Obama Report Card (Part 2)

Barack Obama has been president for a little more than a year. There are mixed feelings concerning the job he has done. Some claim he has done absolutely nothing, whereas others claim that he has done a great deal when you consider he has only been in office for a year. People tend to have very strong opinions about this president. The intention of these last 2 blog posts is to evaluate this administration. In my last article, I began the process of giving the Obama administration grades for the work they have or have not done. These are the areas that I have evaluated so far. You may see the previous article for my explanation.

Economy: B
Environment/Energy: C
Health Care: C-
Military: C

Here is the second half of the report card.

Foreign policy: A

In my opinion, this is one of the areas that has declined the most during the last 8 years. Although the economy has been in a downturn during the last 2 years, systemic forces have been in play long before this decade that made our economic situation dubious. The last administration may have pushed the economy off a cliff, but there was decades of bad policy that preceded them. In contrast, the last 8 years of foreign policy have been a disaster. Although many of the forces in play had their origins well before the year 2000, a lot of this disaster in my opinion was caused by the Bush Administration. There are some things that the Obama Administration is doing to change this.

One of the first people appointed by Barack Obama was Hilary Clinton in the role of Secretary of State. Although Clinton is defiantly qualified for this position, the political implications of this hiring cannot be over looked. Hilary Clinton may have been the most visible person in American politics (with the most noticeable exception being Obama himself). In the short term, it makes the statement that the State Department is one of the most important parts of our foreign policy. There are people (such as myself) who think the State Department has been under-emphasized during the last 8 years. To many, a revitalized State Department signals an emphasis on diplomacy that has been lacking. As painful as it is to admit, we don’t have enough troops to fight everyone two hates us. Helping people to realize that they share interests in America and then getting them to help us solve our problems is a much more realistic strategy. This president has made it very clear that he is going to use all of the tools in the tool box, not just the hammer.

The Obama administration has also done a lot to engage our traditional allies. Some people think that having allies in Western Europe is a sign of weakness. They believe that by finding common ground with others we are some how giving away what makes us American. I personally think they could not be more wrong. I think this administration has realized that having allies that think differently is not a bad thing.

I think this administration has done well to realize that there are two sides to every situation. Sometimes we disagree with the other side, but to not even admit there is another side is the thing that DOOMED the foreign policy in the last administration. This policy is no more evident than in our policy with Israel. To acknowledge that there is another side even when that other side is not necessarily in our best interest is a sign of strength, not of weakness. If there is going to be peace in the Middle East, it will be because both sides make concessions and because both sides acknowledge that the other position is legitimate.

Nuclear disarmament was proposed by John McCain during the Republican primary and he got BLASTED by his own base for it. I think to make the world safer we are going to have to scale down our nuclear arsenal. We can’t go around telling others not to build nuclear weapons when we have them in abundance. We are also the only nation to ACTUALLY USE A NUCLEAR BOMB. If we want to live in a world without nuclear weapons, then the nation with the most nuclear weapons must take the lead. The Obama Administration has also pushed for this.

The United Nations has been criticized for being an ineffective organization. I submit that it will never be effective when the greatest county in the world doesn’t take it seriously. It would be in America’s best interests to have an international body that could get things done and be respected. This will never happen until the most powerful nation in the world takes the United Nations seriously. This is something the last administration was absolutely horrible at. Fighting a preemptive war that most of the world did not agree with also hurt out relations with most of our allies. When this war ultimately went badly, it created further tensions between us and our traditional allies.

Some say all Obama has done is made a few speeches. I acknowledge that making speeches is not enough. These speeches are the first step in re-engaging our traditional allies and attempting to bridge the gap with our enemies.

National Security: A

I believe that the approach this administration is taking will be much better in the long run than the strategy previously employed. Not a week goes by when either Dick or Liz Cheney is on TV telling us how unsafe we will be with the Obama administration. I believe that the Bush-Cheeney approach has been detrimental to our image and ultimately ineffective.

The first issue I have with the Bush-Cheney approach is torture. Torture historically has never been a reliable means of extracting information. The chance that the info you are getting is true is equal to the chance that the person being tortured is just telling you what you want to hear. There is no way to reliably tell which of these scenarios is playing out. Even if torture were a good way to get information, it still violates agreements that we have made in good faith. The United States as a country is on the record for NOT TORTURING PEOPLE. Our Bill of Rights states that there will be no “cruel or unusual punishment.” The war on terror is a war of ideas. When we violate our own rules in an attempt to win this war, THE TERRORIST ULTIMATLY WIN. In a war of ideas we have to be the example of democracy for those who don’t have it. Torture sends the message that “we believe in democracy until things get tough.” Why should any country that does not currently have a democracy want a democracy when they see us torture people or throw people in jail without due process? We loose all credibility in the non-democratic world when we torture people. Why would anyone in the Middle East want to aspire to democracy when we torture our own citizens? Why should the government of a developing nation choose democracy when we abandon our fundamental principles as soon as things get a little rough? Why would they think that this government is better then the one they have? I wish the people that argue so passionately for the right to bear arms would also argue for the government not torturing people.

Torture also allows our enemies to present the case that America is evil. They can site our torture as evidence that they are right and that we are wrong. This out weighs any information we could learn by torture.

Employing a strategy based on intelligence and not torture may also generate more information. It is possible that more people will be willing to help us when we don’t torture. Consider the Christmas Day bomber. Most of the Intel we got was from his family members. Do you think his family would turn him in if they thought he was going to be tortured? This bomber also continued to talk (and is still talking) even after he was read his Miranda rights (contrary to what Fox News would have you believe). Why are we as Americans less safe because we follow our own rules? The idea that we need better intelligence is not in dispute. How we go about getting and organizing that information is critical. I believe that the current president has a much better approach then the last one.

My only objection is that the prison at Guantanamo Bay is not closed. This is something Obama said he would do in his first year. I can blame him for making a promise in the middle of the campaign that he could not keep. I think this move must be well thought out; and, although I am disappointed that it is not done yet, I won’t take too much off his grade for being prudent.

I am also mildly disappointed that this administration has not done more to find out which of our officials may have broken the law in their search for actionable intelligence. Since this is not political feasible, we will leave the prosecution of John Yoo and others for another day and another article.

Education: A+

I believe that so far this is Obama’s best area. The amount of money at Arne Duncan’s disposal is unprecedented. What is even more encouraging is the way this money is to be spent. Too often in the past money is given to districts with the highest level of dysfunction. Part of the money at the Secretary of Educations disposal will be given to school districts that show the most improvement. The idea is that there is an incentive for school districts to become more efficient and try new things. This is a system that should reward innovation.

Domestic Issues: B+

The idea that women should be paid the same amount for the same work seems like something that people should agree with. This president signed the Lilly Ledbetter Act this year. This closed a loop hole in the Civil Rights Act that has been in place since 1964. The president has also pledged that gay people will be allowed to serve in the military and will not be fired if their sexual identity is discovered. I think this is something that absolutely has to be corrected. I can criticize him for not moving fast enough but I do believe this will get done this year.

FINAL GRADE: B+

I give Obama an over all grade between a B and a B+. I do think you have to grade him on a curve when you consider where we were a year ago. Most people who hate Obama say they hate him for his policies. Then I ask what policies specifically do they hate. They say they hate the bank bailout, but that was set in motion before he got there. Then they say they hate the Omnibus bill, but that was done before he got there. Then they say they hate the socialist policies, but the economy was in crisis when he took office. They say they hate his foreign policy, but he was handed two wars as well as deteriorating situations in Iran and North Korea. We have no way of knowing how much he could have gotten done if he weren’t thrown into a disaster. The truth is most of this was completely out of his control by the time he took office.

I see this time in American history as a game of hot potato. For 80 years we as a country, both Democrat and Republican, have set up systems that will only help us in the short term. This may be a negative built into our government. The fact that our elected officials have to operate in the short term to keep their careers viable may mean that we have just accept this as part of democracy. Very few presidents will implement a policy that will take 20 years to be successful because their term is only 8 years long. We have employed policies that have been detrimental to our long term success. We as a country benefited from these policies. For 90 years we dumped what ever crap in to the air that we wanted to. For 90 years we meddled in the affairs of other regions with no fear of reprisal. We spent what ever money we wanted and didn’t worry about paying it back. NOW THE MUSIC HAS STOPPED and we are the generation left holding the hot potato. We are the generation that has no choice but to fix these problems.

I believe we do not have the foundation necessary to carry us successfully through this new century. I believe that this president must start building this foundation. It is very possible that the effects of this presidency will not be seen for decades. Fixing our problems will not only need short term solutions, but long term considerations. I am an optimist and I believe that we can rise above these problems. I believe this presidency can truly be transformational.