President Obama Should Look to the Past for Guidance

The Obama administration should be paying attention to the history books says Professor Andrew Moore, a presidential historian and scholar at Saint Anselm College. In a recent interview, Professor Moore provided his analysis of the first few months of the Obama administration, with an emphasis on historical examples of past presidents governing in tough financial times.

Moore notes that president Obama would be well served to look to the past for guidance on how to handle the current economic turmoil.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who also came into office during time of financial turmoil, could be a good example for Obama of what action to take, and what to avoid.

"FDR had a reform platform that occasionally hindered the recovery process," says Moore. "Roosevelt tried to do too much, and bogged his administration down in the reform process when the economic recovery needed to be completed first." Moore suggests that Obama would be wise to learn from this example, dealing with each aspect of recovery and reform one step at a time.

Responding to the notion brought up by some critics that president Obama is showing weaknesses in his executive experience, Moore suggests that all incoming presidents have historically dealt with a learning curve. Further, he notes that history has shown that in a political and economic environment such as today, any government is going to stumble at times. "He is still finding his way, he seems to be experiencing the standard acclimation process to the presidency, and is showing his developing notion of the role of the Commander-in-Chief," says Moore.

Professor Moore also spoke to the historic nature of president Obama's election, as well as the methods his campaign utilized to win the 2008 contest.

Moore describes the Obama election as a campaign that devised two new ways to build a movement among its supporters. He says that the grassroots style of campaigning and mobilizing supporters, as well as the type of devotion that was expressed towards the candidate in the early part of the electoral cycle was one "that has been previously reserved for losing candidates," who garnered strong support from their supporters, but lacked sufficient resources or votes to succeed, in the likeness of Eugene McCarthy.

In the 2008 election, Moore suggests that the Obama campaign engineered a political coalition "in a masterful, new way that we've never seen before." He singled out the utilization of new media technologies, and social networking platforms on the Internet for fundraising and coalition building as one example. Combined with traditional efforts of getting the vote out when it counted most, Moore notes that this campaign, better than any before it, used every resource available to it's full potential.

"Barack Obama was a candidate, and is now a president who represents a cause, an ideology," says Moore. Referencing Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater and Bobby Kennedy as other political figures who have used similar tactics before, Moore says that Obama did something distinctly different than previous politicians. "The difference with President Obama," says Moore, "is that he didn't become explicit in his message of 'hope and change' during the campaign cycle," leaving opportunity to leverage the same message since moving into the Oval Office."

Professor Moore will offer an upcoming summer school course, "The Obama Phenomenon: Race, Civil Rights, & the Presidency." He describes the course as an opportunity to synthesize historical issues of race, justice and politics.

Moore's course, to be offered through Saint Anselm College's Summer School, will take place during the first day session, May 18 through June 12. The course meets 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, with the exception of May 25.

For more information: www.anselm.edu/summerschool