The Obama Presidency Revived

Thanks to the Senate vote on health care reform, Barack Obama is ending the year with a flourish and sees his presidency revived at a time when it was going through a bad patch.

Very controversial on the other side of the Atlantic, and rather banal if it involved a European country, the flagship project of the new president represents a change of historic importance for the United States. More than 30 million Americans who, to date, were not covered will be able to obtain medical insurance from now on.

Having passed the obstacle of the Senate, the reform should, if all goes well, be adopted definitively between now and the State of the Union speech that Obama will give before Congress on January 21, just one year after his arrival to the White House.

This is politically important, from the perspective of the mid-term elections in November 2010. With the adoption of a recovery plan in February, and the money that has been confirmed, the Obama administration shows a tally that is more than respectable. It can address, with a bit more equanimity, a scrutiny that is all the more sensitive, given that the size of the deficits, the growth of the debt, and the necessary adjustments to the economy will serve the opposition’s campaign. Failure on the most emblematic reform of this first term would have had disastrous consequences.

But, beyond these political calculations, it is the presidency’s agenda that has been relieved. Reform of the health care system has monopolized Congress for many months, the American legislative system being such that the minority has an exorbitant blockage power. The Republicans made immoderate use of this by taking advantage of the health law endeavor to obstruct the entire Democratic program. With the mortgage soon to be lifted, the legislation on global warming will be able to be presented to the Senate, in turn. On this subject, as on many others, the president can regain room to maneuver, if he succeeds in loosening the stranglehold of Congress.

Barack Obama is finally gaining an unquestionable, tangible success. He can expect from it a resurgence in popularity and, in particular, new political capital, which will be very useful for reviving his foreign policy.