U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker spoke at a joint meeting of the Greenwood Rotary and Kiwanis clubs Wednesday. After his speech, former Greenwood School Board President Margaret Clark asked if the Mississippi Republican thought President Barack Obama had done anything right since he took office in January 2009.
Wicker said no. He added that it pained him to say that. That was a little surprising, given the partisan atmosphere of the current U.S. Congress.
Almost as surprising was that Clark prefaced her question by saying, “I’m the last one to know about politics ...” She has run for office herself, and her husband, Fred, just completed an unsuccessful run for county judge. Couple that with her term on the school board, and I’d call Clark a first-rate expert on politics.
Speaking of partisan politics, I laugh when I hear politicians or news people complain about “partisanship” in Congress. Partisan politics have been a part of Congress since the First Continental Congress met in 1774. Even the Declaration of Independence was the result of a political compromise. Partisanship is a part of politics everywhere.
Moving back to Wicker, he said. “It’s clear that I didn’t support Mr. Obama when he ran for president. I respect the office of president and I wish the president well. Unless the Obama presidency does well, the country won’t do well. So I wish him the very best.
“But it is fair to say, and I try to say it cheerfully and positively and without any malice, that I think most of the decisions he’s made have been wrong for our country.”
Wicker’s list of what he sees as the president’s greatest blunders wasn’t surprising:
• The health care overhaul: Wicker said it has, among other things, driven up the federal deficit and the health care costs it was supposed to lower. “I really thing we need to repeal this act altogether.”
• The $814 billion economic stimulus plan: Wicker said this, too, had helped increase the deficit from $10 trillion to $13 trillion in less than two years. “We were supposed to jump-start the economy, and it turns out we’ve gone from 7.6 percent unemployment to 9.6 unemployment. So all of that didn’t jump-start the economy.”
• The war in Afghanistan: “I don’t think you send a signal we’re going to have a surge and a withdrawal on the same day. I thought that was wrong.”
I agree with Wicker in both his respect for the office of president and his disdain for the policies of that office’s current occupant. I’d also like to add that, while I voted for him twice, I didn’t like many of the things George W. Bush did while he was in office.
I didn’t vote for Obama. I didn’t think he was qualified, for starters. And I disagreed with his plans for big-government answers to national problems like health care.
I blame the first President Bush for leaving us in a mess by stopping the first Gulf War too soon in 1991. His son got the invasion of Iraq right, even if he did try to run the war on the cheap, but he bungled the occupation. We eventually “won,” thanks to the surge. But there are still American troops in Iraq, and I suspect that U.S. troops will still be there in 20 years, providing “training” and “security.”
Most of Obama’s efforts in Afghanistan have been pretty half-hearted. But who can blame him? Afghanistan looks more like Vietnam every day.
Our troops are propping up a corrupt regime full of people who seem more interested in lining their pockets than building a nation. And we’re fighting an enemy who is given sanctuary inside the borders of our so-called ally Pakistan. Unless the United States is willing to invade Pakistan, a nation with nuclear weapons, I don’t believe we can “win” in Afghanistan.
The economy started sliding into the worst recession in 80 years while Bush was still in office. The situation was not helped by his and Obama’s bailouts of financial institutions and automakers.
Some have said that there are businesses that are too big to fail, that their collapse would ruin the economy of the nation and the world.
At the risk of sounding too libertarian, I don’t believe any business is too big to fail. If a business, be it an automaker, a bank or even (gasp) a newspaper, can’t make enough money to stay in business, then the government shouldn’t step in to save it. The market will produce a replacement if people want one.
Americans are notoriously fickle. After eight years of Bush, they wanted a change, just like they wanted a change of eight years of Bill Clinton. Obama ran promising hope and change.
Two years later, many people, whether they supported Obama or not, are still hoping for a change. I think even Obama has learned that running for office is one thing. Running a nation is another.
I wish the president luck.
• Contact Charles Corder at ccorder@gwcommonwealth.com.
