Not since Ronald Reagan has an American president in his early months enjoyed as high approval ratings as does Barack Obama. A new New York Times/CBS News poll indicates that three-quarters of Americans back President Obama. It’s further confirmation not only of Obama’s extraordinary political skills, but also the precipice that the GOP hasn’t approached but actively leaped over. When Obama delivers the State of the Union address Tuesday, he will wield the one of the most powerful hands history has ever bestowed upon an American president.
Obama will undoubtedly seize the opportunity to sketch out his program for American renewal, both in domestic and foreign policy. His speech, I predict, will not only be seen as a pivotal moment in restoring American democracy, but also an epitaph for the conservative movement that has finally run American into the ground.
By 2010, the GOP’s refusal to vote for the stimulus bill will been seen a as decisive event in the party’s fortunes – for the worse. Had the party cooperated with the president, it might have been able to resuscitate itself. The Times/CBS poll indicates that Americans are displaying great patience and don’t expect the economy to turn around any time soon. But they have seen through the GOP’s charade of purporting to stand for fiscal discipline – after plunging the country into $1 trillion of debt over the past eight years.
The conservative movement is now officially dead. All that remains is for the pallbearers to carry the casket to its burial site. Obama’s speech Tuesday will provide the funeral oration.
Our government was constructed originally in the negative. It was designed to prevent the abuses of the Kings or Religion. It was intended to allow the people to stay in charge ,floundering around as people often do. Not everyone agrees with those ideas to this day. Nixon tried to take on Kingly powers, "If the President does it, it’s not a crime." Reagan did it too, more softly, but he did it nonetheless. But it was George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who carried it to completion – religion and imperial power. More than any Administration before them, they pressed the anti-Constitutional trend in our country to the forefront. And it was a disaster of epic proportions. It was not "conservative" in that it conserved nothing from the past. If anything, it was a revolution by the business elite aided and abetted by religious fundamentalists seeking to create a theocracy.
Last night, President Obama succeeded in giving us something we all needed & desired, HOPE.
AMEN! What a fantastic speech. Every time he speaks as he did last night I am just so proud that we have this president for this time.
In a CNN instant poll, 92% responded to Obama’s speech as at least “somewhat positive;” ie “positive” 68%, “somewhat positive,” 24%. Only 8% had a negative response.
But aside from numbers, I too had such a sense of pride that we elected this man president. My thoughts kept turning to Dubya: wonder, if he’s watching, what he thinks? Does he think “he’s a better man than I am”? Or are his defenses still protecting him from that devastating narcissistic blow?
And then I also thought: how much better a choice Obama was than either Hillary Clinton or John McCain would have been in this time of crisis.