Time's Joe Klein sizes up Obama's first 100 days

[HopeOverFear]

Read the whole article here.

The President almost seemed apologetic. "This may be a slightly longer speech than I usually give," he told his audience at Georgetown University on April 14. "This is going to be prose and not poetry." What followed, as promised, was not poetry. Barack Obama doesn't do much poetry anymore. But in prose that was spare and clear and compelling, the President proceeded to describe how his Administration had responded to the financial crisis, the overriding challenge of his first 100 days in office. He had covered this ground before, nearly as well, in his budget message to Congress. But now Obama went further, using a parable from the Sermon on the Mount — the need for a house built on rock rather than on sand — to describe a future that was nothing less than an overhaul of the nature of American capitalism. "It is simply not sustainable," he said, "to have an economy where, in one year, 40% of our corporate profits came from a financial sector that was based on inflated home prices, maxed-out credit cards, overleveraged banks and overvalued assets."

That was the house built on sand. His house built on rock had five pillars — new rules for Wall Street, new initiatives in education, alternative energy and health care, and eventually budget savings that would bring down the national debt — which did sound a bit prosaic. Democratic politicians have been promising one or another, if not all, of the above since Franklin Roosevelt reinvented American government in the 1930s. But Obama was making his case in the midst of a national crisis, at a moment when it seemed possible that he might enact much of what he was seeking. And he was talking about far more than a new set of policies: he was implying a new set of national values. "There's also an impatience that characterizes ," he said, "that insists on instant gratification in the form of immediate results or higher poll numbers. When a crisis hits, there is all too often a lurch from shock to trance, with everyone responding to the tempest of the moment until the furor has died down ... instead of confronting major challenges that will shape our future in a sustained and focused way." (See who's in Obama's White House.)

The combination of candor and vision and the patient explanation of complex issues was Obama at his best — and more than any other moment of his first 100 days in office, it summed up the purpose of his presidency: a radical change of course not just from his predecessor, not just from the 30-year Reagan era but also from the quick-fix, sugar-rush, attention-deficit society of the postmodern age. The speech received ho-hum coverage on the evening news and in print — because, I suspect, it was more of a summation than the announcement of new initiatives. Quickly, public attention turned to new "tempests of the moment" — an obscene amount of attention was paid to the new Obama family dog and then, more appropriately, to the Bush Administration's torture policy and the probably futile attempt to prosecute those who authorized the practices. And then to a handshake and a smile that the President bestowed on the Venezuelan demagogue Hugo Chαvez. These are the soap bubbles of our public life. They have become the hasty, capricious, bite-size way that we experience the world. It has made for slovenly, sandy citizenship.

The most important thing we now know about Barack Obama, after nearly 100 days in office, is that he means to confront that way of life directly and profoundly, to exchange sand for rock if he can. Whether you agree with him or not — whether you think he is too ambitious or just plain wrong — his is as serious and challenging a presidency as we have had in quite some time.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Klein is a total tool. nt

[HopeOverFear]

2. It's a pretty good article, though, he's very positive here.

I don't know anything about Klein, so I didn't know he was a tool. :)

[Captain Hilts]

3. Yeah, he's a tool.

Keep the faith!

[ClarkUSA]

4. Some folks are still refighting the primaries. Ignore the criticism of Klein.

He had the good sense to support and defend Pres. Obama through most of last year (which meant criticizing the Clintons' at times)
but in no way has he been uniformly approving of every move on Team O's part. He's also been wrong lots of times and owns up to
it when he realizes it. I like him for his maturity and his clear-eyed view of political BS from both sides of the aisle. Reading through
his archived articles should give you a better view of his perspective.

[Hutzpa]

10. You mind explaining the reason for that anger

seems to me you did not read his article but to respond with a diatribe which is totally
uncalled for IMO.

[JayMusgrove]

5. Joe the Ho Kliein is dead to me... but

this is the best Klien can do?

Well, he's almost positive.

I remember how he helped put Clinton, (the Prez) into the dog house.

Google the book "Primary Colors"

Also

"He is an admirer of George W. Bush personally, although he has sometimes disagreed with his policies. In an interview with Hugh Hewitt Klein said of Bush, "Let me say that of all the major politicians I've covered in presidential politics in the last two or three times around, he is the most likely to stick with an issue, even if the polls are bad, and to govern from the gut as you said. I don't always agree with the decisions that he makes, but I think he is an honorable man, and when I've criticized him, I've tried to criticize him on the substance, and certainly not on his personality, because I really like the guy."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Klein

[LiberalFighter]

6. Why are they doing the 100 days when he hasn't been in office 100 days yet?

[HopeOverFear]

7. It's like a religious holiday

They start the celebrations early

[Drunken Irishman]

9. Because this article is in the TIME that's for the week of his first 100 Days.

[Cha]

8. This is so true..

"The most important thing we now know about Barack Obama, after nearly 100 days in office, is that he means to confront that way of life directly and profoundly, to exchange sand for rock if he can. Whether you agree with him or not — whether you think he is too ambitious or just plain wrong — his is as serious and challenging a presidency as we have had in quite some time."

[PBS Poll-435]

11. Joe Klein wrote a hell of a book

:-)