In the midst of it all, I have been able to maintain much of my reading agenda. In general, I am distressed by the situation that President Obama has created for himself. No one does a better job of depicting the crisis than Robert Kuttner. In "Presidency in Peril", he covers the decisions made in the selection of administrative positions, e.g., economic team, to his support or lack of support for legislation that impacts our nation, e.g., health care.
In general, we have a situation that has not only jeopardizes his hold on the presidency (in itself, no big thing), but the important initiatives at stake. For all the time spent on the health care bill, the nation ends up with a very poor program that begs for immediate reform. Unfortunately, the "reform" could be initiated by the Republicans who are out to destroy as much of the legislation as possible. And if not destroy, they surely will try to minimize the impact of the legislation. We had a financial reform bill that really leaves so many loop holds that the underlying risks remain as strong as ever. We still have Guantanamo and gays are still not accepted by the military.
What we have seen is a president who promised change but adopted the minimalistic approach so often noted in the history of presidential politics. We expected a difference but we got more of the same. It is a major disappointment.
I can only hope that he will try to remedy the situation by a dramatic change of personnel and leadership. However, it does not seem that he is capable of such a dramatic change.
