Given a recent court case, the gubmint’s plans for media regulation to shut up people who say stuff it doesn’t like, because it’s like, unfair and stuff, and the legal and personal persecution of anyone in Australia who even asks publicly what race means, Morgan Freeman’s claim that Barack Obama is not the US’s first black president because because his mother was white so he can’t be black, is, well, interesting.
Heck, it is probably against the law in Australia even to think about whether Obama is really black. Or Anita Heiss, or Ray Robinson, or Michael Mansell.
Sadly, Freeman goes on to make a clot of himself by saying that the reason Obama hasn’t been able to do anything at all really, is because Republicans are mean. They haven’t co-operated in all his cool plans. Which is dumb, considering Obama had both Congress and Senate for the larger part of his incumbency.
It was perceived that President Obama represented a Jimmy Carter-style case of naive hope crushed by the inability to master Washington. Having moved swiftly toward achieving the very policy objectives Obama promised voters as a candidate, Obama is still widely perceived as flirting with a failed presidency and being in-effective.
This is an odd reversal of expectations. When Obama came into office, the assumption even among some Democrats was that he was a dazzling politician and communicator who might prove too unseasoned at governance to win substantive achievements.
The reality is the opposite. You can argue over whether Obama’s achievements are good or bad on the merits. But, especially after the election, you can’t argue that Obama is not getting things done.
Several factors seem to contribute to Obama’s problem — bad communication, loss of support among independents, an ineffective White House staff, likability — of getting things done while still appearing to lose. But as you will be aware those cool plans are starting to deliver on the promises and they are doing it with out the GOP – Congress or Senate support. So not dumb.