Too soon for Rush to judgment on Obama's progress
"UH-O"
Drudge Report headline over a photo of President Obama on Wednesday -- Drudge's interpretation of Tuesday's elections.
On the Sun-Times' Web site on the night of Nov. 4, 2008, and then in the paper on the morning of Nov. 5, the headline over my column read:
This was a great day to be an AmericanI was writing, of course, about the election of Barack Obama.
Strange how our perception of elapsed time can expand or compress depending on the context. I was talking to a friend on Halloween, remembering a costume party we attended in '08, and I said, "Can't believe a year has gone by. Feels like that party was just a couple of months ago."
But when I think back on that intoxicating, surreal, 70-degree Election Night at Grant Park in Chicago, with the whole world watching as a massive crowd cheered the election results . . .
Well. That seems like a lifetime ago.
Even as I celebrated the historic implications of Obama's win, I had no illusions about the reality awaiting everyone the next morning, and in 2009 and beyond:
"We don't know if President Obama will rise to FDR-level greatness or become mired in Jimmy Carter-esque mediocrity. . . . The excitement of this landslide will wear off and reality will set in -- not just for Team Obama, but for those who sang and danced and partied deep into Tuesday night. . . . This world and this country are faced with the same challenges today we faced Tuesday. No single human being can wave a magic wand and transform the USA into Shangri-La."
Obama's honeymoon with the press and the public was already starting to fade by the time he was sworn in.
The Rasmussen Reports chart of Obama's approval rating looks like the outline of a double black diamond Alpine ski trail. Obama's approval level was at 65 percent when he started on the job and has steadily declined since. As of Wednesday, about nine months into the Obama presidency, 48 percent of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama's job performance, while 51 percent disapprove.
That's not that huge a swing from the 53 percent "approval" margin Obama won on Election Night (and I realize that's a little bit of an apples/orange comparison), but obviously at least some of the citizens who voted for Obama last year are feeling the sting of disillusionment these days.
Meanwhile, a certain segment of the opposition to Obama has grown increasingly vicious in the months since he took office -- and more than a few of the criticisms and charges have been in the downright loony category.
Sarah Palin posted a Facebook statement about fictitious, never-gonna-happen, "death panels." Thousands if not millions of people subscribe to the wacky conspiracy theory that Obama was born in Kenya. Many others -- or maybe they're the same folks who believe the birther nonsense -- still cling to the belief Obama is a Muslim, which has no more basis in fact than theorizing that George W. Bush is Jewish, Bill Clinton had three children outside of his marriage and Richard Nixon was actually a woman.
Then there's Rush Limbaugh, who said Obama has "an out-of-this-world ego" and is "very narcissistic."
Rush Limbaugh calling someone a narcissist is like Rush Limbaugh calling someone a pompous, self-promoting, cigar-chomping, balding, large-headed, thrice-married, blowhard, multimillionaire radio host.
By now I've probably lost some of the more trigger-happy GOPers, who are racing to their keyboards to pepper the Subject Header with comments such as "You're an idiot" as they chastise me for my blind defense of "Barry" or "B. Hussein Obama" or "Your Lord and Savior Obama," as they like to call him.
That's too bad, because here in Fair and Balanced Land, I freely acknowledge there's legitimacy to some of the criticisms of Obama's stimulus package, some of his political appointments, the health care package, his Afghanistan policy and even those "Dad jeans" he wore at the All-Star game.
Hey. You know you're not hitting home runs every day when "Saturday Night Live" does a skit in which you have a "To Do" list -- and none of the boxes is checked.
And even Obama seemed taken aback by the Nobel Peace Prize. Who knew it was based mainly on potential?
How's that Hope and Change thing working out for me?
Still a work in progress. Even the most cynical and obtuse critic of the president has to concede the real grade for Obama at this early point has to be "Incomplete."