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[Africa]

Are you accusing Obama of being too weak to press the reforms which are needed

This, I think. Guy above said it well.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

According to Gallup, Obama currently has 52% disapproval and 40% approval. That's also a fairly large "Don't Know" margin.  He had almost 60% approval just a few months ago. Simply put, his popularity has started to fall like a rock, George W. Bush style.''

Oh, and Congress has an approval rating of 13%. That's a record for them. Never before has the public seen so much pure unfiltered Fail from Congress.

[Nadaka]

Could someone further explain the sudden Obama-bashing to a person outside America?

...

sudden?

[nenjin]

Well, yes. He himself once stated that he'd rather be a great one-term President than a mediocre two-term President.

This is where the anger from within Obama's own base stems from. He ran on a platform of change, and combined with his attitude during his first election, the message we got was "I'll do what it takes, screw the political costs to myself."

That's not what he's been doing since his presidency began. Notice that the words "Yes we can" are not part of his re-election schpiel, and probably won't return. He was an idealist and now like all politicians who enter Washington, he's a realist, who puts more stock in the protection of powerful interests in the US than what voters want, which is more freaking financial and legislative equality in this country. We're sick of hearing about how the U.S. Treasury, our treasury, is in the shitter while the "drivers" of the economy post record-breaking profits every year. How the fuck does that work out, and when the fuck are we going to elect a president that cares about it as much as we do?

So yeah. The guy we elected has become part of the problem, and while it's not necessarily good to judge any (potential) 2-term president's legacy just on their first term.....what Democrats worry about now is that, if we re-elect Obama, rather than making real changes in his second term like we expect re-elected presidents to do, he'll just use another 4 years to continue serving the interests of business leaders. I have little hope of a 2nd term turn around from Obama, where he starts acting like talks because he's no longer worried about currying favor.

Ideally, for me, he would just act in his second term. No polemics. No long-winded speeches to the American people. He acts swiftly and decisively with presidential authority on the top issues we're facing. No more late-night talk shows. No more fucking golf outings. No more fucking globe-trotting. No more press articles about what his fucking wife wears. No more of this playboy image that he's not only failed to reject, he's cultivated the whole time. He's not JFK, not even fucking close, because JFK opposed the establishment that was throttling the life out of this country, while Obama has done nothing but work with them to maintain their control.

[Starver]

I see a possibility that he's knows there's something really juicy (as in "publish or be damned"-style juicy, as likely to get him hated by his enemies as (re-)loved by his friends) that he can pull out of the hat at just the right time for the elections.  Then he either triumphs to get his second term (where he has nothing personal to lose) or gets shot down and he gets to be considered being as bold as it was long promised he would be...

Personally, I'd like to believe he's above such games, but there are undoubtedly layers upon layers of advisers necessarily involved in every policy position that he can't just ignore and besides which probably make too much sense to do so.  Also, if this is the case then this could means that this allegedly troublesome time is going to be completely overshadowed by the Next Big Thing in politics and nation-statehood...  Which could make things 'interesting'.


But I've got no solid predictions, so we'll have to do the traditional thing people have to do to find out what happens in the future and wait around until they are at least Current Affairs and then reappraise them once they are officially History.


(If I were POTUS, I think my philosophy would be "What Would Bartlett Do?"...)

[nenjin]

Personally, I'd like to believe he's above such games, but there are undoubtedly layers upon layers of advisers necessarily involved in every policy position that he can't just ignore and besides which probably make too much sense to do so.

In truth though, they are exactly that. Advisers. If the POTUS wants, the POTUS can make decisions completely without their guidance. The last time a President did this in extraordinary fashion, they ended up dead. I want a president that bold, and who takes their commitment to the American people that seriously. Today he seems almost as much of a figurehead as Bush was. I could easily see Obama shrugging off the loss of a second term and smilingly go on to make another million or so doing book tours and graduation ceremonies. He's certainly earned the "right" by his performance in government so far.

[Vector]

Yeah, I'm fucking pissed at Obama.  He hasn't made a single speech about the unprecedented number of restrictions passed on women's rights during his term by state government.  What's the point of a figurehead that doesn't DO anything?

[Neonivek]

Yeah, I'm fucking pissed at Obama.  He hasn't made a single speech about the unprecedented number of restrictions passed on women's rights during his term by state government.  What's the point of a figurehead that doesn't DO anything?

You want Obama to say a speach about that knowing he will likely pepper his speach in such a way that all the stupid americans will suddenly hate women?

[nenjin]

What's the point of a figurehead that doesn't DO anything?

They shield the rest of government from the blame of doing nothing we want. I even wanted Health Care reform, but as I look back on it, it's not a smashing victory for the American people. It's more like yet another mixed compromise where Obama started something he only half saw through to the end. Same deal with the stimulus, same deal with the rail works initiative. Same deal with Guantanamo. Same deal with DADT. Same deal with the debt ceiling.

If he had taken any one of these issues to conclusion with real leadership, he'd have earned points with me somewhere along the line. Rather, each issue has flared up and petered out, and it's like he's just going from issue to issue down a checklist, meeting resistance, and moving on. And the stuff he did stick on, like mandating that everyone buy healthcare by hook or by crook, or that a railroad initiative was a smart investment, he had no support to begin with!

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Obama is a coward, plain and simple. He has no passion or drive. Just another scared Democrat who won't do anything good for the nation.

If he was a good president, Congress's ridiculous polarization wouldn't be a problem. He could be out there on national television every day, railing against Congress for being useless, for poisoning the nation and stopping his attempts to help him in the name of ideological purity and greed. The nation has already turned against Congress, they only need someone to spearhead that feeling and make things happen because of it. Obama could have been that person, but he's just another pawn for Congress now.

[Vector]

You want Obama to say a speach about that knowing he will likely pepper his speach in such a way that all the stupid americans will suddenly hate women?

No.  I want him to do the good job he's supposed to do, for all his citizens.  Even the female 50% living in this country, easy as they would be to ignore.

[nenjin]

At this point I'm starting to believe he was a manufactured president; packaged, marketed and sold to the American people. And everyone, voters, Nobel prize judges, the media, conservatives, vengeful democrats and all bought into it, in some way.

[Toady Two]

Could someone further explain the sudden Obama-bashing to a person outside America?

...

sudden?

I was not talking about the republicans bashing him but rather the ELITE LIBERAL types that inhabit this forum. Not a while ago he was still the socio-aware right wing messiah.

[Vector]

At this point I'm starting to believe he was a manufactured president; packaged, marketed and sold to the American people. And everyone, voters, Nobel prize judges, the media, conservatives, vengeful democrats and all bought into it, in some way.

I still can't believe he has a fucking Nobel prize.

[Aqizzar]

At this point I'm starting to believe he was a manufactured president; packaged, marketed and sold to the American people. And everyone, voters, Nobel prize judges, the media, conservatives, vengeful democrats and all bought into it, in some way.

I still can't believe he has a fucking Nobel prize.

I keep saying this each time it comes up.  He can't believe he has a fucking Nobel prize either.  But c'mon, what would you do if you were him, give it back?  Thanks guys, I appreciate the sentiment that you think I've done more to promote world peace than any other person in the world, really, but you're flattering me, I can't accept this.