The Dodge Retort

I keep hearing President Obama’s popularity ratings are plummeting. My question is why?

On a macro scale, he’s done just about everything he promised to in the 2007-08 campaign: push healthcare reform and Wall Street regulation; restore America’s diplomatic standing in the world; take a hard line on security; jump start renewable energy; work to close Gitmo and wind down the Iraq War;  rebuild the electrical grid and get economy back on its feet.

credit: Whitehouse.gov

To one degree or another, all of this is happening. As someone who writes about technology, I see billions of federal dollars flowing to utilities in matching grants to rebuild the nation’s electrical grid. Battery makers and electric auto projects are also being backed. Such funding is critical to national security, weaning ourselves off oil imports (does anyone care anymore?) and making the U.S. more competitive.

If he’s made political miscalculations, why would we sour on him when it’s politics and Belthway insider-ism we complain about? Bottom line: President Obama is not doing a good job. He’s doing a great job in incredibly challenging times. But he’s still learning. Did anyone honestly think the country would turn around in a year under a rookie president? Progress has been made and the country is on the right track.

People have short memories about where we were heading under the last president. Check your 401k statements from where they were a year ago. Why would anyone be for allowing insurance companies to drop sick people from their rolls? We’re still losing jobs every month, but the number is far fewer: 598,000 in January, 2009 versus  11,000 in November and 85,000 in December.

The Jan. 19 issue of  Time takes stock in the Obama Presidency  on the eve of his second State of Union speech and it’s quite favorable. More than anything, it faults him for not giving up sooner on courting most Republicans. Besides healthcare reform bogging down, “he’s done a great many other things very well.” Author Joe Klein’s biggest criticism is saved for Republicans, accusing them of “nihilism.”

They [Republicans]  demagogued nonexistent provisions of the [healthcare reform] bill.” Klein writes.

How is that working for us?

Obama told Klein that when he’d go to meet the Republican caucus to get their ideas on the stimulus package, minority leader John Boehner would release statements that the GOP would vote against such a measure before the exchange took place. The Republican leadership acts like petulant children.

A friend told me Obama’s timing is off. When Wall Street was cratering our 401ks a year ago, Obama should have gone after the banks and brokerage firms instead of pursing healthcare reform. That’s a good point. Wall St. was enemy number one, but we voters have short and selective memories.

The far right preaches morality, harps about taxes and if they don’t say so outright hopes President Obama goes down in flames. The Republican strategy is to say “no” until they are back in power. Certainly, they win on being the loudest and most vitriolic. Washington politics are so nasty that “survival is as good as it gets,” Klein writes.

The rest of us – moderate Republicans , Democrats and Independents – want to see the president succeed. And if you’re unsure about President Obama, remember what it was like under the last president.

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As a Democrat, I feel utterly let down by Martha Coakley. In a word, the campaign she ran against Republican Scott Brown STUNK! Except for the last 10 days leading up to the election, you could call it “The Campaign that Wasn’t.”

So Massachusetts won’t have the person in the Senate voting for the Democratic values I treasure. From a practical standpoint, her loss makes President Obama’s job tougher. For the record, I think he’s doing a good job trying hard to make good on his campaign promises. My main issue with him is that he’s way TOO WIMPY with his fruitless obsession in courting Republicans (every time I see Mitch McConnell and John Boehner on TV, I throw up).

Coakley: a lousy campaign. credit: Masslive.com

Back to Coakley: more than one person on election day itself commented on how few Coakley signs were plunked down in yards. In front of our polling place, Brown’s energized and angry followers were out in force, holding signs and enthusiastically waving at passing cars. Coakley had two or three supporters out there and sometimes none. I heard this repeated about several towns.

As one fellow Dem said, “I wish Brown was a Democrat.”

This morning’s Globe carried a good piece on her failed campaign and how she let leads of 17 points or more slip away  after the the first of the year. I was stunned to learn that she held no public events between Dec. 23-30  (word was she was vacationing in the Caribbean!!) while Scotto was driving around in his fabled truck meeting voters.

That’s the arrogance that swung independents over to Brown.

Even before the primary, I never saw her on the North Shore where I live. She wasn’t out pressing the flesh and as the Globe article put it, making voters feel “respected.” In the primary, I voted for scrappy Rep. Mike Capuano because he came off as a fighter. Martha seemed   controlled, calculating and a bit cold. She showed little of herself while Brown exhibited himself as an open book and likable guy.

That’s until last Saturday when Martha came to Michael’s Harborside restaurant in Newburyport. Finally, her campaign showed signs of life, but it was too late. Meanwhile, Brown’s supporters lined Route 1 on the hillside above Michael’s letting Coakley know she was under siege. The scene was right out of a 50s western with the Indians on the ridge about to slaughter the cavalry.

Edward Jr. at Ted's funeral. credit: SDNN.com

My wife and I both commented this morning that we thought Martha would have made a good senator. She grew on me the more she got out in the campaign. That’s the way it’s supposed to happen, right?

But yesterday, she also said she’s running for Attorney General again this Fall. The dust hasn’t even settled and this career bureaucrat is acting like it’s business as usual. I’m not sure I’d vote her her this Fall until she recognizes how badly she screwed up and acknowledges in some way that she let down fellow Democrats, Independents and maybe a Republican or two.

She bears sole responsibility for losing the seat held by Ted Kennedy for 47 years because she did not work hard enough. To use a sports metaphor, she didn’t want victory badly enough.  Could she have made up the five point difference with a better campaign? That’s about 100,000 votes, but she only needed better than half of those for a victory. I think she could have.

The Kennedy legacy still stands, but oh does it feel like the Kennedy influence around here just swirled down the drain with TV news showing all those Brown signs in Hyannisport.  Joe Kennedy, who doesn’t ring my bell all that much, would have beaten Brown. I think Vickie would have, too. But the Kennedy I liked the most is Ted Kennedy Jr. who spoke so movingly about his father at the funeral.

Maybe’s it’s that he sounds and looks like his father. Ted Jr. has conquered cancer and loss of his leg at a young age. He’s stared down death and comes off articulate and wonderfully genuine. I hope he enters politics so “The Dream lives on.”

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