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Obama hedges his bets on optimism
Commentator David Frum
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Kai Ryssdal: You could say it's been a bit more than three months. You could say 14 weeks or so. But somehow 100 days has become the convention. The president has been in office that long today. And commentator David Frum points out there's still a long way to go.
DAVID FRUM: The original "100 days" ended with Waterloo, so it's a low bar to do better than that.
In his first 100 days, President Obama has done a great deal to restore public optimism and confidence at home. Half of Americans now say the country is on the "right track," the best number since the liberation of Baghdad in April 2003.
Optimism matters. But it's not very tangible, nor is it likely to be very enduring in the absence of more solid achievements. And here President Obama's record is more troubling.
The restoration of confidence may remind some of Ronald Reagan's morning in America. But except for a blip after John Hinckley's assassination attempt, Ronald Reagan's job approval numbers only exceeded 60 percent after his policies had gone into effect and delivered results in 1984, 1985 and 1986. With President Obama at 69 percent, it seems to be reward first, achievement later -- if ever.
The United States is wracked by the worst financial crisis in decades. Experts estimate the bad debt in the economy at anywhere from $1.5 to $3.5 trillion.
President Obama's economic plans are all based on the assumption that the correct figure is at the low end of that range. That's the assumption that lies behind every one of his key economic decisions, from the $800 billion in stimulus to his plans to proceed fast with a big new health-care program and cap-and-trade for carbon emissions.
If the president is right, then the United States can probably afford his policies -- just.
If he's low-balled it, then the United States will find itself, a year or two from now, seeking to borrow another trillion on top of debt levels that have already hit peacetime highs. The most important of his decisions are already locked in, and the others are minutes away.
President Obama promised dramatic change. But in one way, he follows so many of his recent predecessors: on the eve of day 100, he has gambled his presidency on his affair with that always popular Washington belle: rosy scenario.
RYSSDAL David Frum is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
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Again, Marketplace brings the stale opinions of AEI delivered by the feckless Mr. Frum.
From a <a href="http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1832">2004 FAIR article</a> about Reagan's popularity:
<blockquote>But a look at Gallup polling data brings a different perspective. Through most of his presidency, Reagan did not rate much higher than other post-World War II presidents. And during his first two years, Reagan's approval ratings were quite low. His 52 percent average approval rating for his presidency places him sixth out of the past ten presidents, behind Kennedy (70 percent), Eisenhower (66 percent), George H.W. Bush (61 percent), Clinton (55 percent), and Johnson (55 percent). His popularity frequently dipped below 50 percent during his first term, plummeted to 46 percent during the Iran-Contra scandal, and never exceeded 68 percent. (By contrast, Clinton's maximum approval rating hit 71 percent.</blockquote>
"David Frum is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute."
Just about what I'd expect from another AEI drone.
I love NPR and MarketPlace but I find it frustrating to listen to the unbalanced so as to prove you all are "fair and balanced".
Don Brown
"despite the outrage of many Americans who did not want an experiment being done with the future earnings of the American people."
Where ever this minority of "outrage" lied, it was on the losing side of the election. Folks, Obama won the election. Not by a recount, but by a landslide. The majority wants Obama to fix this economy and the majority(69%) agrees with what he is doing.
Republicans really have a problem with scale.
Frum is correct in asserting that Obama is "hedging his bets". Obama, by self-admission, is doing an experiment with the U.S. economy. He is waiting to see what the outcome of billions in stimulus spending and trillions in budgeted spending will be, despite the outrage of many Americans who did not want an experiment being done with the future earnings of the American people. But alas, Obama will likely knock on the door of Congress for trillions more each year, because spending is the only way to keep a bureaucracy going. I would love to see Obama succeed on sound and responsible principles of government. He will have to reach deep into his background in constitutional law to do this though, and live up to the principles of government upon which that governing document is based.
69 percent.
What David Frum doesn't understand is that 69 percent is a high for the Republicans while 69 percent is a low for Obama.
69 percent, David, is not "Half of Americans". "Half of Americans" is 50% and that's scraping the barrow for Obama.
David Frum continues the Republican "Talking Points" which seems to be "Obama is a failure" because in the first 100 days he's not solved all of the problems he's inherited from the previous administration while all the while failing to admit that it was a Republican President and for six of the eight years a Republican congress that help create the problems. Frum also is worrying about the national debt, yet he was one of the Bush administration cheerleaders while they were running up the largest deficits in history, he also sites the Reagan years but again does not mention that Reagan tripled the the deficit. Mr. Frum needs to stop sighting history selectively if he's going to criticize President Obama's with any validity.
Half of Americans now say the country is on the "right track," the best number since the liberation of Baghdad in April 2003. Followed by the worst slide of a US President in the history of the universe; bringing down the entire economy of not just the US but the world.
There. Edited for you David.
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