Obama's first year

There's an adage about not seeing forests for all the trees.  Jacob Weisberg's essay on "Obama's Brilliant First Year" is all about that forest.

Weisberg's conclusion is that Obama has concentrated on exactly the right things; lifting the country from a crushing recession, getting health care reform passed and reforming America's reputation in the world.  On the health care reform issue, Weisberg writes:

The case for Obama's successful freshman year rests above all on the health care legislation now awaiting action in the Senate. Democrats have been trying to pass national health insurance for 60 years...The bill he signs may be flawed in any number of ways—weak on cost control, too tied to the employer-based system, and inadequate in terms of consumer choice. But given the vastness of the enterprise and the political obstacles, passing an imperfect behemoth and improving it later is probably the only way to succeed where his predecessors failed.

For the federal government to take responsibility for health coverage will be a transformation of the American social contract and the single biggest change in government's role since the New Deal. If Obama governs for four or eight years and accomplishes nothing else, he may be judged the most consequential domestic president since LBJ. 

It's good to step back once in a while and check out the forest.  But there are a bunch of big important trees as well - repealing "don't ask, don't tell", getting Guantanamo closed, the conduct of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and dealing with the threats posed by Iran and North Korea in light of U.S. constraints.

There's another adage about patience being a virtue and it was undoubtedly naive to think Barack Obama could right every wrong in no time flat.  It took a while to get where we are.  It will take a while to get to where we want to be.

Comments

[Wes]

It's probably irresponsible to nitpick on the little things, like cementing the Bush Doctrine http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/12/11/obama or "instituting a massive, trickle-up bailout and systematically gutting regulatory reform from the inside." http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout

[Jay McDonough]

Gee, you're kind of a party pooper. (just kidding). They're hardly "little things". I find myself vacillating between optimism and despair. You caught me on an "up" post.

[Wes]

Now I feel bad for harshing on your good moment. Those moments are so precious when it comes to referencing national policy!