Barack Hussein Clinton

William Jefferson Clinton was a President I found both admirable and frustrating.  I admired his soaring rhetoric, his passion, his intellect and his feeling for the common man.  As a steward of the State, he created a budget surplus, which is no easy feat.  And yet he was a frustrating figure.

This was not because of his sexual weakness, but because of his low aim.  His "liberal" policies were often watered-down Republican policies, which Republicans fought anyway because Clinton proposed them.  Could more progressive policies have been proposed?  I would have liked to have seen them attempted, at least.

This is how I feel now about President Obama, as well.  Like Clinton, he has the soaring rhetoric, the passion, the intellect and a genuine feeling for the common man.  He shows some timidity in applying Keynesian remedies to recession, but the economy is slowly recovering under his stewardship, and he is defending Keynesian fiscal policies against Republican trickle-down mythology.  But he is also, like Clinton, a frustrating figure.

Like Clinton, his "liberal" policies are often watered-down Republican policies, which Republicans have fought anyway because Obama proposed them.  Could more progressive policies be proposed by President Obama?  Maybe.  He has "evolved" beyond Clinton on the issue of homosexuality.  And current Republicans, who are even more reactionary than Clinton faced, may provoke him to move further left.

The irony then would be that the Republicans, having provoked his leftward movement, would not see this as a self-fulfilling prophecy, but proof of his ulterior aims all along.