A recent Saturday Night Live skit opened with an agenda that President Barack Obama has yet to complete.
“Good evening and congratulations to Rio for getting the 2016 Olympics,” said Fred Armisen, who plays Obama on SNL. Rio de Janeiro recently beat out Obama’s former home of Chicago for the chance to host the Olympics.
The episode, which aired Oct. 3, hinted to an end of the media’s honeymoon with Obama by portraying his apparent lack of progress. During the skit, Armisen reviewed a checklist of tasks which Obama said he would accomplish during his presidency, such as closing Guantanamo Bay, withdrawing from Iraq, improving the situation in Afghanistan and reforming healthcare.
“When you look at my record, it’s very clear what I’ve done so far, and that is nothing, nada. Almost one year and nothing to show for it,” Armisen said (as Obama) in the skit.
Armisen continued, “I’m sure [democrats] thought I would have addressed at least one of the following things by now: global warming . . . immigration reform . . . gays in the military . . . limits on executive powers . . . torture prosecutions.”
Oliver Nevin, a 19-year-old political science sophomore, questioned Obama’s platform of change.
“I don’t really know how Washington works, but the way it looks now, we haven’t seen any solutions for these problems. I think he wants to accomplish these things, but he doesn’t have a specific plan yet. It feels like it’s just going to get watered down, so things won’t change, and he’s supposed to stand for change,” Nevin said.
Kathleen Jirauch, a 20-year-old junior business management major who voted for Obama in the 2008 election, now has mixed opinions of him.
“These problems didn’t happen overnight, and neither will the solutions. Everything is a process and it takes time,” Jirauch said. “I think he needs to be on the way to accomplishing these goals, and I think he is.”
Michael Washington, a 19-year-old sophomore pre-journalism major, while agreeing that “it’s clear that not a whole lot has changed,” still said that Obama hasn’t done any damage yet.
“He hasn’t done anything bad. Things haven’t gotten worse, and therefore things could be worse,” Washington said.
From the list SNL provided, students have shown they have opinions on which tasks should be completed first.
“Fix the economy and health care are the tasks from the list, but I think the most important thing for the long run is improving foreign relations, people like Americans less and less every day, and we should change that,” Nevin said.
Other students had different priorities.
“I think getting out of Iraq and health care should be addressed first,” Jirauch said, adding that this would require some sacrifices. “He’s trying to be all-mighty and win over America’s hearts. It’s just kind of annoying. He’s trying to keep everyone happy, and hence nothing has been done. You have to upset some people to fix things. You can’t make everyone happy.”
With Obama recently accepting a Nobel Peace Prize, some media are also questioning what he has done to deserve it.
“Jimmy Carter won [the Nobel Peace prize] for decades of trying to find solutions to international conflicts, Al Gore won it for his years of educating [the] U.S. about climate change, and [me], well, I won it for not being George Bush,” Armisen said as Obama in another skit.
While there is much disagreement over Obama’s progress in office, many CU students agree that he did not deserve to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
“I don’t think he deserved to win the prize, you have to do something to win it,” Nevin said. “I don’t think Obama’s award degrades past Nobel Prize winners, I think it makes the Nobel Peace Prize organization look less rational.”
Jirauch agrees that he should not have won the award, but said she thinks Obama will deserve it after he completes the tasks he said he would complete.
“I think he won the award for the things he say he’s going to do, and for what he stands for, which is change and hope,” Jirauch said. “I think it lessens the award’s prestige, it makes it seem so easy to get the award if nothing has to be done to win it.”
Upon winning the Nobel Peace Prize, jokes have popped up about Obama’s ability to win anything. For example, the joke “Obama attends football game and wins the Heisman Trophy,” has been found on the Internet and overheard in CU classes.
Some students think that it is too soon to tell what Obama has accomplished.
“The media is always the first to switch their opinions. They’re impatient. It’s been less than a year, and he’s got four years to get things done. There hasn’t been immediate progress, but we shouldn’t jump to conclusions,” Nevin said.
Armisen as Obama continued the Oct. 3 skit with: “So please stop saying this country is on the road to socialism. If that actually were the case, I’d be making some real changes. Instead, it took me four months to pick out a dog.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Kendall Schoemann at Kendall.schoemann@colorado.edu.
