Obama as President
May. 30th, 2009 12:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jasonandrewI've been fairly impressed with Obama as president in his first six months or so.
This country has a mountain of issues and I know that some of his supporters are unhappy in the order in which he is tackling them.
I used to think that his greatest strength was being able to inspire hope.
Instead, I think his greatest asset is his slow methodology. After eight years of Bush and eight years of Clinton, I think that the American Public is unused to a President that is slow respond until there is a plan in place.
Bush never seemed to understand the difference between action and consequence. Or he didn’t care as many have suggested.
Clinton was an emotional president. He allowed himself to make mistakes by making rash decisions.
Obama is coldly logical and methodical. I think many that were energized by the message of hope is confusion passion and ideals with tone and methods.
From a distance, it looks like he runs policy at the White House like a national debate. The first tricks any skilled debater is to learn the data and then establish precedent.
Obama is quickly establishing a lot of precedents.
Perhaps the most overlooked and yet most important is the Open Government project. There is a Chief Information Officer now in the White House. His job is to ensure that the Public can access information.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/innovations/Data/
To quote the site:
Data.gov is a citizen-friendly platform that provides access to Federal datasets. With a searchable data catalog, Data.gov helps the public find, access, and download non-sensitive Government data and tools in a variety of formats.
What does this mean?
All of the information that used to be hidden from us is accessible. This is important because now we can check facts.
When a politician says something, we can look it up.
We’re no longer held hostage to reporters or specialists with special access with an agenda.
Want to know how many single mothers are below the poverty line? Look it up.
Want to know what products have peanut extract? Look it up.
Want a quick way to know how a Senator voted?
You get the idea.
The last eight years, Carl Rove used stories and generated mythology to win elections for Republicans.
The Democrats took it like that poor guy from Deliverance.
Obama is changing how politics will be played. He is changing the nature of the debate.
You want to work towards legalization of pot? You have crime, medical, and economic statistics available directly to you.
Just as the internet has started the rise of the Citizen Reporter via blogs, I believe this is the start of the Citizen Politician.
This country has a mountain of issues and I know that some of his supporters are unhappy in the order in which he is tackling them.
I used to think that his greatest strength was being able to inspire hope.
Instead, I think his greatest asset is his slow methodology. After eight years of Bush and eight years of Clinton, I think that the American Public is unused to a President that is slow respond until there is a plan in place.
Bush never seemed to understand the difference between action and consequence. Or he didn’t care as many have suggested.
Clinton was an emotional president. He allowed himself to make mistakes by making rash decisions.
Obama is coldly logical and methodical. I think many that were energized by the message of hope is confusion passion and ideals with tone and methods.
From a distance, it looks like he runs policy at the White House like a national debate. The first tricks any skilled debater is to learn the data and then establish precedent.
Obama is quickly establishing a lot of precedents.
Perhaps the most overlooked and yet most important is the Open Government project. There is a Chief Information Officer now in the White House. His job is to ensure that the Public can access information.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/innovations/Data/
To quote the site:
Data.gov is a citizen-friendly platform that provides access to Federal datasets. With a searchable data catalog, Data.gov helps the public find, access, and download non-sensitive Government data and tools in a variety of formats.
What does this mean?
All of the information that used to be hidden from us is accessible. This is important because now we can check facts.
When a politician says something, we can look it up.
We’re no longer held hostage to reporters or specialists with special access with an agenda.
Want to know how many single mothers are below the poverty line? Look it up.
Want to know what products have peanut extract? Look it up.
Want a quick way to know how a Senator voted?
You get the idea.
The last eight years, Carl Rove used stories and generated mythology to win elections for Republicans.
The Democrats took it like that poor guy from Deliverance.
Obama is changing how politics will be played. He is changing the nature of the debate.
You want to work towards legalization of pot? You have crime, medical, and economic statistics available directly to you.
Just as the internet has started the rise of the Citizen Reporter via blogs, I believe this is the start of the Citizen Politician.