By Chris Giglio

Opinions Editor

In a recent interview with ABC, Sarah Palin stated she could beat President Obama in the 2012 election.  It’s scary to think that the self-proclaimed “Mama Bear” may actually have a valid point.  Obama’s approval rating has dropped substantially since his inauguration from a high of 65 percent to his current rating of 44 percent. Numbers aren’t everything, but the drubbing democrats took in the mid-term elections tells the same story.

Has Obama really been that bad?  Though there has been some economic growth, unemployment remains stuck around 9.6 percent and the economic recovery looks more and more fragile every day.  The war in Afghanistan has seen little improvement despite a surge in military personnel last year.  As a result, the United States is slowly coming to terms with the idea of compromising with the Taliban and pulling out of the conflict.  Politics in Washington seem to be as divided as ever, with newly elected Republicans seemingly at odds with every Democratic bill.  Heaping on one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history, it’s easy to see why people would want Mama Bear in office.

But Palin would be a disaster and Obama really hasn’t been that bad.  Despite many difficulties, Obama has overseen some truly progressive accomplishments in his first two years in office.  Accomplishments such as averting a potentially debilitating economic recession, overseeing the further withdrawal of troops in Iraq, lifting restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, improving relations with countries around the world and at least taking a hack at the disastrous state of our health care system.

Furthermore, the problems we do face are not all to blame on Obama’s policies.  He would be the first to tell you that the Bush administration didn’t exactly put him in the greatest position.

But blaming others can only go so far and there is definitely something to the increased criticism he has received.  In his campaign he inspired a nation to greatness but never fully grabbed hold of a population ready for change.  When he said he was going to change Washington’s politics, as usual, no one said it was going to be easy.  Yet he has slowly lost a bit of his identity by deluding his principles in a series of compromises and outright forfeits to opposition.  We’ve seen climate change take a back seat, the watering down of healthcare into an incomprehensible stack of papers and his tip-toeing on the issue of repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Obama will have to prove that he can deal with our current problems effectively and regain his progressive voice.  If he can do these two things, he can restore the trust in the millions that turned out to vote for him and keep Mama Bear working for FOX News.