In June 2010 Obama confronted a different kind of criticism when the commander of NATO-U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and members of his staff impugned top Obama administration officials in interviews with a reporter from Rolling Stone magazine. Obama relieved McChrystal of command and replaced him with Gen. David Petraeus, the architect of the surge strategy in Iraq. Although the bulk of U.S. forces were withdrawn from Iraq in August with the official on-time end of the combat mission in the country, some 50,000 U.S. troops remained on duty there.
McChrystal, Stanley: resignationPres. Barack Obama announcing the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal while surrounded by (left to right) Adm. Mike Mullen, Vice Pres. Joe Biden, Gen. David Petraeus, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, June 24, 2010.Official White House Video
The 2010 midterm elections
As the economy continued to struggle and as high levels of unemployment and underemployment persisted, much of the American electorate was commonly characterized as angry. The groundswell of opposition to the policies of the Obama administration and to “big government” that had given birth to the Tea Party movement took on an anti-Washington, anti-incumbent cast. This had an impact not only on Democrats but on Republicans too, as a raft of conservative candidates with Tea Party associations triumphed over candidates favoured by the Republican Party establishment in primary contests for the November 2010 midterm congressional election. In the 2010 general election, however, Tea Party candidates had mixed success, but the Republican Party as a whole experienced a dramatic resurgence, recapturing leadership of the House with a gain of some 60 seats (the biggest swing since 1948) and reducing but not overturning the Democrats’ Senate majority.
The weekend before voters went to the polls, the election had been replaced in the headlines by the foiling of another terrorist bombing attempt, this time involving explosive devices that were intercepted en route via air from Yemen to two Chicago-area synagogues. It was believed that the devices may have been intended to explode while still in flight.
WikiLeaks, the “Afghan War Diary,” and the “Iraq War Log”
Later in November 2010, the administration was stung by the third major release that year of classified documents by the Web site WikiLeaks. In July and October several periodicals, including The New York Times, Der Spiegel, and The Guardian, had published secret documents related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, collectively known as the “Afghan War Diary” and the “Iraq War Log,” respectively. In both cases, the material was mainly in the form of raw intelligence gathered between 2004 and 2009. In general, the information added detail but few new revelations to what was already known and did not radically change the public understanding of either war. Nevertheless, the Obama administration condemned its release as a security breach that would set back U.S. efforts in the region and endanger the lives of military personnel and the lives of Iraqis and Afghans who had cooperated with the U.S. military. The administration was also quick to criticize WikiLeaks’ November release of documents, this time comprising some 250,000 diplomatic cables between the U.S. State Department and its embassies and consulates throughout the world, dating mostly from 2007 to 2010 but including some dating back as far as 1966. Among the wide-ranging topics covered in these secret documents were behind-the-scenes U.S. efforts to politically and economically isolate Iran, primarily in response to fears of Iran’s development of nuclear weapons—fears that were revealed to encompass Saudi Arabia’s and Bahrain’s emphatic opposition to a nuclear-armed Iran.
WikiLeaks; Assange, JulianWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at a press conference, 2010.Andrew Winning—Reuters/Landov
The repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the ratification of START, and the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords
Against this backdrop, the lame-duck Congress looked ready to move toward the end of its session with legislative gridlock firmly in place. However, the Obama administration and the Republicans were able to forge compromises on several significant pieces of legislation. When the administration proposed extending the Bush tax cuts for another two years, Republicans responded by supporting an extension of unemployment benefits. Several Senate Republicans also joined Democrats to enable the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that had prohibited gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, and legislation was enacted that extended medical benefits to first responders to the September 11 attacks. The Senate also ratified a new Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) treaty with Russia, capping what was one of the most productive legislative periods in recent memory and in the process helping boost Obama’s popularity. When a gunman killed six people and critically wounded Gabrielle Giffords, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, as she met with constituents in Tucson, Arizona, on January 8, 2011, however, there was a renewed national discussion about the vehemence of political polarization in the United States.
U.S. President Barack Obama signing the repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell,” December 22, 2010.Chuck Kennedy—Official White House Photo
Budget compromise
That polarization remained at the fore as the new Republican majority in the House locked heads with the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Obama administration over the federal budget for fiscal year 2011. Unable to agree on that budget, the previous Congress, in October 2010, had passed the first in a series of stopgap measures to keep the federal government operating until agreement could be reached on a long-term budget. Both Republicans and Democrats believed that reductions to the budget were necessary in response to the federal government’s soaring deficit; however, they disagreed vehemently on the extent, targets, and timing of budget cuts. House Republicans upped the political ante when they announced that they would not vote for another temporary budget and demanded deep reductions. The threat of a shutdown of all but essential services of the federal government came within a few hours of being realized, but on April 8, 2011, an agreement was reached that resulted in passage a week later by both the House (260–167) and the Senate (81–19) of a compromise budget for the remainder of the fiscal year that cut $38 billion in federal spending. Neither side was completely satisfied, and a large number of Republicans, many of whom had come into office as part of the wave of Tea Party opposition to big government, chose not to vote with the majority of their party in support of the compromise. Democrats and Republicans were also engaged in dramatic ideological battle on the state level, perhaps most notably in Wisconsin and Indiana, where collective bargaining for state employees and the role of unions were at issue.