No Faith in the President

Barack Obama can still deliver a good speech, but America no longer wants to listen; it wants to see. The country doesn’t want to hear new promises; it wants to see results. It has a deep mistrust of anything coming out of Washington.

The great financial crisis has long since evolved into a crisis of political institutions, including the presidency. The lack of trust that Obama spoke about in his State of the Union address has also largely affected him.

That’s why it’s pointless to talk of the brilliance of his speech. People aren’t listening to him any longer. Increasing numbers of people no longer have confidence in him to solve their problems, even as they realize he didn’t cause the crisis in the first place.

When millions continue losing their jobs while the government gives the banks money to pay out huge bonuses to their managers, and while the Democrats in Congress argue among themselves about healthcare reform (important, but not people’s top concern), many turn their backs in disappointment.

Obama announced he was reordering priorities for his second year in office to bring them more in line with the concerns of the public. Like no president before him, his State of the Union address barely touched on international politics.

Viewpoints in Washington have taken a decided turn inward. Jobs, jobs, jobs is the watchword these days, with healthcare reform running far behind. And there’s also not much heard about environmental protection anymore.

The most important reform for 2010 will be financial markets, where Obama has threatened to veto any legislation not in tune with his new hard line on Wall Street. That’s popular, and it also puts the Republicans under a great deal of pressure.

Republicans are still profiting from the popular mistrust of Washington; people just don’t like the government at the moment. If Obama is successful in breaking the Republican opposition to his policies and if an economic recovery begins and if he scores a few successes, he may yet see light at the end of the tunnel. If Americans begin seeing their president accomplishing things, maybe they’ll also start listening to him again as well.