what are barack obama's flaws?

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0609/Obama_Just_a_start.html

Not the world's biggest Conan the Barbarian expert:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW7OPByRGDY

haaa this is great:

http://www.obamasplanforgayrights.com/

oh how fucking clever
good thing boyo got that copyrighted

In general, how much one criticizes Obama is largely a function of the areas on which one tends to focus. If I had spent the week writing about Iran, I would be largely defending -- and praising -- Obama's very wise restraint, even in the face of bipartisan political pressure, when it comes to interfering in Iran's internal political disputes. His private and public refusal to cheer on all of Israel's policies is also commendable. Conversely, those who focus on gay issues have been understandably furious with the administration, and in the areas of civil liberties, secrecy, and his Justice Department generally, the administration has been nothing short of abysmal. Criticizing the Right for its support of these positions is understandable, but in our modern political culture, the President is, far and away, the driving force, and those who supported him can have far more of an impact pointing out, rather than ignoring, the role he is playing in advancing these policies.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/06/20/dna/index.html

what's michelle been up to lately?

Staying the fuck out of the health care debate?

serious question

performing abortions for welfare queens while dressed as Hitler

http://www.vanityfair.com/images/politics/2009/08/qaddafi-0908-ps01.jpg

Little Richard misjudging the tone slightly.

Sooo... the Patriot Act* will extend to 2013?

*"If someone wants to know why their own government has decided to go on a fishing expedition through every personal record or private document — through library books they've read and phone calls they've made — this legislation gives people no rights to appeal the need for such a search in a court of law. No judge will hear their plea, no jury will hear their case. This is just plain wrong."

Barack Obama
12/15/2005
US Senate Floor

http://www.clevelandleader.com/files/tigerobamagolf.jpg

In that case, all this 'bipartisanship' talk makes me worry he'll let the plutocrats walk all over him in the name of unity. It's too early to tell, of course.

― Oilyrags, Wednesday, April 30, 2008

TIME TO START TELLING

hush steve and albert, can't jeopardize the reelection

count me as "not surprised, but not pleased either"

wtf with this shit

"shit" from BHO yes, wtf not so much

oh for the record i'm wtfing at golf digest

patriot act bullshit makes me angry and sad and this combined with other things means i don't see myself voting for him in '12 (and definitely not defending him at the holiday dinner table)

an unsettling depression has landed on me, most of it to with events utterly outside of the realm of politics, but what I'd hoped would be the only good thing out of the past year (Obama's election) has turned into another incredible disappointment. I voted and supported him as a realist as well, knowing full well that we would not have some kind of miracle return to...(what? don't know, things were never that great, ever) or the dawning of the Age of Aquarius or something. But fuck me if I can think of anything he's actually accomplished that's been of any benefit. Might be my mindset though. But I think he might have overpromised. I'm not going to be surprised if he looses the next election and we enter into some hellist right wing military state.

dude.

stabilizing the economy, ARRA, healthcare reform, closing Gitmo, withdrawing from Iraq, putting the EPA back to work (regulating greenhouse gases, letting CA fuel efficiency standards go forward, etc.)

these are all good things

Man I was so pleased with those first couple months. No extraordinary rendition! Withdrawing from Iraq! Cap&Trade! Closing Guantanamo! Obama World Tour '09! But then a bunch of rabbit punches of non-symbolic actual centrism and concessions to the right and a whole waterfall of :/

xp

how has he overpromised? To me he's fulfilling every one of his campaign promises: enlarge the war in Afghanistan, ban torture, allow secret renditions, cut the easiest, most compromised deal to get something close to universal health care coverage.

gitmo doesn't seem to be closing anytime soon

^

yeah i don't think he really overpromised so much as created a false image of himself that a lot of people bought
i only voted for him because i was in an important state but i'm not anymore & i was never pumped about him so i don't feel so conflicted about it. lucky me, rite

three provisions of the Patriot Act are up for renewal, and Obama always supported them: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/obama-backs-expiring-patriot-act-spy-provisions/ so what are you guys surprised about

x-posts

gitmo doesn't seem to be closing anytime soon

this is Congress' fault, not Obama's.

anyway Alfred OTM

ok but we still can't say that's a success for him yet, whoever's fault it is. same with healthcare.

it's gonna happen. healthcare reform is gonna happen too.

yeah most of my issues probably boil down to congress to be honest.

healthcare reform is going to happen but even in the best plans, no-one seems to actually benefit from it for another four years.

A return to the Third Way with some anti-war window dressing is exactly what I voted for, if not what I wanted. I suppose center leftism just looked that much more starry and wonderful after years of watching talking heads actually argue about the acceptability of torture.

its important to bear in mind how bad the last 8-12 years were - that shit isn't gonna all get washed away in 12 months by some Executive Branch magic

and it's not our fault that our culture overrates presidents.

that is a very good point^^

healthcare reform is going to happen but even in the best plans, no-one seems to actually benefit from it for another four years.

hahaha wait you expect gov't to work QUICKLY now? As someone who's personally impacted by the ARRA funds disbursement, that shit was passed at the beginning of the year and is only JUST NOW getting out to actual projects. The federal gov't is huge and slow.

its nice to see people pushing obama to his left but its also important to remember that he is just one dude who is very visible and whose power is not by any means absolute

hush steve and albert, can't jeopardize the reelection

― a full circle lol (J0hn D.), Saturday, December 5, 2009

y'know, no one EVER says this to you so it'd be nice if you would stop endlessly parotting yr favorite strawman argument k thx bye

and yeah I agree with max - the left's job right now is to relentlessly pressure Obama. they're needed as a counterweight.

And Obama responds well to it, seeing as it's one of the things he really wanted people to do once he got sworn in.

The right has no problem bitching about their candidates' wingnut cred; I advise the left to keep the pressure on. It's doubly difficult for the left though: it's in the same position as the right in the sixties and seventies, i.e. no mainstream venue through which to air its views.

wait, what? the right had Nixon!

well, after '68 anyway

also not to malign anyone on this board but a lot of lefty activists would do well to remember that depending on where they live their political interests would likely be better served by campaigning hard against right wing senators and representatives and for left-wing candidates--not that criticizing obama is bad just that theres an election coming up and the president is not going to be on the ballot

no its all his fault for telling me to HOPE

Couple of months back was talking to my agent about editing a collection where a bunch of high-profile people lobby Obama on their issues but got project fatigue in the sense of 'oh great, this might be the flipside of right-wing black man micromanagement'.

i take a small (very small) amount of comfort from what amounts to "if he can't do it, no one can"

which isn't to sound like a schoolchild, it's about the very serious structural limits on governance in this country.

this particular candidate, the way he won the primary, the coalition he put together to win the presidency, in a moment of contempt and fatigue with the governing party/personality that we haven't seen for decades, plus a world-historically severe economic meltdown -- repeat the phenomenon similarly in congress for the candidate's party -- add it up, and this is about as far left as you can really imagine the electorate putting its federal government.

and this is what we've got. barring truly fantasy-land results where the GOP share in congress drops to like a third, this is the highest water mark we're ever going to see in one direction. and it's still very disappointing. the right wingers didn't get social security privatized. we still will probably get health care. if you lined up and shot every senator and erased the upper house from the page of history, we would have by now. cap and trade, too.

you can judge obama, the individual, against whatever criteria you like, and you should. i'm disappointed mostly in those things that the executive DOES have near-exclusive control over (torture, DADT) that have been soft-pedaled. but judged against the available alternatives, he's still the best option for his job.