Oft-quoted political oddsmaker Stuart Rothenberg has a column at Roll Call in which he discusses the collapse of public support for president Obama's foreign policy efforts. The analysis is pedestrian, but I did get a chuckle about the way that the liberal Rothenberg spoke of Obama's record. Here are Rothenberg's words:
The growing perception that President Barack Obama over-promised and has under-delivered on international issues could add to the already hardening perception that his presidency has not been an unadulterated success.
As I read this, I actually started laughing. We have had stagnant economic growth for Obama's entire term, but his presidency has not been an unadulterated success. We have run up the biggest deficits in human history, but the Obama presidency has not been an unadulterated success. The income of the average American household is down roughly 10% during Obama's years in office, the first such decline in the post war period, but the Obama presidency has not been an unadulterated success. Obamacare has disrupted healthcare for millions upon millions of people while driving up the cost of healthcare without greatly expanding the number of insured Americans, but the Obama presidency has not been an unadulterated success. In Afghanistan, America has lost thousands of troops and spent hundreds of billions of dollars without even coming close to achieving our objectives, but the Obama presidency has not been an unadulterated success. I won't go on with the list.
I do wonder, however, what it would take for a liberal like Rothenberg to call any aspect of Obama's presidency a "failure". My best guess is that so long as there is not a nuclear war or the destruction of humanity, Rothenberg will continue to rate Obama a qualified success.
The growing perception that President Barack Obama over-promised and has under-delivered on international issues could add to the already hardening perception that his presidency has not been an unadulterated success.
As I read this, I actually started laughing. We have had stagnant economic growth for Obama's entire term, but his presidency has not been an unadulterated success. We have run up the biggest deficits in human history, but the Obama presidency has not been an unadulterated success. The income of the average American household is down roughly 10% during Obama's years in office, the first such decline in the post war period, but the Obama presidency has not been an unadulterated success. Obamacare has disrupted healthcare for millions upon millions of people while driving up the cost of healthcare without greatly expanding the number of insured Americans, but the Obama presidency has not been an unadulterated success. In Afghanistan, America has lost thousands of troops and spent hundreds of billions of dollars without even coming close to achieving our objectives, but the Obama presidency has not been an unadulterated success. I won't go on with the list.
I do wonder, however, what it would take for a liberal like Rothenberg to call any aspect of Obama's presidency a "failure". My best guess is that so long as there is not a nuclear war or the destruction of humanity, Rothenberg will continue to rate Obama a qualified success.
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