Divided US public makes life difficult for Obama

• Source: Global Times
• [22:53 January 18 2010]
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Illustration: Liu Rui

By Stirling Newberry

Barack Obama has been President of the US since January 21, 2009. Almost one year ago he took office in the middle of a crisis of confidence and trust that threatened to consume the world.

At that time the world's credit system was frozen solid, and global trade was in free fall. A string of dramatic bank failures and mortgage collapses had shaken the financial world, and with it the flow of paper and money that lubricate the world trade. At such a moment, avoiding catastrophe was, in itself, an accomplishment.

Early in the summer of 2009, the meltdown ended, and the downturn creaked to a halt. Globally, the unilateral style of former US President George W. Bush was ushered out, ushering in a more conciliatory, international, and diplomatic US policy. Now, there is hope of a fragile recovery taking root.

Obama was given one of the largest majorities in Congress of any US president, and had a command over his party which gave him the ability to force his preferred position on issues. According to Congressional Quarterly, the venerable journal of US politics, no US president in over half a century had had as much success on the issues where he had enunciated a clear position.

But the end of his first year stands in sharp contrast to this seeming political ease. No president has ever dropped support faster in his first year than Obama. Since August the US has returned to a divided electorate, with half of the public approving, often tepidly, of his performance, and somewhat less than half disapproving, often vociferously, of the job he has done.

This has happened despite his active conciliation of both the Republican Party and the religious right. The US, sharply divided during the Clinton years, has remained so, despite having a very moderate Democrat in office, who has stalled, stopped, or diluted almost every major item on the liberal agenda. He has pursued Republican policies almost without interruption: expansion of the war in Afghanistan, tax cuts, bank bailouts, protection for private insurance companies and drug companies in his healthcare bill, and a complete absence of financial reform, other than to threaten a bank tax to pay for the bailout.