Obama and Expectations: His Own Damn Fault
By PrivatePigg ~ January 19th, 2009. Filed under: Obama, cult, liberalism.
I’m getting a little tired of Obama and the ever-complicit media constantly telling me to temper my expectations and give him “a couple of years” to get things worked out.
I don’t think so. That’s not the way it works.
When people place unfair expectations upon you, it’s OK to ask that they temper those expectations. But no one placed any expectations on Obama. He completely built them up and placed them upon himself. A little over a year ago the national consciousness would have said, “Obama who?” when asked about the current President-elect. Clinton had the expectations. If Clinton had won and had 8 years of build-up on her shoulders (since her first run for the Senate), she would have needed to ask her supporters to temper their expectations. But unknown Obama, who had no expectations whatsoever, came forward and made big promises about things like Iraq, the economy, the future, etc., that other candidates could not honestly make. Obama spoke with soaring rhetoric, using happy but undefined and vague terms like “hope” and “change.” Obama, by making these promises and by speaking in such terms, built up expectations on himself. Obama upset the presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton and Obama won this election precisely because he said things that raised people’s expectations. He was nationally unknown. Clinton had already won. He came out of nowhere by promising the moon and the stars. He beat Hillary and McCain by promising everything. Obama has always been about “hope and change,” has he not? Now, after his victory, he’s out there basically telling everyone that he’s not going to really be able to do all that stuff: “Please temper your expectations.” Uh, no thanks. If you aren’t actually going to back up that rhetoric and do all that stuff, we’ll kindly take Ms. Clinton, please. The other candidates knew better than to make such sweeping promises. I feel like we’ve all been duped. I mean, we had plenty of choices over the past year. Lots of people said, “I’ll do ‘this’ or ‘that’ if elected.” We listened to them all and, as a country, selected Barack Obama based (hopefully) on the things he said he would do… That he’s now not going to do… But people still have high expectations because of what he said he’d do… Even though he won’t do it now.
To make it worse, since asking for us to “temper our expectations” in his acceptance speech, he subsequently went out and spent the next two months doing everything possible to convince everyone he is the second coming of Abraham Lincoln. The Rawness has a good round-up of all of the self-made Lincoln comparisons and even some quotes from historians saying that Obama’s over-the-top “I’m just like Lincoln” stuff is beyond the pale, historically speaking (for example, Obama is going to get sworn-in on Lincoln’s bible, took the famous Lincoln train ride out to DC, and is using replica plates of Lincoln’s inauguration at his own inauguration dinner, among other things). Go read the post. It’s not like Obama is quietly doing these things, either. He’s going out of his way to convince people he is Lincoln. He’s making it a media story.
When you go from the underdog to the champion by making promises that others won’t make, by speaking in ridiculously soaring rhetoric, and by constantly comparing yourself unabashedly to the greatest President in US history, you create expectations. You then have no right to tell people to temper them. The only reason he won is because he created expectations for himself that were greater than the expectations we had for other politicians. If he’s not going to live up to them, then what good is he?
Conservatives should show him no mercy.
Update: Someone figured it out.
This is not another installment in the media’s—and the nation’s—fascination with President-elect Barack Obama. And the school his girls attend. And the dress Michelle will wear for the inauguration. And who will pray what prayer at the ceremony. And who will be the White House chef.
This is a reality check. No, even better, think of it as a reality reminder.
This guy is going to be inaugurated, and then he’s going to become—drumroll, please!—routine. And not just routine.
People—basically all of us at some point—aren’t going to like him. Remember, nearly half the country voted for the other guy…
Lyndon Johnson did more for the civil rights movement than any other president in history. Yet he was reviled for policies that got us deeper and deeper into the Vietnam War…
Update 2: The internationals are getting restless already.
Barack Obama got a global standing ovation long before he was elected president. But in a fickle and fast-moving world, the overseas reviews are already turning mixed.Though much of the world will party through the night Tuesday after Obama is sworn in as America’s 44th president — just as it did when he was elected — there are signs the ardor is cooling as the sheer weight of his challenges sinks in.
A deepening global recession, new hostilities in the Middle East, complications in closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan — an impatient world has a stake in all of them and is asking how much change Obama can deliver.
“Just two months ago, the future president seemed a cross between Superman and Merlin the magician,” Massimo Gramellini wrote in a commentary for Italy’s La Stampa newspaper. “Now he himself admits he won’t be able to keep all his promises, and who knows? Maybe someone will ask for his impeachment by the end of next week.”
“The idealism has diminished,” said Samuel Solvit, who heads an Obama support network in France. “Everyone was dreaming a little. Now people are more realistic.”
The piece goes on to note that “Muslims” in the Middle East are disappointed because Obama hasn’t joined the anti-Israel crowd, yet. Ha! Now that’s a lose/lose situation! His middle name became a bad word in America, and any mention of his possible links to Islam was deemed as “right-wing hate and lies.” Plus, Obama’s already been relatively clear on his support for Israel. As practical considerations of being President begin to set in (and the realities of no longer being an outsider who can lob criticisms at others with impunity also set in), I think Muslims will be even more disappointed. Muslims in the Middle East want someone to be unabashedly on their side. That won’t be Obama. After all, he’s built himself up as the great middle man able to bridge any divide.
And I love the Frenchman who says “everyone was dreaming a little.” About what, exactly? Which of Obama’s promises actually had French people looking across the Atlantic with little puppy-dog eyes? What issue was so important to them? Iraq? If France were to elect someone that was more pro-Iraq, I’d be happy, but I wouldn’t be “dreaming” about it.
In any event, it seems the Europeans and Middle Easterners who do not necessarily have the good fortune of being able to “hang out” for a year or two while Obama gets around to making good on his promises, are already tired of waiting. When the international criticism comes flying in and Team Obama is helpless to stop it, the American media, and Americans, will follow suit. The honeymoon will be short, my friends, unless he hits the ground running.
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January 19th, 2009 at 7:50 am
You can carp as much as you want, but fortunately most Americans disagree with you.
A survey conducted by The New York Times and CBS News found a US public eager to give the president-elect a wide berth as he attempts to turn around a faltering US economy, tackle global warming, help solve the intractable Middle East peace process, along with a plethora of other mammoth challenges.
Of those surveyed, 79 percent were optimistic about the next four years under Obama, the highest level of goodwill attained by any of the past five incoming presidents.
Most Americans told The Times that they did not expect real progress in improving the economy, reforming the health care system or ending the war in Iraq — three of the central promises of the Obama campaign for at least two years.
January 19th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Kevin - That’s the article that prompted my post, actually. It could be an accurate representation of the public’s feelings right now (although it is only a poll), or it might be just a favorable cross-section of the country.
And although people say they are going to give him a long time to implement his changes, I’m guessing that if there is no actual progress within a few months people will start to get restless. Especially since bloggers and others aren’t going to give him any breaks.
But I understand people may disagree with me, which is why I wrote the post.
January 19th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
PS - Remember, even after 8 years of “the worst Presidency in history,” half of the population voted for the other guy - the outgoing President’s own party. Despite the media’s attempt to convince us all that we are just happy to wait forever for Obama to do anything, I think the honeymoon will be short-lived.
January 19th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Just goes to show that everything is subjective. You could be right, and the natives will get restless well before the halfway point. I’m not sure why you put worst presidency in history in quotations, though (just kidding). Seriously, though, the bar seems to have been set pretty low by the former administration.
Anyway, good luck to you. If Obama does worse than Bush in the eyes of anyone who is less partisan than, say a Sean Hannity, I’ll come back and you can say, “I told you so.”
January 20th, 2009 at 12:52 am
Well, I hope Obama does not do “worse.” I hope he moderates and ditches most of his left-wing agenda as the realities of being President set in. And I hope those moderate policies succeed (and I hope people recognize their moderate-ness).
As for Bush, I think he’ll be vindicated in 20 or 30 years. Most of what we talk about today will be lost to history books, but a few things will remain, like terrorism, the wars, etc. If Bush’s security apparatus is un-done and we subsequently are attacked again, or if Iraq and Afghanistan turn into relatively nice places, Bush will, unfortunately for many detractors, get the credit, as libs pretty clearly linked Bush to those issues. It will be interesting to see.