For Obama’s first year, an incomplete

Good-government groups and lobbyists like to give letter grades to politicians, but when it comes to President Obama as he marks the end of his first full year in office, we can only assign him an incomplete.

Contrary to the expectations of some who voted for him, Obama has not established world peace, ended discrimination or wiped out poverty. Moreover, a man whose campaign hammered the theme of “change” hasn’t changed all that much. Notwithstanding a significant rally on Wall Street, the economy isn’t in much better shape than it was a year ago, and joblessness has gotten worse. The president managed to shepherd through a stimulus package that probably prevented a catastrophic financial crash, but it contained far too much spending aimed at satisfying political agendas rather than providing jobs. Worse, he has done little or nothing to put the federal budget on a more sustainable course and reduce the crushing national debt.

He deserves points for backing the most significant healthcare reform since Medicare, but that job isn’t finished. Ditto on a climate change bill and his efforts to stop nuclear proliferation.

Obama has proved to be a cautious leader who makes incremental changes within the system, rather than blowing it up as some backers had hoped. His failure to honor campaign promises has disappointed many, especially on the left, who think that when the president vowed to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center within a year or provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, he was obliged to make good. The website PolitiFact.com keeps a running tally of Obama’s campaign promises: Out of 500 promises, only 124 have been kept so far.

Obama can rightly be faulted for implying he could be all things to all people, for setting unrealistic deadlines and for presenting himself as a world-changer when in reality it’s tough even for the president of the United States to change the world. But even that doesn’t explain why his approval rating has dropped from about 67% a year ago to 50% today, the lowest rating at the end of a president’s first year since Ronald Reagan. Voters who blamed President Bush for high joblessness in 2008 are blaming Obama for it now. No president can expect high ratings when unemployment stands at 10% and rising.

We’ll give Obama the benefit of the doubt on the economy; enthusiasts who expected him to single-handedly reverse the worst collapse since the Depression after only a year in office need to switch to decaf. And we’re not bothered that Obama hasn’t proved to be Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., George S. Patton and Superman wrapped into one. The previous administration put the country on a reckless course toward financial disaster and endless war. Obama has restored American prestige abroad, instilled confidence in the financial system and started extricating the military from a quagmire in Iraq, all while taking important regulatory steps to protect the environment and fend off global warming. The president still has much to do, but all in all it’s not a bad start.