Uscho is the no spin zoneDont break your neck spinning walrus.
How are his approval numbers trending anyway?
I really can't believe Obama doesn't realize that complaining about how the Reps don't work with him one day and then blasting them every which way the next day in a very partisan way doesn't work well. He doesn't seem to grasp the basics of human relationships, which I thought he at least somewhat did earlier in his presidency. The longer he's President, the less I think he has a clue about such things.
Fiscal conservatives are comical in how much they hate Obama when Obama has been the least expensive President we've had since Nixon.
Here's my take, FWIW. For the first two years Obama tried sincerely to work with the Republicans, and they gave him the finger. After the 2010 midterm he figured out that was never going to change -- the GOP had set defeating him as their sole raison d'etre and so even those Members who might have been inclined to work with him were forbidden by the party leadership or their own constituents to do so. Since then he has returned their middle finger with his own.
The GOP is no longer a governing body, it's an affiliation of saboteurs. They can't be reasoned with -- some people just want to watch the world burn. So Obama has pivoted from being Charlie Brown with the football to being a matador with a cape. He can always depend on ODS frothing up from the base and the TP Members, so he uses this to help the GOP make themselves look like fools (not that they need much help). That's purely politics, but in his defense they left him with no other option. He took the high road for two years, got creamed, then wised up. There's no way to win an argument with a room full of infants.
While I don't disagree with your dislike of Bush2, you'll find an equal amount of folks who feel the same way about Obama. I doubt history is kind to either
Here's my take, FWIW. For the first two years Obama tried sincerely to work with the Republicans, and they gave him the finger. After the 2010 midterm he figured out that was never going to change -- the GOP had set defeating him as their sole raison d'etre and so even those Members who might have been inclined to work with him were forbidden by the party leadership or their own constituents to do so. Since then he has returned their middle finger with his own.
The GOP is no longer a governing body, it's an affiliation of saboteurs. They can't be reasoned with -- some people just want to watch the world burn. So Obama has pivoted from being Charlie Brown with the football to being a matador with a cape. He can always depend on ODS frothing up from the base and the TP Members, so he uses this to help the GOP make themselves look like fools (not that they need much help). That's purely politics, but in his defense they left him with no other option. He took the high road for two years, got creamed, then wised up. There's no way to win an argument with a room full of infants.
Long term the thing he'll most be remembered for is that he shifted this country's ride to fiscal ruin into the next higher gear. When that comes to fruition everything else will be footnotes.I think Obama will be remembered as:
1. The first black president
2. The guy who got health care out of the think tanks and into legislation
3. The guy who presided over the successful but lengthy detoxification of the financial crisis
His presidency is the start of a hinge period where the big division of the last 50 years, white religious conservatives vs the rest of the country, begins to wind down to be replaced by the big political division of the next 50 years, which we don't know yet and may not realize until we're a decade into it. I dunno, maybe water states vs dry states. It's going to be something that's obvious in retrospect but not at all clear right now.
I think they'll give him a B, note in passing that he had a terrible Congress (both parties) with no talented leadership (both parties) and that the recession severely limited what he could do.
Obama expected the Republicans to largely do what he wanted them to do, and when they didn't, he seemed genuinely surprised, and offended. He's always had a naivete that he knows what should be done and anyone opposing him is inherently wrong and bad and shouldn't oppose him. It's easy to trumpet that on the campaign trail, but it doesn't work so well when you try to govern that way.Here's my take, FWIW. For the first two years Obama tried sincerely to work with the Republicans, and they gave him the finger. After the 2010 midterm he figured out that was never going to change -- the GOP had set defeating him as their sole raison d'etre and so even those Members who might have been inclined to work with him were forbidden by the party leadership or their own constituents to do so. Since then he has returned their middle finger with his own.
The GOP is no longer a governing body, it's an affiliation of saboteurs. They can't be reasoned with -- some people just want to watch the world burn. So Obama has pivoted from being Charlie Brown with the football to being a matador with a cape. He can always depend on ODS frothing up from the base and the TP Members, so he uses this to help the GOP make themselves look like fools (not that they need much help). That's purely politics, but in his defense they left him with no other option. He took the high road for two years, got creamed, then wised up. There's no way to win an argument with a room full of infants.
Long term the thing he'll most be remembered for is that he shifted this country's ride to fiscal ruin into the next higher gear. When that comes to fruition everything else will be footnotes.
And here it is. The poster child for fiscal conservatism.
So, when this nation is in financial ruin, you think people will bother debating the fine points of a health care plan that can't be funded? Keep your head stuck in the ground.And here it is. The poster child for fiscal conservatism.
So, when this nation is in financial ruin, you think people will bother debating the fine points of a health care plan that can't be funded? Keep your head stuck in the ground.
So, when this nation is in financial ruin, you think people will bother debating the fine points of a health care plan that can't be funded? Keep your head stuck in the ground.
Long term the thing he'll most be remembered for is that he shifted this country's ride to fiscal ruin into the next higher gear. When that comes to fruition everything else will be footnotes.
To be fair, at some point we're going to have to come to grips with our spending. The national debt can has been kicked down the road so many times that it's turning into a real monster. Add that to Social Security, Medicare, and defense... Not to mention our infrastructure is going to need an Apollo-like program to bring it into the 21st century. We're looking at some rather gloom predictions 15-30 years from now.
How exactly has Obama thrown the fiscal ruin up a notch compared to where it was when he took office?
several record-setting deficits in a row? nearly doubling the national debt? might those count? though I'm sure there is a glib explanation why those aren't his "fault", eh?
several record-setting deficits in a row? nearly doubling the national debt? might those count? though I'm sure there is a glib explanation why those aren't his "fault", eh?