18 months later
- Details
- Category: Jeremy Addis-Mills
- Published on Wednesday, 30 June 2010 18:55
- Written by Jaddis-Mills
So here we are 18 months later. I’m a little amazed that it has been only 18 months since President Obama has taken office. When I think back, it seems like it has been a lot longer than that since I knocked on doors, trained volunteers, and helped Obama win a solid victory in Florida in 2008. This feeling that it has been forever does not seem to be just me. The country was forced into an abysmal financial reality after 8 years of a president who ended his term hated by a large majority of the country. I often need to take a step back and remind myself that it has only been 18 months.
Since starting my blog at The VXC, I have spent much of my time criticizing President Obama for his handling of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Guantanamo Bay, and healthcare (to name a few). With President Obama being such a middle-of-the-road leader, I have been left more than frustrated with a number of decisions that the president has made. I felt like it was time for me to throw out a general grade for how I think the President has preformed these last 18 months. Before I do that, I just want to run down a quick list of accomplishments that President Obama has achieved over the last 18 months. He has successfully stopped an economic free fall, singed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, started to change foreign policies around Iraq, signed an agreement with Russia to decrease nuclear stock piles, passed HEALTHCARE reform, and got the first Latina Supreme Court Justice nominated. These are just a few of the things he has accomplished. This says nothing for what is in the hopper in Congress. Major reforms to our country’s financial industries and national energy policies are expected in the next 6 months. This will all be in addition to dealing with the aftermath of the oil spew in the Gulf, increasing tension over Afghanistan, and the downed economy.
All said and done, he has missed the mark on Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell, Afghanistan, the handling of Healthcare, and the dozen other issues I have talked about over the course of this last year. With all of this in mind, I think the President deserves a B on his report card. He is a stellar performer in a lot of areas and he has been placed in and had to deal with some of the most difficult issues a president could face. Many of the issues he has had to deal with were by far out of his reach and were never on his agenda when he took office, but we can’t and don’t get to pick the reality in which we live and can only do our best to address it. I think he has done as well as one could expect, but there are areas for improvement.
