Did Obama do a good job as president ?

[hashmander]

defending it? i'm just pointing out why people don't give a shyt. americans don't care about foreign policy unless the bill starts running high and bodies start coming home. a president can get away with anything in a foreign land if he keeps those two things in check.

 

[Type Username Here]

defending it? i'm just pointing out why people don't give a shyt. americans don't care about foreign policy unless the bill starts running high and bodies start coming home. a president can get away with anything in a foreign land if he keeps those two things in check.

Do you give a shyt what they did in Libya? Or what they are doing in Yemen? Or Drones killing innocent civilians on an unprecedented scale?

 

[CodeBlaMeVi]

What did you expect? First black president is huge, imagine if our country tanked under him. How long you think till the next black president would be elected? Also professionals not politicians run DC. Lobbyists (money) and career military (national security obv) and others that have huge interests and no term limits have more power than anyone in govt if they stand together.
He did what he could without alienating the establishment too much. Yeah his words were bigger than his actions. Which president isn't guilty of that?

Yeah but the President should be able to finesse that.

 

[hashmander]

Do you give a shyt what they did in Libya? Or what they are doing in Yemen? Or Drones killing innocent civilians on an unprecedented scale?

yeah i care about what happened in libya, because i didn't have any problems with qaddafi and believe america's interest are best served when strongmen like him and saddam kept a lid on things. obama should have told britain and france to kick rocks, but he made his choice to give them air support. but it was a choice that was from an american standpoint inexpensive. yemen, not so much because after what happened in afghanistan in the late 90's, we can't allow terrorists the freedom of movement to be able to plan in peace. and yes drones are killing civilians, but boots on the ground would kill more.

 

[ADevilYouKhow]

Does that matter in reference to the topic of judging Obama?

For example, Obama has done worse than Bush in a lot of areas that he gets a pass for. People tend to be less objective with President Obama, on both sides of the political spectrum.

He gets a major pass for the Drone War, Yemen bombings, and Libya. What happened in Libya was no different than the Iraq War with the exception that we didn't send in the military to do nation building. The result is the same. He gets a major pass on the left for that.

When Trump says "we should kill and target terrorists families" people are outraged but forget Obama personally authorized such actions already. Pass for that.

And I haven't even started touching on his economic policies. It is corporatism in every sense. It's a rehashing of Reaganomics under a new banner. A lot of minorities are still in dire straits, and certain groups have done worse. A lot of the working class is still reeling from the recession while corporations are posting record profits and the stock exchange is hitting record highs. But he gets a pass for it from the left, when we all know we are critical of the same results under Republican leadership.

His major domestic policy is a 1990s Republican idea that was thought up as a free market alternative to universal healthcare. Let that sink in. Insurance is still high and people still go bankrupt even with health insurance. No one wants to talk about that.

I just feel that living under a president would give you a better context than reading about them in retrospect.

He is warhawkish but look at the world the US is partially responsible for creating in regards to Islamic extremism. I guess he could have dialed it back but wouldn't there just be a larger power vacuum, Islamic extremism will affect the US no matter what they do after everything that has happened. It's also like moderate governments can't survive in that region whether they're puppets or otherwise.

Is there a way forwards other than corporatism? We've eroded all other alternatives I feel like sometimes. Government has completely broken it's social contract to top it off.

I also feel like a lot of the hell that's been created in this country comes back to states rights and the limited power the Federal Government can exert. You have your Michigans, Wisconsins, Louisianas, and the list goes on where money and anti-tax policy at any cost rules. Government is run like a business than an entity to better its citizens lives and it boils down to race but also a disdain for the impoverished.

Maybe a return to a more small business focused environment would raise people from the terrible straights we're in but with globalization it may be too late. Small business owners used to be the basis for the middle class.

As far as health insurance goes I wish they would just do national health care, expand Medicaid even. Not that I particularly care but I can't imagine getting rid of private health insurance due to job loss, and the instability it would send to the market at large. And again here you had states fighting to not expand Medicaid and screw the poor.

A lot of the issues facing the US today are the same issues we were fighting over decades ago, health care, abortion, 2nd amendment and etc it's a never ending battle. We never finish anything.

What do you think is the best forward for the US?

 

[I_Got_Da_Burna]

He was great for corporations.

He disappointed in several areas...the biggest being the protection/bail out of wall street and big business. The TPP is going to be disastrous for the middle class. He allowed huge corporations to skirt taxes by going overseas.

Obamacare became a watered down bullshyt mandate because he failed to push through the most important part of it--the public option.

Overall, he was simply doing too much to be a middle-of-the-road president kowtowing to corporations...he was not progressive enough for my liking.

On the flip side, he was about 100000000000000000000X better than Dubya ever was.

 

[TNC]

Keep pretending Obama was the only president in history with a hostile Congress brehs.... This bullshyt right here is why Obama completely put me off of identity politics. If Obama was White, he'd be considered weaker and worse than Jimmy Carter. Because he's Blacks, I gotta constantly see how many Black bigots there are in the world.

Congress failed him because he let them. Case closed. There was nothing he really believed in, so he would just give up, besides the GOP ACA. He knew he'd likely not get shyt, and he proved he didn't want it. Other presidents have used the bully pulpit. Obama's only times using it was about terrorism.

He was janitor-in-chief for the premacy, and no amount of cop pleas is going to change that. He wouldn't even stand up to the police union killing his own "supposed" people. He threw his strongest Black connections under the bus for Glenn Beck ffs .

This Is pretty much a troll/Obama blow job thread, so I'll leave ya'll to continue, as I could go on all night with this weak shyt. My main point is Black people should treat each other, like we treat Obama, and then we can actually have the collective confidence and trust to get real shyt done. We actually do seem to have this submissive gene to people in power. I guess I don't because my dad was a loony alcoholic, but intelligent, that always shyt tested me and made me see inconsistencies in people early. Because I don't get this. If we'd treated Obama with the same scrutiny we treat each other.... , that dude would be on Mt. Rushmore.

The Tea Party has taken shyt over locally, because, asinine or not, they know what they believe in. If you don't fight hard enough for their insanity, they will primary your ass. We don't have that on the left, because so many of you are . You only care until it gets hard to do.

Tea Party taking over is a fault on us as local voters, not Obama. Too many Blacks and Democrats DON'T go out and vote on local elections and we always suffer because of it. Obama brought in more voters than any previous president in his run for the white house but local Democrats consistently chose to distance themselves from Obama in their local elections and every single one of them that did that, LOST. Obama saw he had complete obstruction from the GOP and limited support from his own team so he did what he had to do and play the hand that was dealt.

If people are all talk, not ride or die and jump ship at the first sign of trouble, don't get upset when your leader treats you the same way.

 

[TNC]

When was Truman in the KKK??

Ku Klux Klan members in United States politics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He was a financial supporter

REVEALED: 5 US Presidents Members Of Racist Cult Ku Klux Klan (PHOTOS) - The Trent

"Harry S. Truman is the final U.S. President to have ties to the KKK that are known and documented. While he was not a prominent member, he did pay dues to the organization between 1920 and 1922. He eventually parted ways with the Klan due to their disapproval of his appointment of Roman Catholics to key political positions.
During the time that these Presidents were in office between 1882 and 1964, David Barton reports that 4,743 people were lynched. It was Republicans who led an effort to pass federal anti-lynching legislation, but Democrats were able to successfully ban those bills. History of the Democratic Party on their website conveniently leaves out party history from 1848 to 1900, avoiding publication of information related to the party’s racist roots. Understanding the past is a vital part of not repeating mistakes in the future, and black people deserve to know that the party that many of them affiliate with actually has it roots in one of America’s most noted hate groups."

 

[TNC]

Does that matter in reference to the topic of judging Obama?

I think it certainly can have an effect on your viewpoint by living through his term vs. most older presidents where all we have are second hand accounts of who they were and the law on paper.

For example, Obama has done worse than Bush in a lot of areas that he gets a pass for. People tend to be less objective with President Obama, on both sides of the political spectrum.

This is true but it work for and against him depending on the side you are on. I maintain that Lefties hold the line for Obama as a response towards Republicans irrational hatred for him, but its tangible on both sides.

He gets a major pass for the Drone War, Yemen bombings, and Libya. What happened in Libya was no different than the Iraq War with the exception that we didn't send in the military to do nation building. The result is the same. He gets a major pass on the left for that.

That's because from a financial and risk/rewards standpoint, the Drones are cost effective and "socially effective". Using drones doesn't cost American lives, only the lives of opposition and neutrals. Its also much cheaper and quicker than using boots on the ground to target our enemies. Its effective and efficient, that's why it gets a pass.

When Trump says "we should kill and target terrorists families" people are outraged but forget Obama personally authorized such actions already. Pass for that.

The difference is intention. Obama never intentionally wanted or intended to target terrorist's families, it was a by product of circumstance, Trump is willfully advocating for this, which means it is not only going to increase significantly, its will become the standard practice. Its like comparing a felon that sells drugs to keep the lights on for his family vs. a felon that sells drugs to stunt in the hood.

And I haven't even started touching on his economic policies. It is corporatism in every sense. It's a rehashing of Reaganomics under a new banner. A lot of minorities are still in dire straits, and certain groups have done worse. A lot of the working class is still reeling from the recession while corporations are posting record profits and the stock exchange is hitting record highs. But he gets a pass for it from the left, when we all know we are critical of the same results under Republican leadership.

This is where the overlap of the parties comes in. BOTH sides are bought and paid for by corporations, and Obama at the very least got caught up in that game. I think with more support from the Dems towards his policies, this would have been quelled but hindsight is 20/20. I call it as Obama had to do what he could to get things passed, even if he couldn't do the best for everyone. Every economic policy picks winners and losers, Obama's is no different. Did you really expect him to completely erupt what already was?

His major domestic policy is a 1990s Republican idea that was thought up as a free market alternative to universal healthcare. Let that sink in. Insurance is still high and people still go bankrupt even with health insurance. No one wants to talk about that.

Obama is a conservative Democrat, he always was. The right paints him as some bleeding heart liberal but he is more center than he is left. I don't know why anyone who paid attention expected different.

 

[Street Knowledge]

 

[MrSinnister]

Tea Party taking over is a fault on us as local voters, not Obama. Too many Blacks and Democrats DON'T go out and vote on local elections and we always suffer because of it. Obama brought in more voters than any previous president in his run for the white house but local Democrats consistently chose to distance themselves from Obama in their local elections and every single one of them that did that, LOST. Obama saw he had complete obstruction from the GOP and limited support from his own team so he did what he had to do and play the hand that was dealt.

If people are all talk, not ride or die and jump ship at the first sign of trouble, don't get upset when your leader treats you the same way.

This is why I keep equating Obama to being a child. He's not a leader and everyone else is blamed whenever he fukks up. 2010 and 14 are BOTH on Obama's lack of leadership. Yeah, he can be a leader when he's telling Nancy Pelosi to STFU with asking for a public option, and shutting down the progressive side of Congress with Rahm Emanuel; but he's "fukking retarded" when he let's the Washington press corps tell him how to be president and what's important.

2010- Obama is told that he shouldn't waste any political capital, because he can't take any losses heading to negotiating that weak ass ACA, which pretty much herded Americans into the corrupt insurance racket. He didn't really stomp for anyone that wasn't an establishment centrist Democrat, and didn't make his case on how important it was to keep the Congress. The death panels shyt came out, unchallenged, and the Koch brothers and dikk Armey formed the Tea Party movement, that no one took seriously when they were putting primaries on what they felt to be weak Republicans.

2014- the ACA had a few snags in roll out. They got rid of Kathleen Sebelius, who would've made a decent Vice President for Hillary on the centrist line. This deflated a lot of female voters. Political capital also came up big here, with the corporate media telling him that he needed to look like he could play ball with the GOP, so he wouldn't be a premature lame duck. He even had people running for Congress that both refused to say they voted for him, and wouldn't run on the ACA, his signature piece of legislation. I was there. I didn't just start watching politics last night. I kept up with this shyt.

I'm definitely not all talk. I rode with Obama until the ACA lost the public option and I was made aware that Obama gave the ball to Max Baucus. So spare me the condescension.

 

[MrSinnister]

I beat Coli will slurp Sullivan (he'd probably like it) this bullshyt, not knowing he believes in eugenics. Dude's a racist hack, and Newsweek is the MAIN reason Obama sucked as president. He didn't look at polls, or govern from the left. He governed through THEIR opinion.

 

[King Kreole]

That's because from a financial and risk/rewards standpoint, the Drones are cost effective and "socially effective". Using drones doesn't cost American lives, only the lives of opposition and neutrals. Its also much cheaper and quicker than using boots on the ground to target our enemies. Its effective and efficient, that's why it gets a pass.

History generally doesn't give people credit for being "effective". Hitler was very effective. What you're describing is the political calculus inside the White House, not how it will look in the long gaze of history. The problem with Obama's drones is a moral and philosophical one. Dude is reigning death from the skies with impunity like some sci-fi warlord. While I think he deserves some credit for not putting boots on the ground (like Hillary and the neocon machinery were asking him to), he doesn't get a pass for his war crimes.

The difference is intention. Obama never intentionally wanted or intended to target terrorist's families, it was a by product of circumstance, Trump is willfully advocating for this, which means it is not only going to increase significantly, its will become the standard practice. Its like comparing a felon that sells drugs to keep the lights on for his family vs. a felon that sells drugs to stunt in the hood.

Again, intention doesn't hold much water in historical analysis. Chamberlain didn't mean to let the Third Reich grow, but by turning a blind eye and giving passes to Adolph "Habitual Line Stepper" Hitler, he's now mainly remembered as the dude who stepped aside when WW2 popped off. Obama must not be given a pass for the murdering of innocent families. Dude ordered 10x as many drone strikes as Bush did, 90% of which end up missing their targets and killing innocents. He did it with the intention of keeping America safe and prosperous, which is the same intention Trump would have. Whether one is coy about it or brazen about it won't matter.

 

[TNC]

This is why I keep equating Obama to being a child. He's not a leader and everyone else is blamed whenever he fukks up. 2010 and 14 are BOTH on Obama's lack of leadership. Yeah, he can be a leader when he's telling Nancy Pelosi to STFU with asking for a public option, and shutting down the progressive side of Congress with Rahm Emanuel; but he's "fukking retarded" when he let's the Washington press corps tell him how to be president and what's important.

2010- Obama is told that he shouldn't waste any political capital, because he can't take any losses heading to negotiating that weak ass ACA, which pretty much herded Americans into the corrupt insurance racket. He didn't really stomp for anyone that wasn't an establishment centrist Democrat, and didn't make his case on how important it was to keep the Congress. The death panels shyt came out, unchallenged, and the Koch brothers and dikk Armey formed the Tea Party movement, that no one took seriously when they were putting primaries on what they felt to be weak Republicans.

2014- the ACA had a few snags in roll out. They got rid of Kathleen Sebelius, who would've made a decent Vice President for Hillary on the centrist line. This deflated a lot of female voters. Political capital also came up big here, with the corporate media telling him that he needed to look like he could play ball with the GOP, so he wouldn't be a premature lame duck. He even had people running for Congress that both refused to say they voted for him, and wouldn't run on the ACA, his signature piece of legislation. I was there. I didn't just start watching politics last night. I kept up with this shyt.

I'm definitely not all talk. I rode with Obama until the ACA lost the public option and I was made aware that Obama gave the ball to Max Baucus. So spare me the condescension.

Bruh, I will get to the rest of your post in a min, but nothing I said was meant in condescension. I truly think its a matter of perspective, but I don't think its even-handed to call Obama a "child" when his opposition in the Republicans have been petulant brats since DAY ONE of his term. They literally held a press conference in his first week exclaiming their #1 goal of the next 4 years was to make Obama a 1 term president. That's as overt of a fukk you that I've ever seen in politics. When your co-workers take the stance of wanting your boss to fail as their main goal, you are pretty much fukked as far as getting much done but Obama STILL DID anyway. Most aren't giving him credit for what he had to deal with.

 

[King Kreole]

Bruh, I will get to the rest of your post in a min, but nothing I said was meant in condescension. I truly think its a matter of perspective, but I don't think its even-handed to call Obama a "child" when his opposition in the Republicans have been petulant brats since DAY ONE of his term. They literally held a press conference in his first week exclaiming their #1 goal of the next 4 years was to make Obama a 1 term president. That's as overt of a fukk you that I've ever seen in politics. When your co-workers take the stance of wanting your boss to fail as their main goal, you are pretty much fukked as far as getting much done but Obama STILL DID anyway. Most aren't giving him credit for what he had to deal with.

It is a very partisan time, but Obama wasn't the first president to deal with an intransigent and openly hostile congress. Plus the dems had control of both houses from '07-'11. Even had a supermajority in Senate for a while there. Obama spent too much time trying to reach across the aisle, not enough time trying to get shyt done on his own. Kept getting slapped in the face and expecting a different outcome. Should have listened to his predecessor. "Fool me once, shame on..you...fool me...can't get fooled again!"