HE'S BUSH LITE, W WASN'T OBAMA LITE:

America: Maybe he can’t (Edward Luce, January 14 2010, Financial Times)

W hether it is recalcitrant foes – from obstructionist Republicans at home and America’s determined rivals and enemies abroad – or recalcitrant trends (most notably the economy and mounting public debt) Mr Obama’s first year in office has offered a sobering tutorial in the limits of presidential power.

It has also served as a reminder not to take campaign promises too literally. Mr Obama swept to power promising change – particularly to the way politics is conducted in Washington. He also promised a revitalising diplomatic agenda. Both have bumped up against familiar constraints: the first to the limits of a president’s domestic power, the second to the reality of America’s waning clout in the world.

Whatever else can be said of Mr Obama’s mostly very competent performance, there is little doubt it has failed to redeem the excitement he generated on the campaign trail. Indeed, he has taken America in some familiar-seeming directions. His 30,000 troop surge for Afghanistan may be very different from Mr Bush’s actions in Iraq. But, much like Tarp and the stimulus, the two wars have begun to blur in many people’s minds.

While the UR deserves some credit for TARP, which did save the economy, W deserves no blame for the stimulus, which has slowed recovery. It's not fair to the latter to blur the two.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 16, 2010 8:49 AM