Letter: Looking At What Obama's Accomplished Instead of Debate Performance

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By Genevieve Wilson

Prior to last week’s presidential debate, I felt tired of hearing complaints about President Obama’s poor performance in the first. I frequently heard that he lost that debate, that he missed the mark entirely, even that “he sucked.”

But I didn’t see someone losing or underperforming. I saw someone sobered by four years in office, speaking from his own experience in his present and anticipated role as head of state.

To me he seemed tired — I’m sure both candidates were by then — and perhaps simply unwilling, all things considered, to alter his own manner of speaking even for one evening in order to match someone with far less experience and please the status quo. To have done so would have amounted to pandering and sadly, the public is fickle.

The reality is that we are turning an incredible corner as a country. There are deep-level systemic changes taking place, and they take time and patience. But we are quick to criticize and have incredible difficulty delaying gratification.

I hate to sound cliché, but where is the depth of character needed to weather such changes together? Was it really lost altogether with the Greatest Generation?

At a time like this, I think it is far better to look carefully at what has been accomplished in the last four years of Obama’s presidency and acknowledge that he cannot be the lightening rod for our discontent as a people.

He works with an immense team of people from administration and appointees to elected officials in Washington. What has been created at present has been created by many, and many of those have been elected into office by us.

With that in mind I’ll submit that Obama and his friends have passed health care reform, they’ve passed the stimulus, they’ve passed Wall Street reform, and they’ve ended the war in Iraq.  Add to all of this that they eliminated Osama Bin Laden, and it actually sounds like quite a bit for four years’ time without even beginning to look at the many other accomplishments afoot.

I think another term is in order.