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Interesting article from the Economist covering Obama's first year in office... the trials and tribulations of the 44th POTUS. I think it sums it up pretty well. Nice, balanced view.
Barack Obama's first year: Reality bites | The Economist
Barack Obama's first year
Reality bites
Governing is harder than campaigning. But Americas 44th president has made an adequate start
Jan 14th 2010 | WASHINGTON, DC
From The Economist print edition
AP
FOR some, the magic is undimmed. Carl Baloney is extravagantly happy that Barack Obama is his president. He is old enough to remember segregation: back in the 1960s, his local university turned him away because he was black, he says. He is also old enough to have high blood pressure, which pushes his monthly health-insurance premiums skywards.
Mr Obama plans to bar insurers from turning away the sick. That will take some of the fear out of life for people like Mr Baloney, who is self-employed and pays his own bills. Others in his neighbourhood near New Orleans are much worse off, he says: Health care is the emergency room. Next stop is the funeral home. This will change, predicts Mr Baloney, and he is proud that it will change under a black president. I never thought Id see it, he says, and such a sharp president, too.
Others feel differently. Im neither a Democrat nor a Republican, neither a jackass nor an elephant. But I wouldnt vote for a socialist. Hell, Id vote for Adolf Hitler before Id vote for Barack Obama. At least you know what hed do to you, says Ron King, a retired policeman in Stuart, Virginia. He adds that Mr Obama lies all the time and is dangerous; hes trying to change the entire country. Mr King has perhaps not rigorously thought through his Hitler analogy, but his anger is real.
Mr Obama came to power proclaiming an end to the petty grievances...that for far too long have strangled our politics and to the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long. By electing him, he said, Americans chose unity of purpose over conflict and discord. Alas, this was balderdash.
Barack Obama's first year: Reality bites | The Economist
Barack Obama's first year
Reality bites
Governing is harder than campaigning. But Americas 44th president has made an adequate start
Jan 14th 2010 | WASHINGTON, DC
From The Economist print edition
AP
FOR some, the magic is undimmed. Carl Baloney is extravagantly happy that Barack Obama is his president. He is old enough to remember segregation: back in the 1960s, his local university turned him away because he was black, he says. He is also old enough to have high blood pressure, which pushes his monthly health-insurance premiums skywards.
Mr Obama plans to bar insurers from turning away the sick. That will take some of the fear out of life for people like Mr Baloney, who is self-employed and pays his own bills. Others in his neighbourhood near New Orleans are much worse off, he says: Health care is the emergency room. Next stop is the funeral home. This will change, predicts Mr Baloney, and he is proud that it will change under a black president. I never thought Id see it, he says, and such a sharp president, too.
Others feel differently. Im neither a Democrat nor a Republican, neither a jackass nor an elephant. But I wouldnt vote for a socialist. Hell, Id vote for Adolf Hitler before Id vote for Barack Obama. At least you know what hed do to you, says Ron King, a retired policeman in Stuart, Virginia. He adds that Mr Obama lies all the time and is dangerous; hes trying to change the entire country. Mr King has perhaps not rigorously thought through his Hitler analogy, but his anger is real.
Mr Obama came to power proclaiming an end to the petty grievances...that for far too long have strangled our politics and to the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long. By electing him, he said, Americans chose unity of purpose over conflict and discord. Alas, this was balderdash.
