Was Obama a mistake?

[Mr. Perfect]

Ok, so after the Tuesday teabagging we see that the country appears to be returning to the longer term 30 year trend of Conservative Republican dominance.

So the question must be asked, was the Barackula experiment an historic mistake? Due to the confluence of negative factors in 2008 one would say that a Democrat was heavily favored, and despite that McCain had him tied until the fall when the stock market collapsed, guaranteeing a Dem victory if you ran Karl Marx, who they were apparently looking for.

Now Barack was green/unexperienced, no accomplishments to speak of, no particular policy knowledge you could point to, and the Dems rolled the dice, but there didn't seem to be any understanding on their part. With HRC you had an old hand, someone who knew where the bodies were buried, and undoubtedly had a better understanding of how to get things done. Being every bit the equal of Baramba in terms of being a collectivist, the thing that boggled my mind then as well as now is in the world they went with Baramba.

They entrusted the generational and short term leftist laundry list to the new kid, and he didn't get it done.

A list of things that didn't get done:

1) Gitmo closure
2) Patriot Act repeal
3) An end to no bid Halliburton contracts
4) An end to private contractors
5) A real pullout in Iraq
6) A smart war in AFG instead of a war led by a hardestcore neocon
7) A public option
8) single payer
9) Cap and trade
10) A gay military
11) Receding oceans
12) A healed planet
13) Paygo. Remember that one? Ha ha.
14) Reined in Goldman Sachs etc
15) Gun control

And I could go on and on. There is no doubt in my mind that HRC would have got every one of them and more. I'm left to conclude that BHO was:

One
Big
A$$
Mistake,
America

But please, all of you who are "non-republicans" please chime in with your thoughts. Would love to hear them.

[Tinker]

I don't think Hillary would have played it any better. Hillary's campaign was ashambles. It was very poorly run. That told me that she was a poor executive. Whereas Barack Obama and David Axelrod ran a stellar campaign that was one of the most robust cloud-sourced ad-campaigns in history. They did a great job of helping organize people on the ground to meet and greet one another during the campaign. That campaign was really tight, and he raised a ton of money from small internet donors. He just mopped up on those sorts of campaign contributions. I don't think Hillary would have been a superior executive, and I don't think her policy would've been that much different from Obama's.

Also, Obama as a failure is merely a fairy-tale that Republicans tell themselves. He has accomplished a whole hell of a lot from his agenda. One can shout DADT all day long, but that doesn't change that he accomplished a lot.

Still, the people who think that Obama has failed the economy are the ones who always thought he was wrong for the economy. They want instant results from government action. It doesn't work like that.

[Mr. Perfect]

The people that are saying it the most are liberals.

The campaign was Britney Spears popstar nation. Governing is a different business.

[Tinker]

[Mr. Perfect]

I think I should refine.

Obama accomplished almost nothing from the long term Democrat laundry list, with huge approval numbers, a Monica Lewinsky press and near record congressional majorities.

I guarantee anyone HRC would've got way more done. Universal HC would've been done by March 2008. She would've written it herself on a laptop and threatened any Dem who wouldn't vote for it with murder, and she would've probably murdered a couple anyway just to throw some weight around, Cap and Trade by April, conversion of TARP to a national bank by May, and grey smocks and little red books by June. Done deal.

[Azrael]

[Endovelico]

Obama's failures are of such a magnitude that I'm starting to believe someone must know something about Obama's past which would be so harmful to him that he is being blackmailed into inaction.

[Azrael]

[Tinker]

I do not approve of the job Obama is doing and the changes that are occurring under his watch. But the reality is that there really wasn't a superior choice. What makes Obama bad is that he is barely different from Bush in terms of policy on many of the things that matter. Hillary, McCain or even Romney would have been little different. So I can't say I made a mistake voting for Obama. The system made a mistake by not giving us any sincere choice.

[Demon of Undoing]

I have tried to be optimistic about it , in that while I woud never have voted for Obama , I at least hoped his victory would lead to him doing positive things in the areas where I may have a little overlap with his agenda. Some tinkering at the edges has happened , but the two things on his agenda that I hoped for movement on, Gitmo and the environment , have been disastrous. Cap and trade was a capital- intensive waste of time , and he has actually expanded on Bush's nightmare record on civil rights - much of it impacting the civil rights of Americans.

I say the same thing I did before the election- whoever wins will ride bitch for world events they are unable to much change, and the winner of the election will envy the loser.

I think inflated expectations are a huge part of it. I think there was a fundamentally racist assumption made by the left , the right, and our foreign friends as well. All thought on one level or another that a black man , from a class that had every opportunity to see where traditional governance fails, would somehow just not let certain things happen. The right was in fear of that factor because someone that is perceived as being on " the other side of the fence" got power and the revenge could have no more forceful proponent than a black son of commies.

Well , that's just not the case. The right is wondering where the dragon they promised to slay went to, the left wonders what happened to their liberal icon , and the foreign world wonders why there isn't massive class war payback ( which they assumed would translate to a more " European" view of things.

Psyche.

[jerryberry]

Hill and Bill would have lubed the Washington apparatus efficiently, effectively and the Dems would be a much stronger party today. The Obama campaign was idealism gone wild. His lack of experience coupled with an able speaking style lent credence to the "tent revivalist" criticisms from David and others. You don't win friends with salad. The Dems may have lost a sizeable portion of the working class white vote and for what? It's important to note that voters tend to vote against the party in power in a bad economy. As for the "teabagging." The Republicans could have won with a Republican face if they had any messsage that resinated with their party base and indepentent/swing voters. A faction of the Republican party, The Tea Party, had the message that worked. Obama put his Centrist face on this last month and it's working ok. I believe, for domestic purposes, the test of any President is making the voting public think you're responsible for a good economy. Obama, you've got two years to make it happen.

[Tinker]

The narrative of Obama as a radical is not rational. He has governed pretty dead center. The left is turning on him because he is not left enough. It's pure racism that drives the Goldman narrative because there is nothing he's done to support it. He's a neoliberal globalist like every president since Reagan.

[Endovelico]

[Tinker]

Yes, Barack Obama is probably better than the other choices we had. McCain is in dotage. Hillary's campaign showed that she is an incompetent executive. It's unfortunate when such a lackluster choice is what you have.

[Milo]

Why give a fuck about Gitmo?

A handful of people are there, who deserve much worse, and it doesn't cost bugger all.

Worrying about it like it's some sort of big issue is just phony bourgeoisie piety.

BTW, it should be closed, it's just that it's about as low a priority as you can have.

[Demon of Undoing]

If they will do it to foreign people , they will do it to American citizens ( and in fact they did ). It's a belated attempt to restore sanity , 40 years too late.

[Milo]

[Endovelico]

[Mr. Perfect]

[Mr. Perfect]

[Mr. Perfect]

[Milo]

[Tinker]

[Mr. Perfect]

I'm a patient guy, so we'll try again:

"What makes Obama bad is that he is barely different from Bush in terms of policy on many of the things that matter."

This was obvious from the beginning (also referring to your statement of the Reagan thing) but you endorsed with a full throat. Why is that?

[Ibrahim]