The Goderich Signal-Star, 2009-08-12, Page 6Page 6 - Goderich Signal -Star, Wednesday, August 12, 2009
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Proprietor and published by Bowes Publishers, P.O. Box 220, 120 Huckins Street, Goderich, Ontario N7A 4B6
EDITORIAL
Rough road ahead
for Obama
It's official. The honeymoon is over.
President Barack Obama recently marked his 200th day in
office by watching his approval ratings sink to the lowest
they've ever been.
In the past month, American voters' overall approval of their
Commander In Chief has plummeted from 57% to 50%.
But that, accortiing to pundits everywhere, simply makes
Obama human. In fact, Richard Nixon and George W. Bush had
similar ratings a half-year into their presidencies.
The expectations placed on Obama during last year's election
campaign were messianic.
It was as if the entire world expected him to wave his wand
and make the recession, Mideast crisis and global warming all
vanish.
Americans seemed to expect Obama to reform their health
system, eliminate the deficit and shut down Guantanamo by
lunchtime on his first day in office.
In all likelihood, his declining approval ratings reflect reality
setting in among the U.S. electorate.
Obama has had some significant successes in his first months
in office, even if they don't compare to parting seas or turning
water into wine.
His first Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, sailed
through the often -brutal confirmation process relatively
unscathed.
He and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have made huge
steps in rebuilding America's international credibility after eight
disastrous years under George W. Bush.
He's also shifted the U.S. military's focus away from Iraq and
towards Afghanistan, where it should have been in the first
place.
But Obama's most difficult tasks --- getting the economy and
government finances back on track, and reforming the U.S.
health-care system — lie ahead.
The biggest knock against Obama is that on the tough issues
he's been afraid to get his hands dirty. He's tried to stay above
the daily fray, but without his leadership, major initiatives like
health-care reform are at risk of bogging down in partisan
squabbling.
Now that the honeymoon's over, it's time for the president to
roll up his sleeves and get on with the heavy lifting.
If his nose gets bloodied along the way, it'll only reinforce the
notion that he's human.
(Sun Media)_
Family grateful for action
To the Editor;
I was unfortunate enough to have had an elec-
trical fire in my car which was parked in the
driveway. This occurred on Saturday, August 8
at about 4 p.m. I want to thank the man who took
the time and risked bodily harm when he repeat-
edly beat on my door to tell us that the car was on
fire and could blow.
In this day and age we hear only the bad in
people but here's a case where this man had
courage and concern for people he didn't even
know.
He left before we even had time to thank him!
We have a tremendous amount of gratitude
towards this man because he gave us the oppor-
........
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tunity to get our three handicapped people who
live with us out and away from the house to safe-
ty and gave me time to use the fire extinguisher
and put out the flames before the car blew.
He gave us the time to do those things by warn-
ing us. We also want to say a big thank you to the
Goderich Fire Department, who was here within
minutes of the 911 call. It's very reassuring to
know that we as a community are well looked -
after by our first responders.
Yours truly,
Mike Bechard and the Bechard family
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