Junior Andrew Clark, a Hatchet columnist and member of the GW College Republican’s executive board, describes the noticeable lack of political fervor after the excitement of last year’s presidential campaign.
Alcohol isn’t the only thing that can give you a hangover. This year, Obama-mania will give it to you as well. President Obama has been in office for nine months. Regardless of your political persuasion, as we return to campus, we can all agree that the Obama-mania was extremely overrated.
Commentary from the opinions editors, op-ed columnists and The Hatchet's Editorial Board
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Vol. 109
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I have always liked the fact that The Hatchet provides a forum for opinions that can be deemed controversial at the liberal bastion of George Washington University. As such, I enjoyed reading Andrew Clark’s editorial about the “post Obama-Mania hangover”. However, as a loyal citizen of the People’s Republic of GW, it is my pleasure to retort.
First of all, the fundamental premise of the article is that “the moderates who voted for Obama are waking up to a hangover”. However, the millions of independent voters who supported Obama were never drunk on his appeal to begin with. They understood that he was more left wing than most of the country, but supported him anyway as the lesser of two evils. It was not the moderates who were climbing on cars and tooting their horns on November 4th – those were either the liberals, who supported Obama because of his political stance, or the minorities who supported the progress that Obama’s presidency symbolizes.
Secondly, Mr. Clark says that the economy is “showing signs of recovery” despite the fact that only a fraction of the stimulus has been spent. He thus suggests that the stimulus has nothing to do with this turnaround. As someone who spent the summer looking for work, I can safely say that this economy is far from healthy and that we need every cent of that stimulus to keep it from collapsing entirely. Since the beginning of the recession in December of 2007 more than 3 million jobs have been lost in the US. However, “only” 218,000 jobs were lost in the month of August. That number would have been far greater had cash-strapped states not been able to use federal stimulus money to pay government employees.
Thirdly, the 46% presidential approval rating that Mr. Clark presents in the article is a distortion of facts. In fact, every poll besides Rasmussen finds that Obama’s approval is now around 55% (Gallup, CNN, Ipsos, Pew). The RealClearPolitics average approval rating is 53%. That is roughly equivalent to the percentage of people who cast their vote for Obama during last November’s election – meaning that his supporters are still happy to be drinking the policy cocktails President Obama is mixing. I for one have complete faith that both the health care and the cap-and-trade bills will be signed into law this year. Change is still coming. Party on!