Flex Your Muscles Mr. President

Last year this time I was sitting on my sofa watching election results as Barack Obama defeated John McCain to become president of the United States. I felt like things were looking up in spite of a potential stock market crash and depression on the way. So far during his short time in office there has been a lot going on. Last night there were gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia. The Republican candidate won both of them and now the media and political pundits say that this was an indicator of the country feels about Barack Obama’s policies. I don’t think that is true. I think it may be more a case that so far he hasn’t done anything to keep the people who came out and voted for him energized for change.

Barack Obama won because of young voters and independents. I think he needs to realize one day that those people voted for him and not necessarily the Democratic Party. The country didn’t actually convert over to Democrats. They just felt that he could lay the groundwork for some real changes. It’s not like the Democratic approval ratings were that high last year. That’s one of the reasons why he was able to climb to the top and win. He didn’t have the baggage and shouldn’t have added any baggage to himself either.

I knew he was going to have a little trouble when he appointed the same financial gurus to fix a system they helped to break. Sure, they probably understood how the system works more than anyone else but the people didn’t care. They had to be somebody in this country no associated with Wall Street that could have come in and handled that crisis. That one move alone may have been enough for some to say that everything in Washington is still the same. That opinion is helped along by the way everyone seems to be fighting and getting nothing accomplished. Old school Republicans and Democrats are not that ready to shake up the system and work together for the people. That bi-partisanship is cool but sometimes you when are the new management in charge you have to make an example out of some older employees just to let the rest know that the old days are gone before you can become the good guy that works with everybody.

I personally think that he would be feeling pretty good about everything if he would have bullied the House and Senate to pass the health care bill he wanted with a public option. You can’t have a better example of change where the people benefit more than that. Even the ones that get mad about know we need it deep down. Instead I think we are about to get this lobbyist influenced bill that is going to say reform and not really change the game for anyone. One of his advisers needs to tell the president that it’s okay to throw his weight around a little and to stop making everybody happy. That’s what we want him to do.