Maybe he'll learn in office

[Hometown]

I'm hesitant to discuss this in front of Republicans but I think we might have enough evidence in front of us to draw some conclusions about Obama's effectiveness as a president and so far I'm afraid the outcome isn't all I had hoped for.  

I don't know about you but my household's health care costs have set us back well over $20,000 in the past few years and I was counting on some improvements there.  The real estate bubble caused me to leave California five years ago and the health care bubble may cause me to leave the United States.

Oh, I know Obama's team prevented another Great Depression but the rescue was set in motion by Bush and his team.

And while Obama seems determined to kiss and hold hands with the Republicans I would prefer to see him handing out some punishment.  Not one thing he has done has caused them to alter their tired old cynical game plan.

I mean where are Obama's texting teenagers when we need them?

At this point I don't believe he has a hidden strategy and what we see is what we are going get.  He has squandered his political capital and has nothing to show for it except for an anemic recovery.  I think our best hope is that he will learn in office.

Hey Democrats am I missing something?  Anyone agree or disagree?

[Breadburner]

You miss alot...Nothin to do with politics though........

[Red Arrow]

I think we are having an abduction problem right here at the forum.

SOMEONE HAS KIDNAPPED HOMETOWN!

There is a reward for:

1. Keeping him paid for by the republicans
2. Returning him paid for by the lefties.

[Conan71]

Obama is a decent orator, mediocre politician, and abysmal leader.  Those who said he had no leadership skills during the '08 election were spot-on.

I don't know why you think it necessary for him to mete out "punishment" to Republicans. 

A partisan view of politics is precisely why you don't have your coveted health care reform.  Bi-partisanship doesn't mean knuckling under to pressure from the majority.

[Gaspar]

Obama is a decent orator, mediocre politician, and abysmal leader.  Those who said he had no leadership skills during the '08 election were spot-on.

I don't know why you think it necessary for him to mete out "punishment" to Republicans. 

A partisan view of politics is precisely why you don't have your coveted health care reform.  Bi-partisanship doesn't mean knuckling under to pressure from the majority.

Well said.

He was elected for the very reason that Hometown mentioned.  He was elected as "Punishment."  Many were willing to overlook his lack of experience, his lack of leadership, and his lack of even minor economic understanding, in order to "punish" others (Republicans).

During the election, the more Republicans harped on his shortcomings, the more Democrats became cemented in contrarian beliefs.

Elections have consequences, and this one was a very good lesson to many.  The Democrats could have presented a number of extremely qualified candidates, all of whom would most likely have won, but they chose HOPE over expertise.  They chose CHANGE over experience. 

Words are windows into thought, and Hometown is not the first democrat I have heard talk of Obama as a vessel of punishment or revenge.

"He that studieth revenge keepeth his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well." –John Milton

[Hometown]

Okay, we've heard from the enemy camp.  Any Democrats out there?

[nathanm]

Okay, we've heard from the enemy camp.  Any Democrats out there?

I disagree. I do think Obama has spent too much time on attemping to forge a bipartisan consensus when there is no possibility for such consensus because the Congresspeople on the right are acting like petulant children. (See Shelby's blanket hold stunt specifically and the hold-up on even noncontroversial nominees generally)

I think he may have recently come to realize that his former tack isn't going to work. We'll see soon enough, I suppose.

Handing over healthcare to Congress to be hashed out the way it was rather than knocking heads in his own party was also a big mistake. I can't blame him for some Congressional Democrats' stupidity, though. We keep electing the fools.

[USRufnex]

Presidential approval ratings.....



Do you honestly think Hillary Clinton would have done a better job or passed more legislation than Obama?
Could Hillary Clinton have gone face-to-face with congressional Republicans and fielded questions the way Obama did?... could she have given a more effective State of the Union speech...?

I don't.  And let's not even get started on what could have happened had John Edwards been elected POTUS.... and yes, unemployment is too high, but I liked the look of my last 401k statement and would never have guessed the stock market could have gone over 10,000 this year...

Of course, you have the crazies on the right who insist the media is perpetually biased in favor of the Dems, the liberals, and Obama.... at least Ronald Reagan never had to deal with 24-hour cable news talking heads and their chattering class viewership....

Reagan: Media Myth and Reality
6/9/04
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1832

The so-called conservatives on this forum also fail to recognize that there was a time halfway through Reagan's first term in which he had really bad approval ratings.... Ronald Reagan spent the entirety of 1982 with under 50% approval ratings.... in Jan of 1983, Reagan had a 35% approval rating after months and months of double-digit unemployment....

April 21, 2009, 11:04 pm
Guest Column: Will Obama Ride Reagan's Ratings Roller Coaster?
http://100days.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/guest-column-will-obama-ride-reagans-ratings-rollercoaster/





Should Conservatives Hate Reagan?
http://democrashield.com/2009/11/19/should-conservatives-hate-reagan/

I find it disappointing that "Obamacare" ended up looking more like Hillarycare and Romneycare than what he campaigned on, which did not include an individual mandate.

But I understand that true "change" will never happen with a poll-driven presidency, which is what I suspect would have happened if Hillary were elected prez; would she have "triangulated" policy at the first sign of trouble?.... brought back Dick Morris?    

After this economy rebounds, Obama will not have increased the national debt as much as Reagan did back in his day... the right wingers these days are acting even crazier than the left wing Dems did a year or two into Reagan's first term....

Then there's George W...... tax cuts, a new prescription drug entitlement, two wars... and no request to pay for it... in fact, Dubya wanted to make his tax cuts permanent....

If you look back to the first two years into Reagan's first term, the Republicans told us he was stuck with "Carter's recession"....

And we're only one year into Obama's first term.

[cecelia]

::waves:: I'm a Democrat, and although I wish things were progressing more quickly, I also think Obama has been facing enormous challenges.

I've wondered sometimes if the Republicans didn't nominate Palin because they knew what an impossibility it would be to clean up after Bush, so they wanted a Dem to take the blame.

In addition, Obama has faced obstructionism at every turn and an out of control Senate. Paul Krugman actually wrote a great column about how nothing will get accomplished, thanks to Republican obstructionism and the way - the way - well, the way *something,* I don't remember what. After I get some R & R, I'll post the link.

Then, the Dems themselves have been complete doofuses. Between Jane Hamsher and Firedoglake forming a coalition with Grover "Let's drown government and New Orleans in the bathtub!" Norquist, the antisemitic factions of anticorporatist and antiglobalist leftists going after Obama because he installed Rahm (who appears to embody every antisemitic stereotype they can hang on him), and the idiotic PUMAs, the Democrats aren't really showing themselves to be much better than the Republicans in a lot of ways.

I mean, I'm a Democrat because I always thought they were the adults in the room. Given how I've seen too many so-called Dems behaving since Obama got elected, I'm not so sure.

All that said, Obama does have a rather remarkable list of accomplishments for his first year, especially in comparison to most other first-years. I mean, he hasn't invaded any countries run by longtime puppets of the U.S. and blown their capitol city to smithereens, which surely leaves him lacking for Bush fans, and HCR is a problem, but really, it's not too bad in reality.

I'll have more to say when I recover my mind from a week of - well, whatever it was I did all week at work.

[cecelia]

Good post, USRufnex.

[USRufnex]

Good post, USRufnex.

Thanks... but are you a girl?.... if so.....

[cecelia]

Yes, I am a grrrl.

We're taking over! ALL YUR INTERNETS R OURZ!!!!!

[Red Arrow]

I've wondered sometimes if the Republicans didn't nominate Palin because they knew what an impossibility it would be to clean up after Bush, so they wanted a Dem to take the blame.

I got blasted for saying I almost voted for Al Gore so the Dems could get credit for the already falling economy at the end of the Clinton administration.  Consider yourself blasted.

... nothing will get accomplished, thanks to Republican obstructionism...

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to stop something you really believe is wrong.  Sometimes what is wrong is all the hidden crap in an otherwise decent piece of legislation.  Works both ways by the way.  It's only obstructionism if your party/beliefs are being blocked.

... the Democrats aren't really showing themselves to be much better than the Republicans in a lot of ways.

No big surprise there.

...because I always thought they were the adults in the room.

Interesting.  I never thought that.

All that said, Obama does have a rather remarkable list of accomplishments for his first year, especially in comparison to most other first-years. I mean, he hasn't invaded any countries run by longtime puppets of the U.S. and blown their capitol city to smithereens,

It's sometimes hard to convince people that not doing something (perhaps not doing anything) is better than doing something wrong.

I thought for sure that Obama was going to improve the world opinion of the USA by picking a country not in the middle east and bomb their capitol to show we are not prejudiced against the middle east.

Otherwise I don't see a remarkable list of accomplishments. 

[Breadburner]

::waves:: I'm a Democrat, and although I wish things were progressing more quickly, I also think Obama has been facing enormous challenges.

I've wondered sometimes if the Republicans didn't nominate Palin because they knew what an impossibility it would be to clean up after Bush, so they wanted a Dem to take the blame.

In addition, Obama has faced obstructionism at every turn and an out of control Senate. Paul Krugman actually wrote a great column about how nothing will get accomplished, thanks to Republican obstructionism and the way - the way - well, the way *something,* I don't remember what. After I get some R & R, I'll post the link.

Then, the Dems themselves have been complete doofuses. Between Jane Hamsher and Firedoglake forming a coalition with Grover "Let's drown government and New Orleans in the bathtub!" Norquist, the antisemitic factions of anticorporatist and antiglobalist leftists going after Obama because he installed Rahm (who appears to embody every antisemitic stereotype they can hang on him), and the idiotic PUMAs, the Democrats aren't really showing themselves to be much better than the Republicans in a lot of ways.

I mean, I'm a Democrat because I always thought they were the adults in the room. Given how I've seen too many so-called Dems behaving since Obama got elected, I'm not so sure.

All that said, Obama does have a rather remarkable list of accomplishments for his first year, especially in comparison to most other first-years. I mean, he hasn't invaded any countries run by longtime puppets of the U.S. and blown their capitol city to smithereens, which surely leaves him lacking for Bush fans, and HCR is a problem, but really, it's not too bad in reality.

I'll have more to say when I recover my mind from a week of - well, whatever it was I did all week at work.

[cecelia]

Breadburner, fabulous visual of Republicans under Bush! Thanks!