President Obama - One Year Later: David Loftus

Losing my job in the middle of 2009, as frightening as it was for a brief time, may turn out to have been one of the best things that’s ever happened to me . . . but it was Bush’s poor leadership that was responsible for that, not Obama’s promises of change. I voted for Obama, I was very happy to see Dubya and any other Republican out of the White House, and I’m pleased that my country is no longer headed by someone who was a regular embarrassment to us before the eyes of the world -- someone my wife and I had to switch off whenever we saw him come on the television.

But tangible benefits for our household from the Obama administration have been few. The most significant has been assistance in maintaining my former employer’s medical benefits (COBRA) with a 65 percent match. Thus, medical insurance benefit coverage that would be costing us $564.33 every month has been “just” $195.74. That’s supposed to last only a total of nine months, although there have been rumors that Congress may extend that. I think it’s ridiculous that it should cost even that much, but until we have a more equitable and universal health care system, it will at least have saved me roughly $3300, a not inconsiderable chunk of change. My wife Carole also received a supplementary Social Security check (what was it? $50?) last spring -- a drop in the bucket. Not that I mind: we’re doing just fine because we had economized and gone lean years before this recession hit, and other people are suffering much more. Despite the hand he was dealt, I’d still like to think Obama is better prepared to handle the mess than almost anyone else we could have elected.

To be honest, I’ve been disappointed that Obama hasn’t attempted or accomplished more in the past year. He has been too polite to all the critics inside and outside of Congress who have been fighting every single proposal he’s offered, and slandering him unfairly. Carole says he should be tougher and get things done, the way Lyndon Johnson did; but Johnson knew where all the bodies were buried and therefore had all the clout he needed before stepping into the Oval Office, and Obama does not. He’s running the risk of becoming another Jimmy Carter: a very good man, an intelligent man, who didn’t manage to accomplish much of anything as President. On the other hand, he did say in his inaugural address that Americans face “a new era of responsibility” and have to work together on the solutions. So far, I’m seeing an awful lot of the buck-passing and bellyaching that typifies the past more than it promises a golden future.