2013: Obama’s Lost Year – President Obama is quickly losing one of the most important years of his presidency.
-Christopher Carroll
President Obama is taking a beating this year. It has seemed as if everything that could go wrong, has. Like a season of Breaking Bad, each episode features more trouble than the last, each revelation more shocking than that which preceded.
In 2013, the President’s political agenda has been crippled all year by poor politics, tragedy and scandal. Though it wasn’t exceptionally surprising, his agenda was derailed early in the year when the gun legislation he heavily pushed failed to pass in the Senate. That bill was one of the most important items on President Obama’s second term agenda. That well publicized failure was followed by the horrible Boston Marathon Bombing that left 3 dead and 264 people injured and the shocking West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion that killed 15 people and injured over 150 people. These terrible events understandably pushed political matters to the back of everyone’s mind. But in the months that have followed, it has proven exceedingly difficult for President Obama to return to his agenda.
Barack Obama (Photo credit: jamesomalley)
The Benghazi and I.R.S. scandals were immediately followed by revelations that the D.O.J. had seized the phone records of reporters at the A.P. in the hopes of finding “leakers.” Just this week, the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper discovered that the N.S.A. has been collecting “metadata” on American phone calls, regardless of whether or not there has been reasonable cause for suspicion.
The entire nation has been riveted by these scandals. While the occupation with the Benghazi hearing was largely seen as an attempt by the GOP to distract the public and bring scrutiny upon Hillary Clinton (it’s never too late to start campaign opposition!) and the I.R.S. scandal was likely the result of poor policy that manifested itself in the overextension of the I.R.S. rather than foul play by the administration, the A.P. and N.S.A. stories have become difficult for President Obama to move past and have accordingly held his agenda hostage. If Obama is not able to regain control of his message and reassert his voice into the national debate, he will find it impossible regain the political momentum necessary to push his agenda.
In many regards, 2013 is the most important year of President Obama’s second term, making his ability to instigate his agenda absolutely imperative. If he fails, he will not only find himself unable to push gun reform, establish meaningful
English: U.S. President delivers the while standing in front of President of the Senate and Speaker of the House . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
policy in Syria, or achieve serious immigration reform, but he will be hurting Democrats running for congressional seats in 2014; he will be damaging the last chance he has to gain power in Washington and would be lucky to maintain the status quo.
Throughout the first part of this year, Democrats on the Hill have largely defended the President, or, at the very least, maintained their silence. But following the breaking of the A.P. and N.R.A. stories, President Obama has watched his allies fade away. Liberal lions are publicly calling for investigations and trusted blue dogs are voicing their displeasure. The democrats are a disunited mess, hesitating to follow their leader and ducking for cover.
At this point, abandoning President Obama may be the most politically prudent action any democrat seeking election could take. Until President Obama finds himself equal to the task of redirecting the public debate towards his own agenda, Democrats running for election will do well to distance themselves from him and protect their own political campaigns. If they don’t, they will risk becoming stained by the inept responses and dark policies that have marked the Obama Administration’s year.
To date, the year has been lost for President Obama and his democrat colleagues. If he hopes to salvage any of it, Obama must fight tooth and nail to reestablish his agenda. He must establish a coherent and meaningful policy that addresses the humanitarian disaster in Syria. He must return to the gun debate, pushing discussion about the epidemic of accidental and purposeful shootings that have plagued our nation. He must fight for reform of our broken immigration system and he must devote full steam and energy to the October implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Only if he finds ways to return to these discussions, will Obama be able to resurrect his second term and his Presidency. If he fails to do so, Democrats should treat him as they would someone suffering from a dangerously contagious disease – with pity and compassion, but from afar.
Filed under: D.C Playground, Uncategorized | Tagged: 2013, Benghazi, Boston Marathon, Democratic Party, Democrats, Election Season, Obama, Second Term |
bridgepostpolitics 
You can’t really treat the NSA ‘scandal’ as some outside force which has floated in to disrupt Obama’s agenda. Increasing the scope of the security state, while at the same time lowering its public profile, as been an active part of the Obama administration’s focus since day one. If Obama did not want their to be an NSA scandal, it maybe would have been a better strategy to simply direct the NSA not to continue to construct and pursue a massive domestic spy network (insane claims of ‘safeguards’ not withstanding’). If you want to create a massive and illegal spy network, you don’t get to be upset about it when its revelation gets in the way of the more public projects you want to pursue.
Also, to spin the GOP’s unprecedented level of obstructionism (to the point where members start voting against their own bills if they gain presidential support) as a ‘failure of leadership’ or ‘bad politics’ is to feed directly into the GOP game plan of making Obama look weak and ineffectual.
Its true his legislative agenda is failing. But the more important thing is to look at what his legislative agenda is actually pushing. Healthcare ‘reform ‘ is a weak compromise / corporate giveaway. He gave up on a public option after he was done campaigning. His gun control push was not a gun control push at all. Expanded background checks are the single weakest measure one can possibly think of if your goal is to actually put a real dent in gun violence. It was not even as ambitious as Clinton’s ineffectual ‘assault weapon ban’. All the while towing the line on the neo-liberal double talk of ‘entitlement reform’. And, you know, extra judicial killings of citizens, massive increase in the spreading of the drone war and not one criminal charge brought against fraudulent financial firms.
That is to say, your right. Progressives should be abandoning Obama. But its mostly because nothing he is even aiming to do is all that progressive.
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