David Hoppe

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:: Don't blow it, Barack

We need leadership

By David Hoppe

A good friend called the other day and said she wants to get a message to Barack Obama. Like so many of us, she was elated when he was elected president. She was also apprehensive - worried about his safety and the safety of his family, but even more about the grinding storm he faced.

The nation George Bush left behind was - and is -- a mess, with a dysfunctional economy and wars in two countries. But, as far as my friend is concerned, George Bush is old news. The message she wants to get to Obama has to do with Obama himself. Now that he's made it to the world's biggest stage, she doesn't want him to blow it.

I have to admit there's reason to be concerned. And I've been in this guy's corner since the beginning. You can look it up: Before Obama announced his candidacy in Springfield, I wrote that this was one time when so-called experience didn't matter as much as timing itself: "When pundits and politicos question Obama's experience, his supporters are undeterred. From their point of view, it's Obama's understanding of public process, born of his experiences growing up bi-racial and working as a community organizer, that really counts, not to mention his X factor in what has become a culture driven by celebrity - the charisma necessary to lead. As far as these people are concerned, another term or two in the U.S. Senate won't make Obama more seasoned, but more compromised." (NUVO: Jan. 24, 2007)

I continue to believe that this is Obama's time. But what that means isn't clear. We're still two months shy of a year since he took his oath of office; the story of Obama's presidency is just in its first act. Needless to say, there's been plenty of drama. Republicans have literally substituted weeping and wailing for public debate in an apparent effort to render the country as ungovernable as possible.

They've had help from their Democratic foils. It turns out that majorities in the House and Senate don't mean very much, especially when you've got Evan Bayh and Joe Lieberman in your corner, helpfully rubbing salt in whatever wounds the disloyal opposition inflicts.

If the sideshow barkers from both parties paid attention for a moment, they might see what's beginning to trouble people like my friend and me about the Obama administration - its conservatism.

There's an old, albeit cynical, rule of thumb that says when politicians point one way, the truth is usually in the opposite direction. Thus Obama is smacked around for being a progressive, a socialist or worse when, in fact, his actions often seem to cling to the status quo.

Let's start with Obama's response to the financial meltdown he inherited from Bush, Inc. There were any number of people Obama could have selected to be his Sec. of the Treasury, the point person responsible for reforming the big banks and investment firms. He picked Timothy Geithner, a person involved in making the mess in the first place. The result is that, thanks to massive infusions of public money, these private corporations are making huge profits.

Meanwhile, unemployment throughout the rest of the economy is over 10 percent. Economists say the recession is over, but meaningful recovery could take two years or more and may never result in industrial-style job growth.

Obama also inherited the war in Afghanistan. Shortly after taking office, he put Gen. Stanley McChrystal in charge of operations there. When McChrystal leaked that he wanted 40,000 more troops to fight the Afghan insurgency, Obama was said to be furious. But the president has been vacillating over whether to meet McCrystal's demand. Although many military and diplomatic authorities, including Vice President Biden, believe the Afghan war is unwinnable, Obama might still place his faith in an old-fashioned military option.

To his credit, Obama has made health care reform a centerpiece of his domestic policy. But as bills make their tortured way through Congress, there's a danger we could get legislation regarding not the quality of our health care, but the more outrageous practices of the health insurance industry. Though they complain about it, this legislation could actually prove to be a windfall for private companies by requiring virtually all citizens to be insured - without a competitive government-sponsored option.

The president's defenders will argue that in all these cases, Obama's hand has been forced by urgency and the need to work within a system based on checks and balances that, as noted, is poisonously partisan. Presidents, they'll say, must practice the art of the possible.

But art promises more than this. During a town hall meeting after he was elected, Obama said he would do what he thought was right and if people didn't like it, they could choose someone else the next time around. The integrity underlying this attitude was refreshing. Here was a man who didn't need to be president.

We need this kind of leadership now more than ever. Don't blow it, Barack.