Well let's review, the President entered office on what was a very bad economic downturn and shortly after the passage of the Bank Bailouts. On early Fed, the President advocated the quick passage of the economic Stimulus passage , using as a basis for doing so that the nation would lose from 1 to 3 million jobs, and Administration officials claiming unemployment would not reach past 8% should it pass. At the end of his first year, we have an additional 1.7 million people unemployed and unemployment at 10%.
Early in the Administration the President was also pressed by those that backed his campaign to pass a bail-out to the auto companies to prevent their failure and save thousands of American automotive jobs. Shortly after the passage of these bail-outs both GM and Chrysler were in backruptcy despite a repeated influx of taxpayer funding. This led to lay of of thosands with plant closings, down sizing, and dealer closings. It should be noted that the only company that did not accept this money was Ford which find itself on top of the American automotive scene.
There have been 4 elections of national interest since the President took office, of which the President has personally involved himself in three of them, all of which have resulted in a loss for the democrats for various different reasons.
The President has involved the nation in a long drawn out debate over healthcare in the last year as the economy and jobs continue to remain in disarray. This battle over healthcare has resulted in a bill that is according to most polls very unpopular with the American people. The length of this debate at the expense of the economy has been a major reason why the Presidents numbers have declined since his first day in office.
On the international scene the President among his first acts was to close GITMO in order to secure world opinion on the issue, but in doing so and allowing for the trial of terrorists on American soil he has lost much of the support on this issue here at home. In withdrawing missile defense in Poland without concessions from Russia for doing so not only did the President alienate an ally but emboldened an already agressive Russia to do as it pleases in the region. In Iraq the President has continued along the path of letting the Iraq Govt. take control without unilateral withdrawl and has increased troops in Afghanistan and is to be commended on his support for our efforts there.
Overall the President came into office with a promise of openness, change, and bi-partisanship. While these things hold great appeal to many and still do, the President has allowed partisanship on a singular issue to destroy what might have given him the ability to actually have both sides come together to work on the real issues needed for this nation. Given all the factors above just to name a few the Presidents first year has not been a good one, but he does have a choice to move in a direction in which most Americans would be willing to support him, like Jobs, openness, bi-partisanship, and getting to the hard business thats needed of keeping this nation great rather than short sighted political gains.
