Grading Obama

Lots of predictable punditry these days on how well or poorly the president has done after Year One, but Walter Russell Mead's report card on Politico rings true (especially on the economy).

Economic Crisis: A The economy did not collapse.

Recession Management: C
He loses points though on both the structure and the presentation of the stimulus. Worst failure: letting the administration go on the record with predictions about the unemployment rate.

Health Care: C
This is a disaster averted at this point, not a triumph achieved. The bill is hugely unpopular and a net minus for the Democrats at this point. They are reduced to arguing that passing an unpopular, deeply flawed bill is less disastrous than passing no bill at all.

Cap and Trade: C
No bill and no prospect of a bill. On the other hand, getting the EPA CO2 finding may give him more leverage coming back to this subject next semester.

Deficit: D
Are you kidding? Unless he gets control of this, the Democrats will not only take a shellacking in the 2010 midterms; it will be a generation before the Democrats can credibly propose another social program

Party Leader: C-
By misreading the mandate he committed the administration and the party to an overly-ambitious course that voters did not support. Sometimes less is more.

Overall domestic grade: B-
(Preventing an economic collapse pulled up the average.)

On foreign policy, he also gets a B-. God, can you imagine having that job?