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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 31, 2013)
A Glance Back How Did President Obama Do in His Fifth Year of Leadership? WASHINGTON (AP) — It was a moment for Barack Obama to savor. His second inaugural address over, Obama paused as he strode from the podi- um last January, turning back for one last glance across the expanse of the National Mall, where a supportive throng stood in the winter chill to witness the launch of his new term. “I want to take a look, one more time,” Obama said quietly. “I’m not going to see this again.” There was so much Obama could not — or did not — see then, as he opened his sec- ond term with a confident call to arms and an expansive liberal agenda. He’d never heard of Edward Snowden, who would lay bare the government’s mas- sive surveillance program. Large-scale use after years of partisan rancor on Capitol Hill. “My expectation is that there will be some popping of the blister after this election, because it will have been such a stark choice,” he’d said. Instead, great expectations disappeared in fumbles and failures. Obama’s critics doubled down. Fractured Republicans, tugged to the right by the tea party, swore off compromise. The presi- dent’s outreach to Congress was somewhere between lacking and non-existent. Obama’s team dropped the ball — calamitously — on his health care law. Snowden’s revelations had Democrats and Republicans alike call- ing for tighter surveillance rules. Foreign leaders were in a huff — Brazil’s president snubbing the offer of a White House state dinner, Germany’s Angela Merkel incensed that her cell phone calls had been intercept- ed. The president’s misplaced pledge that S TA N D U P PHOTO BY LISA LOVING By Julie Pace and Nancy Benac of The Associated Press ‘No More Evictions!’ Home foreclosure victims, from left, Debbie Austin, Patricia and Darren Williams, and a supporter, picketed the Multnomah County Building in May along with about 50 protesters. They called on Sheriff Dan Staton to stop evicting families, disputing their evictions by banking corporations. Austin, a cancer patient, cried as she told the protesters that armed officers forced her out of the house wearing nothing but a t-shirt and underwear. After an all-night sit-in, Staton and County Chair Jeff Cogen agreed in principal to a moratorium on evictions, and the group We Are Oregon declared a victory. PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED starts” for the president — and predicted cessors to see how quickly trouble can con- sume a second term. Richard Nixon better days ahead. “We’ll probably come out of 2013 in bet- resigned. Ronald Reagan got ensnarled in ter shape in terms of Con- gress and the White House being able to func- tion together,” she said.Yet Obama’s agenda of gun control, immigra- tion reform, a grand budg- et bargain and more sits unfulfilled. Obama’s job approval and personal favorability ratings are near the lowest point of his presidency, with increasing numbers of Julie Weitz and Teri McClain joined hundreds of people at the StandUp Americans saying they no Washington - March and Rally Against Gun Violence On Sunday Jan. longer consider him to be 13. Participants marched from Westlake Park to Seattle Center Mural honest or trustworthy. Amphitheater to remember the teachers and children killed at Sandy Hook Abroad, too, positive Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and demand the state views of Obama have legislature and Governor do something to curb gun violence in slipped, with confidence in him doing the right Washington. thing in world affairs First Lady Michelle Obama met with family members of victims of gun violence in February. She is of chemical weapons in Syria was only a people who liked their health plans would dropping. The mantra for the pictured here with Teressa Raiford, whose nephew threat. A government shutdown and second be able to keep them ran into a harsh reality Obama White House has Andre Payton was shot in Portland September 2010. debt crisis seemed improbable. His health as millions saw their coverage canceled. care law, the signature achievement of his The year ended with a small-bore budget always been to take the Raiford is lobbying for gun control measures presidency, seemed poised to make the leap deal that was welcomed as breath of fresh long view. Officials scoff including universal background checks. Visit from theory to reality. air, a telling sign of how wildly things had at the “who’s up, who’s demandaplan.org to learn more. down” churn of Washing- Obama had campaigned for re-election on veered off course in 2013. the hope that a second term would bring White House communications director ton’s chattering class and with it a new spirit of compromise Jennifer Palmieri called it a year of “fits and recall with glee Obama’s ability to rebound the Iran-Contra affair. Bill Clinton was from moments in his first term when his impeached for lying about his dalliances presidency was with Monica Lewinsky. And George W. Bush lost the public’s trust through his declared in peril. But as Obama botched handling of Hurricane Katrina’s embarked on his aftermath and the unpopular Iraq War. Obama’s team thought it had a strategy second term, some of his clos- for overcoming the second-term curse. est outside They would make a quick play for stricter advisers warned gun control measures, then capitalize on the him that the next GOP’s post-election anxiety by pressing for four years would an immigration overhaul and floating the have to be dif- possibility of a big budget deal. Each of those efforts failed and Obama ferent: He was operating on a quickly found himself consumed by an shorter leash, unending series of distractions. Some were fleeting, like the revelations and might have just 18 months, that the Internal Revenue Service was perhaps as little applying extra scrutiny to conservative as a year, to groups. But others threatened long-term accomplish big damage to his presidency: the National Portland history makers were honored at the Portland Prime restaurant in February. Among the domestic priori- Security Agency disclosures and the disas- trous rollout of the “Obamacare” health law. honorees were: Tony Hopson Sr., Mark Washington, Roy Pittman, Rakeem Washington, Joyce Harris, ties. Some events were beyond Obama’s con- All Obama Ancer Haggerty, Rev. T. Allen Bethel, Michael Montgomery, Paul Knauls and Howard White. needed to do was look to his prede- See OBAMA on page 4 Salute to African American Leaders in Portland December 31, 2013 The Portland & Seattle Skanner Page 3
