Already feeling nostalgic for president we have now
Is it possible to miss somebody who is still here, to feel nostalgic for a president who still holds office? For me it is. And my guess is that many other Americans will also start feeling nostalgic about President Obama soon, especially after watching Republicans gather last week and Democrats gather this week to officially nominate their respective candidates to replace him.
I’m not naive. Much has gone wrong since Barack Obama took office almost eight years ago. Terrorism seems to be on the rise, the world seems less safe, and somehow under our first African American president, race relations seem to have gotten more precarious, not better. Conservatives complain he’s pushed through too many policies they don’t like, and progressives complain he hasn’t pushed hard enough.
Model of class and dignity
Historians will have to decide whether Obama’s many accomplishments (helping stabilize and pull out of the recession, capturing and killing Osama bin Laden, the Affordable Care Act, and more) outweigh the failures. Historians will have to decide whether his policies allowed terrorism to spread or whether his policies kept terrorism from spreading even farther.
But we don’t need historians to tell us that President Obama has been a model of class and dignity. What will be missed, eventually by most all Americans, I believe, is his intelligence, his integrity and his grace under pressure.
Twice in the last two weeks, after gunmen killed police in Baton Rouge and in Dallas, and after police killed black men who seem to have done little wrong, the president walked a rhetorical tightrope, carefully choosing words designed to reassure and heal rather than blame and inflame. Responding to the same incidents, Donald Trump pointed fingers and tweeted tough. As for Hillary Clinton, so many Americans find her untrustworthy and unlikable, that it almost didn’t matter what she said. Most likely, few listened with open ears.
The Obama administration, for all its controversies, has been exceptionally scandal-free, especially when compared with other recent administrations. John Kennedy and Bill Clinton had White House affairs, Lyndon B. Johnson was effective but embarrassingly crude, Ronald Reagan had Iran-Contra and Richard Nixon had Watergate.
Hitting below the belt
It’s understandable that some Americans feel Obama has steered the country in the wrong direction, but unless he’s remarkably adept at closeting his skeletons, how could anyone find fault with Barack Obama the husband, the father, the man.
Perhaps more than with any president in memory, Obama’s critics have repeatedly kicked him below the belt: Never before has a president had to repeatedly affirm that he is American, never before has a president had to reaffirm his Christianity or deny having ties to Islam. Never before has a president had to turn the other cheek as a congressman shouted, “You lie” during a State of the Union speech.
Through it all, the president hasn’t turned dark, cynical or slipped into Nixon-like paranoia. Instead, he’s remained optimistic, talking about what’s right in our country, rather than blaming others for what’s wrong.
Again, I’m not wearing blinders. The president’s actions have sometimes backfired, but as I look to the recent past, and as I look ahead to whoever becomes our next president, I grow increasingly nostalgic for the president we have now.