RESPONSE: No Good Thing Ever Dies

(This blog post is a readers response to Adam's blogpost from 12/17/2009)

While I am certainly in no position to judge the video and lyrics posted to your post, I am in a position to completely disagree with you when you say, "...he hasn't been the inspiring leader we all thought he would be."
You're a smart man, so I urge you to take another look.

While the President has yet to successfully pass any sort of health care reform, you have to admit he is closer and more determined to do it than any other President in this nations' history. What other President ever got Congress to even consider health care reform, let alone getting it to the floor of both houses of Congress in under 8 months. Arguing health care reform isn't about right and wrong; it's about social responsibility and financial repercussions which would be felt by everyone from the doctor performing surgery to the nurse who's assisting all the way down to the janitor who sweeps the floors of the hospital. Health care involves so many people, so many industries, this is not something that can be reformed in 8 months, let alone less than one calendar year. Bush, Sr., Clinton and Bush Jr. all promised Health Care reform, but none of them ever delivered the progress the current president has delivered. And in his first 11 months in office? Come now.

You are correct in saying it took nearly a year to get a decision on Afghanistan. And while that may seem like a long time to you, I personally find myself to be relieved to finally have a President who is willing to sit down with the right people, ask the tough questions and make the tough decisions that will inevitably lead to a successful end. Perhaps if the previous administration had paid more attention to the war in Afghanistan and less time fabricating a war in Iraq, well, suffice it to say, we would be living in a very, very different America. And while a year may be too long for some, I'm confident that in that year, he weighed the decision against the budget; the resources against what we could afford and was able to declare at the end of the deliberation that the age of "blank checks" is over. America will no longer take solo responsibility for the stability of this region.

The reason why, dear friend, we we all so confident that the man who change it all would be Obama is because we saw him for what he was: a man with very few answers, but the patience and temperament to figure out the answers. He is a man who brings ALL the players to the table, not just the ones who agree with him and at the end of all of it, he's able to weigh the pros and the cons and take the necessary steps to stabilize these situations that we inherited.

You are right when you say he is not living up to the expectation of the people -- however, I say this: if you expected him to fix a recession, not one but TWO wars and a health care crisis in 11 months, than your expectations were a little high.

Response? Bring it on, friend!
"I'll be in the Roosevelt Room, giving Louis oxygen."

Your friend,
KAELA