VCU political science professor reflects on President Obama’s first year in office

Jennifer Thompson, J.D., assistant professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, says that in nearly every regard, President Obama’s first year in office has been tough, marked by the worst global economy since the Great Depression, controversial business bailouts, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a bruising battle over health care in Congress.

“It’s been a rough year on a lot of different fronts, both from the security front with everything from Afghanistan to on our soil with the Christmas Day attack and Fort Hood, to the hurdles with health care — both explaining health care to the American people and getting significant buy-in for the health care reform — to the quibbles in Congress between the House and Senate, which as of January 2010, they still have not reached agreement,” Thompson said. “So it’s been a really tough year for President Obama.”

Thompson says Obama was elected because his campaign message of change appealed to Independent voters and even some Republicans, in addition to his Democrat base. When Obama was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009, supporters had high hopes for sweeping changes that could be accomplished quickly. A year later, some are now disillusioned because the changes they hoped for aren’t happening fast enough.

“Well, the expectations for President Obama coming in were extremely high,” Thompson said. “There was so much excitement around the election of President Obama for lots of reasons. Obviously, it was historical – the first African American president. He’s very youthful and has a youthful, attractive family, and just a new change. It was always going to be very difficult for President Obama to live up to the expectations that were set out for him, both from the left wing of his party to the moderates and independents that really got him into office.”

Thompson says that adding pressure to the president’s role are election losses by Democrats in the Virginia and New Jersey Governor’s race in November 2009 and in a special U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts in January 2010. Thompson says the recent Democratic Party setbacks may prompt the president to adopt new strategies.

“There is a strong sense that Democrats are going to be scrambling in the 2010 congressional election. And by scrambling, I mean many are going to lose,” Thompson said. “So President Obama needs to make the decision whether he is going to stay the course, continue working on items that he has pushed all along - health care, more stimulus money- or whether he is going to reach out and try to court more moderate folks that elected him into office and reach across party lines more. Right now, we haven’t seen a lot of that reaching across party lines in an effective way.”

Thompson says the president had few major legislative successes in his first year in office and that the jury is still out on whether one of the most controversial, the economic stimulus package, is working.

“The effectiveness of the stimulus package is very debatable. Whether that did help, we still have unemployment of 10 percent, but on the other hand, there are some signs that things are turning around. It’s possible in the next couple of months, the unemployment numbers will go down. “That’s what is expected to happen. Things have stabilized to some degree,” Thompson said. “So, we’re in a very tenuous point to see whether that stimulus money will ultimately save the day or whether more reform was needed, more money is needed.”

Analysts expect Obama to more narrowly focus on the economy in year two of his administration.