Editorial, Opinion

STAFF LIGHT: Obama in the afterglow

One of Boston University’s most esteemed alumnus historians Howard Zinn came back to BU to speak Thursday on what he believes to be the shortcomings of Barack Obama’s presidency thus far. Zinn’s bottom line was that Obama has yet to live up to the hype he garnered during his campaign, and has yet to fulfill the hope he advertises with such vigor in the media. Zinn’s thoughts coincided nicely with the president’s visit to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Friday, where he delivered a speech of the very nature Zinn criticized.

It’s hard for the millennial generation to get away with criticizing a president, due to its lack of comparative basis. Most members of the college-aged demographic have only seen three presidents their whole lives, Obama included ‘- none of them perfect, none of them without his share of low approval ratings. But perhaps Obama carries with him a novel set of expectations because he his so different from the historical American president, and because he based his entire platform upon the instigation of massive worldwide change, which he did with a zeal and agility that made him seem infallible to flaw or failure. Heretofore lost in the glamour of the president’s intentions, however, the American public may begin to agree with Zinn when they realize the lack of concrete products that should be resulting from those intentions.’

At this point ‘- a few months short of a year into his term ‘- Obama’s glamour has faded, and people no longer expect a superhero to emerge from his office in the White House. What people do want is for their president to strike a balance ‘- to stop parading around the country waving a banner for change and constantly calling Americans to action, and to do something. The American public has answered Obama’s call ‘- that became obvious last November when they voted for him ‘- and now it’s time for him to use that battalion of supporters and his Democratic Congress to yield the products of change he’s been promising. There is a reality to being a leader ‘- it transcends Nobel Peace Prizes and universal fame and well-written speeches ‘- and that reality is manifested in action.

Obama has taken on an ambitious set of challenges within his first year of presidency ‘- closing the Guantanamo Bay prison and overhauling the health care system, for example ‘- but he has yet to satisfy those challenges, and few expect him to. He would do well to start small, and gain the momentum he’s lost since his election, and tackle the larger problems when he’s ready. Americans voted for Obama not because they saw him as a panacea, but rather because they believed he had the potential to lead pragmatically. But so far, it’s hard not to think that Obama has forgotten that hope is merely a means, not an end.

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