There is plenty of commentary out there about this, including the story linked above, but having watched all of this closely for the past several years, I wanted to add my two (rambling) cents:
- Trade Policy: On Tuesday, the House and Senate gave the President so-called Fast-Track authority. As I noted earlier this week, it's an important victory for Obama in the conduct of foreign policy, even if the President himself is a late convert to the merits of trade liberalization. However, it also revealed how difficult the fight over his proposed trade agreements may be once he brings them back to the Hill for approval.
- Obama Care: The Supreme Court ruled on an important case related to the 2010 Affordable Care Act (aka Obama Care) that seems to ensure Obama Care will go forward as designed. Obama Care has been a political lightening rod since its inception. I have always been a little surprised that Obama even allows the Affordable Care Act to be referred to as "Obama Care." He had very little to do with its drafting, and played a risky game of political chicken by allowing it to be termed so. It's true that one of Obama's major campaign promises in 2008 was to tackle healthcare, but needlessly blew most of his precious political capital on the issue by effectively turning it over to the Democratically controlled House and Senate to make happen. It may come as a surprise to many, but the White House is in many ways one of the most important "legislative bodies" in the United States. Presidential priorities need, at some point, to be translated in to legislation considered by Congress. In order to make sure presidents get priorities considered by the Hill as they intend, the White House often takes the lead in drafting legislation. It then seeks a champion in the House and Senate to introduce and guide it through the legislative process. Instead, perhaps due to Obama's own relative inexperience and history on Capitol Hill, most of the process was turned over to the House and Senate leadership (Pelosi and Reid) who, in my opinion, made a complete hash of it. Although Pelosi and Reid were nominally supporters of the President, they often seemed to be working mainly for themselves, exploiting a young, inexperienced President. A lot was riding on the SCOTUS decision. The President owes the six justices in the majority a beer.
- Same Sex Marriage: On Friday, the Supreme Court issued another ruling involving same-sex marriage that effectively nationalized the right of same-sex couples to legally marry. It was a huge decision by the SCOTUS that will silence criticism of Obama from among his own supporters who complained he was not doing enough on this issue. The tide of national public opinion on same-sex marriage had turned long ago, but it was never clear to me what advocates hoped the President could do as refusenik states enacted laws banning same-sex unions? The SCOTUS decision resolves that problem. Full Stop.
- AME Church Shootings: I recently heard President Obama lamenting the number of mass shootings that have taken place on his watch. Sober stuff, to be sure, perhaps punctuated by the massacre of elementary students at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Moreover, on the President's watch there has been an oversupply of high profile police shootings that have highlighted how much work remains in dealing with the painful legacy of slavery in the United States. The AME Church Shootings appear to have created a rare bit of unity over some divisive issues, including the Confederate Flag. Moreover, as he often does, President Obama hit the nail on the head with his stirring eulogy for the slain Rev. Clementa Pickney that included him leading a rendition of Amazing Grace. Obama has increasingly sounded like a president who has found is voice, understands the importance of his place in history, and more than willing to own it. Brilliant!
Unfortunately, the idea that with President Obama's election we had entered a kind of "post-racial America" has turned out to be too optimistic. Too much work remains.
- WTF Podcast: One of iTunes' most popular podcasts is hosted by Marc Maron out of his garage in Los Angeles. President Obama showed up last week, and spent an hour with the comedian engaging a wide-range of topics. Among the subjects discussed was the complicated social and political implications of the "N-Word." Checking it out will be an hour well-spent. One of the things that impresses me most about President Obama is his willingness and ability to speak extemporaneously, and at length. I can't think of another public figure anywhere that would be caught dead on a podcast entitled "WTF," much less spend an hour talking off the top of their head. Yet, this is about far more than having a president of a certain generation that appreciates the importance of social media. It's a set of skills that we are going to miss, and a standard of public engagement that future leaders are going to be judged against. We have become accustomed to listening to Obama's soaring rhetoric. His ability to send chills up our spines in 2008 has faded because we've come to expect it now. Moreover, the inevitable gap between rhetoric and policy output has, perhaps, been unfairly exploited by armchair critics like me to suggest President Obama might have done more with his administration than he has. We are nevertheless going to miss all of this. No one on deck for 2016 from either part possesses these skill in abundance; skills we need in the modern presidency.
- The Grand Old Party: Every president does battle with their political opponents, but President Obama's political fights with elements of the GOP-- especially the Tea Party crowd-- increasingly remind me of President Clinton's epic duels with House Republicans in the 1990s. Both presidents faced electoral rebukes in Congressional mid-terms mid-way through their first terms in office. Both faced Republicans who were viscerally opposed to everything the White House wanted to do. And both brilliantly out-smarted, out-maneuvered, and out-politicked their way to second terms. I think Clinton squandered much of his skill defending himself over sleaze (Monica Lewinsky, Impeachment, White Water, etc). Obama, by contrast, is both squeaky clean (unless you think being a Community Organizer counts as sleaze), and has established himself as the most dominant politician in America. This week merely accentuates the point. With each Obama win-- aided by the SCOTUS in this case-- the GOP has seemed even more chaotic and lost. Republicans never really found their souls in 2012 and chose Mitt Romney, a candidate no one seemed thrilled with. With nearly 20 declared candidates seeking the 2016 GOP nomination, it looks to me as though their nomination process will be another bruising soul-searching exercise.
It was a good week for the POTUS. Yet, there is much ahead that could sully even this legacy. The comparison is not entirely fair, but I am reminded of the way in which President Johnson's Great Society initiatives domestically were undermined by the foreign policy disaster in Vietnam. LBJ worked tirelessly on things like civil rights and social security, only to have successes there overwhelmed by Vietnam. Obama isn't in this position, but there are challenges ahead. The great philosopher Donald Rumsfeld (that's a joke) once opined, "there are known unknowns, and unknown unknowns" in the months ahead....
- Climate Change: Obama had on hell of a good week. It would be a hell of a good year if he can continue to make progress on climate change (a topic I've written about here) and emerge from the Paris climate change talks with an agreement in hand. It would put even more pressure on his political opponents and further solidify his legacy. Pope Francis unquestionably helped Obama considerably with his recent Encyclical on climate change. However, SCOTUS was even more instrumental in giving the EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gases back in 2007. Although Monday's decision invalidating the EPA's rule making on powerplant emissions such as mercury suggests a setback, many power companies had already come into compliance with EPA rules and are unlikely to resume dirtier forms of emissions.
- Immigration: U.S. immigration policy depresses me. The only thing more depressing than the policy itself is the xenophobic debate that typically swirls around the issue. It is perhaps the one major remaining policy issue from Obama's 2008 campaign platform around which there has been frustratingly little progress. I've had a few things to say about this issue on this blog, but I'd like to be able to write about some serious progress on the transformation of U.S. immigration policy before Obama leaves office. I think the clock is running out for President Obama, but immigration is certain to be a major political issue (along with climate change) for all the 2016 presidential contenders. In fact, Donald Trump has set a low-bar standard for debate in 2016 with his announcement that he's running for President (what a gasbag). I have enough faith in the voting public to say that I doubt we'll be saying "President Trump" any time soon, but....
- Foreign Policy: In general, I think Obama has wanted the rest of the planet to be good so he can concentrate on domestic policy. U.S. Presidents don't get to do that. As a result, I am not the biggest fan of Obama's foreign policy. The Islamic State has been far more than the Junior Varsity team Obama tried to suggest it was back in the spring of 2014. In fact, the Islamic State has metastasized into a fearsome menace that will, sadly, be a top priority for the next president. I think Obama had some opportunities to deal with this in the context of the early days of the Syrian Civil War, but that window closed and we've seen what's happened since. Europe is on the brink of financial chaos as Greece teeters on the brink. Vladimir Putin's machinations in Ukraine are a continuous thorn. China build islands in the South China Sea and hacks U.S. Government records. And yet, the balance of 2015 could yield important foreign policy fruit. We'll soon be able to report on the progress of Iranian nuclear negotiations. Who knows, perhaps Gitmo will finally be closed? That, incidentally, would be a fitting bookend to Obama's presidency since the closure of Gitmo was the subject of Obama's very first foreign policy edict.
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