How do you rate the job Obama is doing?

I don't see where he's done much better than Bush Jr.

Thoughts?

8/10.

I dont really know yet. He has only been in office for less than two years.

Tough to say cause he hasnt been in long but he definitely needs to quit spending and try to fix this budget problem by any means necessary.

timthebim wrote:Tough to say cause he hasnt been in long but he definitely needs to quit spending and try to fix this budget problem by any means necessary.

Right, fix the economy, and don't increase spending by adding a trillion dollar "Obama Care" plan. I don't have any confidence in Obama's ability to "lead" this county out of it's economic woes.

Ring wrote:

timthebim wrote:Tough to say cause he hasnt been in long but he definitely needs to quit spending and try to fix this budget problem by any means necessary.

Right, fix the economy, and don't increase spending by adding a trillion dollar "Obama Care" plan. I don't have any confidence in Obama's ability to "lead" this county out of it's economic woes.

I agree with u.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/??resub

I check this website every once in a while. I think it's pretty solid.

My personal take is that he's doing a good job, but was naive to think he would be able to achieve actual bi-partisanship and convince Democrats and Republicans that the best way to fix the country is to work together. He set himself up for a massive plunge in popularity because his campaign was built around an ideal and we live in anything but an idealistic world. His biggest issue is that he has not been able to work the system and pass the legislature he feels is needed, or been able to get people opposed to that legislature on board with discussing it to see how it can be improved, re-worded or clarified. The sad truth is that it might be impossible to do that.

Case in point: Health care. Health care in this country is a major problem. It's massively inefficient which wastes $ and kills people. Anyone who believes in spending less $ in the long run is by definition also in support of somehow fixing health care. Obama proposed a bill to fix it. Republicans rejected it. Obama asked why? Republicans said that they disagreed with it. Obama asked why specifically? No one answered. Obama called a summit to have everyone talk about the issue. Everyone came and Republicans picked specific talking points that were based off of misinterpretations of the bill. Obama attempted to explain that the purpose of the meeting was not to argue the wrongness of those points, but to look for solutions to make them right. Republicans stalled until the bill could not pass.

Democrats will probably do the same thing to the next Republican president. The job of a politician is not to serve the country, but to serve the people who helped put them in power. The president's job is to serve the country. Those 2 jobs often come into conflict with each other. Imagine trying to do your job with half of your coworkers actively trying to make you fail?

Most of the criticisms I hear are along the lines of "Obama said he would try and fix everything and nothing's fixed, he's terrible. He has no idea what he's doing." The reality is most people are not aware of what he's doing and rely on different forms of fairly biased media to form an opinion. He came into a much worse situation than any recent president and because he's the man on top, he has to shoulder the blame.

timthebim wrote:Tough to say cause he hasnt been in long but he definitely needs to quit spending and try to fix this budget problem by any means necessary.

Comments like this are ones I don't understand. We have a debt based economy. What is the budget problem? The whole point of spending is to put systems in place that will ensure the economy won't collapse again in the future. He has been devoted to job creation, the stimulus package ended up costing a fraction of what was anticipated, the bailout was a necessary evil because as much as it sucks...our economy is pretty much dependent on those bastards unless Obama wanted to completely overhaul the US market and banking systems which would have literally had people trying to kill him.

I like Obama. I didn't like Bush as much, but I respect the job he did as president because really it's a job that only a few people in the world can begin to imagine.

My main questions are:

If you think Obama is doing a bad job, what would you do differently?
If you have an idea that you believe would work better than what's being done now, why haven't you written, called, or met with a political representative who could pass your idea along?

My main point is this:

Politics are stupid in a lot of ways. No offense to future politicians and politically active people.

Gumby, tell me the logic behind ramming a health care that people didn't want through sleazy backdoor deals during a recession is good? Government already spends over 50% on healthcare, and they want more government spending?

Republicans did offer what they wanted. Nothing in the bill addressed medical malpractice reform, which is a huge reason why health care is so expensive. It's added in cost doctors, hosbitals, ect put in because people sue happy.

Also opening up across the board insurance which give people more options, which drive the costs down.

GrantZilla wrote:Gumby, tell me the logic behind ramming a health care that people didn't want through sleazy backdoor deals during a recession is good? Government already spends over 50% on healthcare, and they want more government spending?

Republicans did offer what they wanted. Nothing in the bill addressed medical malpractice reform, which is a huge reason why health care is so expensive. It's added in cost doctors, hosbitals, ect put in because people sue happy.

Also opening up across the board insurance which give people more options, which drive the costs down.

The simple logic is 2 fold:

1. The current health care system does not do a great job of helping people in comparison to other countries.
2. The short term spending on the issue is necessary because we are spending 50% right now. If we do nothing we will continue to spend 50% on a bad system which is a big long term problem. The goal of almost any reform is to spend $ now to save $ in the future.

It doesn't matter if people want the bill because some sort of bill is necessary. Our recent recession was caused by faulty infrastructure in banking and finance. Instead of saying, let's spend less $ so we can ride the recession better, Obama has said let's figure out what caused the recession and could cause future recessions/problems and try to fix that. I personally agree with that type of thinking.

To re-emphasize: I don't think the health care bill is perfect, and I didn't read the entire thing. I hate that even the parts I read were so dense that if I hadn't studied how to read stuff like that it probably would've looked like gibberish. However, what we are doing now is not working. It needs to be changed. I know that Obama is trying to change it. I don't know that he's going about it the right way but it's impossible to know what the right way is. The fact that he has addressed a massive issue and is proactively trying to fix it in spite of public backlash is the sign of a good president. The fact that he can't get people to back him up in the government or in the public (he can't try and force his agenda after the way he campaigned) is the sign of a bad president.

You can argue that his methods of solving things are bad/good, that he's doing being handicapped by party politics/not an effective leader to unify the parties, but you can't say he's not trying. I know he and his team is working very hard, which I wasn't always sure about with Bush, and that he's opened up more transparency (not nearly what he promised though) into what he's trying to do.

A question like this attracts a lot of emotions, intellectual discussions, etc. I honestly don't know what Obama's doing and I doubt he does either.

I will say this. He's come up with a lot of ideas I think were motivated by emotion and a youthful exuberance. Example. Having the terrorists trials in "Chicago" or anywhere but a "Military Tribunal" is an idiotic move that would put Chicago, or any city holding the trials, in serious danger of a terrorist attack. I have some other major complaints, but I don't think anyone can argue with that one.

Suggesting the closing of "Guantanamo Bay" is another blunder. What the fuck do we do? Put the terrrorists in "The Holiday Inn?" So what if someone who just tried to kill 3,000 more Americans is "water boarded?" I'd do much worse than that. What kind of country are we becoming?

I realize this is a rather basic response, however I will not apply a dollar’s worth of effort to a 25 cent situation.

Also, to make things easier on both Democrats and Republicans on this board, I will no longer refer to the names or respective parties of any politician in question. I will refer to individuals, groups or parties as “This country’s leadership.” As long as the “Lobbyists” are making the rules on Capitol Hill, I will ignore any and every member of all branches of government (Executive, Legislative, Judicial) until the Lobbyists appear in living color. They should vote for a leader and have them give “The State of the Union Address.” At least we’d be exposed to actual power.

Frank wrote:A question like this attracts a lot of emotions, intellectual discussions, etc. I honestly don't know what Obama's doing and I doubt he does either.

I will say this. He's come up with a lot of ideas I think were motivated by emotion and a youthful exuberance. Example. Having the terrorists trials in "Chicago" or anywhere but a "Military Tribunal" is an idiotic move that would put Chicago, or any city holding the trials, in serious danger of a terrorist attack. I have some other major complaints, but I don't think anyone can argue with that one.

Suggesting the closing of "Guantanamo Bay" is another blunder. What the fuck do we do? Put the terrrorists in "The Holiday Inn?" So what if someone who just tried to kill 3,000 more Americans is "water boarded?" I'd do much worse than that. What kind of country are we becoming?

I realize this is a rather basic response, however I will not apply a dollar’s worth of effort to a 25 cent situation.

Also, to make things easier on both Democrats and Republicans on this board, I will no longer refer to the names or respective parties of any politician in question. I will refer to individuals, groups or parties as “This country’s leadership.” As long as the “Lobbyists” are making the rules on Capitol Hill, I will ignore any and every member of all branches of government (Executive, Legislative, Judicial) until the Lobbyists appear in living color. They should vote for a leader and have them give “The State of the Union Address.” At least we’d be exposed to actual power.

+1

I don't consider myself a Democrat or Republican (probably best described as an independent or non-voter) but I think throughout my life I've sided more towards the Democrats. With that said I disagree with a lot of politicians/political systems in general. My biggest disagreement being how we value, utilize and allocate our resources.

The "youthful exuberance" you mentioned is what I think is his naivety/idealism which can be seen as his biggest flaw or a great strength. I consider it a flaw, but it's how he was able to inspire hope during his campaign.

Gumby wrote:http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/??resub

I check this website every once in a while. I think it's pretty solid.

My personal take is that he's doing a good job, but was naive to think he would be able to achieve actual bi-partisanship and convince Democrats and Republicans that the best way to fix the country is to work together. He set himself up for a massive plunge in popularity because his campaign was built around an ideal and we live in anything but an idealistic world. His biggest issue is that he has not been able to work the system and pass the legislature he feels is needed, or been able to get people opposed to that legislature on board with discussing it to see how it can be improved, re-worded or clarified. The sad truth is that it might be impossible to do that.

Case in point: Health care. Health care in this country is a major problem. It's massively inefficient which wastes $ and kills people. Anyone who believes in spending less $ in the long run is by definition also in support of somehow fixing health care. Obama proposed a bill to fix it. Republicans rejected it. Obama asked why? Republicans said that they disagreed with it. Obama asked why specifically? No one answered. Obama called a summit to have everyone talk about the issue. Everyone came and Republicans picked specific talking points that were based off of misinterpretations of the bill. Obama attempted to explain that the purpose of the meeting was not to argue the wrongness of those points, but to look for solutions to make them right. Republicans stalled until the bill could not pass.

Democrats will probably do the same thing to the next Republican president. The job of a politician is not to serve the country, but to serve the people who helped put them in power. The president's job is to serve the country. Those 2 jobs often come into conflict with each other. Imagine trying to do your job with half of your coworkers actively trying to make you fail?

Most of the criticisms I hear are along the lines of "Obama said he would try and fix everything and nothing's fixed, he's terrible. He has no idea what he's doing." The reality is most people are not aware of what he's doing and rely on different forms of fairly biased media to form an opinion. He came into a much worse situation than any recent president and because he's the man on top, he has to shoulder the blame.

timthebim wrote:Tough to say cause he hasnt been in long but he definitely needs to quit spending and try to fix this budget problem by any means necessary.

Comments like this are ones I don't understand. We have a debt based economy. What is the budget problem? The whole point of spending is to put systems in place that will ensure the economy won't collapse again in the future. He has been devoted to job creation, the stimulus package ended up costing a fraction of what was anticipated, the bailout was a necessary evil because as much as it sucks...our economy is pretty much dependent on those bastards unless Obama wanted to completely overhaul the US market and banking systems which would have literally had people trying to kill him.

I like Obama. I didn't like Bush as much, but I respect the job he did as president because really it's a job that only a few people in the world can begin to imagine.

My main questions are:

If you think Obama is doing a bad job, what would you do differently?
If you have an idea that you believe would work better than what's being done now, why haven't you written, called, or met with a political representative who could pass your idea along?

My main point is this:

Politics are stupid in a lot of ways. No offense to future politicians and politically active people.

...i agree plenty with your post gumby..first soo called spending.obama has to go along apparently with the obstructionists called republicans by extending the bush tax cut to everyone..that alone adds a huge amount of money to the deficit..it eliminates much needed revenue needed to chip away at the defisit.yes sprnding cuts are needed also..does anyone making a million 10 million 100 million a year need that tax break..please its BS.either 1 eliminate it entirely except for individuals making 40 k a year or less or couples at 80 k income a year or the republicans can compromise and say ok to individuals making 300 thousand a year couples 600 a year.they wont do that..unemployment erxtention..2 million will be tossed to the wolves if the republicans have there way..its 15 billion a year popcorn money..obama needs to compromise on this and take the 15 billion out of the stimulus money where theres plenty left and it dont increase the defisit..thats like creating 2 million jobs.toss these folks of the roles and they dont count towards the unemployment statistic..soo we drop from 9.8 to 7.5 unemployment instently..thats real mumble jumbo BS...on healh care..its needed big time the reform.im in health care and see the abuses..plus the unrealistic costs...
.does anyone know there are THREE differnt charges for the same proceedure.1. medicare charge.thats the lowest..if you have private insurance its a higher charge..finaly if you have nooo insurance they sock it too you which is about double the medicare charge..yep..the issue here is 1. how do you stop insurance fraud2. standardize costs.1 cost not 3 ..how do you reduce the spiral rising costs of hospitals doctors etc etc..if anyone things healthcare reform and overhaul is not needed then there a dam fool....jobs.there going to be slo0w in coming back or not at all till we have a real adjustment in chinas dollar and the fat corporations are making record profits by eliminating tons of jobs forcing the work force to do more for the same pay or else we will get ride of you...
gridlock at its worst and we blame obama..when was the last time there was any co operation at all from the republicans..none zero unless of course its military stuff....how about global warming..0polution big problems.any co operation there.nope.unemploytment benefits any co operation there.nope..series intelligent efforts to take care of social security which pays for itself but the money goes in the general fund..any real efforts from both parties there nope..the republicans never favored this at all.work untill you drop dead is there anser....under the circumstances ill give obama a passing grade congress a big F..

WinstonSmith wrote:

Growing tired of Obama threads Randy

Ali wrote:

WinstonSmith wrote:

Growing tired of Obama threads Randy

Tired of political issues and arguing my point.When it's all said and done,nobody ever changes their opinion,regardless of facts that are presented to them.I distrust 99% of politicians regardless of their party.

WinstonSmith wrote:

Ali wrote:

WinstonSmith wrote:

Growing tired of Obama threads Randy

Tired of political issues and arguing my point.When it's all said and done,nobody ever changes their opinion,regardless of facts that are presented to them.I distrust 99% of politicians regardless of their party.

I am beginning to feel that way about my government too.

Ali wrote:

WinstonSmith wrote:

Ali wrote:

WinstonSmith wrote:

Growing tired of Obama threads Randy

Tired of political issues and arguing my point.When it's all said and done,nobody ever changes their opinion,regardless of facts that are presented to them.I distrust 99% of politicians regardless of their party.

I am beginning to feel that way about my government too.

Other than a Revolution,I'm not sure what can be done about it.The ballot box seems to be a feckless solution.