Will President Obama Fulfill His Promises In A Second Term?

You can not believe he will if you consider two things: (1) what history teaches us about second term presidents and (2) if you consider the character of Barack Obama as it comes across in Ed Klein's new book, The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House, which is based on more than 200 interviews, many of which are from people who have helped Obama's career at various stages of his life.

What Does History Teach Us About Second Term Presidents? 

History teaches us that second term presidents accomplish very little that is new in a second term. This country has had 44 presidents, 15 have served two terms (Lincoln and McKinley are taken out of the reckoning because they were murdered soon after winning a second term). Out of those fifteen presidents, guess how many had a SUCCESSFUL second term?

only 1!

That's right: one! The one, successful second term president was Theodore Roosevelt (26th president, 1901-1909). The reason for his success was that he never ran out of fresh ideas. The guy kept thinking of new things to help the country: environmental conservation; food and drug regulation; making sure corporations don't become too powerful to threaten the safety of the country, etc. Every time you fill up your drinking glass with clean, tap water, you are tasting the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt!

The only other president to come close to a second term success was Ronald Reagan, with the winning of the Cold War, but his second term was tainted with Iran Contra so, on balance, he get's left out. Some people might think Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd president, 1933-1945) should be considered, but he also gets left out because his second term was a total catastrophe. FDR accomplished all his positive reforms in his first term. He spent his second term alienating everyone in Congress over his battle to pack the Supreme Court. FDR made a comeback in his third term, because of World War II, but nowadays presidents are not allowed to serve for more than two terms.

Why Are The Odds Stacked So Heavily Against A Successful Second Term President?

Once a president loses his eligibility to run for another election, his power to persuade and cajole diminishes greatly. If an incumbent is not going to be around in the next election, there is nothing he can promise or threaten for other incumbents beyond that election. Thus, he has reached lame-duck status. Recognizing this, presidents go for broke in their first term, cashing in all their chips to accomplish their most desired projects while they can.

If They Accomplish Everything In The First Term, Why Even Bother Campaigning For A Second Term?

Presidents campaign for a second term because they want to protect their reforms by making sure the passage of time solidifies and entrenches those reforms. If the roots can sink-in deeply enough, it may be impossible for future presidents to undo those reforms.

The passage of time for a sitting president means four more years of making the court appointments that president wants; issuing executive orders to add further dimensions to the reforms of the first term; opening new federal agencies with staffers whose careers become invested in the reforms of the first term; packing the justice department with like-minded officials. A repeal of Obamacare stands its best chance if the voters send Obama home this November, before he has another four years to sink its roots into the nervous system of the country. Voters skittish about Mitt Romney are naive to think they can wait until 2016 to get the right president in Washington to undo Obamacare. By then, it may be too late, and the fight too hard to win.


What About President Obama? Is There Something Different Or Special About His Nature That Should Lead Us To Believe There Is A Glimmer Of Hope That He Will Use A Second Term To Fulfill The 'Hope and Change' Of His First Term?

The answer to the above question is a resounding no. Despite the president's oft repeated excuse that Republican obstruction has prevented him from accomplishing his goals, we must be aware that he had huge Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress during his first two years. From 2009 to 2011, not a single Republican was strong enough to stop Obama from getting anything he wanted. He chose his own priorities, major healthcare reform with a stronger government role in it was first and foremost on Obama's plate. Should this project have received most of his attention when the economy was in free-fall and the country was embroiled in several foreign wars?

All the president did for the economy was to get the Federal Reserve to pump more money into the economy and take-on billions more in debt (altogether, $800 billion was spent in the first stimulus bill) to give to the states to spend as they saw fit. This money was supposed to be used to save and create jobs. Instead, it went to pay off the states' own debts. Three years later, unemployment is stuck above 8 per cent, and those many billions have been flushed down the drain. The president himself laughed at his own failure by saying shovel-ready jobs were "not as shovel-ready as we thought." This shows us his care and attitude about fulfilling the hope and change he promised us all! With this in mind, do we see anything in his character that should lead us to believe Obama will defy the odds, in more than two hundred years of history, and become a successful second term president? No.

None of this is to mention the gravity of the testimony that comes through in more than two hundred interviews conducted by journalist Ed Klein (for the book The Amateur). The overwhelming impression that floods the reader is that at every stage of his career: university lecturer, community organizer, Illinois state legislator, U.S. Senator, and finally, president of the United States, Barack Obama turns his back on the very people who help him. Everyone from small-time Chicago fundraisers to Oprah Winfrey and the Kennedy's have been burned and scorned by this narcissistic man with delusions of messiah-hood! Does this lead us to believe Obama cares about us - the middle class, the wage-creators, the wage-earners, or anyone else? No.

Dear reader, if you can think of any reason we should vote for President Obama in 2012, please explain it in the comment link below.

Jason A.