Law Students

Obama So Far

By Pete

So we’re three months beyond election and around two weeks into the Obama presidency. How are we doing?

Before the election I decided that Obama was like every other Democrat who has run for president in the last 20 years. I was told many times over that I was wrong about him, that he was different — after all, his whole platform is based on change. I had a lot of really smart friends buy in, so he’s got to be something special, right?

So what happened to that?

You might remember Obama’s promise that his administration wouldn’t include any lobbyists. Now that is “change you can believe in” . . . except that in his first two weeks in office he issued 17 waivers to that rule.

But what about that giant stimulus package? There have to be good things coming there, right?

Not so fast. It turns out that roughly 40% of the multi-hundred-billion dollar package is just liberal agenda spending and only around a quarter of it is actually, you know, stimulus.

Hell, even the Congressional Budget Office says that the package will do more long-term harm than it will provide short term benefit.

But don’t take my word for it, even Maureen Dowd isn’t impressed:

The Democratic president has been spending so much time trying ? and failing ? to win over Republicans that he may not have noticed the disillusionment in his own ranks.

Betrayed by their bankers and leaders, Americans were desperate to trust someone when they made Barack Obama president. His debut has left them skeptical about his willingness to smack down those who would flout his high standards or waste our money.

Honestly, I’m not sure why we expected anything more out of a politician whose only experience has been the bizarro-world that is Chicago politics.

The most difficult question for me right now is this one: if this is what we have to go through to get voters and politicians who are serious about smaller government and less corruption, will it be worth it?

Here’s hoping President Obama removes his head from his hind-quarters before he really screws something up.

[Mostly via Kristin]

Full post as published by PeteHoliday.com on February 08, 2009 (boomark / email).