Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl

~ Clarissa

I spend so much time at the gym these days and there are so many TV screens there that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is now like a relative. Fox News can now abandon the dead-end stories about Benghazi and IRS investigations and clamp on to a scandal that, if covered correctly, can actually have an impact at the elections of 2014 and 2016. The story is being picked up by the international press because, unlike Benghazi, this is something capable of attracting many people’s attention.

We have no access to the information available to the military, so we cannot possibly know what happened. The danger of the Bergdahl debacle is that it falls neatly into the vision of the President as somebody who decides to improve a situation he doesn’t understand, rushes in half-cocked, and messes everything up completely. There have been five years to figure out what to do about Bergdahl, yet his rescue looks unprepared, uncoordinated, and pushed through without any consideration of the consequences. This is the same pattern we have seen just the other week with the President’s plan to “rescue” higher ed. The higher ed has been there for a long time, it has suffered from serious structural problems for at least two decades, this is not something that just emerged. There has been time to address these problems in a measured and step-by-step manner.

We all know that there is great demand for stories that would make Obama look incompetent and flailing. But he’s doing all he can to make sure these stories are easy to concoct. There was not a great supporter of Obama than me both times when he was elected (mostly because of the “But just look at the other guy, brrrrr” approach) but I can’t deny that I’ve started avoiding American news because I don’t want to see yet another story that would make me even more disappointed.

P.S. I have started doing the same thing concerning Obama that I have been doing for years regarding the Canadian government of Stephen Harper. Whenever a fresh story about either Obama or the Harperites gets reported, I start mumbling under my breath, “The economy, the economy, at least they managed to improve the economy. (Or prevent it from getting to the point where it would need improvement, as in Harper’s case.”)

So let’s discuss. Do you feel less or more enthusiastic about Obama than you were back in 2008? Did he live up to your expectations? What was the biggest disappointment (if any)?

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Published by Clarissa

19 thoughts on “Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl”

  1. Clarissa, how exactly has Obama improved the economy? The only thing really going for it is the shale oil boom (which he has obstructed at every turn).

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    1. The differences between the economy of 2008 and today are obvious. The US dollar is growing, the unemployment rates have dropped dramatically, the housing market is reviving, high school graduates are massively going into the job market (which wasn’t happening even a year ago).

      Were you in the States in 2008? Does today feel as bad as late 2007-early 2008 felt?

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        1. “This economy feels like just it did before the Lehman Brothers crash.”

          – Exactly. And erasing the consequences of the crash is an enormous achievement.

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  2. Obama has lived up to my expectations.

    I expected incompetence since he’d never led an organization of any size before he became President (and no, a Senate staff does not count). And he hasn’t disappointed.

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    1. I knew you would say this. 🙂 I actually envisioned you leaving this comment as I was writing this post. 🙂

      Of course, the question was aimed mostly at those who had illusions to begin with. But you are absolutely right, this is one of the oldest maxims of politics: never elect anybody with no experience of governing to the highest office.

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  3. As a reallisitc liberal, I never had crazy high hopes for Obama. He campaigned as a centrist and governed as a centrist. Also, much like you, I hate everything he has done with education. I think in terms of eduation, he governs as a hardline conservative union breaker and I hate it.

    That said, with the gigantic exception of education, I think he has been a decent president. The economy is no longer in free fall; we are winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For some people that I know personally, health care reform has been amazingly helpful and wonderful. I think he has been good on gay rights. He also oversaw some changes to student loan repayment that helped me personally. I thnk the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is incredibly important and will help prevent future financial meltdowns. I like that he has raised minimum wages in the arenas that he personally controls.

    Overall, he has done a lot of good–especially considering that he has had a congress that fought him at every turn. He also is a much better president than Bush and certainly better than either McCain or Romney would have been. I have no regrets about voting for him.

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    1. “The economy is no longer in free fall; we are winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For some people that I know personally, health care reform has been amazingly helpful and wonderful.”

      – The economy, yes, I agree. There have been undeniable improvements. I don’t know enough about AHA to say whether it works.

      “He also is a much better president than Bush and certainly better than either McCain or Romney would have been.”

      – Yes, of course, “the other guys” were such as to offer no real choice. I want to believe Hillary would have been better but she has the same issue of no important administrative experience. And a fairly short career altogether.

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      1. What’s AHA? …… At any rate, I think a Hillary presidency would have been nearly identical to the Obama presidency. I voted for Obama in the primaries because I personally thought he would be more appealing to a greater segment of the population and had a better chance of beating the Republican candidate. But I didn’t see any qualitative difference between him and Hillary. I actually think any Democratic president (Biden, Gore) would have essentially governed like Obama; I also think that any Republican president (McCain, Romney) would have governed similarly to Bush II.

        In my view, there are two “political machines” in this country: Democrat and Republican. I personally think the Democratic political machine is vastly more palatable than the Republican political machine so I vote straight Democratic tickets. (I have never voted for a Republican for any office in my life.) There may be some individual differences between the candidates but those differences are minor. Overall, I don’t think that there is much “individualism” in the office of the President.

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        1. Of course, I meant ACA, Affordable Care Act.

          But no, no, don’t say this about Biden and Gore. I’m a big fan of both, and I believe they could handle the recalcitrant congress better. Biden was phenomenal during the presidential debates.

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      2. Oh sorry. For some reason, I didn’t connect the dots. Of course you meant the Affordable Care Act! 🙂 Anyway, I have a very good friend who is an independent contractor; since she works for herself, she has never been able to get employer based health insurance. Before health care reform, she had very very expensive insurance that only covered emergencies. Nothing else. Doctor’s visits, medicine, everything, she had cover out of pockets (on top of expensive monthly fees for her sub-par coverage.) Now because of reform, she has good insurance. Still a bit expensive. But insurance that actually covers her doctors visits, any medication (including birth control) etc etc. She says it really changed her life. 🙂

        I don’t think the the Affordable Care Act solved everything and there are still issues with American health care. But it accomplished a good deal. Another good thing for _everybody_ is that lifetime insurance limits are now illegal. So I think this Act will be Obama’s most lasting contribution to American society.

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  4. I was never “enthusiastic” about Senator Obama becoming President Obama, but did have hopes that his election might at least help to diminish the racial divide in the U.S. Those hopes vanished quickly, and now the divide seems wider than before.

    As to Sgt. Bergdahl, I agree that we do not have as much information as the military probably has. The great quantities of scuttlebutt that we do have would not, in and of itself, be admissible in a court of law. It seems likely that it can be enhanced with sworn statement of fact (not mere opinion) and contemporaneous documents. If so, a case might be made against him or he might be found not guilty.

    My principal concern is that there will be no court martial because any ventilation of evidence could well be harmful to President Obama and his ransoming of Sgt. Bergdahl. I tried to make my position clear in a June 2d article, updated through June 5th.

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    1. “but did have hopes that his election might at least help to diminish the racial divide in the U.S. Those hopes vanished quickly, and now the divide seems wider than before.”

      – That is very true. And very sad. I have to say that I’ve been very disappointed with my Liberal brethren and their irreflexive and unconfessed racism. I’m tired to death of reading endless articles saying that ‘Obama is only criticized because he’s black,’ ‘Obama’s screwups only look as such because he is black,’ ‘you only mind because he’s black.’ They are the ones completely obsessed with his race and unable to see anything but his his skin color. This is the worst kind of racism because it cloaks itself in anti-racist garb and projects its beliefs onto others.

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      1. You don’t think the conservative hatred of Obama is partly fueled by racism? I certainly do.

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        1. I still remember what it was like when Clinton was president and I don’t see much difference. There are racists among both camps but this insistence on “because he’s black” – after Obama himself stated he doesn’t want that – is coming from the Liberal camp.

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      2. “You don’t think the conservative hatred of Obama is partly fueled by racism? I certainly do.”

        I’m sure part of it is, but …. so?

        A lot of conservative hatred of Clinton was fueled partly by those who look down on red recks.

        A lot of liberal hatred of W was partly fueld by big city liberal disdain for flyover country.

        Some section of the American public has treated every president in my liftetime like dirt (different sections for different presidents). It’s one of our most precious traditions and I’d be alarmed if it were to abate.

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