Obama's Presidency

President Barack Obama has been in office for three years and three months. The conventional wisdom implies he accomplished little in his first term because he mostly outraged his opponents and disappointed his supporters. This is nonsense, of course. Both sides are judging the president based on their own biased set of facts and overblown expectations. President Obama was never the socialist, Muslim described by the Right. Nor is he the weak-kneed moderate who wasted his eloquence and betrayed his supporters.

Quite to the contrary, Obama had a successful first term because he refused to do what people expected of politicians and presidents. In January 2009, when Barack Obama became president I described him as a community organizer whose values were "local, deeply conservative and based in reality." I said "he is not comfortable with generalizations, projections and the abstract." And he would "not pay the price to stand on principle." This, I predicted, would "put off the crusaders on the left." I think, overall, I got it right.

"Barack Obama," I said, "is not playing by the old political rules." The president has avoided short-term political grandstanding (holding out for a single-payer healthcare system) and interest group pandering (criminalizing all bankers). He has been willing to work hard at consensus (the Grand Bargain), to wait when necessary for the payoff (Dodd-Frank).

It has not been easy. President Obama took office in the face of an economic, political and financial nightmare. The economy was hemorrhaging millions of jobs. Our politics were frozen in partisan gridlock. The banking system was in danger of a worldwide meltdown. And all that was in addition to our ongoing political problems: an exploding deficit and debt, a completely dysfunctional healthcare system, two wars and the emergence of China as an economic superpower. The President accepted, even embraced, that reality.

The people appreciate that the President handled this worst economic downturn since the 1930s with a steady hand. They accept that his program – an effective stimulus package, the careful takeover of GM and Chrysler and the rescue of the financial sector – were all major accomplishments that salvaged a bad situation. More, they like him! Despite the harshest kind of vindictive, President Obama out polls Mitt Romney 2-1 on friendliness, likability and inspiration.

The measure of how this president operates, is best shown by the way he flipped the Republicans by taking their signature issues and making them his own. On healthcare, President Obama took a program originated in the Heritage Foundation and implemented by that Republican governor of Massachusetts and made it the means to near universal healthcare coverage. He did the same with cap-and-trade emissions controls. Both programs are conservative in origin and market-based. But Obama pushed them hard and made the Republicans look obstinate, indecisive and at least moderate and maybe even liberal.

In foreign-policy the President was particularly effective because he could operate outside of Republican obstinacy. He treated each country as a separate local problem and it worked. His lead-from-behind policy in regard to the Arab Spring left our NATO allies carrying the burden and America getting the credit, which is rather nice for a change.

When the president had to be decisive, he was. President Bush gave up going after Osama bin Laden but President Obama knew that was a loose end that had to be tied up. The president ordered the strike that his Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense advised against and he personally added the spare helicopters that salvaged the mission.

Obama followed the Bush timetable for general withdrawal from Iraq but he demanded a Status of Forces Agreement (exemption of US military from Iraqi courts) to force Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, to demand that all US troops leave.

What I did not foresee was the patience. Obama's political rise was so rapid that there had been no chance to show his ability to wait. To the consternation of his more impulsive followers, Obama has been willing to wait to let a situation mature. In regard to Don't Ask Don't Tell, the deficits/agreement with the Congress, the stretched out implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the delay in passing the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act, the slow but steady cut in defense spending and the use, perhaps abuse, of interim appointments, Obama has been willing to give up a tactical position, even shade a principle here and there, for a long-term strategic gain.

Rather than leading the charge into party line political fights, President Obama has been the careful moderator of a contentious society, a nuanced and successful player in the shifting foreign-policy game and an astute politician who has embraced the long run. He did this by being himself and rejecting what partisans wanted him to be. He governs the way he campaigned: No Shock Barack – No Drama Obama!

President Obama had a successful first term and is well-positioned for reelection and a second term. Now, it would be very nice if he had a Democratic House and Senate.