This is Obama, if he does not turn it up a notch
I give him a C+, but I want your grade and why.
I think Obama has been trying, but he needs to grow a sack. There wasn’t much I liked about GW Bush, but I did like when he said he was gonna do something he did it (even though it was most likely completely fucking idiotic).
Obama has started the process on many things, but hasn’t followed through yet. As Krugman has said, he needs to be more forceful;
– Iraq
– Gitmo
– Afghanistan
– Energy
– Economy
– Lobbyist Reform
He really needs to hit it hard on Healthcare reform, he cannot lose on this one. If he does, he is toast.
Governing is always harder than campaigning (lip servicing). That is a huge concern when it comes to a career legislator attempting to become an executive. Obama’s made a start but really needs to execute a few things he’s half started. 1) declare victory and leave Iraq, completely – in 2009; 2) close GITMO – just do it; 3) leave Afghanistan – we have no vital national interest in a 100 year occupation of that rock; 4) pass health care reform with the public option that serves up to 130 million and not just 9 million; 5) remove all Goldman Sachs people from the government and end any further bailouts of the incompetent or failed – to include Bernanke.
I knew Big O wasn’t gonna be able to get everything done, but for christsakes, you have a majority in the house and senate, full-speed ahead! He did say something yesterday about healthcare reform that told me he may finally be catching on. When asked why he put a August deadline on the package he said this, “If you don’t put a deadline on legislation in DC, nothing gets done.” How true it is.
I also think Reid and Pelosi are losers and need to be replaced with younger reps who don’t get tons of special interest money. I often wondered what kind of working relationship there would be between a white mormon and a black christian, I’m just saying.
Health care reform gets a D so far. He’s passing because he’s at least pushing for it, not the whole thing has become such a convoluted congressional clusterfuck that I don’t see any real change coming out of it. We either need to adopt a single-payer system for everyone or regulate the hell out of private insurance. The current legislation does neither.
In execution of the “war on terror” I’ll give him a C. Progress has been made toward getting our troops out of Iraq and we now have the right strategy and people in place in Afghanistan. GITMO needs to close – not because it’s a horrible place where we torture people, but because the rest of the world perceives it that way. It’s a PR nightmare, and the GWOT is all about PR.
I’ll give him an A on diplomacy. So far he’s done the right thing in reaching out to the muslim world, working with our allies, and knowing when to keep the hell out of a conflict. I only wish Joe Biden was as smart.
Getting lobbyists out of the government he gets and “I” for incomplete.
Unless the republicans can put up someone intelligent who isn’t a crazed fundie bent on bringing Jesus back by starting WW3, Obama will get my vote again.
I agree with diplomacy, he has been incredibly patient and cooperative, even if our allies and enemies are not, it is still the right approach and he does get an A from me to.
I give Obama a B. It’s only been 6 months. The majority of that time has been spent changing how Washington works. We’re asking him to completely change Washington politics in the first half-year he’s in office? That’s why he gets 4 years. You don’t change a mess like that overnight.
I also think he should be graded against all the other candidates for the job. Where would we be with McCain right now? I bet getting out of Iraq and/or Afghanistan wouldn’t even be a possibility. Health care reform? If you like the way it is now, then you’d be happy with McCain’s reforms.
Not only is Obama fighting tradition, he’s also fighting the direction of this country politically. After 8 years of Bush, we’re lucky there’s a federal government left. Even Clinton was a moderate. The righting of this country has been going on for decades. You can’t just come in to Washington and reverse the trajectory in 6 months.
I think we should give him time. Hell, look how badly W screwed this country up in his first term, and he was reelected.
Besides, who do all suggest would do a better job and stand a chance at being elected?
I’m going to give O a C
I had high hopes for him, and I knew he was walking into a clusterfuck, but he’s disappointed me in several areas.
Among them: FISA prosecutions, torture prosecutions, etc. Cheney, et. al. broke the law, outed Plame, tortured people for Chrissakes! Prosecute them.
I think he turned his back on teh gays with “don’t ask don’t tell” – he could change that with a stroke of a pen.
And, yeah, some of his Goldman-Sachs appointees piss me off too. I understand the idea that you have to have the people that made such a complex problem help to untangle it – but it pisses me off.
He MUST pass Health Care reform – and let’s call it what it is: Health Care INSURANCE reform. We have great health care in this country – it’s just that only the rich have access to it. The richest 1% …like the guys that run the health care insurance comapanies!
I’ll give him an A as a campaigner. Never in the history of our Republic has someone with such little practical experience,
promised so much, to so many, so vaugely, so often, to where so many actually thought he was something other than a politcian. John is correct, the guy is a campaigner with no off switch.
Some of the more laughable ones that were immediately cast aside were the promise to work with Republicans and transparency. How’s that 5 day public comment before signing a bill or to negotiate Health Care reform on C-span for everyone to see coming? NOT!
But the biggest whopper of a lie may very well be this one:
I’m not even going to try to put a grade on the President’s first six months considering the cluster he inherited. I’ve said even before the election that whoever won was stepping into 12″ boots in a 24″ pile of shit, and I don’t see a way for either of them to come out of it with clean socks… it just happens to be Obama who won the “honor” of trying to clean it up. Rest assured had McCain won I can promise you we would most likely be exactly where we are with one minor exception – it would be a old white guy being considered for the Supreme Court instead of a “wise Latina woman”.
Ask me after 24 months what I think and it will be based upon Obama himself as opposed to everyone trying to grade him for the transition. For people to point at the economy and give him an “F” just shows how out of touch they really are as if he was going to step in and turn it around overnight.
It took a few years to get us here, it will most likely take at least that long to get us going the other direction, and then it will take another few years before real economists can tell us what worked and what didn’t. I can’t fault Obama for the economy, but two years in it does become HIS economy… not anyone else’s.
Face it, the honeymoon is over so people are going to start being more critical of him – and they very well should be, but even though he has done several things I disapprove of, on the whole I can’t really judge him just quite yet.
All of that said, if Palin runs against him I think I’m stuck voting for Obama for a second term. If a true conservative steps up to the plate – then we have a ballgame.
Oops,
This this the big whopper quote from Obama from the first link in my post above, sorry I didn’t get it posted correctly:
“Make no mistake: We need to end an era in Washington where accountability has been absent, oversight has been overlooked, your tax dollars have been turned over to wealthy CEOs and the well-connected corporations,” Obama said at an Oct. 1 campaign stop in Wisconsin. “You need leadership you can trust to work for you, not for the special interests who have had their thumb on the scale. And together, we will tell Washington, and their lobbyists, that their days of setting the agenda are over. They have not funded my campaign. You have. They will not run my White House. You’ll help me run my White House.”
Costner:
“For people to point at the economy and give him an “F†just shows how out of touch they really are as if he was going to step in and turn it around overnight.”
The point is Costner, we now can see what he thinks will fix the Economy. Just look at that trainwreck of a Stimulus that was sold to everyone as “Targeted, Timely & Temporary”. It’s targeted at voting districts who supported him and also at big-ass programs he likes, sure. But it isn’t even close to timely or temporary.
Bush’s $150 billion Stimulus, which was bashed as a gimmick, was what by definition a stimulus was supposed to be. A quick injection of cash in the form of rebates that allows taxpayers (whether you supported Bush or not)to get some relief.
Borrowing another trillion for a laundry list of shit that the last Congress couldn’t get passed isn’t Stimulus. We are spending $8 million, for example, to install new, energy efficient “Green” lighting at the Charlotte airport runways, even thought the old lights work just fine. How many years will it take to get that $8 million in savings back? 100 or so? We are spending $16 million to buy canned pork at $1.50 a pound, when you can go to Food Lion’s site and buy one can for .79 cents a pound.
That ain’t Stimulus, that is just more phuct up politics as usual.
“The point is Costner, we now can see what he thinks will fix the Economy. Just look at that trainwreck of a Stimulus that was sold to everyone as “Targeted, Timely & Temporaryâ€. It’s targeted at voting districts who supported him and also at big-ass programs he likes, sure. But it isn’t even close to timely or temporary.”
I’ll be the first to admit I’ve not supported any of the stimulus/bailouts, but considering the vast majority of the Obama stimulus money hasn’t even been paid out, and considering even the items that the GOP identified as wasteful was a very small percentage of the total (although they do continue to give it the clever name of Porkulus), I think it is safe to say we need to give it time before proclaiming it to be a failure.
By the way Sy, although I agree with you items in the bill are extremely wasteful, I’m sure you could find similar waste in any bill. However, sometimes government spending isn’t about getting a return on the investment – sometimes it is simply about putting people (and companies) to work.
So what if we don’t get our money back for some “green” lighting – just think of how many airport workers, light manufacturers, electricians, and contractors will go to work for that one project alone.
I don’t know about you – but I’d rather have government dollars putting people to work instead of just mailing checks, because when people get back to work it can lead to a snowball effect whereas people can just deposit the check or put cash under their mattress with no lasting effects.
Again – I’m willing to wait and see.
I’m willing to wait and see.
It’s not like we have a choice – unless the semi-retarded birth certificate conspiracists turn out to be right.
Anyone else see those ‘tards on CNN today?
I think this cartoon says it all.