A New Term, But Old Divisions Remain
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on January 22nd, 2013 12:08 am by HL
A New Term, But Old Divisions Remain
Dan Balz, Washington Post
The theme of many presidential inaugurations is renewal, the marking of a moment when the nation vows to put aside past divisions and unite behind its leader to confront the challenges of the day. Events that have taken place since President Obama won reelection in November suggest that another reality colors this Inauguration Day.Monday’s ceremonies may be only a temporary cessation of the political conflict that has gripped and at times paralyzed Washington throughout Obama’s presidency. In that sense, what takes place on the Capitol’s West Front, with all its…
The Liberation of Barack Obama
E.J. Dionne, Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Barack Hussein Obama can begin his second term liberated by the confidence that he is already a landmark figure in American history. His task is not to manufacture a legacy but to leave his successors a nation that is more tranquil because it finally resolved arguments that roiled it for decades.Whatever happens in the next four years, Obama will forever be our first African-American president, and our first biracial president. He has won two successive popular vote majorities. Andrew Jackson and Franklin Roosevelt, both of them icons, are the only other Democrats who managed…
President’s Best Days Are Probably Ahead
Steve Kornacki, Salon
It's not surprising that President Obama clocks in near the bottom of a list compiled by Gallup of average first-term approval ratings for presidents in the postwar era. Obama's average score of 49.1 percent places him ahead only of Gerald Ford (47.2 percent) and Jimmy Carter (45.5 percent), while the highest numbers belong to Lyndon Johnson (74.2 percent) and John F. Kennedy (70.1 percent).It's actually a fairly misleading list. Johnson's first term, for instance, is defined as the 14 months between Kennedy's assassination and the 1965 inaugural ““ a…