Barack Obama has been President of the United States for almost two months now. It has been a shaky start for his administration at best, as I thought it would be. Any time a new president attempts to come into Washington and shake things up, the Washington establishment fights back tooth and nail to maintain its grip on the worst aspects of the status quo. We are witnessing a period where Obama has rapidly and decisively moved forward on many parts of his agenda laid out during the long 2008 campaign season; on the other hand, it appears that Obama has given in on several core principles. It is also worth mentioning that Obama has inherited the most difficult situation of any White House transition in our lifetimes, with several unresolved American wars abroad, heated conflicts tangentially affecting America in other parts of the world, and a monumental collapse in the American economy and world economy. Entire industries, including American auto manufacturing, have approached the brink of disaster.
Under the stress of these times, Obama’s Democratic party has splintered into several factions, rendering it more difficult to get things done, and above that the two parties in power have failed to reach across the aisle for bipartisan achievement so far. Most bills are being rammed through by the Democratic majority without much input from the Republicans, which is not good for the nation in the long run. The weak Republican party, which is having a crisis of leadership at the moment, isn’t helping the cause. The result is a mixed bag, and although contention is everywhere in Washington these days, there is a lot going on on the legislative front and in the halls of executive power. Here is a fair examination of Obama’s first two months. At the 100 day mark, the media outlets will be chock full of report cards. Consider this to be a mid-semester preview of Obama’s performance, both positive and negative.
Problematic Personnel Moves. Obama’s team has flubbed a number of presidential appointments, due largely to an unexpected epidemic of tax problems and the specter of corruption and industry ties amongst high-level appointees. Bill Richardson, an early Obama favorite to join the Cabinet as Commerce Secretary, bowed out due to an ongoing federal investigation into a transportation contract that involved him as Governor of New Mexico. Tom Daschle, the formerly powerful Senator and an Obama Rabbi, was felled by $128,000 in unpaid income taxes. Dashcle’s fall was especially painful as he was to head the Department of Health and serve as the president’s health czar, picked to oversee a vast expansion in the health care system to cover all Americans. Earlier the same day Daschle withdrew his nomination, Obama’s pick for the newly created position of Chief Performance Officer, Nancy Killefer, went down in flames for owing taxes from 2005 related to a housekeeper. Tim Geithner, Obama’s appointment for Secretary of the Treasury, supposedly owed $34,000 in social security and medicare back taxes during a stint at the IMF, while retaining a housekeeper whose immigration documents were not in order.
This disturbing trend has stained the administration for several reasons. First of all, these are jobs of immense authority and accountability where it is unacceptable to have legal issues in your personal life when you are overseeing the work of thousands of government officials. It begs the question of how Geithner could oversee the Treasury Department and the IRS; how Killefer could measure the success of government programs based on performance indicators, and how Daschle could regulate a multibillion dollar industry in massive transition when each of these people could not keep their own house in order. Of course, the opposite argument is that these people probably do not manage their own money, and have accountants who are supposed to take care of the inane complexities of tax laws. But these people too are in the employ of the appointed officials and should have been managed more closely. More importantly, the delays in filling these important roles has harmed Obama’s agenda during the critical early days of the administration, despite the work of a well-oiled transition team.
Yet another gaffe occurred when Obama’s highest-level Republican appointee, Senator Judd Gregg, withdrew his nomination for the cursed Commerce Secretary spot. This was a failure of bipartisanship more than of substance, as Obama had promised to appoint people for the job regardless of party affiliation. Gregg’s qualifications don’t appear overwhelming, so I envisioned him as a token Republican Cabinet Secretary just as Norm Mineta was the token Democrat under Bush. Gregg somehow woke up and realized that taking this job would cause an irreconcilable conflict with his fiscal principles and his ideas about the 2010 census (run by Commerce), of all things. This belated realization makes me wonder what conversations really occurred behind closed doors to make the Senator change his mind. However, the damage has been done and the cabinet cannot be called truly bipartisan by any stretch of the imagination, even though Obama has kept on critical Bush appointees including Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Finally, the appointment by Obama of William Lynn as Deputy Secretary, the #2 at the Pentagon behind Gates, appears to be a failure on a different level. He campaigned on the principle that federal lobbyists would not be part of his team; yet Lynn was just that for the defense contractor, Raytheon, and accepting the position required him to dump millions of dollars in company stock. Obama’s team waived the rules for Lynn. Qualified for the job or otherwise, the exception in this case was troubling to many.
On the other hand, I believe some of Obama’s personnel moves were strong. Picking Joe Biden as Vice President has pluses and minuses. One minus is that he will continue to commit gaffes on the job. However he will be loyal to Obama, not attempting to undermine him as Cheney did over and over under Bush. The country would also move forward under a President Biden if anything were to happen to Obama. Biden is also overseeing the disbursal of the federal budget, and as a Congressional insider for 35 years that can only be helpful. Picking Hillary Clinton for the State Department was also a wise choice; though I have not always agreed with her foreign policy positions, most notably the vote to use force against Iraq, few could argue that she knows world affairs inside-out from a wonk’s perspective. It is also a positive step for the world to continue seeing a woman in the position of Secretary of State.
Overall, only time will tell how the Obama appointments fare. There are still several key holes to fill, including in the offices around Geithner’s at Treasury. For the sake of the country, these holes must be patched quickly with first-rate people.
Foreign Policy. Perils abound on the world stage, and they require swift and decisive action by the United States. The Iraq conflict must be wound down. Efforts to contain terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan must be ramped up. Rogue actors with nuclear aspirations such as Iran and North Korea continue to give America a headache. Russia is rapidly turning backward from democracy; China is moving forward on capitalism but backward on most democratic indicators as well. Meanwhile, Mexico threatens to be a massive failed state right on our border, as a cabal of powerful drug dealers are overwhelming the state’s resources and ability to govern. Violence in Mexico has reached unprecedented levels, largely to quench American demand, and the situation is deteriorating.
It appears Obama will approach fighting terror differently than Bush did, and in this I believe Obama is doing the right thing. He has moved to ban torture of detainees. He has moved to shut down Guantanamo Bay and find an alternative way to try terror suspects. These measures are morally correct from a human rights standpoint, and also a better play for America’s long-term national security. Shutting down Gauntanamo will remove a key rallying cry for Middle Eastern radicals, while helping regain America’s image of moral authority that was lost drastically under Bush. Meanhile, some aspects of Bush’s anti-terror tactics have remained, notably the right to use unmanned drones to bomb terrorist targets in Pakistan’s lawless Northwest Frontier region. If this program kills terrorists instead of civilians, I am all for it.
Obama is also cutting the budget for missile-defense systems, a costly and questionably effective program that has served to rattle a belligerent Russia into ramping up its own missile programs. Although Obama has made secret overtures to the Kremlin on this subject, it is unclear at this time how far cooperation will go between the two rivals that do not fully trust one another. On a related note, I believe that Obama’s thoughts on WMD non-proliferation are serious and will be followed through during his administration. Obama intends to enlist the assistance of Russia’s good offices with Iran, which will be necessary when dealing with this prickly rogue state. It is early times on the diplomatic scene but our fledgling foreign policy is moving in the right direction.
Domestic Policy. Domestic policy interests me far less, but it is at the forefront in today’s environment. The recession is here and it is very real. Various programs initiated under Bush continue, such as the $700 billion bank bailout known as T.A.R.P., a separate fiscal stimulus of nearly $800 billion being injected into the economy, and a massive federal spending bill for the next fiscal year. Much of this appears to be necessary to get us out of where we are. However Obama appears to have given in on pork. Realizing pork, or the earmarks in the budget inserted by Congress for various pet projects with varying degrees of necessity is a tiny part of the overall budget, Obama may have agreed to let it through for political expediency- to mollify his Democratic Congress. Obama needs this body to pass his agenda. Like the appointment of Lynn, it seems to some like a compromise on principle however. Obama’s opponents feel vindicated during these instances, whether Obama held his nose or not.
Science is advancing under Obama after what seemed like eight years of the Dark Ages. Obama has acted quickly in the arena of stem cell research, reversing Bush’s opposition to this area of laboratory testing based on religious grounds. By recent executive order, the government will allow federal funding of stem cell research to proceed again to help find cures for various diseases. The environment and global warming are again at the forefront of the conversation after many years of denial. The new Energy Secretary Steven Chu is a professor who specialized in solar power research. The stimulus has set aside money for mass transit, alternative energy, and other improvements to infrastructure that are sorely needed both by the sick worforce and by crumbling towns and cities across America.
We have not seen the health care debate begin in earnest, and that is something to watch for. The issue is complex, controversial, and contentious, which should make for good theater at the very least. Obama has promised to bring all vested parties to the table to debate openly: insurance companies, HMOs, drug companies, doctors, etc. This is a departure from the past, including Hillary Clinton’s own efforts that fell short in the 90’s.
The promise of a new era of bipartisanship in Washington is looking increasingly bleak. Obama has been unable to bring a meaningful number of Republicans onto his wagon on any critical subject. Partly that is a symptom of an ailing Republican party, led by ignorant clowns such as Rush Limbaugh and an increasingly incompetent and tone-deaf RNC Chairman, Michael Steele. However, part of the blame must fall on the Obama administration, fairly or unfairly, for being unable to reduce the toxic partisan rhetoric that is becoming highly problematic. The media, of course, loves the drama and that doesn’t help either. Although the Republicans are reflexively opposing the Democratic agenda without clear, viable alternative ideas, and have overseen many years of failed policies, it is necessary for them to at least be a part of the debate as a strong minority party. At this time they are being nearly shut out of most debates. This will backfire on the Democratic party unless its members rule completely effectively, which they do not appear capable of.
Finally, Obama must take control of the Democratic party back. There is much opposition within the party, especially on fiscal issues. If the tensions within the party continue to escalate, it will prevent the passage of needed legislation despite large majorities in both houses of Congresses. In dealing with both Congressional Republicans and Democrats, Obama’s team must find ways to play the political game better and prevent a full-scale mutiny. This is perhaps harder than anything else; it is not a merit-based system, but one of painful compromise and soul-selling. Obama seems to have been pragmatic on the budget by giving in on some pork that Democrats wanted, and also tax relief that Republicans were looking for. It’s a dangerous game but one that must be played.
Overall, we are not out of the woods yet on most aspects of the economy or national security. However, Obama has worked hard, he has made serious inroads, and many pans are frying simultaneously on the burner. We all know much is left to be done. All in all, it has been an active two months that have seen a whirlwind of achievement. I believe the biggest failures are related to personnel decisions, and once these have settled all parts of the administration can get cracking in earnest. It is my firm belief that the nation’s outlook will improve during the first two years of the administration, with or without the help of the government. Inevitably, this will make Obama look good. The goal is to not screw things up any worse than they already are, which should be feasible. I remain an Obama fan, but one who is not beyond criticism where it is due.