Recently, it came to my attention that a comparison between President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush was being made in the area of public support. Imagine my surprise when I came across this sentence in an op-ed piece by Douglas E. Schoen and Scott Rasmussen in The Wall Street Journal: “Polling data show that Mr. Obama’s approval rating is dropping and is below where George W. Bush was in an analogous period in 2001.”
How can this be? I thought Obama was the greatest thing since sliced bread, while Bush failed America in every possible way and left office as one of the most disliked presidents in history. It would appear that although our new president is the media darling, the American people may be a little more grounded. I wouldn’t be surprised if his ratings continued to fall, considering much of what he has accomplished and promises to accomplish are different from what I had hoped.
Alas, only time will tell if his legacy will be one of triumph or failure. I shall eagerly sit on the sidelines with my bowl of popcorn praying for triumph, but trying my best to enjoy the show.
I also read something very troubling recently in regards to the national deficit. Apparently, the Obama administration is playing the part of the witch in the gingerbread hut and feeding the deficit. I don’t see what good fattening our national deficit will do, unless Obama plans to eat it, especially considering the way in which it is being done. It is no surprise his predecessor did his own share in adding to the deficit, but in my book, war debt is far more desirable than pork barrel spending and welfare expansion. Recently, the Congressional Budget Office published its assessment of the Obama administration’s 2010 budget and found it will increase the federal deficit by $2.3 trillion more over the next 10 years than the White House had previously estimated. This brings the grand total to (drum roll, please) $9.3 trillion.
Wow, that’s roughly four times what Bush accumulated during his presidency. That means Obama should receive four times the criticism for his contribution to the debt, which will be quite harrowing. I don’t think anyone seriously thinks the media will choose this presidency to become unbiased, so it’s safe to say he is free from said criticism. At the very least, it won’t be proportionate. I am reminded of what Ronald Reagan said when asked about his presidency: “I’ve been asked if I have any regrets. Well, I do. The deficit is one.” I wonder what Obama will say when asked the same question four years from now.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear the Obama administration plans to take steps to improve our public education system. In a speech this month, he detailed some of his ambitious plans to improve education, including merit pay, data banks to monitor teacher performance and a tough standardized testing system. I am glad to see he may make good on some of his campaign promises, because we all know there is often a large divide between campaign and presidency.
In the area of education, it is sad to see how far behind the U.S. has fallen in comparison to other nations. I sincerely hope the Obama administration has a profound and lasting effect on our public education system. However, I am a believer in the idea that we should turn away from government run education. The government has had its chance to use our most valuable resource, our children, effectively and efficiently. Met with this difficult task, the government has failed miserably. Time and again, the private sector has shown it can do the job better, and yet, the government continues to waste our dollars on a flawed system.
It saddens me to see that although private schools are cheaper and produce a stronger education, most Americans continue put their children public schools. Public schools are very expensive, even though the government pays for it instead of parents. For this reason, I am a strong proponent of student vouchers. I believe the only part the government needs to have in education is to continue the opportunity of free education but allow the private sector to control how the education is provided. Alas, the government is a hard thing to cut back, so I’m afraid it will always have a dominant role in the education of our youth. In the meantime, it’s good to see Obama taking proactive steps to improving what he can.
Obama is well into his first 100 days, and he has begun to establish his persona. I mentioned before that he was risking losing his bipartisan support with some very liberal actions, and I believe his decrease in popularity is a sign of that. Hopefully, he will realize he can make a difference, as any president can. Maybe he will take himself back to the middle ground and truly establish a bipartisan presidency, like he promised. But, like I said, there is a large gap between campaign and presidency. In the end, I will continue to hope that the change he supposedly brings will be a good one. But, I will also fear what he can do if some of his more socialist, leftist ideas take root. If that happens, we’re all in for a rough four years. I guess that’s just another sign of our decline.
Ryan Rougeau is a junior majoring in computer engineering. He can be contacted at [email protected].