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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Kenneth T. Walsh
Obama's Approval Ratings (© Jennifer Kohnke)
The recession, unemployment, healthcare, and terrorism all tested the president's ambition
His year started with soaring optimism and the promise of change. It is ending with some significant achievements but also a large helping of disappointment. And through it all, President Obama has governed in a somewhat paradoxical way that many voters didn't expect when they elected him -- as an advocate of a vast expansion of activist government and as a commander in chief whose escalation of the Afghanistan war pleasantly surprised many conservatives.
"The biggest criticism against him is the ambitiousness of the way he has proceeded," says Ross Baker, a
The Republicans aren't nearly as positive or forgiving. Ken Duberstein, former
McInturff also says, "Today, compared to a year ago, President Obama looks a lot less like a significant transitional figure in a new American politics and a lot more like a traditional Democratic liberal trying to govern a center-right country."
For their part, Obama, the nation's first African-American president, and his advisers say he was dealt a very bad hand upon taking office but handled multiple crises with intelligence, pragmatism, and composure. At a minimum, they argue, the economy would be much worse if he had not acted so boldly with a massive stimulus package and bailouts of key financial institutions and automakers. And they say he is charting a sensible path in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Acknowledging that most Americans are concerned above all with the economy and unemployment,
Gibbs says there hasn't been much time for "introspection" on what the past year has meant to the country or how it fits into larger historical trends. "I'm not sure December feels entirely different from April," he says. "A little cooler, fewer leaves, but that's about it." More broadly, Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, says, "People want a strong leader who can get his people together and get things done. People need to see success, and the biggest success would be to pass healthcare." That's Obama's top priority, and it's still under consideration on
But
AMERICAN POLITICS
WORLD | AFRICA | ASIA | EUROPE | LATIN AMERICA | MIDDLE EAST | UNITED STATES | ECONOMICS | EDUCATION | ENVIRONMENT | FOREIGN POLICY | POLITICS
A Year of Mixed Results for Obama | Kenneth T. Walsh
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