Barack Obama
As the presidency started grinding him into a gaunt, graying old man (as it does to most presidents, aside from Bill Clinton who actually managed to get fatter) it became clear that Hope and Change began to sound like a ghastly echo of A Leader, For A Change.
He failed to close Guantanamo Bay, create a much-vaunted public option for health care, pass comprehensive immigration reform, televise debates on Obamacare, raise the minimum wage to $9.50, reduce earmarks to 1994 levels, impose a windfall profits tax for oil companies, enact Cap and Trade legislation, require a plug-in and alternative energies fleet for the White House, not raise taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year, double funding for after school programs, expand the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity, allow five days of comment before passing bills, create a public database to track lobbyists and influence peddlers, expand the Family Medical Leave Act to include leave for domestic violence or sexual assault, fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, prevent drug companies from blocking generic drugs, sign the Employee Free Choice Act, forbid executives of bankrupt companies from receiving bonuses, repeal the Bush-era tax cuts, require companies to have automatic enrollment for their employees in 401k and/or IRA plans, expand the federal Child and Dependent Care Credit and increase the capital gains and dividends taxes for higher-income taxpayers – just to name a few of his myriad of broken campaign promises.
But it isn’t his fault (or the fault of the DNC’s super majority in Congress). It was the Republicans.
Obama did, however, manage to openly assassinate American citizens overseas and decided to get the United States involved in a Civil War in Libya without consulting Congress – international opinion being the only thing that really matters to him in the end. He also tacked trillions and trillions of dollars in deficits to the future of the United States, invested taxpayer money in busted companies whose members contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to his election funds and forced some other companies into convoluted bankruptcies to save his special interest buddies.
So, who are you going to vote for tomorrow – Barack Obama or Barack Obama?
13 Comments
Well then. What an incredibly biased and one-sided piece and utter waste of time by someone obviously more than a little frustrated with his own side’s ability to continue to embarrass itself. Does AmericanNewsPost call itself conservative in the onset? Perhaps you should.
Well, someone finally got me! I am a secret shill for the conservative movement – provided you overlook my recent critcisms of conservative lunatics like Foster Friess, Chris Christie, Sarah Palin, Pope Benedict XVI, Marcus and Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Robert Jeffress, Rick Santorum, Ainsley Earhardt, Herman Cain, Peter DeGraaf, Mitt Romney and a piece on the GOP’s bass-ackwards support DADT.
Maybe you should do a little research before you accuse me and ANP of being in the tank for Obergruppenführer Limbaugh and the Conservative Cause.
I forgive you, though. You’re just angry about my pointing out how Obama has abysmally failed as a leader. Tell you want, why not write a piece for ANP expressing you thoughts on how awesome Obama is? I’d love to see someone attempt point out exactly how that man has done anything positive for this country.
I know it isn’t possible to construct such an argument, but, for amusement’s sake, why not try, Mr. I Am Disappoint?
Good Post Theo
Obama’s accomplishments
* Got the United States OUT of Iraq.
* Begun drawing down troops in Afghanistan.
* Made it possible for people with pre-existing conditions to get health insurance.
* Prevents insurance companies from dropping coverage because the person is sick.
* Made it a priority to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden.
* Ended don’t ask, don’t tell.
* Appointed two pro-choice women to the Supreme Court.
* Lowered income tax for ordinary working Americans.
* Saved General Motors and Chrysler by loaning them money.
* Provided the Department of Veteran Affairs with more than 1.4 billion to improve services to American Veterans.
* Repealed Bush era restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
* Issued executive order to close Gitmo (Naturally, it was blocked by Republicans).
* Ended the use of torture.
* Established credit card bill of rights preventing credit card companies from imposing arbitrary rate increases on customers.
* Allow children up to age 26 to remain covered by their parent’s health insurance.
* Tax cost for up to 3.5 million small businesses to help pay for employee healthcare coverage.
* Tax credits for up to 29 million individuals to help pay for health insurance.
* Require health insurance plans to disclose how much of the premium actually goes to patient care.
* Add $4.6 billion to the VA budget to recruit and retain more mental health professionals.
* Eliminated subsidies to private lender middlemen of student loans and protect student borrowers.
*Significantly expanded Pell grants, which help low-income students pay for college.
* Signed financial reform law requiring lenders to verify applicants’ history, income and employment status.
*Cut prescription drug cost for Medicare recipients by 50%
Ah, JazzQuipster, good work tracking down pieces of other lists on the Internet.
Let’s have some fun now, shall we?
* Got the United States OUT of Iraq.
Bush 43 actually got the troops out of Iraq. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.%E2%80%93Iraq_Status_of_Forces_Agreement)
Best claim Obama has is that he got the U.S. out a week or two early.
* Begun drawing down troops in Afghanistan.
Obama sent more troops to Afghanistan (http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-17/politics/obama.troops_1_afghanistan-troop-increase-troop-levels?_s=PM:POLITICS) at a cost of 36 billion over projected estimates (http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/77619-cbo-troop-surge-to-cost-36-billion-over-three-years).
* Made it a priority to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden.
This is too hilarious to even comment on. If you think Barack Obama
was the driving force behind the U.S. initiative to find Bin Laden then you need to get your head examined.
* Ended don’t ask, don’t tell.
This is good.
* Appointed two pro-choice women to the Supreme Court.
The private political opinions of judges, particularly Supreme Court justices, cannot have any standing on their rulings. They can only rule on the law. Ever watch a confirmation hearing for a Supreme… or bother to learn the rules of the U.S. Judicial System?
* Lowered income tax for ordinary working Americans.
I love the term ordinary working Americans, so vague as to be useless, like WE Are The 99%!
This sentiment is partially true. There was a small cut included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which expired over a year ago. There is also the roughly 2 percent cut in the amount people have to contribute to Social Security. Not everyone gets that, though, and it seems like it helps richer people more than poor peope.
Obama has also signed several tax raises into law (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/515/no-family-making-less-250000-will-see-any-form-tax/) that affect everyone, not just rich people. Of course, don’t forget the 4 billion extra the federal government is now in the hole. If you think the federal government’s stupidity when it comes to spending isn’t a tax on our future earnings, you need to wake up.
* Saved General Motors and Chrysler by loaning them money.
He helped force two private companies into a government receivership when they simply could have declared bankruptcy and reorganized like every other business in the history of the United States. He did not do this to protect GM or Chrysler, who were never in danger of disappearing. He did it to protect Unions (screwing over bond and stock holders in the process) and give them a piece of the companies. (http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/23/business/la-fi-gm-bailout-review-20110623) Learn a thing or two about bankruptcy law.
* Provided the Department of Veteran Affairs with more than 1.4 billion to improve services to American Veterans.
God only knows what this refers to, and since you’re not the author of this list I really can’t ask you, can I? Another site which has this exact same point listed supplies a link (http://www4.va.gov/budget/products.asp) as proof, but when I tried it today the link was dead.
There is a recent bill HR 2055 (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-112hrpt331/pdf/CRPT-112hrpt331.pdf) which was sponsored by House Republican John Culberson which, I believe, set aside 1.4 billion for Medical IT for Veterans Affairs. Perhaps that is what this is for. If so, this bill was passed by a Republican House before it came to Obama.
* Repealed Bush era restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
This is strangely worded. Despite popular belief, there was no Bush era ban on funding of stem cell research. His administration was actually the first one to give government money to hSEC research, but it required use of pre-existing lines, because of laws governing the destruction of fetuses for scientific purposes. Private funding of any kind of stem cell research has, also, never been restricted in the U.S., just the use of taxpayer money. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell_controversy#United_States)
Still though, not a bad thing.
* Issued executive order to close Gitmo (Naturally, it was blocked by Republicans).
This sentiment is so hilariously stupid it defies simple explanation. Do some reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp#Obama_administration_policy
* Ended the use of torture.
This is really a two-parter, involving the ban of extreme rendition along with torture. Sadly, his ban has several, well-known loopholes. (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12041) I wish he would fix this, but odds are he won’t. He hasn’t seemed to have any trouble using intelligence gathered using these tactics, either.
* Established credit card bill of rights preventing credit card companies from imposing arbitrary rate increases on customers.
This is a massive, disgusting and utterly pointless overreach of federal power. You think lenders aren’t going to find other ways of making money?
On a personal note if you don’t like your credit card rate, don’t use it. Grow up and manage your money.
* Add $4.6 billion to the VA budget to recruit and retain more mental health professionals.
Once again, cannot find this number. The 2012 Obama budget proposed 6 billion for this (http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=697&sid=2270947), but I’m pretty sure this was not passed.
* Eliminated subsidies to private lender middlemen of student loans and protect student borrowers.
This must be about the federal government’s move to absorb FFEL loans through the passing of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. Basically the government has gone from partially financing a very successful loan program involving private banks to running the whole mess and taking on all of the potential risk. There is a chance a profit can be made, but it is entirely dependent on how interest rates go and the government could just as easily loose more money. As far as a difference in cost to borrowers, there is none. (http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/10/student-loans-hcera-leadership-education-fox.html)
*Significantly expanded Pell grants, which help low-income students pay for college.
This is another effect of the government’s power grab under HCERA. Pell grants (which have doubled in number over the last five years) are nice, but it would be nicer if the government actually bothered to, you know, FUND THEM. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/education/18pell.html)
* Signed financial reform law requiring lenders to verify applicants’ history, income and employment status.
More nanny state stupidity. Banks don’t make loans that do not benefit them. The housing crash was caused by greedy governments. Read and learn: (http://americannewspost.com/theodore-roe/601/good-money-after-bad-the-fed-offer-fanny-and-freddie-limitless-funds/)
*Cut prescription drug cost for Medicare recipients by 50%
Not according to Huffington Post, that bastion of reactionary Republican thought! (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/14/obama-plan-to-cut-medicar_n_849294.html)
Bush 43 did cut drug prices for seniors, though, via the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003. Maybe someone confused Bush 43 with Obama…
And last, but certainly not
least, is the crowning debacle of the Obama administration and the biggest violation
of our civil liberties since The New Deal: The Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act!
Sandwiched into a bill so mammoth
that even the Speaker of the House did not have time to read or explain it to
the citizens of the United States (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV-05TLiiLU)
are some of the following points from the pasted list:
* Made it possible for people with pre-existing conditions to
get health insurance.
* Prevents insurance companies from dropping coverage because
the person is sick.
* Allow children up to age 26 to remain covered by their
parent’s health insurance.
* Require health insurance plans to disclose how much of the
premium actually goes to patient care.
* Tax cost for up to 3.5 million small businesses to help pay
for employee healthcare coverage.
* Tax credits for up to 29 million individuals to help pay for
health insurance.
First off, as far as those numbers go in the last two points,
Google search turn up nothing substantive with them – only more copies of this
bullshit list re-pasted in here.
Now, the sentiments expressed in the first four points are
pretty good, but they are only window dressing, folks. The PPACA is designed to do one thing and one
thing only – socialize health care. I know
it does not include a single payer system, but it is built to destroy private
firms, thus forcing all Americans into existing government-run institutions. In essence, it is the death by a thousand
cuts.
Think about it. If the
government mandate stands, then it will be impossible to not have health
insurance, which immediately knocks out points 1 through 3. The only useful one then is 4, and I can
practically guarantee that the Big G will definitely not disclose true care
costs even though they will make private enterprise do it. When’s the last time you saw a budget report
that wasn’t an outright lie?
So there’s President Obama.
Another 4 billion in the hole, and this is what we got.
Obama just lost my vote. Thanks.
Ah, JazzQuipster, good work tracking down pieces of other lists on the Internet.
Let’s have some fun now, shall we?
* Got the United States OUT of Iraq.
Bush 43 actually got the troops out of Iraq. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.%E2%80%93Iraq_Status_of_Forces_Agreement)
Best claim Obama has is that he got the U.S. out a week or two early.
* Begun drawing down troops in Afghanistan.
Obama sent more troops to Afghanistan (http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-17/politics/obama.troops_1_afghanistan-troop-increase-troop-levels?_s=PM:POLITICS) at a cost of 36 billion over projected estimates (http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/77619-cbo-troop-surge-to-cost-36-billion-over-three-years).
* Made it a priority to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden.
This is too hilarious to even comment on. If you think Barack Obama
was the driving force behind the U.S. initiative to find Bin Laden then you need to get your head examined.
* Ended don’t ask, don’t tell.
This is good.
* Appointed two pro-choice women to the Supreme Court.
The private political opinions of judges, particularly Supreme Court justices, cannot have any standing on their rulings. They can only rule on the law. Ever watch a confirmation hearing for a Supreme… or bother to learn the rules of the U.S. Judicial System?
* Lowered income tax for ordinary working Americans.
I love the term ordinary working Americans, so vague as to be useless, like WE Are The 99%!
This sentiment is partially true. There was a small cut included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which expired over a year ago. There is also the roughly 2 percent cut in the amount people have to contribute to Social Security. Not everyone gets that, though, and it seems like it helps richer people more than poor peope.
Obama has also signed several tax raises into law (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/515/no-family-making-less-250000-will-see-any-form-tax/) that affect everyone, not just rich people. Of course, don’t forget the 4 billion extra the federal government is now in the hole. If you think the federal government’s stupidity when it comes to spending isn’t a tax on our future earnings, you need to wake up.
* Saved General Motors and Chrysler by loaning them money.
He helped force two private companies into a government receivership when they simply could have declared bankruptcy and reorganized like every other business in the history of the United States. He did not do this to protect GM or Chrysler, who were never in danger of disappearing. He did it to protect Unions (screwing over bond and stock holders in the process) and give them a piece of the companies. (http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/23/business/la-fi-gm-bailout-review-20110623) Learn a thing or two about bankruptcy law.
* Provided the Department of Veteran Affairs with more than 1.4 billion to improve services to American Veterans.
God only knows what this refers to, and since you’re not the author of this list I really can’t ask you, can I? Another site which has this exact same point listed supplies a link (http://www4.va.gov/budget/products.asp) as proof, but when I tried it today the link was dead.
There is a recent bill HR 2055 (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-112hrpt331/pdf/CRPT-112hrpt331.pdf) which was sponsored by House Republican John Culberson which, I believe, set aside 1.4 billion for Medical IT for Veterans Affairs. Perhaps that is what this is for. If so, this bill was passed by a Republican House before it came to Obama.
* Repealed Bush era restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
This is strangely worded. Despite popular belief, there was no Bush era ban on funding of stem cell research. His administration was actually the first one to give government money to hSEC research, but it required use of pre-existing lines, because of laws governing the destruction of fetuses for scientific purposes. Private funding of any kind of stem cell research has, also, never been restricted in the U.S., just the use of taxpayer money. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell_controversy#United_States)
Still though, not a bad thing.
* Issued executive order to close Gitmo (Naturally, it was blocked by Republicans).
This sentiment is so hilariously stupid it defies simple explanation. Do some reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp#Obama_administration_policy
* Ended the use of torture.
This is really a two-parter, involving the ban of extreme rendition along with torture. Sadly, his ban has several, well-known loopholes. (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12041) I wish he would fix this, but odds are he won’t. He hasn’t seemed to have any trouble using intelligence gathered using these tactics, either.
* Established credit card bill of rights preventing credit card companies from imposing arbitrary rate increases on customers.
This is a massive, disgusting and utterly pointless overreach of federal power. You think lenders aren’t going to find other ways of making money?
On a personal note if you don’t like your credit card rate, don’t use it. Grow up and manage your money.
* Add $4.6 billion to the VA budget to recruit and retain more mental health professionals.
Once again, cannot find this number. The 2012 Obama budget proposed 6 billion for this (http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=697&sid=2270947), but I’m pretty sure this was not passed.
* Eliminated subsidies to private lender middlemen of student loans and protect student borrowers.
This must be about the federal government’s move to absorb FFEL loans through the passing of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. Basically the government has gone from partially financing a very successful loan program involving private banks to running the whole mess and taking on all of the potential risk. There is a chance a profit can be made, but it is entirely dependent on how interest rates go and the government could just as easily loose more money. As far as a difference in cost to borrowers, there is none. (http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/10/student-loans-hcera-leadership-education-fox.html)
*Significantly expanded Pell grants, which help low-income students pay for college.
This is another effect of the government’s power grab under HCERA. Pell grants (which have doubled in number over the last five years) are nice, but it would be nicer if the government actually bothered to, you know, FUND THEM. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/education/18pell.html)
* Signed financial reform law requiring lenders to verify applicants’ history, income and employment status.
More nanny state stupidity. Banks don’t make loans that do not benefit them. The housing crash was caused by greedy governments. Read and learn: (http://americannewspost.com/theodore-roe/601/good-money-after-bad-the-fed-offer-fanny-and-freddie-limitless-funds/)
*Cut prescription drug cost for Medicare recipients by 50%
Not according to Huffington Post, that bastion of reactionary Republican thought! (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/14/obama-plan-to-cut-medicar_n_849294.html)
Bush 43 did cut drug prices for seniors, though, via the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003. Maybe someone confused Bush 43 with Obama…
And last, but certainly not least, is the crowning debacle of the Obama administration and the biggest violation of our civil liberties since The New Deal: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act!
Sandwiched into a bill so mammoth that even the Speaker of the House did not have time to read or explain it to the citizens of the United States (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV-05TLiiLU) are some of the following points from the pasted list:
* Made it possible for people with pre-existing conditions to get health insurance.
* Prevents insurance companies from dropping coverage because the person is sick.
* Allow children up to age 26 to remain covered by their parent’s health insurance.
* Require health insurance plans to disclose how much of the premium actually goes to patient care.
* Tax cost for up to 3.5 million small businesses to help pay for employee healthcare coverage.
* Tax credits for up to 29 million individuals to help pay for health insurance.
First off, as far as those numbers go in the last two points, Google search turn up nothing substantive with them – only more copies of this list re-pasted in here.
Now, the sentiments expressed in the first four points are pretty good, but they are only window dressing, folks. The PPACA is designed to do one thing and one thing only – socialize health care. I know it does not include a single payer system, but it is built to destroy private firms, thus forcing all Americans into existing government-run institutions. In essence, it is the death by a thousand cuts.
Think about it. If the government mandate stands, then it will be impossible to not have health insurance, which immediately knocks out points 1 through 3. The only useful one then is 4, and I can practically guarantee that the Big G will definitely not disclose true care costs even though they will make private enterprise do it. When’s the last time you saw a budget report that wasn’t an outright lie?
So there’s President Obama. Another 4 billion in the hole, and this is what we got.
Well TRoe, you caught me. I used the internet to remind myself of the accomplishments of the Obama administration, just as you used the internet to find reasons to refute those accomplishments. Big deal. Your arguments are still lame and come up short in truthfulness.
Let’s take the example of Obamacare. You said, “The PPCA is designed to do one thing and one thing only – socialize health care. I know it does not include a single payer system, but it is built to destroy private firms, thus forcing all Americans into existing government-run institutions.”
What a load of nonsense. There will still be private health insurance companies and there will still be private health care providers. If you have health insurance through your place of employment it will probably remain the same and you will still be able to see the doctors you see now. If you don’t have insurance you will be able to purchase affordable insurance.
Obamacare is not going to force private health insurance companies and providers out of business. On the contrary it will bring them millions of new customers because there will be a mandate that people be insured.
Here’s another from Roe: “Made it a priority to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden. This is too hilarious to even comment on. If you think Barack Obama was the driving force behind the initiative to find Bin Laden then you need your head examined.”
Here are the facts: In the second presidential debate on October 7, 2008 Obama said, ” What I have said is we’re going to encourage democracy in Pakistan, expand our non-military aid to Pakistan so that they have more of a stake in working with us, but insisting that they go after these militants. And if we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then I think we have to act. and we will take them out. We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al-Quaida. That has to be our biggest national security priority.”
I could go on, but I find that right-wingers who feed their heads with the never ending Obama-bashing that goes on in the right-wing media are too emotionally invested in their hatred of Obama to listen to reason.
This notion of “power grabs” and the “government making decisions for people” is prime right-wing paranoia. The government is not some foreign entity intent on stealing your tax money and controlling you life. To spin anything that Obama has done as such has no basis in rationality. Jazz is right…the right wing is way too emotionally invested in their hatred of Obama to listen to facts. Otherwise they wouldn’t continue to make arguments that literally defy reality about OBama growing government, his socialist anti-corporate mentality or this notion he will raise taxes on all Americans. Luckily the country continues to become more and more educated and the right wing plays on emotion and paranoia just don’t work as effectively as they used to.
Nover mind tomorrow, come November I’m voting for Obama and a straight Democrat ticket.
Reading the list of Obama’s supposed failures reminds me of how Republicans in Congress have made it their mission to prevent ANYTHING from passing by creating gridlock. Not only do we need to re-elect President Obama, but we also need to throw out the Republican bums in Congress who place politics over doing what’s right for the country.
He had the House and Senate for 2 years…how much backing did he need then????
Nice attempt at revisionist history Pagliaccio, but Obama did NOT have the Senate for two years. Democrats would have needed a super-majority of 60 votes to overcome the record number of filibusters the Republicans employed to prevent bills from passing.
To Disappointed,
Those numbers, I believe, are across the entire public sector,
not just the federal government. (http://www.politifact.com/new-jersey/statements/2011/sep/12/bill-pascrell/congressman-bill-pascrell-says-more-600000-public-/)
This has a lot more to do with the fact that budgets are so screwed up that
states and counties cannot keep people on than any wish to limit the size or
scope of government.
Companies are recording record
profits because they are not expanding or reinvesting their capital. Instead they are sitting on their money,
afraid to invest because no one knows what insane thing the president will say
or do next. So much of the president’s power is tied up in the perceptions he weaves with his words, and the list of CEOs that have publicly said they distrust him is immense.
The lower taxes you speak of are largely a product of previous
presidents. Obama wants to raise them,
and has signed legislation to do so, though not all of it has kicked in yet.
You speak of my “deep seated” hatred of Obama. I don’t hate the man – I actually have a
grudging respect for him. He may be an
even better snake oil salesman that Bill Clinton. What terrifies me is that many other people
think he isn’t a snake oil salesman.
Beyond that I firmly believe he thinks it is better for the
federal government to do everything for us.
You need look no further than his Health Care Reform Act to see this is
true. This is a supremely dangerous
position, because when the buck stops in just one place, things almost never
get better. History is replete with
examples of this.
The government’s job is to protect people, not run businesses. We may debate over how best the government
may protect us from apathetic corporation or armed combatants, but there is (in
my opinion) no debate over the propriety of government becoming a
business. The federal government has
ruined Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security and the Mortgage lending business
(heck, even the post office) because they thought they could do better than
private institutions at running businesses.
They pretty much always fail, and they need to stop trying.
—–
As A General Response To Those Who Think I Am Off My Nut,
The purpose of the article which started as this was not really
to point out that Obama has failed miserably as president (though I believe he
has). It was to point out that the myth
of Obama, which he successfully rode to victory in the 2008 election cycle,
does not match up to his track record.
He is going to try to ride his myth to another victory, and the
combination of the staying power of that myth, combined with the general
incompetency and irrelevance of the current crop of GOP leaders, means he will
probably be re-elected. The only hope I
see in avoiding this tragedy is to work to point out that Obama is just a Machine
Democrat from Chicago, plain and simple.
He is no savior, he’s just a politician – and not a very good one at
that.
I appreciate your goal, Jazzquipster, Disappoint and friends, in
defending your guy in the White House.
My cry for someone to point out “anything” positive to come of Barack
Obama’s tenure at the White House was a bit of hyperbole designed to generate a
response. Obviously everything done at
the federal level in the last three years could not be all horrifying abuses of
power. Some good things certainly have
happened – they just happen to be grossly outnumbered by the bad things, in my
opinion.
Democracy fails when there is only a single voice in the room. According to some less eloquent voices who
are resigned to name-calling instead of using facts or rhetorical arguments to
make a point, there are precious few divergent voices here at ANP. My suggestion to those of you who have a
brain (and I do believe many of you do, even the Democrats 😉 ) is to bring
your thoughts to ANP as contributors, not just commenters on the threads. Contact Joseph Fosco about it today. I would welcome competent counterpoints to my
often purposefully bombastic prose. No one side has all the solutions.
I look forward to seeing your work at ANP in the near future. I will comment no further on this article, but I will gladly comment on your future work!
Theo