People Who Voted For Obama

Im annoyed at the way BP has been handling this. I feel that the govt has been too "hands off and let the experts handle this" Well, now its a fuckin disaster and "deregulation" once again has shown not to work. Gettin the genie back in the bottle is gonna be damn difficult in this case.


Im waiting for some kind of "shoe drop" on Health CAre. These state cases dont seem to be gathering momentum.

I support Mr. Obama faut de mieux--i sure as hell would not have wanted to see Mr. McCain and the Ditz Queen in there. However, keep in mind that once legislation is passed, he has little power over the implementation of a program. He can throw all the money in the world at a problem, but that w0n't assure that it's going to be implemented in good faith by people at the state and local level. Practically speaking, he's done all that can reasonably be expected of him on the health care issue, apart from continuing to attempt to show leadership.

FM has hit the nail on the head with "de-regulation" and BP. We are still reaping the whirlwind of Ronnie Ray-gun's de-regulation obsession. The most criticism which can be leveled at him over the BP mess is in not moving fast enough, and he's in an office which necessarily relies on expertise.

Dwight Eisenhower got blind-sided by the CIA and MI6 sponsoring a coup in Iran in 1953, but he learned his lesson, and in 1956 told the Brits and the French to piss off when they tried to involve us in the Suez fiasco, and then told the Israelis to get their military asses out of the Sinai if they wanted to c0ntinue getting American foreign aid. John Kennedy was blindsided by the dairy farmers' strike, and by the Bay of Pigs fiasco. He learned a lesson, too. When the Cuban missile crisis came up, Curtis LeMay confidently told him they'd take out the Russian-Cuban air forces parked wingtip-to-wingtip on the Cuban airfields, and that he could do an invasion with a mere 50,000 troops. Kennedy quietly had Central Intelligence do some U2 fly-overs of the USAF bases in Texas and Florida, where the photos showed American aircraft parked wingtip-to-wingtip. He shut LeMay up, and there was no more talk of invading Cuba.

Mr. Obama will have the same kinds of problems. It's pretty easy to criticize, it's a little more difficult to describe how he can be held responsible.

I'm a supporter.

RE: Deep Horizon - I feel that the government response has been mediocre. I'm certainly not applauding, but I'm hesitant to know what I should be demanding be done that isn't already underway.

RE: HCR - I can't speak towards any specific actions yet. In general, this is one that bothers me. I wanted more leadership on this matter. I admire the attempt to let congress run with it, but it ended up a circus.

I'm thinking that Obama is learning some important lessons about taking control and using his position and office to move agenda items through. I think the lesson is coming in a little later than I would have liked. I'm not too concerned. I think that he's managing well if he's keeping our head above the water. It's no easy task when things aren't all fucked up, less so now.

A
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I think he's doing well.

This website is fantastic for tracking his progress.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/

BP is a catastrophic disaster. Regardless of who is/would have been in office, Washington would have f*cked this one up. It's all about the benjamins.

Overall positive:

- Military spending: B+ (cut several programs not wanted by the military but desired by Congress)
- BP Oil Spill: C-, but the test is still in progress. Once the spill is stopped and we start the years of recovery, Obama can either shine or pull a Bush and forget the issue. Time will tell.
- Healthcare: B, could have been better, but I'm amazed something actually passed.
- Financial Reform: C+, but the test is still in progress
- Terrorism: A, Pakistan is engaged in fighting the Taliban, US troops in Afganistan where the Taliban is instead of Iraq, China and Russia are putting pressure on Iran, it feels a lot more like the world fighting terrorism instead of isolated countries.
- Foreign Affairs: A, I think the US is generally better perceived and that is helping Washington get input on Greece, work with China on trade, etc. Of course, this is still a work in progress. Our relationship with both China and Russia seems dramatically better than it was in 2008.
- Civil rights: C, Gitmo still open, questions about US military prisons abroad, backtracking on Miranda rights but Don't ask/Don't tell under pressure, still offers Miranda rights, talking about taking Az to court. We'll know more in a year.

Grade for the entire course heading towards the mid-term: B

Not happy with health care. They just forced people to join an insurance plan but dident put preasure on the insurance and health facilities to lower costs overall. On BP I dont see what the government can do except hold BP's feet to the fire and demand that that they fix the problems, all of them including the huge amount of ecological damage they have done. I would rather have Obama then Mc cain or ditz but not real happy with the democrats.

Thanks to all for the serious and thoughtful responses so far and for no one treating the thread like I was trying to pick a fight.

I shudder to think about what would have happened if John McCain and the Air Head had been elected instead of Obama and Biden. Think of Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression.

Obama was naive to think he could unify the Republicans with the Democrats. Now he is faced with the Libertarians (Tea Party). Again, think about Herbert Hoover and the depression, and the pre-Civil Rights legislation.

We can thank Ronald Reagan (with Bill Clinton's help) along with George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the Republican Party and those that voted for them for the BP disaster. Their goals were to destroy all of the regulations and improvements Franklin Roosevelt created for the working classes. Oh how I wish that Obama would be a new Theodore Roosevelt to weaken corporate rule of America.

BBB

I think Obama is doing just fine. He has had pretty good success passing legislation and has made several meaningful changes on the purely executive level.

Re: BP, it's fair to say that nobody has experience dealing with leaks at this depth. The US gov't doesn't have any tools or facilities sitting around that could fix this problem. It's not a question of inaction; the most we could do is seize BP's assets and then try and run the cleanup using their experts, as these people really are as qualified as anyone to deal with the problem.

From a purely political point of view, the Republicans would have a field-day if Obama seized BP. They have already convinced themselves that the spill isn't all that bad and it would play right into their 'Obama is a secret socialist!' meme.

Cycloptichorn

I think he's doing great, especially when you consider how the **** is flying fast and furiously and coming from every angle. As farmerman said above, I think he took a hands-off policy with BP, trying to give them the opportunity to be honest about what was going on and whether they could handle it. And that was unfortunate. While the disaster could not have been contained whether BP had been truthful or not, still, I wish the administration had come down harder and faster, just on general principle. I'd screw BP's ass to the wall just for lying to me if I were sitting in the big chair, but that's why he's the POTUS and I'm not.

I am not happy with the US government, but, I prefer Obama and Democrats to the nut jobs in the opposition. I have little to no faith that the slide to the right and fundamentalism can be reversed in the near future.

Every time Obama's name is mentioned, I hear David Letterman say, "I wouldn't give his troubles to a monkey on a rock."

I wish he would lean to the left instead of being so centrist.

I think his nature is diplomatic . . . which is something the US could use.

I think that the world would have turned its back on the losing ticket and would have sent the entire nation to Coventry.

Edgar we're pretty much on the same page there. We chose what we had to choose from, and there's the real tragedy. I'm not happy with Obama's overall performance, and at the same time acknowledge the guy was handed a pair of lead boots along with the keys to the White house.

I've been thinking about compromise. I am on the local council for Moveon.org along with two retired state legislators. They have an entirely different view of compromise as former public officials.

Compromise is difficult to accept. Difficult because I feel that my political choices were made on the basis of the ethics I hold . . . although I know that people are ruled by their emotions and not by their intellect.

There is just something within that says you must hold on to what you believe in.

Of course, I understand that under what we generally call Western Democracy, we surrender "rights" daily to the greater good . . . a principle that makes libertarianism unpalatable to me.

At the present time, Congress is looking to repeal, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and to allow gays to serve as themselves in the armed forces. Don't Ask seemed like a crushing compromise a few years back but now it appears a step in the process from totally rejecting homosexuals toward accepting them.

What I fear about compromise is being stuck in some sort of "neither fish nor fowl" position.

I'm just simply discouraged at our whole government. I'm an Obama voter, and I am not at all thrilled with Obama.

I'm at the point now though where I don't let it bother me; I'm tired of the guy and I'm trying not to worry about things currently out of my control. I'll try to make a better decision in November, and then in 2012.