Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The Obama Glass has some Kool-Aid in it...
...and Ruth Marcus is drinking it: Obama Has Bad Week, But Good Start
Really, she’s serious:
“To everyone out there despairing -- or rejoicing -- about the Obama administration's supposedly rocky start: Settle down. It's actually going rather well.”
For those of us not possessing her remarkable insights, she gives us an analogy to make it clearer:
“Expecting the Obama team to operate perfectly under these conditions is like expecting a first-year med student to perform surgery -- before the stethoscopes have been handed out.”
Great point…although some might nit-pick that the difference between her fictional first-year med student surgeon and Team Obama is that the med student hasn’t been parading the hospital floors telling the patients she’d do a better job than the other surgeons on call.
(But I do like her use of a first-year med student because that invites the contrast between someone who is actually doing something to bring health care to the populace and over-hyped law school grads just talking about the need to bring health care to the populace.)
She then patiently explains to us cretins just why this President is so awesome:
“Consider, also, what the administration has accomplished so far. Before he took office, Obama played a key role in obtaining congressional approval for the second round of bank bailout funding, clearing from his plate a major problem that would otherwise have awaited his arrival.”
His “key role” was telling President Bush that, yes, it would be nice to have that matter resolved before he got to the White House.
“By the end of his first two weeks in office, the president signed into law two major pieces of legislation -- on pay discrimination and children's health care.”
I’m not as impressed as some others with the Ivy League credential but I’ll concede that Harvard Law grads can sign their name. Beyond that I am not aware of any heavy lifting he had to do to get these two pieces of legislation beyond Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and onto his desk.
“By the end of his first month, he will, in all likelihood, have overseen enactment of a stimulus bill that will be about the size, with about the mix of new spending and tax cuts, that he originally proposed.”
I know times change but anyone recall candidate Obama extolling anything near an 800 billion dollar “stimulus”? Here’s what the ever-fawning Ruth Marcus said about a proposal of then-Senator Obama a little more than a year ago:
“Barack Obama: A-minus. I criticized his previous tax plan, but Obama is at the head of the class with an intelligently designed, $120 billion stimulus plan.” Ruth Marcus - Whose Stimulus Makes the Grade?
She concludes:
“So if you're feeling jittery about Obama's start, ask yourself this: Is there another president in recent memory who would have done better?”
Hmm, let me think…Ronald Reagan
Really, she’s serious:
“To everyone out there despairing -- or rejoicing -- about the Obama administration's supposedly rocky start: Settle down. It's actually going rather well.”
For those of us not possessing her remarkable insights, she gives us an analogy to make it clearer:
“Expecting the Obama team to operate perfectly under these conditions is like expecting a first-year med student to perform surgery -- before the stethoscopes have been handed out.”
Great point…although some might nit-pick that the difference between her fictional first-year med student surgeon and Team Obama is that the med student hasn’t been parading the hospital floors telling the patients she’d do a better job than the other surgeons on call.
(But I do like her use of a first-year med student because that invites the contrast between someone who is actually doing something to bring health care to the populace and over-hyped law school grads just talking about the need to bring health care to the populace.)
She then patiently explains to us cretins just why this President is so awesome:
“Consider, also, what the administration has accomplished so far. Before he took office, Obama played a key role in obtaining congressional approval for the second round of bank bailout funding, clearing from his plate a major problem that would otherwise have awaited his arrival.”
His “key role” was telling President Bush that, yes, it would be nice to have that matter resolved before he got to the White House.
“By the end of his first two weeks in office, the president signed into law two major pieces of legislation -- on pay discrimination and children's health care.”
I’m not as impressed as some others with the Ivy League credential but I’ll concede that Harvard Law grads can sign their name. Beyond that I am not aware of any heavy lifting he had to do to get these two pieces of legislation beyond Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and onto his desk.
“By the end of his first month, he will, in all likelihood, have overseen enactment of a stimulus bill that will be about the size, with about the mix of new spending and tax cuts, that he originally proposed.”
I know times change but anyone recall candidate Obama extolling anything near an 800 billion dollar “stimulus”? Here’s what the ever-fawning Ruth Marcus said about a proposal of then-Senator Obama a little more than a year ago:
“Barack Obama: A-minus. I criticized his previous tax plan, but Obama is at the head of the class with an intelligently designed, $120 billion stimulus plan.” Ruth Marcus - Whose Stimulus Makes the Grade?
She concludes:
“So if you're feeling jittery about Obama's start, ask yourself this: Is there another president in recent memory who would have done better?”
Hmm, let me think…Ronald Reagan
