Obama: Year One

Let's break it down like a fraction...

The substantive record is clear enough. Torture is ended, Gitmo still remains enormously difficult to close with the Christmas Day Crotch Lighter making complicating the situation further and rendition continues to be extremely hard to police. The Bush/Cheney unitary executive, claiming vast, dictatorial powers over American citizens, has been unwound. The legal inquiries that may well convict former Bush officials for war crimes are underway and the trial of KSM will reveal the lawless sadism of the Cheney regime that did so much to sabotage our war on Jihadism. It is also now clear that the actions of our former POTUS (GITMO, torture, etc) have contributed to the increased radicalization of and recruitment for al Qaeda groups around the globe. The most clear illustration being the group that orchestration the attempted Christmas day attack citing those actions specifically in their charter.

Military force against al Qaeda in Pakistan has been ratcheted up considerably. The US has given notice that it intends to leave Afghanistan with a bang - a big surge, a shift in tactics, and a heavy batch of new troops. Iraq remains dodgy in the extreme, but at least March elections have been finally nailed down and we are getting our courageous men and women out.

Domestically, the new president has rescued the banks in a bail-out that has come in at $200 billion under budget, the economy has shifted from a tailspin to stabilization to economic growth and some prospect of job creation next year and the Dow is at 10,500 a level no one would have predicted this time last year. A stimulus package has helped undergird infrastructure and probably did more to advance non-carbon energy than anything that might have emerged from Copenhagen with more funds available to continue the progress out the ditch that our former POTUS left our country.

Universal health insurance that will REDUCE the deficit by $150 billion over the next decade and allow access to affordable health care to 95% of Americans while reducing premiums for those who have it and codifying safe guards so that insurance companies cannot deny coverage for those with preconditions and prevent them from canceling policies when people get “too sick” is imminent. To those out there that rail against reforming the “status quo” citing to that the government must keep its hands off my Medicare and that this is a plot to insure illegals and kill babies and senior citizens can be rest assured by the fact that NONE OF THIS IS IN THE BILL!! Granted it is your right to have deep seated apathy that 45,000 Americans die every year as a result of not having access to health care. It is also your right to claim that you don’t owe anything to your fellow Americans because you “earned” your money and you shouldn’t be forced to “sacrifice” what you have worked hard to acquire. Again, you are well within your rights to believe this, but I would advise thinking twice about taking for granted the down payment paid by the millions of Americans that have fought, died, bled and sacrificed in order for you to have the freedom to feel that entitlement. PS...illegal aliens already have access to health care. The problem here is not increasing access to healthcare…it is reforming our immigration laws so that businesses cannot take advantage of cheap illegal labor while simultaneously allowing those who want to come to our country and work legally the opportunity to come out of the shadows and begin to "contribute" through a pathway to citizenship which will include paying taxes. Let’s not mistake the forest from the trees here.

Relations with Russia have improved immensely and may yield real gains in non-proliferation; Iran's coup regime remains far more vulnerable than a year ago, paralyzed in its diplomacy, terrified of its own people and constantly shaken by the ongoing revolution; Pakistan launched a major offensive against al Qaeda and the Taliban in its border area; global opinion of the US has been transformed; the Cairo speech and the Nobel acceptance speech helped explain exactly what Obama's blend of ruthless realism for conflict-management truly means. In short, America has reclaimed its position in the world and is back on the long road to regaining the respect of the world that is necessary to hold the leadership on the international stage.

Our great country has encountered and persevered through the muck and grime left behind from eight years of Bush/Cheney leadership. There is still much to overcome, but we are now coming out of that ditch and moving forward. Finally...the sun is rising and soon it will be morning in America again.

So yeah...I will take that the first year under this POTUS.