Weights
Published in Liberation
(France) on 3 August 2009
by Francois Sergent (link to original)
Obama doesn’t walk on water. His campaign, his election, and his first steps made people believe in the marvel of his power, ignoring the weights of politics and the realities of the economy. Arriving in the White House in the wake of a major crisis, in a country participating in two dubious wars, Obama has always kept his legendary cool and unyielding popularity.
The biggest ambition of his term and his great electoral promise, healthcare reform, has rightly been one of these miracles. The president has fallen in the polls and his voters are now doubting him. They have seen his limits. The blunders of the White House and the resistance from counterweights in the United States - Congress, the media, lobbyists - have made it hard for him. Healthcare reform is just as vital for ethical reasons as it is economically in a country filled with Americans without health insurance. But the intervention of the state, perceived as too heavy in that sector, remains taboo.
The project will likely finish by being passed in the autumn, but it will be toned down here and there from the campaign commitments made by the president. Obama will nevertheless boast to have succeeded where Clinton, regarded as the ultimate politician, failed. His next appointment will be the economy, where his presidency will play out. But Obama knows that it is unemployment where he will recover the trust of those who elected him and believe in him.
The biggest ambition of his term and his great electoral promise, healthcare reform, has rightly been one of these miracles. The president has fallen in the polls and his voters are now doubting him. They have seen his limits. The blunders of the White House and the resistance from counterweights in the United States - Congress, the media, lobbyists - have made it hard for him. Healthcare reform is just as vital for ethical reasons as it is economically in a country filled with Americans without health insurance. But the intervention of the state, perceived as too heavy in that sector, remains taboo.
The project will likely finish by being passed in the autumn, but it will be toned down here and there from the campaign commitments made by the president. Obama will nevertheless boast to have succeeded where Clinton, regarded as the ultimate politician, failed. His next appointment will be the economy, where his presidency will play out. But Obama knows that it is unemployment where he will recover the trust of those who elected him and believe in him.
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