Yes, we can ... but so far, Obama hasn't

Illustration: Simon Letch.

"Less than 12 months into his presidency, Barack Obama is confronting an excruciating paradox. He is on the brink of being the first US president to deliver comprehensive reform of America's health-care system, a radical change for which he clearly had a mandate, and yet his popularity with voters has plummeted. He is increasingly regarded with either disappointment or downright distaste by legions of supporters who this time last year were still bathed in the euphoria of "yes we can".

What has gone wrong?

The past 11 months have been marked by Obama's seeming timidity, his vacillation (particularly the very public attenuated policy review process about whether to send more troops to Afghanistan) and his failure to stand up and tell people what it is he wants. (He has never articulated a precise description of the bottom-line requirements of the health-care plan he wants).

In other words, he has failed to lead.

This has surprised and infuriated his friends, has already led to significant defections among media outlets for whom last year he could do or say no wrong and, in what is now Obama's biggest political headache, has given a new-found energy to his opponents."

So begins a perspective of Obama's almost 12 months in office by Anne Summers, writing an op-ed piece in Australia's SMH. It's probably a fair assessment as Obama has so very extensively disappointed so many of not only his fellow-countrymen, but people in many countries around the world.

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