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by Don Azarias
July 9, 2010
Although fighting for his own political survival in a tough primary battle in his home state of Arizona, Sen. John
McCain could be laughing in the inside eight months after losing the presidency to President Barack Obama. Why? Because no one would want to be in Obama’s shoes at this point in his presidency. As the American people know, the stack of problems on President Barack Obama’s desk keeps growing incessantly with no end
in sight. He has to contend with two wars, high federal budget deficit, an economic crisis that has been exacerbated by lingering double-digit unemployment rate, unabated home foreclosures and a fierce battle over health care. And that was just the start.
Now he has to deal with environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, an attempted car bombing in Times Square, Iran’s nuclear ambition, North Korea’s belligerence, the unending Middle East crisis and trying to persuade Congress to approve the most sweeping restructure of financial rules and regulations in 70 years. Obama and his Democratic allies are working feverishly to find solutions to these problems while he and his party brace for potentially big midterm election losses in November. While it’s true that all modern presidents get tested with multiple problems at some point during their term, Obama seems to be getting more than his share. “These are coming at him fast. And many are things where it’s very hard for him to act. They’re not win-win propositions,” said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution who worked in the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations and was an adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.
“Obama, in a sense, didn’t create any of these situations. But the public, as they do with all presidents, holds him responsible for all of them,” Hess said. The Gulf of Mexico disaster started when a major explosion occurred on a deepwater oil rig in the Gulf owned by Transocean LTD and operated by BP PLC. Eleven workers died in the aftermath. Then came the oil spill, spewing hundreds of thousand gallons a day into the Gulf of Mexico and threatening major environmental damage as the oil slick drifts toward pristine shoreline
and beaches. It comes just weeks after Obama called for expanding oil drilling in the eastern Gulf and for opening drilling areas off the southeast Atlantic seaboard and in Alaska. The disaster raises serious questions about that initiative. Nevertheless, Obama acted quickly to make a show of federal involvement———a lesson
no doubt learned from the Bush administration’s slow and sluggish reaction to Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf in 2005.
Still, some of Obama’s critics, including some on the political left, have suggested Obama’s concern wasn’t registered quickly enough. A public grown highly skeptical of government’s capabilities is bound to judge Obama’s performance in a harsher light because of President George W. Bush’s perceived failure in Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. Taking advantage of a political opportunity, Republicans focused on the negative, pointing out all the recent bad economic news, such as the recent 6.1 percent drop in Gross Domestic Product, and job losses and home foreclosures that have continued under the Obama administration.
“What we have here is a situation in which the president of the United States is dealing with a wide variety of problems,” said pollster Andrew Kohut, president of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. “Economic
discontent is now being augmented by concerns about what happened in the Gulf and whether we’re safe from truck and car bombs. I think it adds to a sense of his burden. But I don’t think it’s going to deal a devastating blow to his image at this point,” Kohut said. For Obama and his Democratic Party, however, the outlook isn’t all gloomy. The elections are still four months away and a lot can happen between
now and then. The economy is showing some signs of a turnaround. Some recent events, such as the government’s civil and, possibly, criminal lawsuit against the giant investment bank Goldman Sachs, could work in Obama’s and the Democrats’ favor due to the American voters’ anger against those Wall Street financial institutions that are being blamed for the current economic downturn. The failed bombing attempt on Times Square could have had devastating consequences had the device detonated. And within days, U.S. law-enforcers had arrested a Pakistan-born, naturalized U.S. citizen, Faisal Shahzad, 30, as he was attempting to board a plane bound for Dubai. The plane was intercepted by federal authorities. It was a real close call. And now, questions are being raised as to how Shahzad, a fugitive, whose name was on the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) No Fly List order was almost able to leave the country undetected. Some American voters are blaming it on the incompetence of various federal agencies and the Department of Homeland Security under Obama’s watch.
And it’s still not clear how much environmental damage will result from the Gulf oil spill. But various government agencies appear to be working the problem and BP PLC has given some assurances to fishermen, shrimpers, oil workers and scores of others that they will be paid for damage and injuries. Either way, the multiple crises will leave an indelible mark on Obama’s presidency as suggested by Thomas E. Cronin, a presidential scholar at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. “Many successful presidential candidates like Obama go to Washington to change the way Washington does business,” Cronin said. “The fact is, once
you’re there, your agenda gets changed and shaped more than you are the shaper. This once again shows that events shape leaders more than leaders shape events.” I beg your pardon, Mr. Cronin but hasn’t it always been that way in Washington, D.C.?