Obama, being in his last year of his first term, is being critiqued unmercifully by Republicans and Democrats. This happens to all presidents but author Andrew Sullivan believes that the critisims are wrong. The far right believe that Obama is a socialist and is trying to change the way America handles things. The far left believe that Obama is "a hapless fool of Wall Street a continuation of Bush in civil liberties, and a cloistered elitist unable to grasp the populist moment that is his historic opportunity."Sullivan believes that even though he has not agreed with everything Obama has done during his time in office, Obama has delivered in a way that the "unhinged right" and the "purist left" have not absorbed or been able to understand.
1. What does Sullivan say about presidents in the last year of their first terms?
He will always get attacked mercilessly by his partisan opponents, and also, often, by the feistier members of his base.
2. What are the main criticisms of Obama from the right?
The right’s core case is that Obama has governed as a radical leftist attempting a “fundamental transformation” of the American way of life.
3. What was America's economic situation when Obama assumed office?
A recession
4. How have Obama's responses to the problem been interpreted by the right?
The right claims the stimulus failed because it didn’t bring unemployment down to 8 percent in its first year, as predicted by Obama’s transition economic team
5. What typical Republican stances has Obama taken while in office?
TAX-CUTS!
6. In what ways is "Obamacare" a pretty conservative reform of the health care system?
It is based on the individual mandate, an idea pioneered by the archconservative Heritage Foundation, Newt Gingrich, and, of course, Mitt Romney. It does not have a public option; it gives a huge new client base to the drug and insurance companies; its health-insurance exchanges were also pioneered by the right.
7. Why is the left wrong to be disappointed in Obama's performance so far?
The simple scale of what has been accomplished on issues liberals say they care about.
8. How is Obama communicating his accomplishments to the public?
Obama is that he practices a show-don’t-tell, long-game form of domestic politics.
9. How does Sullivan characterize Obama's pattern of responses to problems?
10. When does Sullivan concede that Obama has made mistakes in office?
Obama has waged a war based on a reading of executive power that many civil libertarians, including myself, oppose.
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