These are dark days for Barack Obama. After looking over Real Clear Politics today, there are a dozen articles from writers on the left and right talking about how he seems to be drowning. Here is one paragraph from Jack Kelly of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“More ominous for Mr. Obama than the cooling ardor of formerly adoring fans in the news media is what happened when the president came to Pittsburgh Wednesday to make a speech. Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, Democratic Senate nominee Joe Sestak, and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Dan Onorato, who lives in Allegheny County, were all too busy to attend. Democratic Reps. Mike Doyle and Mark Critz, who represent portions of the area, also had other plans.”
Apparently, he won’t be traveling much this fall to “help” candidates. He is turning out to be the Jimmy Carter clone I expected him to be. People fell for the pie in the sky snake charmer bullshit and now they are getting what they paid for. He is in over his head. I put this in the pit because that’s where it would end up anyway. I await both the astute political analysis many dopers are capable of…and the desperate tap dancing about how it’s all Bush’s fault.
I don’t know. I could google it, I suppose. You’re probably right…those five PA politicians were actually there at the speech and he’s lying to make Obama look bad.
So by your logic: An arson starts a fire. A fireman comes and tries to put it out. It then burns to the ground. Now we’re only allowed to argue why this is the fireman’s fault? :dubious:
I didn’t vote for Obama (nor McCain, as I have to remind people who love to trash me), but I still think he’s really done a decent job as President, and IMO has done a much better job than McCain would have. Sure Obama’s made a few stupid mistakes, but overall I really liked the fallible “real” Obama of the first year. I could list the top 5 Really Bad things Obama has done, but still, I suppose I could find that with any President.
So no, I have non-buyer’s regret; I should have voted for Obama so I could have a smug sense of satisfaction.
One of his most important messages during the campaign was was that he was not going to turn around America by himself. He consistently said everyone was going to have pitch in. So the people who thought they could sit back and let Obama fix everything only have themselves to blame. He never said he was going to be that type of president, and anyone who thought otherwise was either delusional or bought in to the right wing “messiah” bullshit.
If anything, I have buyers remorse in actually thinking the American people would stop looking at every situation as a chance to score political points and actually get things done (I know that is not buyers remorse, but whatever). Of course we are used to the right doing it, but the left has acted like a bratty child getting pissed when they do not get everything they want right when they want it. We thought we elected Obama the dictator, and he would go into office kicking everyone’s ass while making America a progressive paradise. Unfortunately that is not the way our government works. He was also hamstrung by the obstinate right, who would vote no to free ice cream for children if it meant political harm to Obama.
He has done some regrettable things. He is human and I do not expect my elected leaders to do everything exactly as my armchair political strategist ass thinks is right. Realizing that, I shudder to think of where we would be right now with McCain and Palin running things. Yikes.
My point is that there are a number of people who are ideologically incapable of seeing Obama as anything other than perfect. Bush is a fig leaf for these people. Obama has had 18 months and a cooperative congress. Each time he and his supporters play the “blame Bush” card, it makes them look ineffective to those who are not ideologically blinded to Obama’s perfection.
Mmm…I’m not 100% happy with his performance, and he has disappointed me in some ways, but overall, I’m feeling okay about my vote. Of course, it’d take a lot for me to start wishing McCain (and Palin, ughhh) had won instead. Mentally comparing Obama with Hillary, instead…I don’t know, I think she would probably be comparable in performance to Obama.
He did enter the White House under very difficult circumstances (is it whining about how it’s Bush’s fault if I point out that the two wars and the recession both began during the Bush administration?), and I didn’t expect him to be able to fix them all in one fell swoop. I think he’s probably doing the best he can in trying times.
I don’t know what’s going in in Pennsylvania politics, so I don’t have much to say about the behavior of the politicians there.
This bothers me as well. They are both much more concerned with playing “gotcha” than solving problems.
I think McCain would have been better than Obama, particularly on foreign policy and domestic spending issues. However, if Palin runs I will not vote for her and I hope she doesn’t win if she does. She strikes me as simplistic.
Just for the record, no. The guy who got fired from USA Today was Jack Kelley. This is Jack Kelly, who was a congressional press secretary, deputy press secretary for the RNC, deputy assistant press secretary for the Air Force, communications director for a conservative think tank, and now opinion writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade.
Then why don’t you go find the fucking forum where those people hang out and bag on them, ya putz? I’ll give you a hint; they’re mghty thin on the ground around here.
And my policy and party preferences are well known here.
But I voted for him. And I maintain that of the choices I had, he was the best. So, no, I can’t say I regret my vote. I regret being placed in a position where McCain was my other choice, because I believed then, and still do, that a McCain presidency would have been worse for the country.