By Wes Pedersen
Barack Obama’s image is back.
He’s the can-do kid again, thanks to a series of victories in a lame-duck Congress no one expected much from. It’s a political miracle, actually. Smart Republicans decided to work with him for a change as they counted down the days to the new glory assured them by a House in which they would be the majority.
But you’ve got to ask yourself: Can the Obama momentum continue once the Mitch McConnells in Congress start piling it on? The GOP’s No. 1 goal, according to McConnell, is to deny him victory in 2012. They can do that in part by denying him victories in the new congressional era.
There’s an unrealistic euphoria in the Obama administration’s and the Republican outlook as we enter 2012. The president is touting his successes over the past two years as evidence of strong leadership. The Republicans see their wins in the mid-terms as proof that their rip and pillage promises of attacks on big government and big debts are paying off.
But Obama has much to apologize for, notably his failures to recognize the plights of the unemployed, the homeless, and the prolonged wars until late in the political game. The Republicans are guilty of the same sins and now face the need to actually do something positive about conditions in this country and abroad while they are presumably trying to undermine the president.
We’ve seen, in recent weeks, that accord on seemingly intractable problems is possible. That’s good for Obama, but it could work against the GOP. Can they profit from building him up?
The short answer is Yes, Maybe, and Remember, There’s a Nasty Election Coming up.
On the positive side, Obama and his other-party opposition are as one on financing the war in Afghanistan and the remainder of the war in Iraq. Both want a strong military around the world, and events such as North Korea’s badgering of the South attest to that need.
At home, Obama is at last prepared to do something about joblessness and homelessness. He wants big business, which he has, for most of his term so far, reviled, to help government create jobs and housing. That is a tall order, but conceivably achievable with Republican cooperation in the House.
On the negative side, neither the president, nor the Republicans, can proceed with expensive projects and still adhere to promises to reduce the national deficit. It simply cannot be done unless projects near and dear to the American public are whacked into insensibility. Cut Social Security and really mess with Medicare? A political impossibility. A social disaster.
The Republicans say they are prepared to play the bad guys to get the country back in shape. That pledge is likely to be forgotten as soon as they have to start knocking the president around in election campaign.
Time now to get down to hard pan. The nation needs money to survive.
We cannot, as Bush veterans assumed, simply print new money. We are in a bind on raising taxes. The money isn’t coming in, it’s fleeing skirts up and fast. Our states, newly discovered by the pundits as poorer than dirt, must be considered when the next big allotments of federal cash are made.
If the president and Congress can cooperate and find solutions to these and other critical problems, the country will applaud them both. If they cannot, a new party critical of both is almost certain to arise.
When the president of China arrives in January for a lavish state dinner, we may get a glimpse into how bad our economic situation truly is. That will be the main topic between the two presidents. How bad a scolding is Obama likely to get behind closed doors? Would he even dare ask his Asian counterpart for a new loan to tide the United States of America over for a short term at least?
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Wes Pedersen is a retired Foreign Service Officer and principal at Wes Pedersen Communications and Public Relations Washington, D.C. |