Don't Abandon Obama

Andrew Sullivan:

I have no idea what standard people are using to declare Obama's first term a failure. To save us from a Great Depression, rescue the auto industry, re-regulate Wall Street, decimate al Qaeda, kill bin Laden and Qaddafi and provide universal healthcare? That's failure?

Unemployment is lower now than it was when he took office, and moving downward. Next year's IMF-predicted US growth is higher than any other developed country. Compared with austerity-ridden Europe, where unemployment is still climbing, Obama's, Geithner's and Bernanke's leadership has been stellar. The US has never exported as much as now as a percentage of GDP ever. Given the catastrophe Obama walked into, and the froth-flecked obstructionism of his opposition, he's had a remarkably successful, historic first term. His long game also makes much of the progress promised durable only if he gets a second term. . . .

I cannot understand how those who voted for him in 2008 because they wanted real change can explain why they may vote against him now. It makes no sense. He has carried through almost every election promise, and those he hasn't can mostly be attributed to the GOP House. If you voted for Obama in 2008 and don't in 2012, you never really voted for him in 2008. He told us it would take two terms; he predicted obstruction and setbacks; yet he has persisted - and succeeded. But take his second term away? Back to ballooning, rather than shrinking deficits, millions left without access to private health insurance, a guaranteed war against Iran, climate change policy handed over to the oil and coal companies, and massive spending on defense we don't need. Not to mention torture.

The things about which I strongly disagree with Obama -- the war in Afghanistan, the drone war -- are policies that he promised in his campaign and carried through on. It makes little sense for me to turn against him for doing what he said he would. His domestic policies have also been almost exactly what he said they would be, with the notable exception of his "evolution" on gay marriage.

Anyone who voted for Obama last time but won't this time either didn't pay any attention to what he said in 2008, or thinks the President should have magic powers to fix the economy and make Congress vote the way he wants.