President Barack Obama has, by all accounts, experienced a pretty rocky first year as president. He came into office with impressive campaign promises, but facing major challenges, his walk hasn’t necessarily matched his talk. Obama gave his perspective on his first year in office in last night’s State of the Union address. Here is ours.
Economy: Like it or not, Obama will be primarily remembered for his handling of the economy; and if he’s looking for a high mark he still has a lot of work to do. Despite pushing one of the largest single expenditures in the history of U.S. government, the stimulus, there has been minimal actual success in job creation. With bailouts going to big banks and a Treasury Department run by the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, Americans are frustrated they’re not being bailed out instead. Granted, the economy was spiraling down the tubes months before he set foot in the Oval Office, but sticking a bandage (albeit an expensive one) on a gaping wound won’t work. It’s not for lack of trying, but failure is not an option in this area. Grade: C
National security and foreign policy: Grading this area gets a little tricky — while Obama made some promises that he didn’t keep (closing Guantanamo Bay for one), he gets high marks for adapting to the current situations in Iraq and Afghanistan — he didn’t let ideals overshoot practicality and sloppily pull American troops out of the countries before it was safe to do so. With domestic safety breaches like the incident at Fort Hood and the attempted Christmas day bombing, Obama has at least recognized the weak spots in national security and demanded accountability. He’s also made an effort to boost the American image abroad by reaching out to foreign leaders. Again, this category is by no means a slam dunk, but progress is being made. Grade: B+
Sway: Having a good working relationship with Congress is key for a presidential administration to accomplish anything. Obama pushed the stimulus through pretty speedily, but has gotten hung up on health care reform — a point on which he staked a lot of his reputation, and where he’s taken a lot of hits. Obama has been pushed around a lot, by both Republicans and Democrats. But if he can’t push his agenda successfully with a supermajority in his own party, how will lofty campaign promises ever come to fruition? Grade: C
Cultural impact: No doubt about it, Obama has had a significant impact on the American culture. As the first African-American president, he’s chipped away at historical racism and brought about change that was only dreamed about just decades ago. He managed to snag a Noble Peace Prize, drawing a lot of fire from detractors, but marking the groundbreaking nature of his election. He has made a concerted effort to bring the office of the president to the people through the blogosphere and social media, and targeting a whole new generation of young voters. And he’s done it all while being a family man. Grade: A
Final grade: B- In an interview with Oprah, Obama gave himself a B+ grade for his first year in office. But with plummeting approval ratings and few of his goals upon taking office accomplished yet, we’re a bit more skeptical. Obama also said recently that he would rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president. The point is well-taken, but it seems to us that being a really good president and a second term usually go hand-in-hand. And with one year in the books, Obama will need to start getting results soon if he wants to go down in history as more than mediocre. Luckily for him, he still has three years to make change happen.
