Obama planting political seeds for success

The title of this commentary might suggest a reference to the food garden that first lady Michelle Obama has grown into such an attraction at the White House.  But it is not.

Instead, it refers to the fact that, within weeks after President Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, I found myself having to caution patience upon some of his liberal supporters.  I felt obliged to do this because they were already whining about Obama’s failure to implement some of the policies that are near and dear to their bleeding hearts. And their impatience in this respect has only been marginally pacified by Obama signing of “a watered down” healthcare bill a couple of weeks ago.

But I got so fed up with their myopic complaints that I finally published a commentary entitled Obama’s swing right alienates left (November 9, 2009), in which I explained that:

[F]ar too many liberals are being swayed by conservative spin about Obama’s domestic policy agenda being too unfocused and his foreign policy being too soft. Not to mention the political naiveté being displayed by those who are already calling him a “sellout”.

After all, they fail to appreciate that Obama is merely planting political seeds this year (e.g., on the economy, healthcare, Iran and even in his dealings with rabidly partisan Republicans) that he reasonably expects will blossom (i.e., pay dividends) in due course: specifically, on domestic matters, before congressional elections in November 2010, and on foreign affairs, before his presidential reelection in 2012.

Well, Obama’s writers must have read this. Because here’s how he used the final passage of the healthcare bill to lampoon the impatience of his critics and supporters alike during a town hall address last week:

Every single day since I signed the reform law, there’s been another poll or headline that said, ‘Nation still divided on health care reform.  Polls haven’t changed yet.’

Well, yeah. It just happened last week. It’s only been a week. Can you imagine if some of these reporters were working on a farm?  You planted some seeds, and they came out the next day, and they looked, and nothing’s happened! There’s no crop!  We’re going to starve!  Oh, no!  It’s a disaster!

Touché: I couldn’t have said it better myself Mr. President.

Related commentaries:
Obama’s swing right…