I Hope He Fails — Not Really

(Note: at the time of this repost in 2023, the links in this post are no longer valid.)

I was looking at the news today and saw a snippet in which Rush Limbaugh was being accused of wanting Obama to fail. While I tend to disagree with many of the conservative commentators despite being mostly conservative myself, this seemed too much. So I started looking into it. First, I found a short snippet from the DNC that distilled it all down to a few seconds of sound. You can listen to it here on YouTube. Then I noticed links to almost 20 minutes of audio from an interview with Sean Hannity. There are two segments from one source and a second source fills in some space between them with some overlap with the first segment. Segment 1, Segment 2, Segment 3. The portions about Obama succeeding or failing begin at about 5:30 in the first segment. It does continue a little into the middle “filler” segment. The last segment is not really about this topic, but about where conservatism is at present.

Now depending on how you take the four words “I hope he fails” I must say that I both agree and disagree. You may not agree with my positions, but you should be able to honestly understand what I am about to say.

In terms of the continuance of this country, I do not hope that any president fails. I hope that the things done under each president’s tenure works toward the furtherance and improvement of the country. In that regard, I hope that all presidents succeed. It may not be the way that they set out at inauguration, but I hope it ultimately is successful.

On the other hand, to the extent that any president has taken office with an intent to push forward policies that I believe will not be to the benefit of America, I hope that he is unsuccessful. I hope he fails. But in that failure, I believe he will succeed in terms of the benefit of America. He may be viewed as a failure in terms of his ability to set an agenda and see it accomplished. That success or failure is not measured in terms of the value of his agenda, but only in terms of his ability to achieve it.

If you are of a different position with regard to political policy, you should think the same way. Do not hope for the failure of a president not to your liking in general terms. That is to hope for the failure of America. But you may fight against specific policies and directions of any president with the goal that he not succeed in forwarding that agenda. We may disagree on what constitutes success or failure politically, but we should not wish for failure with respect to the charge of the administration of the country

But whether or not I like all of the policies that emerge during the next four or eight years, I do not wish failure on Obama as president of the United States. I only wish failure in terms of achieving certain stated goals. Despite the rhetoric in the news, I think that is essentially what Rush has said. But either way, it is what I say.