Barack Obama has been president for thirty days, and to believe some reports, has proved a disappointment to liberals. Though I am far from a full-fledged political junkie any more (in high school, I could name all 100 senators; now I could probably get 60-70 at best), like a great many people I’ve been following these early hopeful days of 44 as closely as I can.
Remembering the old adage about politics being the art of the possible, I count myself very pleased with how things are going — particularly on the environmental front. These stories have had me pinching myself with excitement:
EPA to Regulate Carbon Dioxide
Oil and Gas Leases Needed Scrutiny
A Green Stimulus that Wins Praise from the Sierra Club
Vilsack calls for Stricter Food Labels
And the right-wing is worried about increased animal rights influence from within the administration. May their fears be well-founded, and may the estimable Cass Sunstein live up to his billing as an advocate for non-human sentient creatures.
I haven’t loved everything Obama has done; some of his cabinet appointments have left me crestfallen, though Hilda Solis at Labor and Steven Chu at Energy were the two perfect nominees for their respective posts. I’m increasingly optimistic about Eric Holder, our new AG, after his frank and brave “nation of cowards” speech yesterday. And I think Lisa Jackson will do a terrific job at EPA. Get us a strong family planning advocate in at HHS, and we’re in business.
I never believed Bill Clinton (the only other Democrat to hold the presidency in my adult life) was a progressive. The left forgave him over and over again, largely because he was a man so lucky in his enemies. We mistakenly believed that anyone who could arouse the wrath of the likes of Newt Gingrich and Henry Hyde and Bob Barr and Jerry Falwell had to be “one of us”. But the enemy of my enemy is not always my friend, and Bill deceived progressives more than once with that tack. I sense Obama is well to the left of the 42nd president, perhaps our most genuine progressive since FDR, to whom he is often compared. That may be overly optimistic, but at least some of what has been said or done these past thirty days has given me cause to believe it might be so.