What is President Obama's 21st century version of the New Deal? It simply doesn't exist in any substantive form. FDR and President Obama faced very similar crises but they addressed them in entirely different ways. Roosevelt developed solid programs to rebuild America's foundations; Obama uses band aids and tourniquets to stop the bleeding but is failing to heal the deep wounds inflicted on this economy. America today cries out for bold, innovative solutions to our economic crisis, not stop-gap initiatives that do not breathe life back into our economic foundation.
But wait, maybe we are being too hard on President Obama relative to our domestic crises. We have to remember that his #1 priority rests with conducting America's wars in foreign lands. Therefore the degree of attention that he can give to creating new jobs and rebuilding the nation's infrastructure is quite limited. He has his hands full with training Iraqi and Afghan military forces and in rebuilding the infrastructures that have been destroyed by our military actions. Since there is only so much of his time available, America's problems will just have to wait.
Does our president have it in him to say "enough is enough"? Can he somehow become a maverick president who refuses to be controlled by the Washington Establishment; the kind we rarely have seen? Can he be his own man, reject the war agenda and the iron grip of the military? Can he stand up to Wall Street and place limits on the way that lobbyists and special interest group inundate the halls of Congress? Can he answer every negative action by the GOP with an opposite positive reaction? Is that too much to ask of our president? No, it is not, that's what he owes America.
We're still waiting for him to become the president we thought he would be. Yes, to do these things would take an exceptional man with exceptional courage and conviction, a man who would use the power of his office and his voice to rally the American people to his cause and then use that backing to pressure the opposition to do what is right for America; a man who would go down in history as one of the greatest of American presidents.
Will this president start acting like the man who is charged with the responsibility of leading America, or will he continue to govern in the passive and half-hearted manner that has marked his presidency thus far; one that will take down his presidency and the Democratic Party with it? Time is running out for him; but worse yet, time is running out for America.
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