Google "President Eisenhower" Golf - 229,000 Hits; "President Obama" Golf - 7,550,000 Hits -- January 18, 2015

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His Legacy

Before I went to the linked story, based on the headline, I assumed it was Fox News and really did not want to see another Fox News op-ed on President Obama disguised as a news story. I was surprised this was a Reuters headline and a Reuters new story featured at Yahoo!News: middle class decline looms over final years of Obama presidency.

Barack Obama enters the final two years of his presidency with a blemish on his legacy that looks impossible to erase: the decline of the middle class he has promised to rescue.

The revival of middle-class jobs has been one of Obama's mantras since he took office in 2009 fighting the worst economic crisis in generations. It was a major theme of his last State of the Union address and is expected to feature in the one scheduled for Tuesday.

Administration officials said on Saturday the president would propose higher capital gains taxes, new fees on large financial firms, and other measures to raise $320 billion for programs and tax breaks aimed at the middle class.

Obama's administration can take credit for stabilizing the U.S. economy, which is growing again and last year added jobs at the fastest clip since 1999.

But for the middle class the scars of the recession still run deep. Federal Reserve survey data show families in the middle fifth of the income scale now earn less and their net worth is lower than when Obama took office.

In the six years through 2013, over the recession and recovery that have spanned Obama's tenure, jobs have been added at the top and bottom of the wage scale, a Reuters analysis of labor statistics shows. In the middle, the economy has shed positions - whether in traditional trades like machining or electrical work, white-collar jobs in human resources, or technical ones like computer operators.

The trend is in plain sight in Dalton, Georgia, a manufacturing hub 90 miles (145 km) north of Atlanta. Massive factories that made it "the carpet capital of the world," were slammed by the collapse of the housing bubble. During the recession, with machines idle, they began investing heavily in new technology and are now laying plans to restore some lost jobs.

More at the linked article. 

I guess all those weekly job-updates were what most of us felt or knew: spin.

I assume these initiatives will hit the middle class much harder than they will hit the rich, the super-rich, and the hyper-rich. These initiatives will do nothing for the poor:

• higher capital gains taxes (middle class wealth, if any, is held in IRAs, pensions)
• new fees on large financial firms (middle class wealth, if any, is held in IRAs, pensions); and, 
• .... well, not much.

That's what I was taught in college also: when making lists, come up with "three" data points. If you come up with only two, it suggests you couldn't think of any more, and if you have more than three data points, you begin to bore your audience. It looks like the White House was able to come up with only two data points to share with Reuters as a teaser for the SOTU address.

By the way, what was that metric conversion all about? Was that really necessary, in that kind of story, to convert miles (90) to kilometers (145)? 

Buried in the story:

The forces at work in the American economy appear so entrenched that Obama may be remembered as the president who pulled the nation from its worst downturn since the Great Depression, but failed to arrest deepening economic inequality.

Before evening seeing this story, while driving our older granddaughter to water polo this afternoon, this thought crossed my mind, perhaps because of the Oprah movie, Selma: this was probably the last presidency  -- the last opportunity -- this country had to help the overly unemployed and the grossly disenfranchised African-American community.

I doubt I am in the minority when I opine that the African-American community has lost ground during this administration and the anxiety for that community in 2016 is that they will lose the bully pulpit to an old white man or an old white woman. Al Sharpton will no longer be the morning show spokesman for the White House.

Of course, that might be a good thing.

By the way, I doubt if any one (except pointy-headed liberal elitist historians) will ever remember President Obama for "pulling the nation from its worst downtown since the great depression."

I assume most will remember President Obama as having the same impact as President Carter did, but having more fun (golfing, dining out in Paris, swimming in Hawaii).

After all, what is Ike remembered for? Golfing.

By the way, just for the fun of it, Google:

• "President Eisenhower" golf --229,000 hits
• "President Obama" golf -- 7,550,000 hits

Now that's a legacy.