I know President Obama would like to be a modern Lincoln, FDR, or JFK and possibly all three rolled into one with a bit of Reagan's ability to gain support from the other side of the aisle. What president wouldn't want to be one of the superheroes in our history? These are presidents that people admire and remember long after they are gone.
One of the odd things about a guy that was/is attacked for being an empty suit who can give a good speech, is how bad the president has been on "connecting" to the people. This hasn't been a president unable to get things done because he is too wishy-washy or inexperienced. In fact, examining the public record, the exact opposite is the case. He has been effective to an historic degree in regards to pushing through his agenda. It just hasn't exactly led to a lot of appreciation and adoration.
There is another president with a similar record of amazing effectiveness and little admiration. You have to go back to the 1840's to find him. He was a Democrat, like Obama, and he worked in a highly toxic partisan atmosphere still reeling from the wars over Andrew Jackson's presidency. His name is James K. Polk.
Do you know much about him? Have you ever heard a candidate for president say, "I want to be like James K. Polk," when asked to mention presidents they admire? I highly doubt you have heard his name unless you are a history or political science buff/major.
But, James K. Polk was one of our most effective presidents in history. He had three major issues for his election. He wanted to settle the dispute with Great Britain about our border with Canada in Oregon, annex Texas, and establish an independent treasury (this was a HUGE issue back then...it would take a long time to explain, if you want to look it up Google "Andrew Jackson Bank War").
How much of that did he get done? Only all of it. He annexed Texas in a war with Mexico that ended up with the US acquiring all of the West. We wouldn't have California without Polk (so blame or praise him depending on your view). The two largest states in the Union are only in it because of James K. Polk. Can you believe he's never talked about when we mention great presidents? He settled the dispute with the UK over the border. He did establish an independent treasury.
Polk is likely the hardest working president ever. But he just didn't connect with people like his mentor Andrew Jackson. You can't bump into a guy on the street that hasn't heard of Andrew Jackson. Polk did more in less time (he only served one term....could Obama be in the same boat?) than most presidents did in two terms.
So you might be wondering if that is similar to President Obama. It certainly seems so in both the amount of accomplishments and the lack of coverage for those accomplishments. I will list his accomplishments without any comment to whether or not I agree with his position. For in evaluating a president's effectiveness you can't ignore accomplishment because you disagree with the legislation.
The President signed the largest federal jobs and infrastructure legislation since the New Deal. This at the very beginning of his term and was something he had wanted to do since being elected. On the scale of big deals, this is a major deal when you consider it hadn't been done since FDR.
The President signed the largest expansion of federal health care coverage since Medicare. Regardless of personal feelings about the bill, it has changed health care into a right which will change the country through subsidies for the poor and mandates on individual coverage. This was something he had campaigned on and he got it.
The President is now poised to sign the largest financial reform legislation since the 30's. It is the most sweeping regulation and reorganization of the financial markets in decades. Again something he campaigned on in light of the collapse in September 2008.
Now we are hearing talk of robust energy legislation that he also campaigned on in 2008. If BP and the oil spill provide the incentive and this is passed and signed by the President this fall, he will have completed a great deal of his agenda in two years! Independent of thoughts on his agenda, that is remarkable in a representative democracy and certainly discards any notion that he is a weakling or in over his head.
The President seems to be ineffective in the same way Polk was. He just isn't a good PR guy. Amazing for a guy once bashed for being a Paris Hilton type celebrity. Obama and Polk both churned through huge legislation. Polk is responsible for the line "from sea to shining sea." That wasn't true until James K. Polk made it so. And he's rarely if ever mentioned in discussion of great presidents. President Obama too is living up to his promise to change America. He is living up to it by passing huge and sweeping legislation on all the fronts he promised. But, like Polk, I'm not sure he's very good at selling it.
If anything, the biggest concern about Obama was that he would be all sizzle and no steak. Instead it seems we've got a president who is all about the substance and is flunking on style points. Just goes to show you can't ever tell what you are going to get.