I’ll throw this out there: I feel really bad for President-elect Barack Obama.

Nothing is going his way right now. The economy’s in the toilet, Americans are unhappy, and the rest of the world is slowly going to shut itself in to deal with its own problems.

Don’t get me wrong. Everything started out well for him. Many elements of his platform were entirely feasible up to a few months ago. The one that I’ve got in mind specifically was his desire to make college education more affordable to all families.

He had proposed a $4,000 tax credit toward tuition for families who send their students to college as well as a simplification of the forms for federal financial aid. While these measures are a mere drop in the vast galaxy-sized bucket of Penn tuition, every bit helps.

In general, raising the number of students attending college can only yield positive results for the future of the United States economy. (See also: Cold War math and science education.)

The conflict in Mumbai right now brings into sharp relief the contrast between the ideal and the likely, in the sense that, once again, Obama has more on his hands than ever.

On top of economic bailouts and war pullouts, whether he likes it or not, he will have to perform effective diplomacy between India and Pakistan — that’s what the United States does, apparently.

Where do the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on bailout plans leave room in the budget for college tuition aid? Nowhere in particular, that’s where.

Many important policies (whether or not we agree with them) will be put on the back burner. It is a necessary evil — we’ll have to put off certain new programs in favor of keeping the US from tanking. It’s as though Obama’s platform of change were not “Change now,” but “Change at some point in the future, time permitting… ideally.”

I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that tax credit right now; it’s better to watch as the world tries to pick up its own pieces.

Maybe next term?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.