Obama’s place is at the podium in today’s America.
Last Tuesday night at the IOP, I booed President Obama. Of course, I cheered wildly at much of what he was saying, too. His practical, logical approach to the myriad specters floating listlessly over the American landscape is worth putting stock in; it is worth examining closely; it is worth considering as a realistic set of national goals. It is, in short, a campaign platform. An okay platform, sufficient, I suppose, and, in an era of political insanity, somehow sane.
Complacency seems to be called for among progressive voters these days — despite the electoral signs to the contrary (which is to say, the wild rightward swing after the 2010 midterm elections), the things President Obama has been saying for the past few years almost seem to be coming to fruition. The American economy is growing (slowly, nowhere near quickly enough to recover its pre-recessionary strength any time soon). Frankly, right now, the rest of the issues don’t matter.
Mitt Romney’s recent turn of phrase in regards to the State of the Union Address — he decried Obama’s tenure as a “groundhog day presidency,” one in which promises are made and repeated every day like some kind of cultish mantra, but not kept — is somewhat of a paean to the calendars that cover the walls of the Republican candidate’s campaign offices (located, somehow unsurprisingly, in a nondescript office building a few miles east of Cambridge). It is by these that he sets his watch, flosses his grin, moisturizes his good hand for maximum shakability.
Romney was distinctly aware, as he called to mind that simple image of the classic Bill Murray film, that there remained (and remains) an unimaginably complicated path for him to gain the nomination of a regressive, dangerous party in a time which necessitates staid political and administrative guidance. Florida voted on Tuesday, giving him a few more delegates, but nowhere near enough to become the nominee. He might be a frontrunner, but he still has a long way to go. There will likely be months before the race is truly decided, particularly if his opponents’ fringe audiences keep propping them up.
Romney’s essentially meaningless attack, one which is neither aggressive, nor articulate, nor well-founded, is going nowhere. The policies of the President are making things in America better. Sure, these are dark days, and it doesn’t take much to make things “better,” and there’s plenty of room to improve still, and so on qualifiers granted! It is these successful policies that will matter this fall.
Given the choice of Obama, an intelligent, proven leader whose restorative work has finally begun to address the nightmarish state into which America plunged due to its last Republican president, or Romney, a man whose conservative credentials (so important in a polarized America) are questionable, whose business ventures focused mainly on taking small businesses and only slightly improving them, and whose pop culture references are comprised of slapstick from the silent movie era, the side which voters will take becomes apparent.
So, go ahead, Mr. Romney. Preach it to high heaven that Obama repeats himself. Good one. I’m sure that will help you the next time you’re debating a guy who brought home a miscarried fetus to visit his kids, an ethically-challenged man whose greatest aspiration is to colonize the Moon, and that sprightly old OBGYN whose politics are laughably beyond even the staunchest conservative’s.
In the meantime, try to come up with some better material while you’re pretending to be a man of the people. I’m sure that the President (and America) can’t wait to hear what you’ll come up with next.
Gary Gerbrandt ’14 (garygerbrandt@college) can’t wait to play a long edition of Dueling Pianos with conservative Indyites as the election unfolds.