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TNR’s editors take a stab at defining the President’s first year.  In sum: they’re assessing him not far off the B+ the President gave himself, but they’d like to see a little more idealism; and hope that his Nobel speech was the first of more spirit-raising momes:

Although the second year of Obama’s presidency has not yet begun, we hope that historians will look back and note that it started early in Oslo–that December 2009 marked a new phase. For while there was plenty of realist truth in his speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, there were also bracing doses of idealism. To quote this stunning address: “Somewhere today, in the here and now, in the world as it is, a soldier sees he’s outgunned, but stands firm to keep the peace. Somewhere today, in this world, a young protestor awaits the brutality of her government, but has the courage to march on. Somewhere today, a mother facing punishing poverty still takes the time to teach her child, scrapes together what few coins she has to send that child to school–because she believes that a cruel world still has a place for that child’s dreams. Let us live by their example.”

They also generally applaud his domestic programs while resigning their hopes to the practicalities of passing them in a climate disparate than the one that allowed Roosevelt’s transformations. But despite the administrative hours spent on healthcare, the Recovery Act, and stabilizing the financial sector, the editors found Afghanistan as the emblematic decision of Year One.

Still, the most consequential action of the first year of his administration is the escalation of the war in Afghanistan. It is a policy that highlights the strengths (and weaknesses) of his presidency–and, in many ways, refutes the rightwing caricature that has slowly morphed into conventional wisdom. [. . .] In the end, he made a decision that has offended the base of his party and possibly injured his future political prospects. On strategic grounds, we believe he made the right choice. But the thoroughness and logic of the process by which he arrived at this decision double our confidence in that choice.

There’s little doubt that the President’s decisionmaking process over war policy will be among the defining ones of his presidency.  But the implications of its success or failure will mostly be felt later on.  The same with the speeches in Cairo and Ankara–these are part of the administration’s long game.  In fact the defining dynamics of his first year have been domestic–the stimulus and healthcare reform.  The first consumed the first month of his presidency; the second continues to test his strategy on how to induce congressional passage of his agenda.  And while we ought not to give the media too much credit, it’s unfair to discount their coverage as a metric of what the American public sees as important–jobs, healthcare, and matters at home.  Part of the public’s ambivalence over the troop surge in Afghanistan can be chalked up to that

And so, while TNR surely styled their editorial from the line that they hoped his second year “started early in Oslo–that December 2009 marked a new phase”–that their argument eyed the long term, through his legacy–I have to disagree with them.  The true moments embodying the administration’s first year came whenever the President decided to let committees carry healthcare reform legislation, instead of pushing it from the top down.  The messiness and the ups and downs that started in summer and continue today have been anything but pretty–or pleasant–but thanks to the President’s deference on deliberation and pressure at the margins (while keeping his hands out of the procedural works), some pretty landmark social legislation is likely to be signed before Christmas.  Which highlights the true reason to be hopeful about this presidency.  Off the campaign trail, it’s all reason and humble technocracy.

We had an idealist in the White House last time round.  Let’s let this leader take us not just past that time, but beyond it with sound policies.  The measure of his success won’t be found in the ideals of his speeches, though those, I’ll concede and appreciate, are an important part of leadership, as his war philosophy laid out in his Nobel acceptance speech was.  The final metric will be signed bills and policy implemented.  ARRA, Ledbetter, and others are already turning us around.  Then healthcare and carbon pricing.  The cool, unidealistic President’s hand will be guiding behind, step by each messy Congressional and Sunday show step.

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