I wouldn't normally write something like this in a critical election year, but different unrelated events over the last week have upset me and when this post is done there is a constructive point to be made. Last week the president spoke about gas prices in such a way that belied the fairness and insight which I know he possesses. The defense that the government can't seriously impact gas prices is useful only as a way of avoiding an admission of how inadequate financial reform has been. Wall Street speculation drives up fuel costs because it can, regardless of market factors. Believe the stripper really is working her way through college before you believe a politician who says he or she can't really influence gas prices.
Back at the time President Obama should have been pushing for a larger stimulus, a Wall St. sales tax would have been appropriate to make it fundable and fair. This kind of thing also disincentivizes, somewhat, the short term act of speculation.
I'll get my money's worth on the rest of my two cents. The biggest failure of the president's first term, unfortunately, hasn't been Gitmo, renditions, or secret prisons, but rather the anemic response to the housing crisis. I am proud to call myself a liberal and I am proud to call Barack Obama my president but professed support and admiration is meaningless without honesty. The president has called for the Buffett Rule to provide fairness by treating different income the same. This rule could also have applied to treating different investments in a fair way. Warren Buffett himself made a sizeable investment in bailing out a Wall St. bank but he got equity for it whereas the US taxpayers got no such thing as a result of an even bigger investment. With taxpaying homeowners at the table making decisions a six month moratorium on foreclosures started before any of the last three winters would have been possible. The president was correct in his new drilling freeze after the BP spill just as he would be in respect to foreclosures. The banks can have the incentive that it ends when they get their customers loans restructured and lower the suffering and economic uncertainty.
Some on this site might be like me and enjoy a good political argument, just a hunch. My preference for such discourse has been with liberal or better yet, progressive, critics of President Obama and I mean that respectfully and sincerely. At least I recognize their planet of origin. Barack Obama is the best hope for the causes in which we invest ourselves and if we care about the state of such causes come 2016 we need to reelect this president now. The president is elected to govern and Democratic critics should remember that theorizing the perfect policy is not the definition of governing.
Going into the second term, the greatest hope of this presidency, fortunately, isn't President Obama's powerful rhetoric or his reasoned decision making, but rather may be the extreme irrationality of the Right. The GOP's rightward lunge allows the president to shift the center more to the left within our discourse. Ultimately, the choice in November won' t be about if we have a public option, or card check, but instead if we have such things as Medicare, or unions, or Planned Parenthood. Card check, though, is a case in point. Candidate Obama supported it and now in the face of opposition that seeks to eliminate unions outright, pushing this gets a lot more feasible. President Obama has the long game skill to successfully correct the change in tone and direction that Reagan wrought.