The emptiness of Obama’s first year pieces

From George Packer’s 9000-word slog in the New Yorker (subscription required… blog post here) to the Economist’s “Failure to lead” article, most reviews of Obama’s first year have been shrugs at best and condemnations at worst. Packer’s piece is indicative of the genre — Obama has failed to talk to the “average American,” his biggest fault apparently.

This is all malarkey. There are legitimate reasons for souring on the Obama Administration, the most obvious case being his steady retreat on civil liberties (so much so that one wonders if he was ever out there on civil liberties). To knock him for his inability to communicate with the public is stupid, but about as stupid as thinking Obama won the election based on soaring rhetoric and thoughts of structural change in Washington. There is one reason why Obama’s disapproval is higher.

Unemployment vs. Presidential Disapproval Rating (1981-2009)

There are anomalies on this graph, sure. 9/11, Iran/Contra, Lewinsky, etc. The general trend, however, is undeniable.

My guess: when the economy improves and unemployment goes down, the same class of political journalist will be clamoring to write articles about Obama’s “comeback” and how his political team got its “mojo” back. I like Packer’s writing, but this genre of article is exactly the kind of narrative-obsessed, inside-baseball nonsense that gets held up as investigative journalism.

Yes, Obama’s approval’s in the tank. But there’s a reason they give the President four-year terms.

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Shoes

The kids always notice your shoes. We could impose all the rules we wanted, but the shoes never failed to make their appearance, fluorescent and gleaming. They have their own detailed debates: the merits of new with tags vs. new without tags, a comparison of different Jordan years, an instant evaluation of one’s worth based on shoes and their respective brands.

As eager as I was to condemn them for their materialistic fascination, I was as guilty as they were of attaching importance to shoes. I kept the same pair of shoes from August to June; stepping into them every morning as I walked in the door of my classroom and slipping them off every long afternoon as I walked out. They reminded me that I was no longer the foul-mouthed irreverent rabble-rouser; I was a teacher, from my head down to my cheap brown dress shoes.

Students don’t forget these things – they notice everything. The November day that I returned from my medical leave after getting mugged, many students responded with a mixture of joy and disbelief. One student told me later that she was unsure it was me when she walked in the door until she saw I was wearing the shoes that had sat empty on the bookshelf in my absence. That moment, I knew that I had done that single most difficult task in teaching – to convince the students that you are on their side. They had wriggled and spasmed in my absence; they needed my vacant shoes to be filled.

My shoes helped me cement my uncool status, as well. “Damn, Mr. ________, why don’t you get some new shoes? I’ll show you where to get some kicks!” The thought momentarily went through my head: Maybe I should just wear some of my kicks, kick back and loosen up, curse and carouse with the students as I would have done just a few years ago. Those who know me can tell how freely I swear, and I even considered cussing for the students just to gain an in.

But the shoes – and my composure – remained.

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My year of teaching

On the blog, I try not to talk too much about my personal life, but one can never separate a man from his work. As we have noted in our memoir-driven age, the experiences of one’s life found one’s actions in the future. My experience as a first-year teacher at a low-income inner city school has likely affected my actions.

As the school year ends, I look back on the year that passed and see the hardest year of my life. I will make a series of posts in the coming week to talk about the year I faced and my thoughts on it.

Post 1: Shoes

Post 2: Mannish Boy

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