The U.S. economy grew at a sizzling 5 percent annual rate in the July-September period, the fastest in more than a decade, boosted by strength in consumer spending and business investment…
It was the fastest quarterly growth since the summer of 2003. It followed a 4.6 percent annual growth rate in the April-June quarter…
The country is on track to have its healthiest year for job growth since 1999.
(The Associated Press, December 23, 2014)
In fact, Obama’s domestic policies have led to the unemployment rate falling from 10 percent in October 2009 to 5.8 today, and the DOW Jones Industrial Average rising from 6,469 in March 2009 to a record of 18,053 at the close on Friday.
And, perhaps most significantly, there’s his historic healthcare reform:
Enrollments via the federally run Obamacare health insurance exchanges on HealthCare.gov surged leading up to a big deadline last week and reached almost 6.4 million after the first month of sign-ups, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday…
‘This law is working, and families and businesses and taxpayers are better off as a result,’ [Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said at a press conference Tuesday]…
These private health insurance plan enrollments as of Dec. 19 are in addition to the almost 10 million who have signed up … since last October.
(Huffington Post, December 23, 2014)
Ironically, nothing affirms the success of Obamacare, which Republicans denounced as socialism, quite like having Wall Street analysts singing its praises — as Citi Investment researcher Carl McDonald and others did in a November 21 report by Kaiser Health News.
Meanwhile, his foreign policies (in particular, sanctions against Russia as punishment for annexing Crimea and fomenting unrest in Eastern Ukraine) have led to gas prices falling from an average high of $3.96 in May 2011, to an average low of $2.32 today (stemming from a fall in the price of a barrel of oil from a high of $145 in 2008 to $59 today). Not to mention the landmark agreement on climate change he negotiated with President Xi Jinping of China.
Indeed, despite Chicken-Little reporters and pundits giving the impression that these are the worst of times, Obama can claim – without fear of contradiction – that he is the leader of a world that has never been freer, safer, healthier, or richer.
Yet an NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll (conducted December 10-14) found that 64 percent of Americans remain convinced that Obama is leading the country down the wrong track, which clearly vindicates my November 19 commentary, “Call It the Stupidity of the American People.”
More to the point, though, the undeniable success of his policies speaks volumes about the acute nature of Obama derangement syndrome among Republicans. After all, they are now vowing to redouble their efforts to make him a “failed president” — by, among other things, blocking appointments and passing legislation that either undermines or rolls back his policies whenever/wherever possible.
Well that is true, making Obama a one-term President is my single most important political goal along with every active Republican in the country.
(GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, FOX News, July 10, 2011)
And Republican members of Congress are not the only ones afflicted by this syndrome:
Controversial Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is stepping down after six years in office.
The Republican, who was a staunch critic of President Obama and his administration, delivered one last parting shot at him before she left, branding him a ‘failed president…’
Brewer, who was famously caught on camera wagging her finger in the president’s face on an airport tarmac, said she had no regrets over the interaction, which some saw as ‘disrespectful.’
(Daily Mail, December 24, 2014)
Unfortunately, with control of both houses of Congress and a Republican-leaning Supreme Court telegraphing its intent to affirm their efforts, Republicans have the best opportunity yet to vindicate their irrational contempt for this president. Evidently, their inherently flawed, but abiding, strategy is:
[T]o let the bright lines shine; why give Obama any opportunities for bipartisan victories, on the theory that a failing president makes it harder for Democrats to argue for a third term [for Hillary].
(Daily Best, November 4, 2014)
Frankly, one could be forgiven the impression that there’s a direct correlation between the success of Obama’s policies and the intensity of Republican efforts to undermine his presidency — the welfare of the country, especially its poor, jobless, and uninsured, be damned.
But just imagine how much better off the country would be, and how much higher Obama’s job approval would be, if Republicans were even half as interested in working with him as they were in working with Bill Clinton, despite their visceral hatred of him … too. By the same token, though, just imagine how much the Republican narrative (of trying to tar and feather Obama as the worst president in U.S. history) would resonate if Republicans were more successful in their efforts to undermine his policies.
This only reinforces the racial legacy of Blacks having to be twice as good as Whites to get the same amount of credit (i.e., the other side of affirmative action White folks are loath to acknowledge). Which constrains me to restate my contention that, if Republicans succeed in making Obama a failed president, far too many Whites would consider that reason enough not to vote for another Black to be president for another 100 years….
In the meantime, here’s to more partisan gridlock, highlighted by Republicans doing all they can to foil implementation of signature initiatives — like healthcare reform, immigration reform, and normalizing relations with Cuba. These initiatives, coupled with a booming economy, seem bound to seal Obama’s legacy as a truly transformative president.
But nothing could be more vexing to them than Republican-leaning polls showing that, despite their efforts, Obama’s job approval still matches that of their patron saint, the transformative Ronald Reagan, at this point in his presidency.
Related commentaries:
Stupidity of American voter…
Legacy Note: With over 5,600 posts spanning 20 years, I am easily the most prolific blogger on the most eclectic array of topics on the web. That makes The iPINIONS Journal an unparalleled archive of informed political and cultural commentary. Visit the ARCHIVES section in the sidebar or search by topic. You won’t find a more consistent, independent voice on world affairs.