Being Americas First Black President Is Not an Impeachable Offense - Essay Example

After a review of his policies, it is concluded that President Barack Obama has had a relatively successful term in office, but his public image as president has never caught up to his image as a candidate. The extent to which this opposition is due to his politics and his race is discussed in the context of recent events. It is concluded that a president cannot enjoy success without reasonable cooperation with those from other political parties.

Being America’s First Black President is Not an Impeachable Offense

The concept of impeachment has a rich history in American rhetoric. The term emerged from France in the 1640s, and it refers to a judicial proceeding against a public official (OED, 2010).

In the United States, only two presidents have ever been impeached: President Andrew Johnson in 1868 (for violating the Tenure of Office Act) and President Bill Clinton in 1998 (for alleged perjury). Both of these attempts at impeachment succeeded; however, they certainly sent a strong message to the accused and the country, and it is an important asset to a constitutional republic. A so-called “impeachable” offense by a Federal official could be any unethical or illegal activity. Regardless of its usefulness in ensuring the rule of law, it is a useful tool in political rhetoric because it signals substantive opposition to someone in power.

Now, opponents of President Barack Obama propose to impeach him because of a wide range of problems they see with his policymaking. Recently, one Republican lawyer drafted impeachment proceedings against the President because of his commitment to helping Libyan rebels win their civil war (Smith, 2011). The “Impeach Obama Campaign,” which is a petition that claims over one million signatures, takes issue with nearly every development emerging from the Obama White House (Shapiro, 2011). In a political environment like this, it is little wonder why the President’s opponents claim he has been an ineffective leader.

As an expert on negotiation will say, it is impossible to produce good results when every proposal, every thought, and every action is stonewalled. The virtue of winning the political game is practiced more than the virtue of creating good policy in the contemporary political environment. However, unquestioning opposition to President Barack Obama is not a new phenomenon; it is something Americans have seen since the young Illinois Senator emerged as a serious candidate in the 2008 election cycle.

According to writers at Politico, President Obama has demonstrated that he is not the kind of president with a naive hope to change Washington (Harris & VandeHei, 2010). This is demonstrated by the steps he took in 2010 to overhaul health care in the United States and financial reform. For an advisor to the President, it is frustrating that despite these accomplishments, America is still not satisfied with the level of success they would like to see from the Federal government (Geraghty, 2010).

He notes that any one of the President’s most significant accomplishments would have been celebrated much more heavily if there were any other presidents in the White House (Geraghty, 2010). Thus, the question becomes about the factors that are holding President Barack Obama back from being celebrated as a successful (or at least “effective”) president. I