Wednesday, April 22, 2009

What Do I Think Of Obama's First Few Months

This is a response I sent to one of my few "theocon" friends on FaceBook to that question:

In terms of social issues, he got rid of the Mexico City doctrine, which no Democrat ever supports anyway, so that was no surprise. Other than that, and potential Supreme Court openings, I don't think abortion is going to come up much. That issue loses ground in terms of importance in every successive election. I don't even hear Rs talking about it much any more.

Guns, I don't think Obama wants it anywhere near the top of his agenda, but some D Senators want to bring it up now. Personally, I think it's a bad idea to make this an issue. Obama might be forced to deal with it though because of his own party.

Gay marriage, public opinion is shifting toward allowing it, despite religious groups managing to defeat it in CA through a landslide of cash and advertising in 2008. Even many conservatives now see it as either state's rights or as a decision to made by individuals. VT now has it legislatively, IA too I believe, and DC and NY look poised to follow suit. It's really only a matter of time before more states adopt it. This is an issue too that cuts across age lines more than anything. Younger people of all stripes are more accepting of it, so over time it will shift even more. I don't think Obama personally is going to get involved in most of it. Theocons have already lost this fight in the long term, but they don't appear to realize this, nor do they seem to realize that this is an issue that is driving young people away from social conservatism that might otherwise be sympathetic.

As far as dealing with enemies, he is handling things just how I want him to and how he said he would. He will engage with these countries, maybe even with a smile, but he's not giving them concessions. Maybe we'll gain some useful knowledge about them. The big stick doesn't mean much if you wave it constantly, and W was always doing that. He obviously will use some force where needed, like with the pirates, so he'll do what he has to do, but won't be landing on an aircraft carrier to flaunt it. We're already re-connecting with our allies, which is excellent as well.

For the financial crisis, he is taking bold action and a lot of action. I do have some serious reservations about the cost. It sounds like he recognizes that this can't be an all the time thing, and that as the economy improves, we have to get the budget back on track. He appears ready to make some cuts. I'm curious about how that will turn out. He needed to take bold action, and he did, but now he needs to pull back on the spending for next year, so we'll see how that goes. The bank situation seems to be improving slightly, but we have a ways to go yet.

So, that's what I think. Got all that? *:-)