Bali Obama

President Obama looks a little akin to a 'broken man' in recent days. The restrained president inherited the worst slate one could ever get: an economy on the verge of a depression, two wars, America's international reputation in tatters, record debt and deficits, and a whole host of unanswered national priorities from health care to education to energy. In contrast, President Clinton bequeathed to Bush a budget surplus and a national debt plan which would have payed on the entire debt in a decade. No wars. And America was the world's most popular country. And then the "Buffoon" passed along a nation about to go bust.

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And in spite of all this Obama has done a lot to return America toward a proper course. His action has returned the economy to growth for several months now, albeit unemployment remains high. The bailouts to the banks and auto firms have been paid back. The taxpayer has made a return on the hated TARP (which Bush signed into law and it was the Bush White House which used the TARP funds to initially aid GM and Chrysler). Obama passed a huge tax cut for the middle class. The stimulus has created millions of jobs. In addition: there is the credit card law which will restrict the absurd and exploitive fee and interest charges which the bailed out banks burden customers with, Obama also expanded the federal role in student loans so that every student may now seek a federal loan instead of a exploitive private loan.

With more and more students going to college, this student loan bill will greatly aid millions of Americans who will no longer have to pay insane interest fees and can properly manage their loans. In addition, Wall Street has come under new stricter regulation long over due. And, of course, the health care bill will provide courage for millions of Americans. Obama has withdrawn most troops from Iraq. America's reputation has been greatly resorted so much that a new poll shows America once again the most popular country. In the last year of Bush the U.S. was #7. Obama's election made us #1. And countless other accomplishments.

And, yet, a movement of angry white people has convinced large swaths of the country that Obama is a radical and is undermining this country. Obama does not look anger at the nation post-midterms, but just resigned to a sadness thereof. The voters just seem benighted. They say the wanted change and now vote for the very people who got us in the turmoil Obama has done a lot to steer us through to a renewed country. But the voters are just too anger and Republicans have properly exploited this anger to their cynical advantage. The voters are just anger and not thinking properly and just seek to punish the people in office with no basis in merit and no consideration for the consequences, but just hold a knee-jerk grudge against incumbents and make that simply a vice without any concern for virtue.

I wonder if Obama is regretting his tenure. How simpler life would be if he were back in Bali and just swimming:

The last time Mr. Obama was in Indonesia, in 1992, he spent a month holed up in a rented beachside hut in Bali, where he swam each morning and spent afternoons writing “Dreams From My Father,” the memoir that later became a best seller. In it, he shared memories of his life here as a boy, “running barefoot along a paddy field, with my feet sinking into the cool, wet mud, part of a chain of other brown boys chasing after a tattered kite.”

Obama left for Indonesia right after the election. How coincidental. And it was just what he needed: a reminder of cooler times.