How Do You Measure The Effectiveness Of A President?

So, Obama was officially on the clock for the first time yesterday, and we've got another 4 years or so to see just how effective a job he does as Prez. Which begs the question, just how do you quantify how well a job the Leader Of The Free World does?



We could play revisionist history and talk sh*t about how bad a job Bush did compared to Clinton, but that's neither here nor there. Reality is, this is Barry's gig now, and he's the guy on the hot seat. Here's some interesting numbers, all current as of Wednesday morning, his first day in office.

Dow Jones Industrial Average - 7,949.17 pts

US Unemployment Rate - 7.6%

US National Debt - $10 Trillion Dollars

Price Per Crude Oil Barrel - $40.85

Price Per Gallon Of Unleaded Gasoline - $1.76

Number Of US Troops In Iraq - 142,000

Number Of US Troops In Afghanistan - 30,000

No, Obama doesn't have total control over all of the numbers above, but he will be judged by them, fair or unfair, and he should not get a free pass. At least he won't here at AB.com. This ain't the barbershop.[1] Besides, he isn't asking for a free pass, either. Real men own up to their responsibilities, and Barry strikes me as that kinda dude. So lets all fall back with all the defense and whatnot. Barry is not your 11 year old son playing PeeWee football. He is the Leader Of The Free World. Big difference. He doesn't need your protection, just your support.

After all, real progress is being allowed to fail and succeed on your own merits, even Dr. King would agree with that. Being critical isn't the same as salt-filled, pointless, Uncle Ruckus-style hatin'. If you wanna see what that looks like, checkout this blog. If you wanna see good old fashioned accountability, keep it locked here.

[Related Sidebar: What's up with this Geithner fella and his back taxes? Spin this all you want, but it's a bad look. Seriously, I am sure dude is more than capable of the job, but how does it look when a guy in charge of the IRS can't handle his own W-2? How can you be an expert on something, yet fail to master the most basic of its concepts? That's like a virgin pimp! And be honest, if this were a Bush appointee, we'd be smokin' mad. Give the guy the job, but his "I was careless" explanation is straight BS. I wonder if the IRS will buy that one if I just "carelessly" decide to not pay taxes this year.]

He's done a good job of lowering expectations, which is essential. But 4 years from now, whether or not he's being sworn in a second time, or handing the reigns over to Sarah Palin (shudder!) will depend heavily on whether or not the above metrics swing in the right direction.

Bookmark this post and let's revisit it in 2013.

Best of luck Barry, we're rooting for you.

Question: How do you expect Obama to fix/control the above metrics? Is either of them an unfair measure of his effectiveness? Is there any quantifiable metric that I missed?

[1] Interesting note: It looks like Barry finally ditched that hack Chi-Town barber and found himself somebody in Chocolate City to hook him up. Women notice stuff like dresses and shoes, men (or at least me) notice edge-ups, and I gotta say I was man-proud at dude's haircut yesterday. He even had the back tapered out. Go head, Barry! Welcome to DC.