Obama - What is your opinion so far on his Presidency

[EagleSmack]

The problem is America wants the overnight disposable fix to everything. A new war pumps up the chest and feels good. Yelling at members of the UN gets the testosterone moving. Drill baby drill, and all that jazz. It's all crap with no real fix to anything. He's trying to turn the ship, and that includes turning around some jurassic group-think.

How is he trying to turn the ship? Adding to the deficit is not turning the ship. He's not doing anything to UN-F* what Bush and the GOP did. He's making it worse.

And Drill baby drill...well he continued that too by opening up the Virginia and Alaskan coast line for more drilling right before the Gulf of Mexico disaster. He's supposed to get a pass on that?

Again...the only ones saying we expect an overnight fix are the ones that wanted to fix it and are making it worse. He will be halfway through his first term in six months. The Dems may get a beating in November. They may not lose control of Congress but the Super Majority will be gone if predictions are correct. They will have had control for four years.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

The problem is America wants the overnight disposable fix to everything. A new war pumps up the chest and feels good. Yelling at members of the UN gets the testosterone moving. Drill baby drill, and all that jazz. It's all crap with no real fix to anything. He's trying to turn the ship, and that includes turning around some jurassic group-think.

Quite so. The fact is, US economy is in terrible shape long term, in spite of the current recovery. The specter of budget deficit and national debt will soon become unmanageable, and neither party wants to do anything about it. Democrats don’t want to cut the deficit, that will cut spending for the poor. Republicans want to cut taxes and increase the deficit even further.

In my opinion, Americans are way too complacent about the dire economic situation they are in. Something drastic probably needs to happen (like USA defaulting on its loans, or USA’s credit rating being downgraded by rating companies) for Americans to wake up to the situation.

 

[Kreskin]

How is he trying to turn the ship? Adding to the deficit is not turning the ship. He's not doing anything to UN-F* what Bush and the GOP did. He's making it worse.

And Drill baby drill...well he continued that too by opening up the Virginia and Alaskan coast line for more drilling right before the Gulf of Mexico disaster. He's supposed to get a pass on that?

Again...the only ones saying we expect an overnight fix are the ones that wanted to fix it and are making it worse. He will be halfway through his first term in six months. The Dems may get a beating in November. They may not lose control of Congress but the Super Majority will be gone if predictions are correct. They will have had control for four years.

He campaigned during rocky times and was elected during an economic implosion. Everyone on the planet could see the jobs disaster building for decades.

I feel sorry for the next guy or gal in that office. It's only going to get worse. The rich are good at sabotaging anything that might cost them a few bucks, and they're good at convincing everyone how right it is that they keep all the money and everyone else sinks to living on past-due Walmart credit cards.

 

[EagleSmack]

He campaigned during rocky times and was elected during an economic implosion. Everyone on the planet could see the jobs disaster building for decades.

.

Yes he did and nobody put a gun to his head and made him run for President. Hope, Change, Prosperity, etc. Well he got the job and there he is and here we are.

 

[Kreskin]

I honestly think you would have 5 times as much unemployment if the bailouts didn't happen. So consider yourself as prosperous as you could possibly be given the past 30 years of rape and pillage by the rich.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

After Lehman Brothers went belly up (and in hindsight, it was a blunder on the part of Bush to let it go bankrupt), the world was looking into the abyss of depression. That is why Bush hurriedly put together the stimulus package, it had to be done and it had to be done right away.

But that was not enough, when Obama came to office, the possibility of depression was very real. The Obama stimulus was able to avoid that.

Anyway, I saw an interesting poll on CNN today. They asked people what is the best way to reduce the deficit. A majority of people said cut services, not raise taxes. Then they further were asked which services should be cut. Road maintenance? No. Health care? No. Funding for schools? No. Defense? No. The police? No.

They went down the list of five or six items, in each case, people did not want any cuts made. And those items account for most of public spending. What this amounts to is that people support cutting services in abstract, but when specifically asked which services should be cut, they don’t want to cut any services. People want to cut services but they want it done without any hardship to them.

So good luck to USA trying to reduce the deficit, it ain’t happening.

 

[Goober]

Well, as I said before, Obama's mistake was that he believed the BP estimate of the size of the spill. Perhaps he should have obtained independent estimates right at the beginning.

SJPEstimates from other experts were out within days disputing the size of the leak so blaming BP does not cut the mustard

Obama also threatened to take control of the effort - When the Admiral in charge was asked what assets the US had - He said none - So again he failed -


When offered expertise for free his experts - turned it down - why - wanted to employ US Citizens - Now that was a bright move - The people who know the equipment inside and out have to train US Citizens in the use and maintenance of a number of complicated systems. Again dumb decision


Then the grandest of all - The Pissing Match - US President and BP President -

Obama from the start should have told the truth - Spill size unknown - We will take the following actions - then implement the plan


Communities asked for sand berms to be built - they were still waiting as the oil hit shore


So blaming BP well I guess you cannot lay all the blame at Dubya's feet - some yes - Not all


The Army General affair - His War Cabinet is deeply divided - The General asked for troops and had to wait months for this group to get their Shiiiite together - No wonder frustration set in.


Now Obama had an opportunity to show leadership - He fired the general - Instead of reading him the riot act - and carrying on. Again a bad decision. And in no way can this even be compared to Truman firing MacArthur

 

[Kreskin]

What difference would that free expertise have made? None. It is what it is. Would Bush or any Rep have convinced BP (or shook them down) for 20 billion? Not a chance in a lifetime.

 

[Goober]

What difference would that free expertise have made? None. It is what it is. Would Bush or any Rep have convinced BP (or shook them down) for 20 billion? Not a chance in a lifetime.

Please check out what these ships are capable of. Then make an informed comment

 

[Kreskin]

Please check out what these ships are capable of. Then make an informed comment

How ironic it is that he's criticized for not relying on the expertise of another country. Listening to others is generally considered an act of treason and communism in the US.

 

[damngrumpy]

When America put Gilligan in charge of the Island for the past eight years, they limited the options for whoever came to power after him. Bush is responsible
for the mess. Obama did not look good on the oil spill, but then no one would
look good. State Government and reps from both parties have taken the donations
and backed drilling in the Gulf and despite what anyone says, they are equally
responsible for the outcome. Over all Obama has done a good job. Medical
Care was not up to par though, he should have done the government option right
off the bat and not backed down to special interests. Yes I am critical, but when
you consider the alternative, especially the comic relief candidate Sarah Palin,
could have been VP Obama helped the nation dodge a bullet for sure.

 

[gopher]

Obama certainly has been a lot more successful than Bush. But if he has one major fault, it's his inability to get Dems to publicly demand more cooperation from the GOP. In this regard it is Speaker Pelosi who needs to stand up but she just doesn't have the kind of political or personal strength to stand up and do so forcefully.

 

[Kreskin]

Please check out what these ships are capable of. Then make an informed comment

I hope you understand that if he had done that he would be criticized for not supporting US workers, and since it's impossible to measure the non-work in hindsight the Reps would be claiming this would all be fixed by now if he hadn't hired those Europeans. You think they'd be giving him praise right now for bringing in international relief? Don't kid yourself. It would be on the next set of negative campaign ads.

 

[ironsides]

Health law risks turning away sick
By Julian Pecquet - 07/01/10 07:13 PM ET
The Obama administration has not ruled out turning sick people away from an insurance program created by the new healthcare law to provide coverage for the uninsured.
Health law risks turning away sick - TheHill.com


D-

 

[YukonJack]

"When America put Gilligan in charge of the Island for the past eight years,...."

Is it any better that in November, 2008 they put Steve Urkel in charge four the next four years?

 

[SirJosephPorter]

What difference would that free expertise have made? None. It is what it is. Would Bush or any Rep have convinced BP (or shook them down) for 20 billion? Not a chance in a lifetime.

Bush would not have done that, he would heve done what Barton wanted done, he would have left BP to handle the leak as they saw best. BP would have done the minimum required legally (which is very little).

Bush if anything would have been even more sympathetic to BP than, Burton. Bush was an oil executive himself and as such his loyalties were with oil industry.

SJPEstimates from other experts were out within days disputing the size of the leak so blaming BP does not cut the mustard

Those experts were basing their conclusion upon what they saw on TV, BP did not make the actual video available until much later. BP estimates were based upon what was actually going on.

Now, as it turned out, BP was deliberately low balling the estimates and teh experts (who had to rely on TV picture) were closer to the truth. But Obama had no way fo knowing that at that time.

How ironic it is that he's criticized for not relying on the expertise of another country. Listening to others is generally considered an act of treason and communism in the US.

Quite so, if he had put foreigners in charge and if they had screwed things up, he would also have been blamed big time.

It really does not make any difference what he did or didn’t do. His actions must be judged by the final results, and the final results no doubt are tragic. Obama was clearly wrong in putting his faith in BP numbers (although to be fair, Bush would have done the same thing, he would have relied on BP even more than Obama did).

Obama certainly has been a lot more successful than Bush. But if he has one major fault, it's his inability to get Dems to publicly demand more cooperation from the GOP. In this regard it is Speaker Pelosi who needs to stand up but she just doesn't have the kind of political or personal strength to stand up and do so forcefully.

Pelosi does not need any cooperation from Republicans. Her job is to keep Democrats in line and she has been very successful in doing that. House has passed many bills with Democratic support, some of which are languishing in the Senate, going nowhere, because of Republican filibuster.

But Pelois does not need Republicans, Harry Reid does. But Pelosi is a much better politician than Reid, she has been very successful in the House (were a simple majority is needed to pass anything).

Perhaps if she had been the Senate leader, we may have seen better results.

 

[YukonJack]

It is safe to say that at the end it will be BP who plugged the leak. Equally safe to say that Obama will take credit for it.

It it nothing but idiotic conjecture and useless speculation what President George W. Bush would have done.

It is also safe to say that there are two holes Obama can't shut: the one that leaks oil in the Gulf of Mexico, the other is his own pie hole.

 

[AnnaG]

The way I see the difference between the Big O and Dumbya is that Dumbya would have invaded Iran on the pretext that some terrorist group or other bombed the DH rig and the Big O does what he does, runs about somewhat aimlessly promising people this, that, and the other thing. BP, in the meantime, had a massive blunder catch up to them and is embarassed into putting a little effort into fixing its screwup and trying to look apologetic.
GPA for the Big O? 2.0 for all the promises. 2.5 for the activity. GPA = 2.25 (C-)

 

[SirJosephPorter]

It is safe to say that at the end it will be BP who plugged the leak. Equally safe to say that Obama will take credit for it.

It it nothing but idiotic conjecture and useless speculation what President George W. Bush would have done.

It is also safe to say that there are two holes Obama can't shut: the one that leaks oil in the Gulf of Mexico, the other is his own pie hole.

It may be conjecture, but it is an educated guess as to what Bush would have done. He was an oil executive himself and his loyalty was first to oil industry, then to everybody else. That is the reason why his VP, Cheney (Darth Vader) formulated the energy policy by consulting exclusively the oil industry and energy industry, and nobody else. Not surprisingly, it went nowhere.

So it is a safe guess to say that Bush would not have got 20 billion $ out of BP.

 

[YukonJack]

SirJosephPorter opined:

"So it is a safe guess to say that Bush would not have got 20 billion $ out of BP.

I agree. Since BP already offered to pay for all the costs of clean-up, Bush would not have had to resort to Chicago Mob Style shake down, and take credit for it!