According to the Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart, President Obama and the month of August have been sparring partners for the last three years. But this August was relatively uneventful — and that might be a good omen leading into the Democratic National Convention.
August 2010 was relatively light on calamity. But the hangover from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was still being felt by Obama, whose stewardship of the crisis was found wanting. On April 20, the Deepwater Horizon facility exploded and for the next three months, oil would flow into the Gulf unabated. The gusher was finally capped on July 15, but the well was not sealed until Sept. 19. Meanwhile, Obama's anemic poll numbers made him persona non grata among Democrats campaigning for reelection in the all-important mid-term elections.
And August 2011 was all about the debt-ceiling craziness. The president signed legislation on Aug. 2 to raise the nation's debt ceiling above $14.3 trillion to avoid the first-ever default by the United States. But questions raised about the full faith and credit of the United States led Standard & Poor's to issue the first-ever downgrade of the nation's AAA bond rating on Aug. 5. On top of that, Obama was being hammered for the lack of jobs. Once again, the president would use a joint session of Congress to sell his legislative idea. The American Jobs Act was unveiled on Sept. 8. But the bill died in the Senate a month later after Democrats fell 10 votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. All part of a GOP plan to ensure Obama's failure.
The relative quiet of August 2012 hit me on the 23rd. I thought about writing something then but didn't out of fear of being a jinx.
Read Jonathan Capehart's entire piece at the Washington Post.
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