As various polls show Obama pulling ahead of McCain while the U.S. (and possibly the world) economy tanks, I am left wondering: would it be worth having a President who actually stands for what I stand for, if it means that he has to spend most of his first term digging himself out of messes he didn’t create?
Personally, I’m at least as much a foreign policy voter as I am a domestic economic policy voter, and to put it mildly, I’m much more in line with Obama’s vision of the U.S. role in the world than I am with McCain’s. (Not to mention that it’s much cheaper to refrain from invading and occupying other countries, which leaves rather more in the way of resources to undertake domestic policy initiatives.) But I fear that even with the best of intentions, if elected, Obama will be stuck spending his entire first term cleaning up crap and will have little, if any, financial or political capital left to implement any broad economic or social initiatives.
Now I hope and believe Obama is smarter than I am, and can find a way out of the maze. So, my fellow Dopers, do you have similar concerns? And if you were President Obama, how would you structure your efforts during your first year in office?
YES! What really concerns me is the probable free for all give away and hand-outs that will commence on Nov. 5 after Obama wins. The Bush administration will give away the farm to their cronnies they have nothing to loose. Plus it is a good strategy for 2012. The bigger mess they make the harder for Obama to seem effective and the electorate will not remember that they created the mess and the Repubs can run on a platform of “Change”.
Focus mainly on trying to deal with the mess while at the same time assign to Justice Department and the FBI the task of putting as many of the bastards behind bars and disgorging their ill gotten gains. Make it kind of hard to run in 2012 if all the bastards are in jail.
Whoever is the next POTUS will have to do that. Wouldn’t you rather it be Obama, who might try new things, than McCain, who will stick to the same failed policies?
Well, of course I do. But not everyone thinks the way I do, particularly those who assume that Republicans are more adept at dealing with economic policy issues than Democrats, or that people with military experience are better than those without such experience at dealing with foreign policy issues, regardless of actual individual ability and grasp of the issues.
I think all the discontented people need to see Obama elected to quit whining and get on with their lives. He’s not going to be that great, but I don’t think the economy is going to move much until we see some much anticipated “CHANGE.”
It’d be a change from a President digging himself out of messes he DID create. ‘Spending’ political capitol has all to do with getting congress to do what you want even after you burned them. With a Democrat controlled congress and Obama in the White House the onus is on them to show their policies are best for the country. I seriously doubt anyone will forget Bush’s 8 years and the Democrats success in domestic, financial and foreign theaters will be made all the more clear with the contrast.
Indeed, even with the possibility of Democratic filibuter-proof numbers in congress, an Obama administration will be playing defense, rather than offense, right out of the gate. I hope they take on an ambitious 3 pronged approach, each in equal measure:
[ol]
[li]Push through their agenda[/li][li]Deal with the crisises[/li]Roll-back, deal with the Bush legacy messes[/ol]
I hear this sort of thing all the time. Does such hype really exist? I haven’t seen any really extravagant claims made that Obama’s election will magically cure all the ills of the country, least of all from the man himself (in fact, during the first debate, Obama agreed with specific points made by his opponent while responding to the first six questions asked). Otherwise, most of what I’ve heard so far is the usual politicking, predicting incremental gains for the middle class re: taxation and health.
As for the OP, I prefer to have the most thoughtful and competent person of the candidates available occupying the office of President, and this remains the case regardless of the current state of the economy or who might be to blame for it.
Obama - from what I gather, and I’ve gathered enough - will not be worse than Bush. I would think he will certainly turn around the areas of our economy that are in most need of restructuring. And further cross the divide among a cleaved nation. Sure many will not like him, a little under half - but when their lives become more manageable through policies set forth by the Obama Administration, they can quietly put themselves to sleep knowing the O-Man did a decent job.
Also, the world at large, with the noted exception Israel, is pretty much in the tank for an Obama presidency. I can envision perception of the US abroad beginning to change practically overnight with an Obama win, the psychological impact of which may help to mitigate the full thrust of a global economic disaster already in full swing.
For years, Republican spin doctors have been able to play out that tired wheeze that Democrats can’t handle national security, that Democrats are bad for the budget, and that Democrats will ruin the country. Republicans are the party of fiscal responsibility, they say; Republicans won’t take your guns!
This is a golden opportunity for the Democrats to take all those tired lies and shove ‘em down the spindoctors’ throats, especially considering he’s basically got a free 2 years to handle it before people start to judge him by it. Everyone would agree that Bush made such a mess, nobody could fix it in less than 2 years.
The economy is going to tank (or not) regardless of who is the next president. If it DOES tank, then some of that is invariably going to splash on the next president. I’d still say it’s worth it to get your man in, regardless.
Myself, I’m not exactly sanguine about the prospect of EITHER candidate at this point…though I think if it’s Obama at least he will interject some energy and positive perception into things…which in the end is pretty much the only thing a president can really effect in the economy. I’m worried about some of Obama’s medium and long term economic plans, to be sure…but as someone said up thread he can hardly do worse than Bush did…
I just hope those aren’t famous last words. Doesn’t matter though…I can’t see how McCain could possibly win at this point, so for better or worse Obama is going to be the man. My only hope is that this shuts people up about the whole racist thingy…and about how Republicans steal elections, blah blah blah.
Only thing I wonder is if this will eventually change the makeup of this board back from the left.
- but when their lives become more manageable through policies set forth by the Obama Administration, they can quietly put themselves to sleep knowing the O-Man did a decent job.