With less than two weeks to go until Election Day, you don’t have to look far for some sort of political analysis — and you’ll find it all: pundits that think this election is the biggest tide since ’94 and pundits that think it’s all nothing but hype; “experts” that refuse to trust poll numbers, and commentators that readily rattle off poll numbers at the drop of a hat.
Adding an international perspective to that eclectic mix, Klaus Brinkb?umer of the German news magazine Spiegel Online, writes the following, in an article entitled “Obama’s Lost Magic”:
Barack Obama is not a bad president? Nor is he a weak president. He has begun withdrawing American troops from Iraq. He has been able to strengthen his alliances. And he has tackled the global economic crisis with an $800 billion stimulus package and a reform of the financial markets. His education policies target performance and aim to improve the disastrously under-resourced public school system. Millions of Americans have been dreaming of healthcare reform for decades. Bill Clinton failed to get it passed. Barack Obama succeeded.
Rather than items to herald as accomplishments, many items on the list above are the very same policies that have been so fiercely objected to by such a large portion of the American public. Mr. Brinkb?umer has it right on one count: President Obama is not a weak president. He has, in fact, been successful — “successful” in passing bad policies, while either flat out ignoring or questioning the intellect of anyone who dares raise an objection.
Quite frankly, Mr. Brinkb?umer’s assertion misses the real point — and the message of this entire election season: the American people are tired of feeling like they don’t have a voice anymore; they’re tired of being politically manhandled.
Until the leadership — of both parties — understands that political leadership shouldn’t have the same affect as that of an unmanned steamroller, I think the general sentiment of the Tea Party will be alive and well.
