#55 David
No one knows what or how his stimulus package will work. There’s already dissent about it within his own party. It’s just words and numbers on paper and he hasn’t the resume heading into this most awesome job to give anyone confidence he knows what he’s doing on this front.
As for consensus building: Point to some examples, please. In my view, voting “present” an astonishing number of times as a state senator and then digging in as a U.S. Senator and voting straight party line is hardly the behavior of a consensus builder. There’s no evidence at all that’s he’s ever collaborated in a bi-partisan way on any legislation and he certainly hasn’t included Republicans in his Cabinet in any meaningful way. Evidence please.
Your third point sounds like the kind of thing Obama would say: It sounds impressive and meaningful on first blush, but when you actually dig into it, it’s not at all clear that it has any meaning.
Irrespective of anyone’s party affiliation, it seems reasonable to believe that most Presidents have been interested in governing. One may not approve of their style, but I don’t think this holds up as a bullet point with any real weight to it.
As for “improved relations with allies.” Based on what? He has no international experience, and, as far as Israel goes, it remains quite uncertain as to how “improved” relations will be given Obama’s mixed messages on this front.
Yes, his promise to sit down with leaders of enemy nations will surely be a change if he does that. But “change” does not in and of itself mean good or bad, just different. On this point, the change he may usher in may well be the end of all of us.
Even Obama has gone on record as saying he doesn’t know what he would have done if he had been in the Senate and presented with the Intelligence Report.
How he will even begin to try to fix this broken health care system is anyone’e guess in light of the fact that 1) we are in an economic collapse, and 2) the issue is a highly complex and divisive one that has proven to be difficult to tackle in the past. But, one can hope (a word I used to love until it became part of Obamam’s branding).
As for your summary comment, remember that change in and of itself connotes nothing more than something different, which most incoming administrations that represent a change in political party can promise, whether they announce it in bold letters on posters or not.
