Did Obama do a good job as president ?

[Rice N Beans]

He did very well considering the unhelpful congress. I'd rate him highly.

 

[King Ming]

Only Black president we will probably ever have.... EVER!!!

 

[King Kreole]

the article you linked to doesn't even match up with the very points you were trying to make in your post.

for example this bit is pretty much a response to your post.

At this political juncture, there appears to be only one real model of effective governance in Washington: partisan dominance, in which a President with large majorities in Congress can push through an ambitious agenda. Despite Obama’s hesitance and his appeals to Republicans, this is the model that the President ended up relying upon during his first two years in office. He had hoped to use a model of consensus politics in which factions in the middle form an alliance against the two extremes. But he found few players in the center of the field: most Republicans and Democrats were on their own ten-yard lines. (The Tea Party, meanwhile, was tearing down the goal posts and carrying them away.) This situation is not unprecedented. During much less polarized periods, when it was easier to build centrist coalitions, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson suffered similar fates. “When Johnson lost 48 Democratic House seats in the 1966 election, he found himself, despite his alleged wizardry, in the same condition of stalemate that had thwarted Kennedy and, indeed, every Democratic President since 1938,” Arthur Schlesinger noted in his 1978 biography of Robert Kennedy. “In the end, arithmetic is decisive.”

and this ...

Harry Truman, one in a long line of Commanders-in-Chief frustrated by the limits of the office, once complained that the President “has to take all sorts of abuse from liars and demagogues. . . . The people can never understand why the President does not use his supposedly great power to make ’em behave. Well, all the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.”

Partisan dominance is now the only way to effectively govern congressionally. As Obama has shown lately, there's a lot he can do without congress.

As for the bolded, it proves that Obama's instinct was centrist and conciliatory in a highly partisan time. That's the root of my critique. A failure to discern the political atmosphere, leading him to play small ball and receive small gains that will be overwritten by a president with a large vision. Over and over again Obama went back to an openly hostile and obstructionist Republican party to try and seek deals and compromises. Why? Either the quote is correct and he had a large majority in congress that could push through an ambitious agenda, in which case the overtures to Republicans were actually harmful in producing decidedly unambitious results, or the quote is incorrect and Congress wouldn't allow him to do anything, in which case not going to the heavy executive action model he's now utilizing was a mistake. Again, a lack of supermajority isn't going to be seen as a passable excuse. Before Obama, Carter was the last president to have a supermajority. A lot of shyt got done from 79-09, and it wasn't because Obama was uniquely hated. Republicans hate Clinton more than they hate Obama, they tried to impeach him for god's sake. Partisanship is as high as it's been in that span, but that will only make Obama's lack of executive orders stand out even more.

I'll say it again, this wasn't all on Obama, Congress itself shoulders the majority of the blame as it's their job to pass legislation and keep the government running. Boehner and McConnell won't be remembered fondly. But in terms of the role the President plays, Obama simply wasn't effective at pushing for his party's goals because he wanted to be a great unifier. He really saw himself as a bridge between Republicans and Democrats, between blacks and whites. Great presidents go for home runs, Obama was bunting. There is a lot the President can do when faced with an uncooperative congress, and Obama realized that too late. That Truman line is very apt. Obama's failure isn't in not getting Congress to play nice or being unable to bend them to his will, it's in continually expecting them to play nice and not using his own powers when they wouldn't.

 

[LurkMoar]

Worst Congress ever.

Obeezy could not even pass simple shut either Congress was out here mutomboing everything


Obama: alright fukk it how about some pro gun legislation


Congress:


Obama:


in the end he said fukk it then might as well just sign everything in

 

[BaggerofTea]

Obama just wasn't principled

He was basically a corporate plant meant to maintain status quo while being the shiny new object Americans could marvel at

 

[CASHAPP]

Partisan dominance is now the only way to effectively govern congressionally. As Obama has shown lately, there's a lot he can do without congress.

As for the bolded, it proves that Obama's instinct was centrist and conciliatory in a highly partisan time. That's the root of my critique. A failure to discern the political atmosphere, leading him to play small ball and receive small gains that will be overwritten by a president with a large vision. Over and over again Obama went back to an openly hostile and obstructionist Republican party to try and seek deals and compromises. Why? Either the quote is correct and he had a large majority in congress that could push through an ambitious agenda, in which case the overtures to Republicans were actually harmful in producing decidedly unambitious results, or the quote is incorrect and Congress wouldn't allow him to do anything, in which case not going to the heavy executive action model he's now utilizing was a mistake. Again, a lack of supermajority isn't going to be seen as a passable excuse. Before Obama, Carter was the last president to have a supermajority. A lot of shyt got done from 79-09, and it wasn't because Obama was uniquely hated. Republicans hate Clinton more than they hate Obama, they tried to impeach him for god's sake. Partisanship is as high as it's been in that span, but that will only make Obama's lack of executive orders stand out even more.

I'll say it again, this wasn't all on Obama, Congress itself shoulders the majority of the blame as it's their job to pass legislation and keep the government running. Boehner and McConnell won't be remembered fondly. But in terms of the role the President plays, Obama simply wasn't effective at pushing for his party's goals because he wanted to be a great unifier. He really saw himself as a bridge between Republicans and Democrats, between blacks and whites. Great presidents go for home runs, Obama was bunting. There is a lot the President can do when faced with an uncooperative congress, and Obama realized that too late. That Truman line is very apt. Obama's failure isn't in not getting Congress to play nice or being unable to bend them to his will, it's in continually expecting them to play nice and not using his own powers when they wouldn't.

That is why its so important for a man to have a father figure. Too much feminine energy around him growing up :yesshrug: