These Last Four Years: Grading Another President

 In years past, I've tried to sum up outgoing presidential administrations in a letter grade. I did this with Bush 43, Obama, Trump's first stint, and now I tackle the impact of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. 

In spite of what the right-wing media yells at you, the Biden administration was not a disaster. In the wake of Jimmy Carter's death, I see some parallels between the complicated, one-term legacy of both him and Biden. Both won a crowded, wide open Democratic primary (1976 and 2020), both succeeded a scandal-plagued Republican administration (Nixon/Ford and Trump), both inherited a wobbly economic situation, and both lost re-election to galvanizing Republicans (Reagan and Trump again).

Look at what Biden & Co. achieved in four years: a tighter, cohesive response to the pandemic; low unemployment; slightly higher incomes; job creation; more benefits for veterans and their families; reforming the military justice system; more energy transition spending. It's a decent list, but the early part of the Biden years were spent fixing the errors of the previous guy (which will almost certainly get reversed again). On the flip side, health care in the US is more expensive than ever, immigration and inflation were ineluctable concerns, and the administration's response to Ukraine and Gaza got mixed reviews to say the least. He didn't achieve lasting peace, but at least Israel and Hamas agreed to a nine-week cease-fire just under the wire.

As I said three years ago, Joe Biden frequently said the right thing and tried to do the right things, but he never came across as a leader on any major issue. In a time when Democrats are bringing sternly-worded letters to knife fights, he was the avatar of a party that insisted on approaching everything with decorum, staying steadfast and traditional, in a the face of the unrelenting, upending MAGA movement. His executive order to curb immigration last summer was probably too little, too late. He seemed to resist more than he fought. 

It's a cliche, but Biden's fatal flaw was his age. He was inaugurated as the oldest president ever, a record that will be broken for the third time in eight years on January 20th. His befuddled performance at the very first Summer presidential debate threw his party into a tailspin, which hit a crescendo when Biden was forced off the ticket with 3 1/2 months to go. Vice President Harris had a higher approval rating, and ran a solid campaign, but the Democratic ticket was the underdog the whole way, and the flip to Harris-Walz wasn't enough to close the gap. Pardon the over-simplification, but if Biden was ten years younger, one wonders what he and Harris would've accomplished in a second term. 

Joe Biden will leave office with an approval rating under 40%, joining a certain melon-shaped felon in that indignity. However, for his flaws I think we'll grow to appreciate the impact Biden made in the long-term. If his pal Barack Obama merited a B, then I'll give Scranton Joe a B-. God only knows what the next four years behold, though. 

(744)

 

The Last Days (Which Probably Aren't the Last Days)

This might be my last blog post with Donald Trump as President of the United States. Chances are, its not. Regardless, the fallout from Trump's dismissal of FBI Director James Comey last week has been both dizzying and winsome. The revelation of Trump blurting out classified information to Russian officials, while not technically illegal, was certainly annoying to DC insiders but alienating to several key American allies. The narrative is less about cohesion with Russia the possibility of corruption and more about incompetence and ego. And yet, somehow Trump might still persevere.

Sadly, it doesn't surprise me that most Trump supporters aren't feeling too much buyer's remorse. The vicious cycle of conservative blogs, each regurgitating the same shallow bullet points while creating half-truths and exaggerations about their liberal opponents, are manna for angry fools. Let them blame the mainstream media for doing their job, or cast off late night comedians for their right to satirize and skew public figures. A former president attempted to censor the media via executive order, and it blew up in his face. (I'm aware that President Trump doesn't know his history, but the point stands.) The "bubble" or beehive mentality that might have cost Sec. Clinton the election works both ways. The sad thing, even if Trump goes his ardent supporters will not give it a rest, doubling down on the internet-born, nonsense conspiracy theories that attempted to hound --and still try to vex-- Presidents Clinton and Obama. Right-wing outsiders have cherry-picked Trump as their man, and they're backing him to the bitter end.

Regardless, the rural whites that saw Trump as a shining white knight 6 1/2 months ago must be seeing some sort of rust in the armor now. This was a man who both took advantage and navigated through a weak but excessively large crop of candidates for his party's nomination. He constructed his agenda in saying the things that other Republicans allegedly think but won't say out loud --more conspiracy theory-- and in the process dragged the GOP into the mud. Despite what some liberal bloggers have implied, the Republican Party is not built on racism and isolationism, but he dragged those two ugly ideas into the voting booths. His four months in office have matched his bluster, defined by a litany of executive orders in the early going, but only getting one bill (AHCA) passed through Congress. In blogs past, I letter-graded the Bush 43 and Obama administrations; in the very hypothetical situation that Trump leaves office before 2021 (or June), I don't know if I would give him a grade higher than D-.

Nearly four months in, the Trump administration's greatest achievement its the most scandal-plagued since Bill Clinton's, and at this rate it will eclipse Whitewater, Paula Jones, and whatever else our 42nd president deflected two decades ago. The people that feared and loathed "Crooked Hillary" are stuck with "Bungling Donald." It would make sense for President Trump to resign, but his pride and various past indicators suggest it won't happen. No elected Republican in either house will be breaking rank with Trump or their party anytime soon. The possibility of up to 11 1/2 years with a President Mike Pence (not a typo) may not seem palatable to many, but at least we can all concur that he would be a far more competent and even-keeled presence in the Oval Office. At the moment, for many Americans its just a pipe dream.

Next Week: my annual high school graduate "memory list."

(552)

These Past Eight Years, Part 2

(Click here for part one.)

What President Obama will undoubtedly be most remembered for and most heavily judged upon, is the Affordable Care Act, known more commonly as Obamacare. A piece of legislation this expensive and far-reaching was bound to polarize the nation, as it did throughout the Summer and Fall of 2009. After a prolonged debate, both in public and in both chambers of Congress, not to mention a concession or two, the ACA was passed into law in Spring 2010.  It still proved polarizing, though. The Democrat-led U.S. Senate had lost their super-majority shortly before the ACA vote, then got walloped in the midterm elections 6 1/2 months later. The Tea Party movement tried countless times to repeal or defang Obamacare, and until last week they had done so to little avail.  Whether semi-socialized health care will live on remains to be seen.

In addition, other socially progressive causes flourished in his administration. In January 2009, just a handful of states had legalized marriage equality. By 2015, after a narrow Supreme Court decision, it was the law of the land. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Obama's other far-reaching bill, was a stimulus package that attempted to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and lessen the burden on the middle class. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act both saw the light of day under Obama's guidance and support.

As I listened to the last 20 minutes of his farewell address Tuesday night, I was reminded of Obama's character. For the first time in awhile, I thought of the man behind the policy: the stirring orator, the guarded optimist, and doting husband and father. For a split second, I wasn't that concerned with any flawed legislation and or his sheepish approach to world affairs, but the genuinely compassionate and even-keeled man that alluded to hope and change in 2007-08.

Eight years ago, I gave George W. Bush a C-/D+ as he left office; to some critics, that may have been somewhat generous, but I stand by that grade. Dubya was mediocre to put it mildly, but we've had far worse commanders in chief. With the Obama years down to its last week or so, I would put our 44th president somewhere in the B/B- range. President Obama was effective but flawed, but more often then not his collected demeanor matched his altruistic leadership.

(540)

These Past Eight Years, Part 1

In about three weeks, the 44th President of the United States will leave office, by virtue of the 22nd Amendment. Over this past eight years, Barack Hussein Obama has held a steady hand, but in these increasingly polarizing times he (depending on who you ask) steered America back in the right direction or further into the abyss.  From a historical perspective, however President Obama will ultimately rank somewhere in the middle of the pack. There is such a compelling case for his strengths and weaknesses, from his liberal champions to his right-wing detractors, that they nearly cancel each other out. The general consensus --if there is one-- suggests that Obama was a weaker president than Bill Clinton but stronger than George W. Bush. For myriad reasons, that is reasonable opinion on the surface but substantially not so cut and dry.

Indeed, the most divisive president of our time may have been a victim of circumstance. Just before taking office, conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh openly and infamously wished that Obama would fail, and most right-wing pundits never gave the man the chance. If you were compelled to vote for Obama in 2008 on the oversimplified promise of "hope" and "change," then there is no doubt that you were underwhelmed. The reality was more pragmatism than cynicism, and even if there was only a sprinkle of hope and a spoonful of change, President Obama made a conscious effort to avoid the mistakes of his embattled predecessor.

After an embarrassing showing by Republicans in the 2008 elections, the Tea Party movement rose out of thin air, created internal strife within the GOP and proved rather persistent in their criticism and obstruction of the president. Moderates in the ranks, anyone who could've potentially agreed or compromised with Obama, either retired or fell victim to this pesky grass-roots movement. The failure to capitalize on the super-majority of 2009-10 led to one filibuster after another, the Democrats lost the House of Representatives in the midterms that year, then lost the U.S. Senate four years after that. Arguably, President Obama's repeated inability to connect with voters outside of urban areas and Democratic safe spots may have played a part in Donald Trump's victory last month. Even when Obama tried to play the middle, wins did not come easy. The vision of post-partisanship remains a pipe dream.

If there is one thing that truly bothered me about President Obama, it was his timid, wait-and-see approach to foreign policy. That is not to say Obama was a complete milquetoast: he was very cooperative with our allies and encouraged multilateral thought, he ended the Iraq war, and bolstered our presence in Afghanistan. At the very least, Obama deserves partial credit for the death of Osama bin Laden. Still, his handling of Syria was oddly meek, and his rapid pullout of American troops may have contributed to the rise of ISIS. (Bibi isn't happy, but then again, it takes a lot to please the guy.) The impact of the Iran nuclear arms deal and resuming trade with Cuba, like a certain grandiose piece of legislation of his, will take years to unfurl and truly understand.

This is in relative contrast to to how President Obama handled domestic affairs, which was both effective and with an even keel. Amid layers of hearsy and legal prattle, the actual substance of Obama's domestic policies and their impact on the country remains poorly understood. I will elaborate more upon this with part two, sometime in January.

(538)

Some Final Thoughts on the 2016 Presidential Election

This year, I saw America. This wasn't a specific goal, but the circumstance and result of doing some long-awaited traveling. I spent quality time in seven different states, including a part of my home state of Illinois that I hadn't visited in some time. I nonchalantly interacted with locals, tried things I had never previously experienced, met the spouses and family of good friends, and generally tried to appreciate the atmosphere of an unfamiliar terrain. I connected with some wonderful people and created memories that I'll always treasure, in an attempt to temporarily bridge a gap between age, religion, and culture.

I mention age, religion, and culture because I spent of this time in what would be considered "red state" territory. The atmosphere was humble and relatively speaking, socially conservative. I largely avoided talking politics, even though this brutal election was on nearly everyone's minds. I came to realize that Donald Trump, the multimillionaire who finagled his way to the Republican presidential nomination, represented none of these people.

In the early days of the 2016 presidential campaign, I was baffled by how Trump and his incendiary, nationalist rhetoric was polling ahead of the perceived GOP front-runner, Gov. Jeb Bush. As it turned out his anti-Mexican, anti-Muslim, and mostly meninist platform catered to an ignored demographic, a new silent majority of sorts: social conservatives that didn't identify as Republicans. They were on the fringes of society and politics itself: bigots, rubes, conspiracy theorists. The type of people that make the most appalling hashtags trend on Twitter, who only listen to conservative news-talk pundits like Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, and Alex Jones and perceive them as beacons and not bilious entertainers. In other words, people who think mainstream conservatism is too out of touch with their toxic beliefs.

Indeed, Trump took advantage of this silent majority, and made Twitter his playground. If the election was limited to one social media outlet, then the New York real estate mogul would be winning decisively. He ran laps around Sec. Clinton, demonstrating a lack of filter and tact not previously seen by a presidential candidate. The woman who would become the Democratic candidate did her best to take the high road until she finally told Trump off. She tweeted "Delete your account," a succinct but oddly flaccid retort. Where Clinton emphasized her many qualifications (and Trump's lack thereof), Trump just kept attacking anything and everything without remorse. The pandering and flame-throwing was incessant, and his status as the fringe right's patron saint was solidified. Clinton knew better than to add gasoline to a flame war, and stayed on the high road instead.

I grew up around mostly Republicans in a shallow-red Chicago suburb. I was raised to not judge a person by their gender or race or faith or creed, even though my hometown circa 1991 was overwhelmingly white and Catholic. That wasn't something to came to me innately; I remember my first grade teacher, a woman of Greek descent, struggling to explain why Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks were so important to American history to a classroom that was over 90% white. I had two minority classmates, a third-generation Mexican-American and a girl who was half-Haitian, half-African American. The Latinx classmate was extroverted and well-liked, but the other girl was awkward, timid, and a bully target. My teacher failed to make her (and our class in general) understand what King and Parks sacrificed to give her the right to be as equal as everyone else. It was until she moved away, about a year later, that my classmates and I realized how awful we were.

When I see the childish antics of Trump's most ardent supporters, I think back to that first grade classroom. They all had something in common: they were rural or suburban and overwhelmingly white, but also left behind in the new economy, expect easy answers to hard questions, and worst of all reluctant to accept that America is more multicultural and diverse than its ever been. They see Muslims, blacks, and the LGBTQ community as threats, but their real-life interaction with them is minimal and they base their fear out of stereotype. As a result white supremacy, anti-Semitism and sexism have shifted from the fringes to the middle of the discussion. Moderate conservatives, or at least Republicans that supported minimally more palatable candidates like Ted Cruz and Dr. Ben Carson, begrudgingly joined the frenetic Trump bandwagon because, well, who else was going to beat Hillary?

Even though the Democrats have labeled itself as the "party for women," there was a time in the early-to-mid 1980s when the GOP headquarters staffed more women than men. Where Democrats have more or less embraced feminism (with some qualms), Republicans have largely been either ambivalent or oblivious. Where the women of the GOP mostly stayed in low-level administrative roles, women in the opposing party ran for office and inspired the next generation to follow their footsteps. The backward legacy of Phyllis Schlafly, the face of anti-feminism, lingers in the GOP months after his death and will likely do so for years to come. If the 2012 election was a deliberation on women's health rights, then 2016 is about what it means to be an American woman, period.

This is the sixth election, presidential or midterm, that I've covered in this blog. I usually end each pre-election missive with a nonpartisan plea to vote, to demonstrate the most basic tenet of democracy. This year, I can't bring myself to play my intercession down the middle. Where Hillary Clinton has many flaws, Donald Trump has proven repeatedly that he is vile and shortsighted beyond redemption. He is shameless opportunist that will break every campaign promise the moment he enters the White House, then blame his failures on everyone except himself.  Trump was overexposed as a reality star 10-plus years ago and exhaustively omnipresent now. Say all you want about decades of unproven rumors and right-wing vilification, Hillary Clinton is the only logical choice to be our next president. Someone will bring up Benghazi and the private emails, but someone else will retort with at least 20 things that Trump did. This election is about a leader against a demagogue. Beyond the former first lady, there is no other viable option.

(533)

Uncivil Servants

Two of the ugliest races of Decision 2012 is not garnering national attention, but it's making Chicago and the outlying area feel emotionally spent. As a result of redistricting, seven-term incumbent Judy Biggert (R) is running the closest race of her political career against former congressman Bill Foster (D). Biggert's old turf was decidedly suburban and overwhelmingly Republican, now it's about 50/50 yet only slightly more urban. Considering that Judy is a grandmother in her mid-70s, there's also the question of whether she'll serve in Congress for much longer if she wins in two weeks.

Where Biggert and Foster are fighting for their political lives, another local race has turned into a barrage of name-calling and character assassination. Over in the redrawn 8th District, local war hero Tammi Duckworth (D) is running against Tea Party incumbent Joe Walsh. This race has become less about the issues than the candidates themselves; a recent debate was particularly personal and decidedly ugly. Walsh accused Duckworth of relying too much on her military background to evoke sympathy (she's a double amputee), while Duckworth has fingered Walsh as a misogynist and a woman-hater. Yeesh.

Granted, at this point the outcome of the election is all but set, and anyone expecting widespread turnover or any semblance of change will be disappointed. The GOP will keep the House, the Democrats will still (barely) control the Senate, and it appears Barack Obama will defeat Mitt Romney by a hairsbreadth. Not to be a negative nellie, but... enjoy four more years of gridlock.

(383)

Random Notes, February 2009

+ I don't know about you, but I miss analog TV signals already. ;)

+ Being a history buff, I get a kick out of those lists where historians rank the US presidents. The latest list (courtesy of C-SPAN, released yesterday) doesn't reveal that many surprises; much like their 2000 survey Lincoln, Washington, and FDR cracked the top three while James Buchanan finished dead last. It should be noted that this is the first list of presidential rankings to include George W. Bush (as a rule, the sitting president is always excluded), who finished 36th out of 42. In determining Dubya's place in history --four weeks after leaving office, anyway-- this group of historians gave our 43rd president points for pursuing equal justice for all and crisis leadership, but demerits for international relations and economic management. The list was a bit more generous to President Bush's last five predecessors: Ronald Reagan cracked the top ten, while Gerald Ford finished 22nd, Jimmy Carter 25th, Bush 41 was 18th, and Bill Clinton coming in at 15th.

+ I wish I could say I was excited about this year's Academy Awards, but I'm still convinced that this is the weakest crop of nominees in recent memory. There were a handful of great performances this year (there's no way Heath Ledger is losing this Sunday) but the best picture category leaves something to be desired. The Reader has a 60% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, far and away the lowest of the five nominated movies; the film is a showcase (physically and literally) for Kate Winslet and she's the odds-on favorite to win best actress, but there's not much else about this Holocaust drama to merit being one of the top five movies of 2008. Harvey Weinstein is at least partially to blame; his smooth operating and one-man publicity blitz pushed The Reader ahead of Gran Torino and The Dark Knight for that final slot. On that note, I'm picking Slumdog Millionaire for Best Picture, Danny Boyle for Best Director, and Rourke, Winslet, Ledger, and Davis in the acting categories.

+ Finally, after some internal debate I've decided to dip my feet back into the the cutthroat, no-holds-barred world of fantasy baseball. I signed up for the TV.com league at Yahoo! last week and we're holding our draft on March 14th. After finishing 5th out of 8 last year and losing consecutive playoff series to two "ghost" teams, I felt an uncontrollable urge for redemption. Wish me luck!