As the country sinks into a late-'70s malaise and President Obama's approval rating drops, we could use a little "hope."
Barack Obama ought to be one of the happiest men in America.
In less than two years, he's presided over monumental, historic changes to our health care system and financial industries. He has won a Nobel Peace Prize and already has nominated two like-minded scholars to the U.S. Supreme Court, leaving a lasting imprint on the high court.
Yet, his approval rating (44 percent) dropped to historic lows this past week. The country has been in a funk for the better part of a year and the economy is dangerously close to a double-dip recession.
His own party has needled him for not going far enough or moving fast enough. And Republicans are salivating over the very real possibility of wresting control of at least one house of Congress from Democrats in November.
Jobs have vanished faster than BP's credibility. And the oil leak has been a drain on the national psyche.
Welcome to the summer of malaise.
Welcome back, Carter.
Even the talking heads at MSNBC have compared Obama's sudden lack of leadership, his summer spent adrift, to the uninspiring Jimmy Carter presidency after last month's remarkably lackluster national address about the Gulf oil leak.
President Obama has accomplished quite a bit on the domestic front, but like Carter, the public tide has turned against him and his foreign policy has been, in large part, a complete disappointment.
His health care plan, approved only after the type of backroom, sleazy deal-making he crusaded against during his campaign, does little to bring down exorbitant costs and could bankrupt states once higher Medicaid costs are passed down.
The $1 trillion stimulus provided only a blip of a recovery, while saddling the nation with an unsustainable debt load. And the federal government's reach into business and the financial world, for better or worse, is now deeper than ever.
We endorsed Obama in 2008, believing his plans for the fragile economy and frozen financial markets were superior to John McCain's erratic ideas. But we also hoped he would restore the nation's reputation with the rest of the world. But instead of being vilified, as we were under Bush, the United States is now suddenly bordering on being irrelevant.
Relations with China and Russia have been deteriorating.
China wags its finger at us over our spendthrift ways, and who can blame them for worrying about whether we can ever afford to pay them back?
North Korea sinks a South Korean boat, and the U.S. provides no leadership. Instead, the Obama administration issues what amounts to a tersely worded press release.
Relations with the government we prop up in Afghanistan are, at best, strained.
No U.S. president since Carter has been as crossways with Israel, our one solid Middle East ally.
And on the homefront, unemployment still hovers around 10 percent. Factor in those who have lost hope and have stopped looking, and the jobless rate is in the high teens.
There's also been an intangible, yet inescapable, sense of unease in the country, reminiscent of our late- 1970s malaise. Faith in Obama's "Yes we can" slogan has faded faster than the Obama-Biden stickers still clinging to bumpers.
It's not too late for Obama to turn around his presidency. His party likely will take a beating at the polls this year for its over-reaching congressional agenda, but ideally a more balanced Congress will move the president closer to the political center.
One media outlet asked last week: Can Obama get his groove back?
He must. The nation still needs a unifying leader, one who can lift up all citizens and restore our hope and pride and belief that America's best days not only are ahead, but near.
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