Prove Obama is a bad President

Opinion • August 2011 • Views: 666

I’m thinking instead of that opening sequence in the show ‘Mission Impossible,’ the one where Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, gets his instructions.

Your mission, Jim (and readers named something else), should you decide to accept it, is to identify where Obama has been a poor decision-maker. What, specifically, has he done wrong on policy? What, specifically, would you have done differently to create jobs? And what can any of the current Republican candidates offer that would be an improvement on the employment front?

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2 comments

shutdown Fri, Aug 26, 2011 6:03:52am

My gripe is not so much that what BHO has done is wrong, but that he has not done enough. I disagree with the policy priorities he set early in his term; I would have liked him to push financial reform before healthcare, for instance. But since the midterm elections, the President seems almost shellshocked. He has been reactive more than proactive. To my mind, he had the moral and policy high ground during the debt ceiling debate, and failed to take advantage of it fully. He has tried to reconcile when he should be bullying, and create consensus when he should be taking and defending a firm position.

In the Middle East, he started strong (again, I disagreed with much of what he said, but at least he was out there) but has been leaving much to the Clinton led State Department since the midterm elections. Yes, a President must delegate, but he must also lead. Terror attacks and hundreds of Qassams, Grads, mortar shells shot into Israel - an ally of the US - with nothing more than the same tired Clinton pablum as a response. The Arab Spring has been managed on a hit-or-miss basis. Egypt: miss. Libya: partial hit. Syria: who knows.

This is a time of great unease in the country and the world. Unfortunately, the waning ability of the US to project power is becoming obvious. This is not BHO's fault. Nonetheless, I am missing a strong reassuring voice from the White House. That's a leadership issue. Domestically, he has watched his approval rating plummet and seems to be being bullied by the Wingnuts.

President Obama is not a failure, but I do not think that he is the leader we desperately need right now. We need a Roosevelt, a Clinton or even a Reagan type (I am not commenting on these Presidents' policies, just personalities); a Churchill, even. A consensus builder is not going to be effective in the current troubled domestic and international environment. Obama has to take clear positions, make strong statements, issue challenges and make the American people believe that better times are coming. He needs to throw down the gauntlet to the Tea Party, not try to find common ground. The TP wants everything on their agenda; it is a non-negotiable statement of demands. The President still does not seem to understand this.

It is too early to say whether BHO is a "bad" President, or a "good" President. He certainly is not as effective as we need him to be.

Bob Levin Fri, Aug 26, 2011 1:10:48pm

re: #1 imp_62

I'll agree with that and add that there is no challenger who seems more competent.

I think the key economic issue, for a President, is to provide a sense of clarity--this is where the country will be headed in the next four years. Given that he had both the Senate and the House behind him, this was more than possible, and would have given direction to the financial markets.

He does not seem like the same person who ran for office, who was organized enough to beat Hillary, and who was an inspirational speaker. This administration does not appear to have that level of organization (such as updates on the progress of the stimulus), and has given many Americans the feeling that the money was just poured down a large hole. That feeling also comes from the virtual vanishing of his speaking ability.

The only criticism I would have on his conducting of foreign policy, is that the world he thought he was addressing was not the world as it was. Unfortunately, he had advisers who shared his misconceptions. Otherwise, the problems we see today are definitely the problems created by many generations of State Department policy.

I think every President is faced with historical challenges that they did not anticipate when campaigning, and they must abandon their campaign to address the historical challenges. If a President meets those challenges, not necessarily solves the challenges, but simply reorganizes his priorities, that's the most we can hope for. After all, some problems will take more than one or two terms to solve.

I don't think there is any doubt that the economy is the challenge that history put on his desk. I think that he will be re-elected, and a fair assessment should begin after his second term.

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