myself a D+.
Now I know that many feel that is a high but there are extenuating circumstances. I thought that the first grading period for a President came after 100 days but I guess we are going to be grading not on results or legislation passed but by past actions of appointees - (so much for grade inflation).
I didn't get the memo but a number of brilliant and ideological pure DU heavyweights have been giving Obama his due and well it seems like he needs a partental conference (I guess with Michelle) because he is not only set out a campaign of hatred against gays he has publicly set out to humiliate Governor Dean. His grades so far? Mostly Cs and Ds
Well this has been a real surprise to me because Obama has been the most civil of politicians on the national level. Civil in the primaries and civil in the General Election. In fact I am almost certain that there were some folks who said that he was too civil and that he had to take the gloves off and get nasty.
Change we can Trust and Change from the Bottom Up Before we can give a grade to Obama we have to go back to the Sylabus that was laid out and from the begining Obama made it clear that it wasn't about him but that it was about change from the bottom up.
I guess then we should start grading from the bottom up.
Well pretty clear where that is.
The Thai System of Self Grading - "Reconsider Myself" The Thai political system is truely an enigma wrapped in wonton served with a beer. It has a cast of charachters that would remind you of the theatrics of Palin and Blago. There is an exception. When something goes completely down the drain, whether a natural disaster or a planned government policy and the official in charge is on the spot the official, whether Prime Minister or the local head of the offending unit will ask for a few days off to reconsider him/her self.
The criticism stops and after a few days and the official gives an objective and frank assessment of what he or she should have done and how events would have turned out if the other path would have been followed up.
Now in the US we come back with a defensive "I am not a crook" approach which Blago has taken to a new level with "There will be no criminal conviction". In general our politicians just never admit any mistakes.
Now the Japanese go to the other length. If a meteroite were to burst thru and destroy a school full of children then the Japanese official would come out with something like "I should have known that a meteor would hit a school but I did nothing" and resign.
So the Thais have an interesting approach and it is fun to watch because the official will be graded on how fair he is with himself. Amazingly they can be very tough on themselves and in doing so their reputation is maintained and a useless resignation is avoided.
Reconsidering from the Bottom Up Given that Obama clearly said that this was going to be about putting together a movement that would address the change question and not simply voting one guy to do it all, it makes sense that we start at the very very bottom.
Now if I had known that I would be graded even before the Oath was taken I would have done more.
Now we have to look at both mitigating and extending circumstances.
I did object to what I consider Obama's most serious gaffe the inclusion to the multi offending Warren.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/grantcartThat mitigating effort however is underminded by the exenuating circumstances that I simply slipped that note into the mail. If I was really going to make a point I should have driven up the coast and tried to hand deliver it to his personal secretary.
I missed the No on 8 Demonstrations but the mitigating factor on that is that had I known I would definitely have gone. On the other hand I should have checked more frequently. Which reminds me . . .(not to late to start working on the next grade).
Their is no mitigating plus for posting at DU because that is not actually an action, anymore a conversation at a coffee house is a progressive action. Now if you write something that actually results in an actual action you could count that but, lets be honest now, that is pretty rare and I have nothing to really add there.
My greatest mitigating factor is that my time has been used up by being a temporary foster parent for the last 6 weeks of a 10 year old girl whose family (sans mother) was wiped out by the Tsunamai. Unfortunately all of my bonus points for this effort was wiped out by the fact that if I had known how difficult it was and how time confusing it was to be a temporary foster parent I would have never agreed to do it. That wipes out all my bonus points and leaves me grasping for a D+. Good thing this was only the midterm grade.
Obama's Grade Well unfortunately I have atleast enough sense to know that I have to get my own grade up before I start judging this guy.
And his grade is not going to be on how big the stimulus package is that he passes but how many jobs he actually creates, and so forth down the line. I don't care what he says about Gaza I only care that he fixes it one way or another. If the Saudis or the Iranians get the credit then fine with me - Obama gets the grade. I don't care how many PH'ds Obama appoints he will be graded on slowing down and reducing CO2. Everything else is, well, talk.
I will say this about one thing he has done. He has made a bunch of government scientists cry.
My work puts me into contact with all kinds of federal employees. By chance over the last 4 weeks I have met and talked with a couple of dozen biologists and enviromental scientists who work on Camp Pendleton (who knew that the Marines employed over 100 scientists to comply with environmental laws at one base?).
Several times, after completeing our business, I would ask the scientists how they feel about the change in administration. More than once the response has been watching a serious minded professional's eyes tear up and say "Now I can do my job". We all know that their work was being rewritten at the White House but that went all the way down the line and they were told that they could not issue certain 'non compliance' judgements (I can't remember their official term).
Well the report from this part of the bottom hasn't resulted in much real change for anybody (Christ I still think I should have been given a little more time for the first grade) but even though he hasn't raised his hand yet Obama's election has resulted in change for some folks.
When I get my grade up I'll let you know about Obama's.
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