Time is running out

Last Friday, a good amount of people on this campus stood still in shock as their beloved hometown of Chicago was rejected as the home for the 2016 Olympics.

It was a hard dose of reality for those that think their city is the greatest in the world (even if they don’t really live there). It wasn’t even a close vote, as Chicago only received 18 votes from the International Olympic Committee in the first round of voting.

However, IU’s Chicago students weren’t the only ones in shock. Someone who must have been more broken up about the vote was President Barack Obama, who decided to lobby for the Chicago effort, despite heavy criticism and the major distraction that it caused for his health care overhaul effort.

A big rumor going around prior to the vote was that Chicago would receive the Olympic bid if the president showed up. Perhaps the administration had hoped that Obama winning the Olympics for Chicago would turn the tide of negative media relating to recent agenda setbacks.

Instead, all the administration got was a PR mess that further served to highlight his lack of accomplishments during nearly nine months in office.

I really have been left in shock at the little amount that has been accomplished with the Democrats’ super majority. Despite the Republican Party being leaderless – with no united agenda/plan and an opposition movement that has been largely driven by uninformed, right-wing crazies led mostly by the sermons of Glenn Beck – Obama still hasn’t been able to push through any major legislation.

I think Bill Maher recently said it best: “I don’t care about the president’s birth certificate; I do want to know what happened to ‘Yes we can.’ Can we get out of Iraq? No. Afghanistan? No. Fix health care? No. Close Gitmo? No. Cap-and-trade carbon emissions? No. The Obamas have been in Washington for 10 months, and it seems like the only thing they’ve gotten is a dog.”

Despite that in the end these issues could be resolved and Obama might get what he wants, time does seem to be running out. If certain members of his party are unwilling to vote for an issue out of fear of not getting re-elected now, that fear will only grow as the election date approaches.

Obama’s main problem is that he has outsourced every issue to Pelosi and Congress, instead of writing his own plan and pushing for it. Because of this, these plans have been bogged down with fighting between party members, and Obama has been left to publicly endorse an overall theory instead of specifics, leaving his agenda open to attacks.

The president’s time for action is quickly dying as recent polls show that the Republicans are expected to gain 15 to 25 House seats during the next election cycle.

If Obama has any hope of taking advantage of this super majority, he should propose his own plans now and truly lead the legislative fight. Otherwise, his agenda and legacy are likely doomed to share the same fate: failure.