The Left Field

Over the past week, President Barack Obama has made many promises and made great strides in re-invoking the hopes and spirits of those who had begun to feel that he was not delivering on his campaign claims. Last Friday, President Obama met with House Republicans in the GOP House Issues Conference. This conference is usually not televised, but fortunately this one was. This conference showed Obama at his best, shooting down questions left and right. One of the notable moments of the conference was the president's newfound forcefulness. He seemed much fiercer than before, tackling issues that he would not speak out before. "Wasteful spending is usually spent somehow outside of your district," he told the assembled Representatives. "Have you noticed that? The spending in your district tends to seem pretty sensible." He also said, in response to questions about the stimulus bill, "And then the last portion of it was infrastructure which, as I said, a lot of you have gone to appear at ribbon-cuttings for the same projects that you voted against." This aggressive nature of the president was something that was lacking in his earlier addresses. While before, he would not take specific sides on issues in fear of polarizing legislators, he is now calling out senators on their hypocrisy.

Republican representatives later said that the broadcast of this conference was probably a mistake.

Wednesday morning the president held another conference, this time with Senate Democrats, where he handled important issues facing the nation. He praised the legislators for their handling of the health care reform bill and urged them to continue their efforts. He also addressed his recent federal budget proposal, which is the largest in the nation's history at 3.8 trillion, combined with a freeze on non-defense discretionary spending that would take effect in 2011 and last for three years. Despite calls from Democrats such as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to limit defense spending, especially to hold defense contractors to the same freezes mandated for non-defense spending, Obama justified the distinction saying that it would be irresponsible to cut defense spending in the middle of two wars.

He did, however, take this opportunity to address the Republican oppositions to every issue, especially because the source of the opposition was political, not policy-based. Republicans have threatened to filibuster over 85 percent of legislation in the past year. To put things in perspective, Republicans have tried to employ the filibuster more times in the past year than in the entirety of the 1950s and 1960s. In President Obama's words, "that's 20 years of obstruction packed into one."

The president also stressed that people should use several media sources and conduct their own research rather than blindly following one news outlet. This was probably a reference to Fox News' refusal to air the entirety of the GOP House Issues Conference, cutting away with 20 minutes remaining while all other cable news channels aired the entire conference. This discrepancy between media coverage and the truth paints a rather incomplete picture, and through the holes it is possible to see that the image Fox News is presenting is a false one.

I have spent the past year defending the president with the belief that, soon, policy will replace the promises. I thought that a man who preached change so eloquently would have the courage to make the difficult decisions needed to bring us out of this recession and back to the economic stability of the Clinton years. It seems that the man who has thus far been yelling encouragement from the dugout has finally stepped up to the plate, bat in hand and ready to swing. Proposing a budget that calls for a level of spending greater than any national budget to date is not an easy thing to do, and neither is proposing a $1.3 trillion budget while in a recession. It is a bold and dangerous move to combat a dangerous situation.

Just as I am beginning to lose faith in this presidency, I see a glimmer of light on the horizon that hints that dawn may be approaching. But this is not the first time I saw a hint of light and I can only hope that, this time, the sun actually rises.