Same as It Ever Was
In a typically quotidian column, “Eagle Eye” Alex Conley has decided to tackle the question of President Obama’s “First 100 Days”. Unfortunately for Obama boosters, unambiguous successes have been few and far between since January 20th. After demolishing some conservative straw men, Conley has to admit as much.
What’s interesting about his article, however, isn’t the paint-by-numbers conservative bashing or his shopworn cheerleading, it’s Conley’s apparent difficulty in admitting that, thus far, Obama’s tenure has not departed radically from many of the policies supported by his predecessor.
Thus, we’re informed that Obama has gotten “a strong start in the right direction” and that “[m]ost of Obama’s policies in general have been a reversal of previous policy.”
Evidently Mr. Conley is unfamiliar with the President’s positions on TARP and other bailouts, “Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell”, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, gay marriage, marijuana legalization, Iran’s nuclear program, the Armenian Genocide, or torture. Even President Obama’s much-vaunted turnaround on Cuba has not amounted to much as of yet.
It seems that old “Eagle Eye” is more impressed by Obama’s towering poll figures on tough questions like “Does he understand the troubles of average Americans?” than the President’s actual policy positions, many of which are barely distinguishable from Bush’s.
