They say that any boy can grow up to be President of the United States. Forty three have. (One is counted twice, serving non-consecutive terms.) We have yet to elect a woman as our leader, but that will come, despite the good old boy network. In 2008, we did manage to elect the first black man as our president, forty years after Robert F. Kennedy made that prediction.
President Barack Obama inherited the biggest mess at his inauguration that any president has since FDR was first elected. The list of challenges facing the new president was long and difficult. It makes you wonder why anyone would have wanted the job.
There is no doubt that being elected President is no easy task, but it pales in comparison to actually doing the job, one that has been made even more difficult for Obama with a completely united opposition. To the detractors of the President, I have often asked this question:
“What you would have done, starting January 20, 2009, without using the words ‘I wouldn’t have?'”
It’s easy to be an armchair President and list everything that has been done and then righteously claim “I wouldn’t have done that!” It’s a damned sight harder to make reasonable proposals and hold them up for scrutiny.
Contrary to the Republican mantra, Democrats are not in lock-step with Obama. There are many issues where we disagree and many lines of criticism. There are many things Democrats wish he had done and yes, some that we wish he hadn’t done.
It is ironic, perhaps, that some of the most damning criticism coming from the Left regarding President Obama is that he hasn’t been liberal enough!
“What would you have done?”
Easy question to ask, much more difficult to answer, yet it begs an answer from the detractors of our President.
I have my list, what is on yours?
William Stephenson Clark
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 