Lateef: We Are Better Off than 4 Years Ago

Democratic National Convention Delegate and Woodbridge Doctor Babur Lateef is providing insight to PotomacLocal.com readers this week from the DNC in Charlotte, N.C.

Tonight, former President Clinton is the talk of the Democratic National Convention as he prepares to go to bat for President Barack Obama.

Clinton will address the convention and the nation tonight urging voters to give Obama another term in office.

PotomacLocal.com: With former President Bill Clinton’s high approval rating, why to more People like Clinton over Obama?

I think, typically, all past presidents are more popular than the sitting president. If you were to look at President Clinton’s approval rating now and compared it to that of his approval rating in 1996 when he was running for office. Typically, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter have high approval ratings after they were out of office, so the better question to ask is ‘what was Clinton’s approval rating when he was running for office.”

Lateef: How to do you think Michelle Obama’s speech impacted delegates on the floor?

The floor went crazy. By her sharing her personal experience prior to and after they were elected, the crowd really enjoyed it. She, in really nice terms, she talked about how we do things together.

PotomacLocal.com: Are a lot of people asking “are you better off than four years ago?”

Lateef: Yes, that is a recurring question here and most people and the delegates here will tell you that we are better off than we were four years ago. We created 4 million jobs under President Obama, but that’s more jobs than President Bush created in all eight years. Collectively, are better off where the econonmy is now than where it was four years ago? Absolutely.

PotomacLocal.com: At the 2008 DNC, there was talk of hope, change, and idealism. When he addresses the crowd, can Obama speak about that again or does he need to do a hard sell to the American public?

Lateef: If you really pay attention to his campaign the first time around, he said change doesn’t happen over night. It takes a long time. When he was in Manassas on the night before election night, he said if you think it’s hard to get elected it’s going to be even more challenging to govern. The change that we need to improve our economy, to get the country on track, it going to be difficult, and we’re going to have to make some difficult decisions.

[Obama] understood at that time things were not going to be easy, and so I think he’s going to remind everybody that change is not something that happens overnight. It’s something that takes time.

 Babur Lateef is a board certified eye physician and surgeon at Advanced Ophthalmology in Woodbridge, which is a sponsor of PotomacLocal.com.