Reply #28: D+ but I would have given him a C-, if I'd

[99 Percent Sure]

had the choice.

Look, I listened closely to President Obama's stump speeches and concluded as early as February 2008 that he was more right-leaning than either HRC or the Big Disappointment, all of whom I considered the top 3 for the nom and eventual White House win.

If you check his record as an Illinois rep, you'll see that while he was a man of ethics, he was also pretty conservative. His short time as US senator was pretty right-leaning (read, bipartisan) as well.

Not that I have anything against bipartisan because it is a good thing when the ones with whom you're working compromise are of noble character, rather than backstabbing haters.
I don't hold the escalation of the Afghan war against him because he never wavered on this during the campaign. I don't hold the Guantanamo detention camp non-closure against him because he's tried, and reality often bites once one takes office.

These are only 3 of more than a few issues about which I have no beef with the president.

There are, however, at least 2 major beefs I hold against President Obama: Rahm and Geithner and, most important, his failure to live up to what I deem his most important statement of his election night speech -- "We may not always agree, but I will always listen to you."

I don't know who the 'you' was of whom he said he'd listen but, so far, he hasn't listened to we the people on jobs creation, on health insurance reform, on prosecution of the domestic terrorists cousin Darth Cheney and the sociopath Dim Son, on shoring up Wall $treet in the face of their continued abysmal failures, nor on debt ceiling/budget talks.

In fact, in 3 years, he's rarely listened to progressives on his supposed side of the aisle on any issues directly affecting our households daily. This is why I grade him as barely passing, even taking into account that we were already Wily Coyote suspended off the cliff when he took the oath of office on that bitterly cold day of 1/21/09.