Betty Winston Bayé: If [POTUS Barack] Obama Fails, Who Wins?
If Obama fails, who wins?
Betty Winston Bayé
Rush Limbaugh was explicit about not buying the hype or the hope that many Americans say is why they hitched their wagons to then-candidate Barack Obama's rising star.
“I know what his politics are. I know what his plans are, as he has stated them. I don't want them to succeed,” Limbaugh said. The loquacious radiohead was equally explicit about desiring an eye-for-an-eye. “I disagree fervently with the people on our side of the aisle who have caved and who say, ‘Well, I hope he succeeds. We've got to give him a chance.' Why? They didn't give Bush a chance in 2000.” He did so get a chance: The Supreme Court saw to it by crowning him.
Limbaugh's comment about the aisle suggests that he either is, or has deluded himself into thinking that he's a leader of Republicans. Maybe that's why big-name, elected Republicans almost never challenge the hurtful, sexist, racist, spiteful and ignorant things that Limbaugh speaks on any given day. Of course, with moderate Republicans nearly extinct, the inmates have taken over the asylum such that Limbaugh speaks for and to a segment of the GOP base that in years past would have dismissed as kooks.
But not all who want Obama to fail as president are on the right. Some on the left want him to fail, too. Some of them are people who have no use for either of the major political parties. They believe that both are so corrupted by big money and special interests that any candidate, black, female, gay or straight, who pushes through the two-party nominating processes is necessarily incapable of serving the best interests of we the people. They, also equate voters with lemmings, who troop to the polls year after year, foolishly expecting something different than they've always gotten.
Others on the left want Obama to fail because they are jealous that they're not the president. Or because somehow Obama's failure will verify their contentions that he's just fluff, not black enough or big or bad enough for the job to which he was elected.
I write this on the eve of President Obama's first State of the Union address, not knowing what he's going to say. But polls say that many Americans are upset because in only a year, he has failed to undo the miasma of the eight years that preceded him. Candidate Obama did set a high bar for what he expected to be able to achieve with a Democratic majority in both houses and bipartisan cooperation. But then, he was elected and confronted, not just with the true nature of the mess(es) that he'd inherited, but also with the single-minded determination of the Republicans, led by Louisville's own Mitch McConnell, to destroy his presidency.
And so, a year after the inauguration, Republicans are giddy. Barack Obama does not walk on water. Some have already declared that he is a lame duck. Even a few of his fair-weather friends are wobbling.
Even so, little notice has been given to the topic of a recent Courier-Journal editorial noting that a new study by the independent Congressional Quarterly concluded that “of all the presidents since Harry Truman, Barack Obama has achieved the most success of all in getting the measures he endorsed passed and signed into law.”
There are tough things yet to be done and big problems to be solved. There always are.
But voters must decide whether restoring Republican majorities in Congress will bring them the economic relief and the personal security they desperately crave after George Bush squandered the prosperity of the Clinton years. It occurs to me that if the Republicans had practiced the fiscal responsibility they're now screaming for, Barack Obama likely never would have been elected. My old J-school classmate and friend, Wayne Dawkins, currently a professor at Hampton University, is right: “A lot of people still don't appreciate how jacked up we were last year at this time.” Those who want Obama to fail are relying on an electorate suffering from memory lapse, short attention spans and even shorter patience. Ultimately, however, it all boils down to this: If President Obama fails, who wins? If you think that you do, and you vote, by all means throw out the bum.
Betty Winston Bayé is a Courier-Journal editorial writer and columnist. Her column appears Thursdays in the Community Forum. Read her online at www.courier-journal.com
Betty Winston Bayé
Rush Limbaugh was explicit about not buying the hype or the hope that many Americans say is why they hitched their wagons to then-candidate Barack Obama's rising star.
“I know what his politics are. I know what his plans are, as he has stated them. I don't want them to succeed,” Limbaugh said. The loquacious radiohead was equally explicit about desiring an eye-for-an-eye. “I disagree fervently with the people on our side of the aisle who have caved and who say, ‘Well, I hope he succeeds. We've got to give him a chance.' Why? They didn't give Bush a chance in 2000.” He did so get a chance: The Supreme Court saw to it by crowning him.
Limbaugh's comment about the aisle suggests that he either is, or has deluded himself into thinking that he's a leader of Republicans. Maybe that's why big-name, elected Republicans almost never challenge the hurtful, sexist, racist, spiteful and ignorant things that Limbaugh speaks on any given day. Of course, with moderate Republicans nearly extinct, the inmates have taken over the asylum such that Limbaugh speaks for and to a segment of the GOP base that in years past would have dismissed as kooks.
But not all who want Obama to fail as president are on the right. Some on the left want him to fail, too. Some of them are people who have no use for either of the major political parties. They believe that both are so corrupted by big money and special interests that any candidate, black, female, gay or straight, who pushes through the two-party nominating processes is necessarily incapable of serving the best interests of we the people. They, also equate voters with lemmings, who troop to the polls year after year, foolishly expecting something different than they've always gotten.
Others on the left want Obama to fail because they are jealous that they're not the president. Or because somehow Obama's failure will verify their contentions that he's just fluff, not black enough or big or bad enough for the job to which he was elected.
I write this on the eve of President Obama's first State of the Union address, not knowing what he's going to say. But polls say that many Americans are upset because in only a year, he has failed to undo the miasma of the eight years that preceded him. Candidate Obama did set a high bar for what he expected to be able to achieve with a Democratic majority in both houses and bipartisan cooperation. But then, he was elected and confronted, not just with the true nature of the mess(es) that he'd inherited, but also with the single-minded determination of the Republicans, led by Louisville's own Mitch McConnell, to destroy his presidency.
And so, a year after the inauguration, Republicans are giddy. Barack Obama does not walk on water. Some have already declared that he is a lame duck. Even a few of his fair-weather friends are wobbling.
Even so, little notice has been given to the topic of a recent Courier-Journal editorial noting that a new study by the independent Congressional Quarterly concluded that “of all the presidents since Harry Truman, Barack Obama has achieved the most success of all in getting the measures he endorsed passed and signed into law.”
There are tough things yet to be done and big problems to be solved. There always are.
But voters must decide whether restoring Republican majorities in Congress will bring them the economic relief and the personal security they desperately crave after George Bush squandered the prosperity of the Clinton years. It occurs to me that if the Republicans had practiced the fiscal responsibility they're now screaming for, Barack Obama likely never would have been elected. My old J-school classmate and friend, Wayne Dawkins, currently a professor at Hampton University, is right: “A lot of people still don't appreciate how jacked up we were last year at this time.” Those who want Obama to fail are relying on an electorate suffering from memory lapse, short attention spans and even shorter patience. Ultimately, however, it all boils down to this: If President Obama fails, who wins? If you think that you do, and you vote, by all means throw out the bum.
Betty Winston Bayé is a Courier-Journal editorial writer and columnist. Her column appears Thursdays in the Community Forum. Read her online at www.courier-journal.com
Labels: General information
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 9:25 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home