Simple question, where did Obama go wrong?

[WingDinger]

Given the economic and political realities, what did Obama not do, that he had the political capital to accomplish?

[Liberal Veteran]

1. Having Harry Reid as majority leader.

But I am not sure that was his to control.

[WingDinger]

3. While I see his milquetoast demeanor, I think he is far tougher than his impression.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. Only, he uses none of that toughness on OUR behalf. nt

[Liberal Veteran]

21. If Reid hadn't capitulated to the blue dogs from the start...

...I'm fairly certain that HCR would be stronger and likely have passed before the Tea Baggers got a chance to play their little shout down game.

And it's been the same thing ever since.

[gateley]

22. I thought so, too -- I'd heard "you don't want to piss this guy off",

but he may get mad, he may be tough behind closed doors, but he doesn't ACT on what he knows is right.

That's my observation/opinion, anyway.

[JuniperLea]

24. Speak softly...

and carry a big stick.

That's what I see too.

You don't need to run around with your hair on fire, or sputter and yell, or turn orange and bawl your eyes out, to be effective.

I'm betting we're seeing the toned-down version too... the way the GOTP whines, I'm betting they get a bigger stick than the one we see.

Still, it's a scant two years into his term... BushCo took 8 to screw things up royal, but Obama hasn't been afforded two years. Sad commentary... more-so on us than on him.

[RaleighNCDUer]

79. Oh, yeah, he's really got those repbulicans cowed.

Hell, he couldn't even control his own blue dogs. He let fuckng Ben Nelson scuttle the public option, for the benefit of his insurance company bosses.

Yeah. He's scary all right.

:eyes:

[xphile]

80. Yeah about as scary as a wet noodle. n/t

[XemaSab]

88. XOMG!

CARBS! :scared:

[polichick]

2. He chose a corporate cabinet and cut backroom deals with corporate players...

...instead of going to the people and asking them to have his back as he fought on our behalf - on everything from the public option to the ongoing debt issue.

[WingDinger]

5. But as it is, they scream he is marxist, and hiring all radicals.

therefore, he didnt havew carte blanche to act as he chose.

[polichick]

7. They're reading their lines - unfortunately, he's often reading their lines too...

...almost always adopting their framing of issues.

[EFerrari]

11. They would say that no matter what he did. n/t

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. So? If they are going to lie about hiring Marxists anyway

what's the problem with actually HIRING a few?

(edit for typo)

[WingDinger]

15. I agree, but the calculations of walking around political capital

unfortunastely are affected by the mass bearing false witness of those hypocrites.

[Divernan]

20. You KNOW they'd scream that no matter whom he appointed

Using your "logic" he could have appointed anyone he chose and the screaming couldn't have gotten any worse. What on earth do you mean, he didn't have carte blanche? Carte blanche means "full discretionary power". The President of the US has carte blanche - unless he's a puppet like W, sitting on Dick Chaney's lap. SURELY you don't admit that Obama had to satisfy his big campaign donors - like Big Banks, Big Pharmacy, etc. etc.

[WingDinger]

37. It seems many wanted him to breathe fire, and use all his political capital

in one shot, and hope to recoup more. As is clear, the american people dont give a rats ass whether there were extenuating circumstances. Success or failure is all that matters. And the two party system allowed the Rethugs to ready fascism lite, knowing full well that they would be hired as the alternative soon enough.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

48. The American people like GUTS; they hate wimpiness

When did the Republicans ever pussyfoot around issues?

One reason that the low-info voters like the Republicans is that they speak with conviction and in simple terms, even though they're totally wrong.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

47. The president has full power to appoint anyone he wants to his Cabinet

The Senate may reject them, but with a Dem Senate at the time, he could have at least tried to appoint someone more to the left.

[WingDinger]

49. As it is, the public deems us mildly insular. The Rethugs think us autocratic.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

65. Oh, no, we must be afraid of what the Republicans say about us!

:sarcasm:

Face it, they will talk trash about Democrats no matter what the Democrats do. Might as well be trashed for doing something bold that benefits the average American in a visible way as soon as possible.

Just as an example, the Obama administration instituted a "Making Work Pay" tax credit--and then totally failed to publicize it. I didn't know about it till an IRS agent told me about it. It should have been shouted from the rooftops so that the Republicans couldn't lie and say, "He raised taxes."

The Obama administration is either the most inept of my lifetime (and I was already in my twenties during Jimmy Carter's administration) or they are really just fine with most of what the Republicans are doing and the Republicans' indignation is all theater.

[xphile]

81. Oh please. It doesn't matter who Obama chose, the Republicans will cry Socalist. It's to be

expected because those morons don't know what a socialist actually is, they use the term as a catch all boogeyman because the word "Communist" doesn't scare people the way it used to.

He should have picked a decent cabinet and ignored what those idiots say. A decent cabinet would be economists who are not affiliated with the Chicago school of Economics, are not supply siders, and were not involved in creating the mess that is our current economy.

Yes he could have picked people who don't fall into that category. He chose not to. And then he reappointed Bernanke. Bernanke who was in charge of the goddamned Fed when the too big to fail banks were failing. A man who hasn't learned a damn thing from the debacle at that.

Spare me the excuses that he couldn't choose who he really wanted for his cabinet. It's bullshit and no none is buying that.

[1stBunny]

84. And his backroom deal with big pharma

[fredamae]

4. He may have had political capitol alright but he

Also got a nasty set of republican obstructionists hell bent on getting him out of office---who are so determined they have navigated themselves capable of doing it..Embedded former bush officials into positions Obama could not control, setting federal judges in strategic locations as much as they could--Look at the SCOTUS!, Filibustered over 500 bills, blocking Dems from getting "us" in better shape--Since 2006!
There is so much more...you get the idea.

Did We, the people do enough ourselves to counter this--since 2006?

[SlipperySlope]

6. Early focus on health care instead of the economy

Even in 2008 it was obvious to me and many others that the economy was seriously damaged. I was counting on Obama to come into office, realized the significance of what was going on, and start putting 100% effort into turning things around. I also expected him to focus on helping people and Main Street instead of banks and Wall Street.

Instead, he didn't do that. He seemed content to delegate the economy to completely the wrong people (like Geithner) and instead he put all his initial energy into a health care plan that ultimately satisfied nobody.

After that, it was just death by a thousand cuts. Extending the Patriot Act, not reining in the TSA, ignoring the War Powers act, and on and on and on.

He just isn't the President I thought he was going to be, and I no longer believe that he and I share a vision of what America should be.

[WingDinger]

8. Do you hold him to his campaign promises?

[RaleighNCDUer]

27. Which ones?

[WingDinger]

29. The ones uttered pre end of the world, sprung on him last minute.

[SlipperySlope]

31. Health Care should have waited.

I was following the economy closely; it was obvious to me that the situation was terrible and that completely the wrong things were being done to fix it. We would all be better off now if he had realized that as well and put his energy into our economy.

What would you rather have today? The Health Care plan we got or millions of Americans employed again?

[Harry Callahan]

66. Exactly...the only question is whether it was his or his advisers idea.

In any case, he is the boss, so he had a choice.

[1stBunny]

86. He's the worst Democratic President in my lifetime (I'm 56)

[gkhouston]

98. +1. Should have gone after the economy with a will, and hammered

home the need for true health reform as an economic necessity. That long, long summer where the WH basically took a laissez-faire approach to what was going on with the healthcare debate was devastating.

[Rex]

9. Not sure really, I would say the TARP deals and TBTF were huge

mistakes. The handling of BP was a total disaster and telling part of your base to 'stfu' right before a crucial election...yep that about wraps it up for me. And the real kicker...he gets my vote, AGAIN. Ain't a two party ruling system grand!?! :crazy:

EDIT - that is just for ME, I'm sure others have different grievances.

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. In his first few weeks he could have ordered investigations into criminals

acts by the previous administration. There were MANY that were well known.

He took them off the table.

He could have prosecuted the banksters. The fraud was obvious.

He hired them, instead.

He was elected to take the country in a 180 degree opposite direction - and took it in a minor 12 degree course correction.

[WingDinger]

13. While I wanted Bush guys in prison as much as anyone,

I understand that there would be a cost. And screaming about persecutorial prosecution.

[RaleighNCDUer]

18. Which would stop when they are convicted by a jury.

As it is, he as much as said that no criminality in the other party will be prosecuted.

THAT gives the republicans carte blanche.

[WingDinger]

23. The rethugs are hoping it works that way on Siegleman.

[polichick]

17. Yes, the writing on the wall became very clear very quickly.

[EFerrari]

30. He was putting down his base over Rick Warren before he was inaugurated.

[polichick]

34. True - and before that he chose his corporate cabinet...

"A wolf in sheep's clothing" comes to mind.

[EFerrari]

53. There's something passive aggressive about presenting yourself

as the cool, mellow guy but hiring Rahm to speak for you.

Whatever. I don't know him.

[WingDinger]

41. Any inkling of anti-religion would have spelt doom. And we have plenty.

There are a lot of jesus freak folks out there, and they all vote.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

52. He didn't have to pander to the megachurch evangelicals, for heaven's sake

He could have had a mainline preacher.

His disavowal of his home church preacher was unconscionable. Instead of sticking up for him when the Republicanites took the "God damn America" out of context, he dumped him. (When you apologize for something in politics, you're saying that the other guys are right. When you brazen it out, they can respect you for sticking to your convictions and sticking up for your friends.)

Then he goes and picks up this slick megachurch huckster.

It wouldn't be "anti-religion" to pick somebody from mainline Christianity.

Quit making stupid excuses for insensitive behavior.

[polichick]

61. It's just not okay to pander to the haters - he could have chosen...

...a Unitarian or something like that.

[RaleighNCDUer]

78. And how would it have been 'anti-religion' to have the prayer

made by a preacher who was NOT a homophobic bigot?

[saras]

60. That covers most of it.

Clean, conservative criminal trials would have set a wonderful precedent, allying the large majority of Americans on a sensible policy they can all agree on, while more divisive things like health care could wait.

In addition to getting some of the criminals into jail and out of the world of political influence, it would have set a wonderful example of organizing the sensible majority against the extremes of the powerful.

Personally I think he could have approached a MLK sort of reputation had he cleaned up the Bushites and the banksters, but people who have followed his politics before this say he's always been an ambitious corporatist.

[gateley]

16. I think he's adverse to being a kick-ass, take no prisoners,

you had your chance now get out of my way type of President. For whatever reasons, he's too conciliatory.

I know the times have changed, as well as the political climate, but he could take some lessons from some previous Presidents who actually ran over the opposition in order to do the right thing.

Just IMO.

[polichick]

25. I've heard several political reporters (Ezra Klein, for one) say that...

...the prez believes that indie voters want him to be the adult in the room and that's what he's going for.

Could be - but I also think he's allergic to conflict.

[gateley]

42. True, but adults need to be tough and impose discipline at times.

I love how you put it - allergic to conflict. I think you're right. And I'm like that, too -- I actually feel BAD when I get mad at somebody! :eyes: But I'm not the President and I'm not the one responsible to ensure we do what's best for all Americans.

[WingDinger]

43. That might have a possibility of being true, if he wasnt a community organizer.

[kenny blankenship]

77. He confuses complicity and cynicism for adult responsibility

Being complicit in the crimes of Wall St. and the Bush war+torture regime for political ends is both cynical and an abdication of adult responsibility - it is a total abdication.

[jimmyflint]

19. Jobs,jobs,jobs.............

We need fucking jobs. If they haven't gotten the message yet, they ain't gonna.

[WingDinger]

26. But as far as I can see, the Rethugs have stripped us of all tools

with their two santa strategy.

[gateley]

28. The Dems have introduced countless bills in the House that

the Reps have stomped on and they never saw the light of day. What can HE do beyond that? FORCE Congress to vote for what he wants? It's up to the people to let their Republican representatives know we're on to their tricks, but nobody will.

[polichick]

32. He could use the bully pulpit to rally the people behind those bills...

Instead, he repeats Republican framing on this issue, talking about business needing more certainty.

[gateley]

44. Agree, but he doesn't. He doesn't present the message clearly

and concisely. He doesn't present the facts. Like Rachel does. :7

[polichick]

Oh, I would LOVE if he did it like Rachel! And he could too - he's got a similar...

...intellectual and professorial presence.

[girl gone mad]

33. He adopted a corporatist, neoliberal economic framework...

which is morally wrong, ideologically ignorant and logically inconsistent.

Either he has no intellectual curiosity on economics and is willing to be led around by fools, or he himself believes in some very foolish ideas.

[polichick]

39. Absolutely! He surrounded himself with THE WORST economic team...

Like you, I wonder if he's clueless in this area or actually in agreement.

[gateley]

46. Agree - I just saw Jared Bernstein who seems to Get It and I

wonder why he left the WH. I know he was Biden's financial advisor at one point, not sure of other positions or what happened.

[polichick]

50. Very interesting - now I wonder why he left. Must be a frustrating place...

...to be if you get it and can't change the direction of things.

[gateley]

51. From Wiki:

(I'm not surprised Biden had a liberal, pro-labor guy)

Jared Bernstein is an American economist who previously served as Chief Economist and Economic Policy Adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden in the Obama Administration.<1> In early 2009 Bernstein was named Executive Director of the newly formed White House Middle Class Working Families Task Force.<2> He was also a member of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry.<3> Bernstein is considered to represent a liberal, pro-labor perspective. /snip

And this is the only upddate:

Bernstein left the Obama Administration in 2011, and joined the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities as a senior fellow.<4>

ETA: Here's some more insight/conjecture

http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/04/22/jared-bernstein-the-latest-casualty-of-deficit-fever/

[polichick]

56. Thanks - Biden must also get pretty frustrated!

[gateley]

64. I know. He's waaaay more liberal than Obama. I often wonder

if he's biting his lip about Afghanistan so he doesn't go "see? I TOLD you we shouldn't escalate, but NOOOO, you listened to the Generals!" :7

[polichick]

75. Know what ya mean - I sort of hope he says, "I told you so!" heehee

[OhioChick]

57. You're absolutely right.... n/t

[OhioChick]

58. Dupe n/t

[mmonk]

35. He had plenty when he took office with the majorities he had.

I would say major problems were an inadequate small stimulus which contained 40% in tax cuts when tax rates weren't a problem, not having a public option, just a recycled Heritage Foundation health insurance plan, not prosecuting illegalities, not allowing persons wronged by the government or its contractors their day in court, pushing charter schools, attacking teachers while looking to billionaire foundations, freezing government employee wages when the economy needed more activity, creating a deficit commission and giving lip service to the falsities of Reaganomics, deciding to drill baby drill and the Gulf disaster, the budget deal with Republicans which has led us directly to here discussing cutting social security benefits and medicare, and expanding the "war on terror" in form.


Did I leave anything out? I'm not sure.

[XemaSab]

89. GLBT issues

The republicans think he hearts the gays, but he sure hasn't been vocal in his support for them.

This is an issue where he had nothing to lose, but he managed to convince both sides that he didn't support their views.

[mmonk]

91. Yes, he could have expressed moral clarity and not tried to play

a middle where there really isn't a middle. The states rights declaration was quite a blunder given the historical implications.

[underpants]

36. Simple answer : He hasn't

what we are seeing is that the President of the United States is NOT the most powerful person in the world or even this country. The long held fear that nations are irrelevant and corporations have taken over is painfully obvious because we get to see a bit behind the curtain.

He hasn't done everything great but he is doing a good job.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

38. He began to lose me when he gave the banksters unconditional bailouts,

let the executives stay in place unscathed, and above all, let them keep their bonuses.

This provoked a firestorm in the online opinion forums of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Both the usual right-wingers and left-wingers were furious, outraged, and indignant. (The only other issue on which the lefties and righties ever agreed is when two nursing homes aides were accused of abusing Alzheimer's patients. They have not agreed on anything since.)

Yes, I know that Bush initiated the bank bailout. This was the first time the righties were angry at Bush to any significant degree. But if Obama had made the firing of the executives without severance pay or bonuses a condition of receiving the bailout, both righties and lefties would have applauded.

When he followed the coddling of the bank executives ("Because contracts are sacred") with an auto industry bailout in which auto workers were required to make harsh concessions (Some contracts are more sacred than others, huh?), I thought, "Obama is no longer a question mark. He's a corporatist."

If the bankster crooks had been penalized in some way, both lefties and righties would have been happier.

I was leery when he appointed only Conservative Democrats and Republicans to his Cabinet and took Wall Street flim-flam men as his financial advisers, but the contrast between the treatment of the banksters (a bunch of sociopaths) and the treatment of the auto workers (ordinary Americans doing some of the few well-paid blue collar jobs left) cinched it.

[EFerrari]

69. The bail out was Bush but Obama is on the hook for the follow up. n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

40. A New Deal type package from day one.

[WingDinger]

45. The economy wasnt bad enough, and supply side dies slowly.

AS for my contribution, I roast Reagan in effigy every chance I get.

[Xithras]

54. The simplest answer...he failed to fight.

He ran on a campaign proclaiming that he would be the catalyst for change in DC, but once he was elected simply became the strongest voice for the status quo.

I voted for an Obama who promised to raise hell in DC. I wanted lectern pounding. I wanted confrontation. I wanted a president who would call these ratbastards out for their crimes and their savaging of American freedoms and ideals. I wanted someone who would take his argument to the American people and lead a charge to set us on the right path again. In other words, I wanted the bill of goods he sold us!

Instead, in every fight worth discussing, we've seen compromise and capitulation. No fire, little resistance, and a landslide of bills that are either watered down versions of Republican legislative ideas, or which flat-out further the goals of the pro-corporate military/security statists.

He went wrong when he decided to abandon his own lofty ideals.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

63. Here in Minnesota, our governor is going battle with the Republicans over the budget

The state government is shut down because of it.

The sticking point? Reverting taxes on the top income levels to what they were 8 years ago. The Republicanites are digging in their heels on that point, although they did say that they would accept the tax IF Dayton agreed to rescind his veto of anti-choice, voter ID, and anti-gay legislation.

So what has happened? Have the Republicans won?

No, they are losing ground, because it is clear that Dayton (who is an heir to the Dayton-Hudson fortune) is looking out for the vulnerable while the Republicanites are one-trick ponies who will sacrifice anything for their millionaire patrons and Grover Norquist.

The "I Support Governor Mark Dayton" Facebook page has gained over 10,000 "likes" in 7 days.

The online comments for news stories on the shutdown are full of right-wingers repeating their same old talking points, which make them sound either very stupid or very cruel or both. The lefties are gleefully slapping them down.

If anything, the lefties are getting bolder and bolder by the day, and the number of lefties participating in the discussion boards has grown noticeably.

The public likes GUTSY. It likes politicians who take a strong stand. It hates politicians who have no visible inner core of values, who will compromise anything.

[Angry Dragon]

55. ......

:popcorn:

[some guy]

59. I'm not sure I understand the political realities.

Having watched from the outside for the past 40 or so years, it *seems* to me the reality is we are a collapsing empire run by powerful people who prefer to not be known.

Is that real, or is there a different explanation for the continual rightward drift?

For purposes of this reply, I will claim that as political reality, and reply:
There is virtually nothing he could have done; he was chosen t be a cipher to fill a period while the disaster that was GWBush was pushed into the "murky past".

The reason Democrats get put in office is to help crush the hopeful spirit of lefties. "It will be different this time, Charlie Brown."

I still have 2020 as my guess for final collapse.

[WingDinger]

62. Seeing our infrastructure crumble, I fully agree.

[Tom Rinaldo]

67. After the disaster of the 2002 electrions, new energy flowed into the Democratic Party

After the invasion of Iraq especially, a lot of folks whe mostly previously focused on local issues or global causes turned instead to the task of rebuliding the Democratic Party, as the political institution best situated to thwart the right wing agenda. Not only did new activist energy flow into the campaigns of favorite Democrats, it spilled over into the campaigns of virtually all Democrats running for Congress also. It became important enough to drive Republicans from power by restoring Democratic majorites that a lot of grassroots progressives ended up working on behalf of and helping fund some unlikely not exactly liberal Democrats running in swing states and districts.

Kerry's narrow loss in 2004 did not dampen organizing enthusiasm, it intensified it and Republicans suffered major losses in 2006. In 2008 most of the activist base of the Democratic srallied behind Barack Obama in the primaries, and we all were pretty damn united and fired up for him for the fall election. I saw incredile grass roots momentum pulling for the national Democratic Party that I hadn't witnessed since RFK was assasinated.

Obama squandered all of that, we were too passionate an allie for him to trust. We were barely called or counted on anymore. When the activist base finally decided to go on the offensive on our own behind what we believed was one of Obamas key policy objectives; the Public Option, that mobiliztion wasn't encouraged, it was barely tolerated. Obama focused his attention instead on trying to establish constructive relations with the Right. At times it became useful to him toward that end to throw barbs at the left. After riding a grassroots surge of energy to victory in 2008, Obama showed little appetite for anything that could be constured as partisan mobilizations.

We were poised to work hand and glove with him, honing political talking points, carrying the Democratic message loudly to corners where it seldom was heard, countering Republican propaganda, but Obama, consciously or by default, demobilized us instead. It left the field clear for the Tea Party types to establish terms of national political debate.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

68. That's exactly right

I have not seen so much youthful energy directed toward a candidate since the Eugene McCarthy/Robert Kennedy days.

He failed to mobilize these young people after getting into office. Apologists will claim that he sent out e-mail messages. That's not the same thing.

[WinkyDink]

70. Bush tax cuts. End of story.

[Marr]

71. He joined the wrong party.

Should've just been honest and joined the GOP.

[WillyT]

72. He Had The Wrong Advisors... And He Listened To Them...

:shrug:

[Pigheaded]

73. Hiring Goldman thieves

and letting bankers set his policy.

Really pissed me off.

CP

[OmahaBlueDog]

74. A) Geithner as SecTreas B) Not going incremental on HCR C) Stimulus money spent wrong

He's done quit a bit right actually (Kagan & Sotomayor, getting Bin Laden), but Geithner has been an unmitigated disaster.

Rather than take on the whole HCR spectrum, he should have gone for universal care for children and universal pre-natal & maternity. He should have also gotten a medicaire buy-in down to age 55.

He should have created an uber-wealtthy tax bracket when he had the chance.

Rather than go with the tried & true infrastructure stimulus, he should have used that money to have the Fed take over underwater loans and stop the foreclosure bleeding. He should have also poured money into job retraining -- because jobs are out there, but in many cases we don't have skilled job seekers to fill those positions.

[lumberjack_jeff]

76. He's doing what he wants to do. He didn't "go wrong", we did. n/t

[TheKentuckian]

82. Whenever he decided the Republican ideology isn't a completely failed and arguably evil

belief system.


Going full bore neoliberal on the economic team and playing bipartisan with a truck load of nutjobs bound and determine to oppose him even if he adopts their positions and declare him a Marxist for crap they were sponsoring, authoring, and preaching forever and stake out a new extremist position to create space was setting the controls for the heart of the Sun.

[kenny blankenship]

96. It all flows from that. Either you believe the Reagan Revolution is misguided and evil or

you take your place, marching in its ranks. Its momentum will force you into service unless you declare it discredited and bankrupt, and oppose it openly.

He was elected in a moment of total collapse to lead us out of this dark age. The Reagan Revolution's momentum had led it right over a cliff -several of them in fact. Their national-socialist economy of arms building culminated in fascistic militarism and imperial overreach - the embrace of torture and universal warrantless surveillance were automatic consequences of the pursuit of Empire. Their anti-Labor program of trade treaties had hollowed out the national manufacturing base and resulted in unsustainable balance of payments deficits. Their feed-the-rich tax policies resulted in alarming operating deficits for the government, allowing vital infrastructure to crumble, and weakened the social safety net which now, we're being told, must be slashed "in order to preserve it." Their oh-so-pious religiosity resulted in sex and corruption scandals of breathtaking hypocrisy. Their free-market ,anti-gummint-regulation fundamentalism allowed pinstriped criminals to turn the national economy into a vast empire of fraud and has resulted in the present national -and international- economic collapse. The Republicans were finished as a party in 2008, and their Revolution was destroyed by its own excesses of corruption, warfare and broken promises of prosperity. All that was needed was a shovel to uncover their crimes fully, and to bury the criminals forever. Instead, Obama has done almost everything he could to reestablish the status quo ante, and to re-deliver us into bondage. Because he either believed the Reaganite free market bullshit, or he decided it was expedient for him personally to become its servant. It doesn't matter which.

[Philippine expat]

83. Just my opinion

his 3 biggest mistakes were
1) Extending the Bush tax cuts
2) Leaving troops in Iraq
3) Going to Libya

[Fearless]

85. Republican advisors was the beginning.

[ProSense]

87. He should have

let health care reform fail because it wasn't single payer. Then he should have let Wall Street reform fail because the CFPB and other reforms aren't all that. He should have let the stimulus fail because, well it was too small. He should have never accomplished anything in the first two years to prove that he doesn't have to take crap fro conservative House Democrats and Senate Republicans.

He could have been a hero, now he's a zero!!!!

I miss Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, Nixon. Where have all the Presidents to the left of Obama gone?

:cry:

[XemaSab]

90. He needed to enter office with a list of goals, a big vision

then dedicate people to working on each one of the goals, and keep reminding the American people of the progress he was making and the progress he hoped to continue to make.

Since assuming office, it seems like he's had small goals and no vision.

We elected someone who was promising vision, and he's totally failed to deliver.

Bill Clinton wasn't a great liberal hope, but at least he had charisma to make up for it. The Obama charisma evaporated in late January of 2009. :shrug:

Hell, watching Obama has made Bush look better in retrospect. Bush was a fucking weasel, but he did have goals and he accomplished a hell of a lot of them. Bush managed to multitask. Bush didn't give me the sense that he was making it up as he went along.

Obama's like the kind of guy who seems to decide on Monday what the agenda is for the week.

[Doctor_J]

92. He never wanted to help

I have come to the conclusion that his campaign was based largely on lies. I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's weak and stupid, but I don't think that's the case. the only alternative is that his campaign was a complete lie.

Specifically, he "went wrong" by conceding every major point to the very people the voters threw out of office in November 2008. In so doing, he completely turned his back on all those who invested their "hope" in him.

[WingDinger]

95. Just curious, how would you deal with a new job that was so misrepresented

that it was made almost impossible? The depression, and no money or tools to deal with it was sprung on him in the last hour. His campaign promises were affected by the Bush fraud. Bush likely hid all his screwups till the last hour. I believe they hoped it would crash down upon his head. They prolly set him up.

[Doctor_J]

97. Well, if he really had no clue about what he was in for

then he shouldn't have run for president. But this is sort of hard to believe since he was Senator for 2 years.

And while the situation may have affected his ability to fulfill promises, they did not affect his ability to lead. The populace in 2008 resoundingly rejected everything Bush stood for, and badly wanted it wiped out. He started caving before his stuff was unpacked at the WH - no prosecution of Rove, Cheney, Bush, no pardoning of Don Siegelman, backpedaling on Gitmo. These things weren't affected by the economy. Sending Bush & Cheney to prison would have fulfilled the promise that the Constitution would go back into effect. And this trend has continued right on through this week, when he:

1. Decided to cut SS
2. Told the Repukes that he would cut SS
3. Didn't tell the Dems in Congress that he had sold out the party and the Seniors
4. Didn't invite the Dems to the bargaining table, choosing instead to deal privately with Boner (who hates Obama's guts and has sworn to destroy him, BTW)
5. Lied about his decision (Cutting, not slashing)

It's been two years of lies, appeasement to people who want to destroy him, and right-wing policies. This is the exact opposite of what people voted for in 2008

[pipi_k]

102. Just wondering what being a senator for 2 years has to do with

anything?

I worked as a regular staff person for nearly two years in a group home before I was promoted to manager.

And I found that I had no idea what was involved in the job until I took it.

In any case, I don't think anyone really knows what it's like to be president until he gets there. If knowing what it's like is a prerequisite for running, then that's going to cut down on the candidate pool some.

[pipi_k]

93. Why is it what HE did wrong?

How about the people who thought they saw a superhero?


Many people somehow forgot that it's hardly ever a good idea to believe more than half of what a politician...any politician...promises.

Seemed like a lot of naive people put him up on a pedestal. Made him, in their own minds, into some sort of superhero.

Well he's not a superhero. People believed everything because they wanted to believe, and now they're blaming him for not fulfilling their wishes even though I don't know of any president who's ever been able to accomplish everything he promised.

Moral of the story...only believe half of what any politician says. You're better off that way.

[Doctor_J]

94. So you knew that half (or so) of his campaign was lies?

congrats. I believed him.

[pipi_k]

101. No. I didn't know they were "lies"...

I knew that anybody who has never had that job before has no idea what he can and cannot do until he gets there. I think he truly wanted to do what he promised, but is finding it damned hard to make everyone happy. Because, you know...he is President of the United States. Not just the people who think he owes them something because they voted for him.


And I would say the same to anyone here who thinks s/he could do the job better. Promise all you want...you have absolutely no clue about what's involved in being President.

Nor do I. I only know that people get all caught up in idealism and then get all disappointed when reality hits them in the face.

[neverforget]

99. Seeking bipartisanship for the sake of bipartisanship. Being too

conciliatory. Not playing enough tough guy politics at times (See bipartisanship)

Focusing on deficit reduction when he should be talking about jobs.

Accepting a 2 year Bush tax cut extension while getting only 1 year worth of unemployment extended. If he had just let the Bush tax cuts expire, would we even be having this austerity talk? :shrug:

Accepting Republican framing of deficit and debt being all evil. What about Cheney saying "deficits don't matter" and all the times the debt ceiling was raised under Reagan and both Bushes? Politics? Anyone? Bueller?

The wars. The motherfucking wars. The People are sick and tired of these wars.

[Vinca]

100. I think his biggest failing was and is his neverending quest for bipartisanship.

Just last week, he came out with a polite assessment of debt limit/deficit/budget talks, how the sides were working together, yada, yada, yada. Then Boner and Cantor came out and stuck the shiv a little deeper in his back. It makes you want to go out and hit your head against a brick wall.

[Doctor_J]

104. Yes, their stated goal from the outset was to destroy him. He is the slowest learner

I have ever come across.

[NoodleyAppendage]

103. He ran FALSELY as a populist progressive Democrat. Biggest mistake was the voters fault.

Obama hasn't changed or screwed up. He's always been a DINO from day one.

The mistake is ours for falling for the populist progressive campaign of 2000.

J

[ThomWV]

105. When he invited that bigot preacher to pray over the inauguration.