, he went to Copenhagen to try to secure the 2016 Olympics for Chicago, and failed.
The health care plans, were they to be enacted, would make this dire situation even worse. They can be funded only by higher taxes, which is no doubt fair if everyone wants such a system, but far from everyone does. And, as I have written in relation to our benighted economy, the growth that might ease the problem will only be depressed by higher taxes. The stimulus package of $787 billion has paid few dividends ("He didn't even read the Bill, he just signed it," a Republican told me): as at home, serious cuts in spending are not on the agenda. The dollar remains a reserve currency, but has been heading south.
Mr Obama seems also to have made another bad mistake. Apparently shocked by the virulence of Fox News Channel's attacks on him, he has declared war on the network. We can imagine what would happen if a British head of government were to try to take on an arm of the media, and it has happened here. Many voters feel the President has diminished himself by admitting to being so bothered by Fox, which for its part has turned up the abuse. So too has Rush Limbaugh, the talk radio presenter, whom Mr Obama and his friends have made the mistake of branding the leader of the Republican Party.To use another old cliché, Mr Obama looks like a man who has made the mistake of believing his own publicity. His adherents in the media are now so defensive that they have started complaining about the rules.
Perhaps Mr Obama won last November because he was not the heir of George Bush, and for no other reason. The President starts to risk comparisons not just with Jimmy Carter, but with Lyndon Johnson, felled by a combination of a foreign war and welfare reform, and even, with his list of enemies, Richard Nixon. The problem may be one of immaturity and inexperience. If so, he had better learn fast. For, at this rate, next year's congressional elections start to look more than challenging for him.
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