Barack Obama: The weakest President in history?

[posty 2,315]

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/235196/Barack-Obama-The-Weakest-President-in-history-

 

INEFFECTUAL, invisible, unable to honour pledges and now blamed for letting Gaddafi off the hook. Why Obama’s gone from ‘Yes we can’ to ‘Er, maybe we shouldn’t’...

 

Let us cast our minds back to those remarkable days in November 2008 when the son of a Kenyan goatherd was elected to the White House. It was a bright new dawn – even brighter than the coming of the Kennedys and their new Camelot. JFK may be considered as being from an ethnic and religious minority – Irish and Catholic – but he was still very rich and very white. Barack Obama, by contrast, was a true breakthrough president. The world would change because obviously America had changed.

 

Obama’s campaign slogan was mesmerisingly simple and brimming with self-belief: “Yes we can.” His presidency, however, is turning out to be more about “no we won’t.” Even more worryingly, it seems to be very much about: “Maybe we can… do what, exactly?“ The world feels like a dangerous place when leaders are seen to lack certitude but the only thing President Obama seems decisive about is his indecision. What should the US do about Libya? What should the US do about the Middle East in general? What about the country’s crippling debts? What is the US going to do about Afghanistan, about Iran?

 

What is President Obama doing about anything? The most alarming answer – your guess is as good as mine – is also, frankly, the most accurate one. What the President is not doing is being clear, resolute and pro-active, which is surely a big part of his job description. This is what he has to say about the popular uprising in Libya: “Gaddafi must go.” At least, that was his position on March 3.

 

Since then, other countries – most notably Britain and France – have been calling for some kind of intervention. Even the Arab League, a notoriously conservative organisation, has declared support for sanctions. But from the White House has come only the blah-blah of bland statements filled with meaningless expressions and vague phrases. Of decisive action and leadership – even of clearlydefined opinion – there is precious little sign.

 

What is the Obama administration’s position on the protests in the Gulf island state of Bahrain, which the authorities there are savagely suppressing with the help of troops shipped in from Saudi Arabia? What is the White House view on the alarming prospect of the unrest spreading to Saudi Arabia itself? Who knows? Certainly not the American people, nor the leaders of nations which would consider themselves allies of America.

 

The President has not really shared his views, which leads us to conclude that he either doesn’t know or chooses, for reasons best known to himself, not to say. The result is that a very real opportunity to remove an unpredictable despot from power may well have been lost. Who knows when or if such an opportunity will come along again?

 

Every day for almost the last two months our television screens, radio broadcasts and the pages of our newspapers have been filled with the pictures, sounds and words of the most tumultuous events any of us can remember in the Arab world. The outcome of these events, once the dust has settled, could literally change the world. Yet Obama seems content to sit this one out. He has barely engaged in the debate. Such ostrich-like behaviour is not untypical of the 49-year-old President who burst through America’s colour barrier to become the first African-American to occupy the White House.

 

Two days after taking office in January 2009, he pledged to close down the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, which has become notorious for holding detainees for years without trial. Obama promised to lose the prison within 12 months and to abolish the practice of military trials of terrorism suspects. It was an important promise. America’s reputation had been severely tarnished by revelations about the conditions at Guantanamo, by reports of waterboarding and extraordinary rendition (transporting prisoners to a third country for torture) and by the appalling treatment of detainees in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

 

Closing Guantanamo was a redemptive gesture. Two years on, not only is the prison still in use but its future is as assured as ever. Ten days ago, the President signed an executive order reinstating the military commissions at the island prison. Human rights organisations were outraged. “With the stroke of a pen, President Obama extinguished any lingering hope that his administration would return the United States to the rule of law,” said Amnesty International while Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, declared the President’s action to be “unlawful, unwise and un-American.”

 

White House spokesmen insisted the President was still committed to closing Guantanamo, which currently has 172 detainees in custody. It was Congress, they said, that had refused to sanction the transfer of the prisoners to the US mainland for trial, leaving no option but to keep the prison open in Cuba. Very little has been achieved in the quest to secure peace in the Middle East. Under Obama, US foreign policy is founded on extreme caution. At first this cool-headedness was a welcome change from the naked aggression of George W Bush and his henchmen ###### Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

 

It is also true that the President is constantly stymied by a hostile, Republican-ruled Congress. But Obama’s apparent reluctance to engage with momentous events is starting to look like more than aloofness. Some tempering of America’s role as the world’s No1 busybody may be no bad thing but under Obama the US appears to be heading towards isolationism. He is hardly doing much better at home. Economically, the US is in big trouble but the national debt is not shrinking.

 

Ditto the country’s ecological health; the American love affair with the car and oil remains undiminished despite any alleged commitment. But the White House appears to shy away from any tough action. The energy with which Obama entered the White House seems to have all gone in the push to bring in health care reform, which many Americans didn’t want (or still don’t realise they want).

 

All of which means that it is starting to look as if Obama and the Democratic Party have but one aim in mind for the rest of this presidential term: to get elected for a second. That means not doing anything that might upset any number of special interest or niche groups, which in effect means not doing very much at all. So, not too many harsh but necessary measures to tackle the financial deficit; no clear direction on where America goes with Afghanistan, even though the war there is going nowhere except from bad to worse.

 

The Obama government can’t even give clear direction on whether the American people are in danger of exposure to nuclear fallout from Japan following the devastating earthquake and tsunami. The US Surgeon General Regina Benjamin advised San Francisco residents to stock up on radiation antidotes, prompting a run on potassium iodide pills, while the President said experts had assured him that any harmful radiation would have receded long before reaching the Western shores of the US.

 

Yes we can was a noble and powerful mantra which secured for Barack Obama the leadership of the free world. Those than can, do. It is time he started doing.

[NewbieJr 541]

Without a doubt. Never been anyone worse.

 

If the Republicans can't come up with someone to not only beat, but embarrass, this guy in the next election, they might as well just shut the doors on the party. It's over.

 

This guy is horrible.

[Reality 2,711]

MIA, empty suit, & oblivious pretty much all come to mind..

 

Feel free to add yours.

 

When is someone going to tell the emperor that he doesn't have any clothes on?

[The Elevator Killer 497]

I voted for him because of Palin. But at this point I'm thinking I would vote for her, as much as I dislike her, before I vote for him again. He does NOTHING.

 

He dropped the ball in every crisis. The Gulf oil spill, he let BP run the show.

 

Economy. We needed more than the stupid "Stimulas" to get things rolling again.

 

Middle East. Nothing. Just lets the cost of oil sky rocket further inhibiting any recovery of the economy.

 

And on and on. I've never been so disappointed in someone I voted for.

[NewbieJr 541]

MIA, empty suit, & oblivious pretty much all come to mind..

 

Feel free to add yours.

 

When is someone going to tell the emperor that he doesn't have any clothes on?

The voting public gets a chance shortly to let him know how they think he's doing.

[drobeski 3,061]

Thanks a lot libtards

[Voltaire 4,587]

Even though I don't like Obama's foreign policy in Afghanistan and now Libya, it's been far and away better than anything the GOP wants to do and this makes it one of his advantages.

 

Foreign Policy weighs a lot in my voting. It was a huge reason why I rejected McCain who I had supported in 2000. In December, I was fed up with Obama and conceeded that I made a mistake in voting for him. Now, watching events blow up in the Middle East, maybe it was premature. In a Middle East context, I'm very happy McCain isn't president or who knows how deeply we'd be involved in how many countries. Until his decision recently to go ahead with the no-fly zone in Libya, Obama had been doing a great job.

 

Daddy Bush was great at foreign policy but since his time, Republicans have gotten completely retarded on international affairs. I'm glad they don't set foreign policy but the downside of that is we have Obama setting domestic policy.

[Saint Elistan 106]

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/4718/obamahellno.jpg

[dain11279 932]

Without a doubt.

 

I can't believe he picked all 4 number 1 seeds to reach the Final Four.

[MDC 5,967]

I can't really argue with much in this article. My own take is that Obama is so desperate to either be or seem like a middle-of-the-road conciliator that he doesn't take firm positions on anything. The man isn't a leader. The only thing I can say in his defense is that waffling mediocrity seems like a step in the right direction after eight years of total blundering incompetence.

[The Elevator Killer 497]

The only thing I can say in his defense is that waffling mediocrity seems like a step in the right direction after eight years of total blundering incompetence.

 

That's not the change I voted for. Yes Bush sucked. But Obama sucks just as much in a different way. I was about to say "At least Bush...", but stopped myself. The fact that "At least Bush..." even entered my mind shows what a failure Obama has become.

[drobeski 3,061]

The world is a much better place since he took over .........oh wait.

[DankNuggs 305]

Newbie seems convinced Barry is getting another term... Wagering on the bored may top the Reid/Angle madness.... I'd say he's a 60/40 dog to re-elected, but given the state of the republican party, it may be a coinflip or he might have a small edge...

 

Obviously he starts out with a 13-0 head start, and if you include latinos its a ~30-0 head start... I jsut watched Deval Patrick get re-elected so anythings possible... He just left on his own european vacation, while he was gone Fidelity closed up another HQ in Marlboro...

 

Instead of being on his sketchy adventure he should have been home making sketchy deals and kickbacks to keep jobs here...

[Blitzen 0]

What never ceases to amaze me is how people still have the capacity to be surprised that a politician would not do what he/she/it said they would do.

[Voltaire 4,587]

That's not the change I voted for. Yes Bush sucked. But Obama sucks just as much in a different way. I was about to say "At least Bush...", but stopped myself. The fact that "At least Bush..." even entered my mind shows what a failure Obama has become.

 

There is no "at least Bush."

 

No matter what a disappointing mediocrity Obama is, he's vastly superior to Bush. Any of the two dozen or so candidates from both parties that ran last time would have been a huge improvement and I'll include Palin in that too.

[NewbieJr 541]

Newbie seems convinced Barry is getting another term... Wagering on the bored may top the Reid/Angle madness.... I'd say he's a 60/40 dog to re-elected, but given the state of the republican party, it may be a coinflip or he might have a small edge...

 

Obviously he starts out with a 13-0 head start, and if you include latinos its a ~30-0 head start... I jsut watched Deval Patrick get re-elected so anythings possible... He just left on his own european vacation, while he was gone Fidelity closed up another HQ in Marlboro...

 

Instead of being on his sketchy adventure he should have been home making sketchy deals and kickbacks to keep jobs here...

If I'm not mistaken, a Republican won the two prior elections. Not sure what all the 'head start' talk is about. The country will do as it always does..it will elect the candidate it feels is the most qualified to run the country. But with all this talk about him being the worst ever, I imagine it will be a Republican in a cake walk.

[drobeski 3,061]

I would venture to say that most here and in this country had their best financial years between 2000 and 2007.

Mmmmm yes bush was terrible ....coincidentally when did the dems take control of congress and how have things gone since ?

[MDC 5,967]

That's not the change I voted for. Yes Bush sucked. But Obama sucks just as much in a different way. I was about to say "At least Bush...", but stopped myself. The fact that "At least Bush..." even entered my mind shows what a failure Obama has become.

 

I'm not disagreeing with you at all.

[Phurfur 70]

I voted for him because of Palin. But at this point I'm thinking I would vote for her, as much as I dislike her, before I vote for him again. He does NOTHING.

 

He dropped the ball in every crisis. The Gulf oil spill, he let BP run the show.

 

Economy. We needed more than the stupid "Stimulas" to get things rolling again.

 

Middle East. Nothing. Just lets the cost of oil sky rocket further inhibiting any recovery of the economy.

 

And on and on. I've never been so disappointed in someone I voted for.

 

Next election you should try looking into the candidate you vote for instead of voting against the potential VP. Millions of us are not surprised by Obama's performance, we expected it.

[Phurfur 70]

If I'm not mistaken, a Republican won the two prior elections. Not sure what all the 'head start' talk is about. The country will do as it always does..it will elect the candidate it feels is the most qualified to run the country. But with all this talk about him being the worst ever, I imagine it will be a Republican in a cake walk.

 

Where do you live? Did you know many people vote only on racial lines. Others vote for someone that will help them. This country is long past voting for the most qualified. Look at the last election.

[Phurfur 70]

I would venture to say that most here and in this country had their best financial years between 2000 and 2007.

Mmmmm yes bush was terrible ....coincidentally when did the dems take control of congress and how have things gone since ?

 

You're asking the blind to see, that is not going to happen.

[drobeski 3,061]

You're asking the blind to see, that is not going to happen.

Yes it involves common sense and logic.....they're allergic to that

[The Elevator Killer 497]

Next election you should try looking into the candidate you vote for instead of voting against the potential VP. Millions of us are not surprised by Obama's performance, we expected it.

 

Or maybe my party should get back to it's conservative roots and give me better candidates than the Bush's and Palins. Maybe they should get away from catering to the religious right. McCain's campaign pretty much said he was going to be another Bush. I've never voted for a Bush and if Jeb runs that trend will continue.

[DankNuggs 305]

Not sure what all the 'head start' talk is about. .

Demographics... Barry will get the african american vote ~13% of the population... Latinos have a higher propensity of potentially voting repub, but by and large they will vote dem...

[Voltaire 4,587]

Demographics... Barry will get the african american vote ~13% of the population... Latinos have a higher propensity of potentially voting repub, but by and large they will vote dem...

Both Parties have unshakable blocks of reliable voters. The key for either is to keep theose folks motivated while at the same time getting enough swing voters to go their way.

[Phurfur 70]

Or maybe my party should get back to it's conservative roots and give me better candidates than the Bush's and Palins. Maybe they should get away from catering to the religious right. McCain's campaign pretty much said he was going to be another Bush. I've never voted for a Bush and if Jeb runs that trend will continue.

 

What did Obama's campain tell you?

[kutulu 1,562]

Weaker than that one that was a damm cripple? Dang, we are focked.

[The Elevator Killer 497]

What did Obama's campain tell you?

 

He was going to get rid of the patriot act. Liar. McCain love the pat act.

 

He was going to get us out of the wars. Liar. McCain said we could be there for 100 years.

 

He was going to be environmental. Liar. McCain had no interest.

 

There's more, but that was a few of my main concerns.

[Phurfur 70]

He was going to get rid of the patriot act. Liar. McCain love the pat act.

 

He was going to get us out of the wars. Liar. McCain said we could be there for 100 years.

 

He was going to be environmental. Liar. McCain had no interest.

 

There's more, but that was a few of my main concerns.

 

 

You didn't know he was lying when he said these things? Didn't you know it was impossible to get out of Iraq in 16 months?

[MDC 5,967]

He was going to get rid of the patriot act. Liar. McCain love the pat act.

 

He was going to get us out of the wars. Liar. McCain said we could be there for 100 years.

 

These were the big 2 for me and I've been massively disappointed in Obama. But you're right - McCain had no interest in restraining the executive branch, repealing the Patriot Act, getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan, etc. either. About the only reason to regret not voting for McCain is if you honestly think he was going to balance the budget at a time when we're facing a trillion dollar annual shortfall in tax revenues and fighting wars on two fronts ... without raising taxes. I guess he was going to crap golden eggs or something.

 

Obama sucks, Bush sucked, McCain likely would've sucked. I'll be voting 3rd party in 2012 unless the GOP puts up a social moderate who runs on a platform of isolationist foreign policy and balancing the ledger, without pandering to the American Taliban, or if they nominate a candidate who is so unacceptable that even a mediocrity like Obama looks good.

 

For a politics junkie I think the GOP primary and debates are going to be really fascinating, watching so many potential candidates try to differentiate themselves from each other.

[The Elevator Killer 497]

You didn't know he was lying when he said these things? Didn't you know it was impossible to get out of Iraq in 16 months?

 

I thought if he just did one of them, it would have been better than the alternative. Like I said. My party had abandoned my views also. Many republicans felt this way. That's why a message was sent to the party by many of us that felt disenfranchised.

 

I've already said that it was a mistake to vote for him. I'm hoping for Ron Paul, even if he's a long shot. At least he's the closest I see of the old values that is out there. But if not, I will vote for whomever runs against Obama.

[parrot 789]

Weaker than that one that was a damm cripple? Dang, we are focked.

[NewbieJr 541]

Where do you live? Did you know many people vote only on racial lines. Others vote for someone that will help them. This country is long past voting for the most qualified. Look at the last election.

Geez. That explains all those black Presidents.

 

You guys already have your excuses in place. It's hilarious and pathetic at the same time.

[Phurfur 70]

Geez. That explains all those black Presidents.

 

You guys already have your excuses in place. It's hilarious and pathetic at the same time.

 

You don't get anything do you?

[IMMensaMind 460]

Geez. That explains all those black Presidents.

 

You guys already have your excuses in place. It's hilarious and pathetic at the same time.

 

Erm..dude. I thought it was your balls that shrunk when you took 'roids.

 

j/k

[Voltaire 4,587]

I don't want to vote for Obama again. There are Republicans I would absolutely vote for over him, others that I absolutely wouldn't vote for under any circumstance and still others that the jury is out.

 

Of the four that are almost surely running, I'd surely vote for Gingrich and Johnson and the jury is out on Pawlenty and Romney. My favorite though is either Johnson or Mitch Daniels if he decides to run. No way I'll vote for Bachmann, Palin, or Sanitarium while Huckabee is a very long shot but to be honest, I sorta, kinda, like him for some reason so if he plays his cards right, I'll leave the door open.

[5-Points 2,791]

But you're right - McCain had no interest in getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan, either.

 

Or maybe he was smart enough not to campaign on it because he knew what a CF it was.

 

After what he went through, I would think he would be the last person who'd want to send our troops into harms way.

 

 

The reason McCain lost (IMO) is because this country is obsessed with appearances. McCain, as qualified as he was comparatively, was not who the American people wanted as the face of the country. So we got Obama. Who doesn't seem to be concerned with performing the tedious parts of the job. He just wants as much face time as possible until the show is over.

[redtodd 7]

Physically? I am not so sure about that. I bet he could have whipped Woodrow Wilson's ass.

[The Elevator Killer 497]

 

 

The reason McCain lost (IMO) is because this country is obsessed with appearances. McCain, as qualified as he was comparatively, was not who the American people wanted as the face of the country.

 

That and he picked Snookie to be his running mate.

[Voltaire 4,587]

 

The reason McCain lost (IMO) is because this country is obsessed with appearances. McCain, as qualified as he was comparatively, was not who the American people wanted as the face of the country. So we got Obama.

 

I'm not so sure of your logic here which seems all three: backwards, upside down, and inside out. McCain's face, so much as it was an issue at all, would have been a huge benefit.