Two years ago, the nation was in the midst of the race for the Presidential Office. President George W. Bush’s second term was coming to a close, and it seemed that most of the country, as reflected in campaigns from both sides of the aisle, was ready for change.

A young senator from Illinois seemed to come out of nowhere to take on the likes of Hillary Clinton, a seemingly unfair match, as it seemed Clinton could easily win.
However, a few months later, the country would find out that their new president was a Mr. Barack H. Obama. A fever had seemed to take the country, where everyone had their opinion on who was the best option, why, and why the other candidate was the absolutely worst choice possible.

I know I was a part of this fever, as I helped to place fliers on my neighbor’s door the night before the elections for the Obama campaign.

After his win, the many practical changes President Obama promised seemed a reality, and as a result his face was immortalized on bumper stickers, t-shirts and bobble heads. “Obamania” as many in the media called it, was in full swing.

Now two years later, has President Obama followed through on his seemingly flawless plan? The news seems to convey that the answer will be seen by the results of mid-term elections.

If many seats up for election in Congress that were once held by Democrats stay within the party, then yes, he has done a commendable job, but if those Democratic seats turn Republican, the message is, no, he has not completely lived up to his promises.

When running for Office, President Obama had promised many things, and when it came down to the last months, his main opponent, Senator John McCain, did too.
They both agreed that troops should eventually withdraw from the Middle East, and that the education system had some needed reforms, but they differed on two major topics: Health Care reform and the economy.

The eventual victor of the race promised major Health Care reform for the country, saying that he would add some sort of government-backed option that would compliment the existing programs of Medicaid and Medicare, while being competitive with the private insurance companies, that would help bring the cost of insurance down. This has not happened yet.

While, yes, President Obama has passed some Health Care reform that prevents some of the most unfair practices some insurance companies were using, there is still no promised government option.

As stated earlier, the economy was another major point in the Obama campaign. Presidential-hopeful Obama promised revolutionary tax breaks for individuals and small businesses.

Unfortunately, the mishaps of corporate America has bogged down President Obama’s economic agenda. If you were to walk around the neighborhoods of middle-class America and ask if any of President Obama’s changes in the economy have affected them for the better or worse, more than likely, the answer you would receive would be “no.”

In fact, students of AHS reflect this last statement. Jonathan Pratt, sophomore, responded to being asked about how the economy has affected him said, “The economic changes President Obama have made has not affected me.”

Sophomore Ulugbek Israilov added, “President Obama’s economic changes have not affected me, but they might in the future.”

This will most likely become reality if President Obama is able to complete the agenda he started.

So, where did time go? A major chunk of President Obama’s time was spent on fixing the economy, rightfully so, through bailouts that were mostly last resort options.
However, some of his valuable time was spent on “beer summits,” the Shirley Sherrod issue, and the zoning of a New York City mosque, which are all perfectly debatable issues, but were partly so controversial because of President Obama’s involvement in the first place.

It seems that maybe these promises that range from large job growth, to the closing of Guantanamo Bay were with good intentions, but were the result of a young, hopeful, and relatively new politician, who had yet to see all sides of some of these issues.

Now with the economy in a better place then it once was, and corporate America temporarily in check, President Obama needs to return to his original agenda of core issues that won him his position in the first place. Can we get back to the plan? Hopefully the answer is yes, yes we can.