To my mind, Obama had to deal with the 2008 Financial Crisis when he came
into office and went about dealing with it in exactly the wrong
way. (Much as I loathe Trump, the idea of making loan $$$$ available to
small businesses through the SBA is a much smarter solution to a fiscal
crisis than bailing out corrupt financial and insurance conglomerates
simply because they were "too big to fail.")
Apart from that, for his first two years in office, he had a Democratic
House and a Democratic Senate. What's "sabotage" in that? He decided to
blow his political capital on a really poorly put-together health care bill.
Rahm Emmanuel, his first chief of staff, tried to get Obama to change his
mind. Do these things first! It will increase your political capital
and then in your second term, go for health care.
Obama refused because he didn't have enough political experience to
understand how those things work. He was coming from a stance of This
is the right thing to do!, which may have been true but competence in a
political sense is all about a deliberate battle strategy.
I'm not saying health care isn't important. In fact, in retrospect,
in the AD (After Disease) universe we all live in these days, it may well
be the most important thing.
But Obama's bill is very unwieldy. Super-complicated in unnecessary
ways. (Yes, I actually read it! I'm a health care economist by training.)
Personally, Obama remains the X-President I like the best just because his
personality is so charming, and we share so many of the same tastes and
values.
But I would rank him as a mediocre President at best. He shot all his
political capital on a badly designed health care bill.
In general, former Senators don't make particularly good Presidents because
while they may have policy experience, they don't actually have
adminstrative experience.
And the Presidency is actually an administrative job.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2020-05-14 04:05 pm (UTC)To my mind, Obama had to deal with the 2008 Financial Crisis when he came into office and went about dealing with it in exactly the wrong way. (Much as I loathe Trump, the idea of making loan $$$$ available to small businesses through the SBA is a much smarter solution to a fiscal crisis than bailing out corrupt financial and insurance conglomerates simply because they were "too big to fail.")
Apart from that, for his first two years in office, he had a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate. What's "sabotage" in that? He decided to blow his political capital on a really poorly put-together health care bill.
Rahm Emmanuel, his first chief of staff, tried to get Obama to change his mind. Do these things first! It will increase your political capital and then in your second term, go for health care.
Obama refused because he didn't have enough political experience to understand how those things work. He was coming from a stance of This is the right thing to do!, which may have been true but competence in a political sense is all about a deliberate battle strategy.
I'm not saying health care isn't important. In fact, in retrospect, in the AD (After Disease) universe we all live in these days, it may well be the most important thing.
But Obama's bill is very unwieldy. Super-complicated in unnecessary ways. (Yes, I actually read it! I'm a health care economist by training.)
Personally, Obama remains the X-President I like the best just because his personality is so charming, and we share so many of the same tastes and values.
But I would rank him as a mediocre President at best. He shot all his political capital on a badly designed health care bill.
In general, former Senators don't make particularly good Presidents because while they may have policy experience, they don't actually have adminstrative experience.
And the Presidency is actually an administrative job.