JOHN BRUMMETT: Transformative? Or Clinton lite? - Opinion

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Nov. 08, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JOHN BRUMMETT: Transformative? Or Clinton lite?

JOHN BRUMMETT
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A year after his historic election, Barack Obama stands revealed as something less than the transformative president he aspired and was intermittently projected to be.

It would be premature and unkind to say that, instead, he's Bill Clinton with bigger problems and more spending, with the same health care mess, but without the girlfriend.

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That it's premature is obvious. You can't judge a president after a few months, though we can't help but try. Obama scoffed at the notion the other day in a speech in New Orleans, saying, hey, it's been nine months and yet world hunger persists.

The unkindness is to Clinton. At this point in his presidency, he'd done two big things -- a budget with a tax increase on high incomes that would provide the foundation for surpluses and, by November 1993, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Obama has passed a much larger and more dramatic economic package. Otherwise, he's stymied on a second thing, either reforming health care or reforming energy policy.

So while we must be careful not to read too much into Tuesday's few elections, there was a stark contrast last week that was impossible to ignore.

HBO, the cable television network, unveiled an insider documentary about Obama's campaign a year ago, replete with teary-eyed African-Americans and starry-eyed young people revealing their inspiration by Obama as they chanted "yes, we can."

It seems now almost an orgy of pitiable naiveté, because, actually, it seems that, no, we can't.

In Virginia, where Obama won a dramatic victory last November, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate got creamed. In New Jersey, a Democratic state where Obama campaigned three times for incumbent Democratic governor Jon Corzine, the Republican challenger won decisively.

A transformative leader ought to able to leave some kind of residual movement a few months after his election, don't you think? After all, to transform politically is to effect changes extending beyond one's self.

Yet Virginia reverted to old form, largely because Obama wasn't on the ballot bringing new voters to the polls. New Jersey, about as blue a state as we have, rebuffed this would-be transformer more directly. It might not have been personal. It might have had little to do with Obama. But it showed nonetheless that there's not a whole lot of transforming going on.

Obama looks too much like a politician as usual, temporizing and modulating and getting caught up in the same old partisan dysfunction.

It may be that American politics remains simply as basic as James Carville put it in 1992 when he said it's all about "the economy, stupid."

It may be that the best assessment of modern American politics came in 2000 when, confronted with nondescript candidates and no burning issues, the American voters fought to a tie.

And it's further beginning to appear that the tie gets broken only by the multi-directional anger of independent voters, accruing to the benefit of the party most recently losing. The cycle is evident: Throw out one set of rascals. Then throw out the replacement rascals the next time.

Today's independents tend to be results-oriented, impatient and disdainful.

So the nation hangs on to a seesaw they control.

These independent voters were mad in 2008 about the failed economy. They were mad in 2009 -- in Virginia and New Jersey, at least -- about the exploding deficit and the uncertainty of the economy.

They don't like what they're getting. They lack any sustaining philosophy about what we ought to be doing. So they react only to what they don't like.

Alas, there's a force in America greater right now than any uplifting chant or soaring oratory or noble message or charismatic personality. It's discontent.

And our winter for it seems to have settled in for a while.

John Brummett is an award-winning columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock and author of "High Wire," a book about Bill Clinton's first year as president. His e-mail address is jbrummett@ arkansasnews.com.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. HELENWEILS wrote on November 08, 2009 07:58 PM: Did you see Jon Stewart's impression of Glenn Beck? It's absolutely hilarious. Remember, Glenn Beck is Fair and Balanced. He has to be, he's on the Fox "News" Channel! http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-november-5-2009/the-11-3-project Yet Another Hypocrite Con wrote on November 08, 2009 04:19 PM: Miss California, Carrie Prejean, appeared in a television advertisement opposing same-sex marriage for the National Organization for Marriage, which had contacted her shortly after the pageant. She also hired a Christian public relations firm. In late April, Prejean presented an award at the Gospel Music Association's 2009 Dove Awards in Nashville, Tennessee. Prejean also spoke at Liberty University's final convocation of the year on April 29, 2009. Then some naughty pics surfaced. Her response: "I am a Christian, and I am a model. Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos. Recently, photos taken of me as a teenager have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid Web site that openly mocks me for my Christian faith." National Organization for Marriage president Maggie Gallagher stated that the release would not affect Prejean's role with her group. AND NOW! Former Miss California Carrie Prejean was hoping to get a substantial amount of money in a lawsuit against pageant company umbrella company K2 after claiming she was stripped of her title due to "religious discrimination." however, she instead received nothing but a few legal fees after pageant officials realized that she had participated in a sex tape. Her mother was in the room when the Miss California USA lawyers pressed play. Sources tell TMZ Carrie's mom was in shock -- instantly turning sheet white. It took all of 15 seconds for Carrie to drop her $1 million demand from the Pageant people after the XXX tape was played. rmolnar wrote on November 08, 2009 03:18 PM: President Obama is nothing more than a hack politician from Cook County, Ill. Green Dragon Regular wrote on November 08, 2009 02:09 PM: @mo schmo- I'm your huckleberry... yesterday's "Obama bashfest" came to be because of the CinC's ham-handed, tin-eared, childish approach to the remarks he made regarding the events at Ft. Hood. More and more, what we are witnessing are the consequences of the unqualified elevated to authority. Even his supporters, as evidenced in Brummett's piece, are realizing that he is incapable of execution, only organization. He is like a fantasy football "coach/ owner" suddenly thrust into the role of an NFL executive- inhabiting a world of suppositions, what-ifs, and wishful thinking. He posts "results" based on the achievements of others that mean nothing. He is the emperor clothed completely in raiment of theoretical thread dazzling to the sheep of his kingdom who line up for shearing and give up their lambs for the dinner tables of his soothesayers. SamT wrote on November 08, 2009 12:22 PM: @mo schmo: Anyone can easily watch MSNBC, why bother with this lout? Flyboy wrote on November 08, 2009 10:03 AM: How's that Change thing working out for you? mo schmo wrote on November 08, 2009 09:12 AM: Ok, comments on yesterday's short, respectful editorial about Sgt Munley turned into an Obama bashfest almost immediately. This piece is an outright invitation to slam the guy, and where all the daily detractors chiming in? Could it be they only like to pipe in when they can change the subject to Obama's faults by blaming him for whatever was being discussed? C'mon, folks- Brummet put out some tasty bait. Why aren't you all grabbing it? MacDougall wrote on November 08, 2009 07:16 AM: Let's see in 2006 it was the Democrats saying that Republicans were spending like Democrats, they were of course. The Democrats also started mewling about the "culture of corruption" and how they wanted to clean house. In 2008, they did. But now we have Democrats spending like Democrats and the Republicans mewling about a "culture of corruption". Oh my, what are we to do? This bozo blames Independent Voters for this, he writes: "These independent voters were mad in 2008 about the failed economy. They were mad in 2009 -- in Virginia and New Jersey, at least -- about the exploding deficit and the uncertainty of the economy. They don't like what they're getting. They lack any sustaining philosophy about what we ought to be doing. So they react only to what they don't like. " Well John, you knucklehead, when you vote out one group and find that the new group lied their fannies off, what do you do? Vote the clowns out. If the next group is as bad or worse, vote them out to. But then I am not an Obamabot so I am not going to follow you and your lemmings over the cliff. I am going to try and vote you idiots out of office. ted wrote on November 08, 2009 04:20 AM: Did we hire Obama to be a full time campaigner for him and his buddies, or to be president? Every week I get e-mails asking me to again donate to the Obama campaign. How much did the 3 times to go to New Jersey to campaign for Corzine cost us taxpayers, a million??