Politics Obama - Actually doing a good job?

Someone like Hilary Clinton?

 

And let's not even get into Afghanistan where we armed and trained people to fight the Russians who are now the very terrorists we are fighting.

 

It was not my intent to discuss the views of Romney and McCain in any detail - my intent was to point out how Obama frequently makes fun of those who hold views that differ from his. I often see merit to both sides of an argument and in some instances my views have changed. Obama's approach is to belittle, joke and mock, giving himself little room to change his position on issues without coming across as a hypocrite or as a fool.
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Yes. I believe Clinton is more of a moderate than Obama and I believe she could have worked with a Republican lead House of Representatives. At one point she would have had my vote if she was the nominee running against Romney. More recent issues now make it impossible for me to ever vote for Clinton.
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Hindsight is 20/20. You make your best decision given current circumstances to move forward - making a decision on prior circumstances is foolish.

Are you suggesting that we can do nothing today against bad actors because we helped them at one point in the past?

 

Ace continues to paint Obama as a leftist, while we Democrats generally feel like this:

"No, the thing is he posed as a progressive and turned out to be counterfeit. We ended up with a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency, a national security presidency. The torturers go free. The Wall Street executives go free. The war crimes in the Middle East, especially now in Gaza, the war criminals go free. And yet, you know, he acted as if he was both a progressive and as if he was concerned about the issues of serious injustice and inequality and it turned out that he’s just another neoliberal centrist with a smile and with a nice rhetorical flair. And that’s a very sad moment in the history of the nation because we are—we’re an empire in decline. Our culture is in increasing decay. Our school systems are in deep trouble. Our political system is dysfunctional. Our leaders are more and more bought off with legalized bribery and normalized corruption in Congress and too much of our civil life. You would think that we needed somebody—a Lincoln-like figure who could revive some democratic spirit and democratic possibility."

 

We may view the concept of moderate differently. If Obama was moderate he would occasionally have positions that appeal to the right and on that basis be able to reach compromise on issues where certain items are less important to one side and more important to the other. Obama has consistently failed to do this - illustrating to me that he is not a moderate. To contrast a person who is non-committed, on the fence on every issue, has no strong convictions, goes in whatever direction the wind blows is not a moderate - I would say this person is "nothing". Feel strongly on some issues, feel less strongly on some issues, be indifferent on some issues - never compromise on issues of high importance but compromise on the issues of less or no importance. That is a moderate in my view.

I think a Clinton Presidency would have been more effective in moving the agenda of progressives. For example, I think Clinton would have gotten a minimum wage increase. Why? I think she would see the other-side of the argument and perhaps in exchange for the minimum wage increase would give increased tax relief to the small business owner. I think Obama resents the idea that a minimum wage increase in some sectors of our economy would severly hurt small business owners potentially putting them out of business when they lack the ability to pass on cost increases in the form of higher prices. Some businesses are better positioned to do this than others. A minimum wage increase won't hurt McDonalds but it could put many small locally owned fast service restaurants out of business.
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My expectation is that the President be an adult and take issues seriously. I can do without his satire, comedy or whatever you want to call it.

For example - calling ISIS the JV squad. In my neighborhood when I was a kid, that was called talking smack. I lived in a city outside of Chicago. When we played a Chicago school, they would call us the JV squad...ha, ha, ha...all it did was get us pissed off. It was bulletin board material. It was no longer just a sporting event, it was personal! When we played we not only wanted to kick the Chicago school in the a$$, we wanted to send them a message - you are not better than us and to show some respect. This was some childish crap, from our President. What was he doing???? Trying to be funny? What???? I know he was raised without a father, but some father figure needs to sit down with Obama and talk to him about a few things.

 

I'm pretty sure the GOP would have been just as recalcitrant with Hillary.
You don't seem to remember the horrible things they said about her husband when he was in office.

They've saying nice things lately as a way of trying to make themselves look better, "Look, we could work with the white guy but not this guy."
The fact is they accused Clinton of murder, drug running, and being a socialist.
The only reason anything got done is because the GOP wasn't completely crazy and Clinton was a Weeble (he wobbled but didn't fall down).

You don't like the presidents sense of humor but I see it as putting the situation in perspective.
All too often the press wants to make things totally overwhelming.
There's a reason John Stewart and John Oliver are so popular.
People want to know what's going on but they don't want it presented in the 'if it bleeds' format.

 

I agree that Republicans have become less tolerant of many progressive approaches to solving problems. I think when progressive ideas start to get closer to home it becomes a big deal. When we change the nature of medical insurance by using a one size fits all government approach when people were satisfied with what they had they become much more vocal. I think, given what we know now, a better approach would have been to simply give uninsured people access and funds (tax credits, vouchers, etc.) to get insurance in the private market - not disrupting the entire system. The resentment of Obamacare then translates to many other government programs.

Many Republicans are simply saying that they do not want more government in their lives and are drawing a big red line.

This seems odd to me given Obama's failures and his backtracking on statements made while on the campaign trail. For example GITMO is still open, we bomb ME people with drones, we are about to get drawn back into Iraq, etc, etc - I would think progressives in regards to military actions would be vocally unsupportive of Obama to the same degree they were with Bush. Why aren't they?

The Republican goal is to stop Obama's political agenda. They are achieving their goal. Next is to win control of the Senate. Then win the WH. Republican have no reason to compromise with Obama - Obama has failed to make his case. When will you and others acknowledge Obama has failed. Do you wait until Republican have both the House and Senate - do you wait until Republicans have control of the House, Senate, and the WH? I would think the sooner progressive acknowledge Obama's failures (rather than blaming republicans) the sooner they can develop a counter strategy.

I agree that I have not fully fleshed out my view of what a moderate is - one thing is that before one can assume total political control, one must often have to show moderation in order to galvanize support when power is splintered. Many tyrants have followed this formula. Being a moderate can be for either positive or negative ends. Other than that I am pretty sure we do not share a common view of this concept.
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There is a difference between rhetoric and actions. Bill was not liked by conservatives, but he got some stuff done. Bill was so unliked that he was impeached based on sex - made the Republicans leading this come across as a joke - can't get much worse than that.

 

Saying Obama isn't a Centrist because he won't reach out to the far right is missing the point. On a global spectrum, Obama is at best a centrist, if not center-right. Obama is painted as a leftist in America ONLY because the right is SO FAR right, that even a centrist looks like a commie pinko

 

The last poll I saw had nearly 2/3 Republicans believing Obama is a socialist.

'nuf said.

 

With who? With himself? He had a super majority - he could have got single payer passed. He did not get any Republican votes for Obamacare, why didn't simply go all the way? Obama is a man of no conviction, he is a man of empty rhetoric.
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I do not hate Obama. I am very specific regarding my complaints. I consistently state that I respect him as a father and husband. I also believe he would be a good guy to hang out with, play some basketball (golf), have long philosophical discussions, etc. - he is simply ineffective as President. Obama is an academic who should have surrounded himself with some "doers".

 

What does "spread it around" mean to you?

This weekend Obama was at a union rally saying America deserves a raise? What does that mean? A capitalist would say you get a raise when you earn it. Obama has socialist tendencies, and on a scale I would say he is more socialist than capitalist (I don't think anyone is a purist in America) - so if asked what would I say? Depends on how the question is asked - and what the response choices are.

But you know about the problems with survey questions and how one can create the type of result desired. My question to you is why do liberals and Obama feel they gain anything by creating a belief that Republicans think Obama is a socialist? All Republicans support some socialist policies - socialist government programs often grow when Republicans control either the Presidency and/or Congress.
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Are we now saying Republicans cooperated to pass Obamacare? And that Obamacare was a compromise over single payer so that that Republican would allow it to be taken up for a vote? Was there ever single payer legislation under consideration? Did Obama ever make a case for single payer?

I was around at the time, I don't need revisionist history.