# Anyone feeling buyers remorse about Obama yet? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 6, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201 "2010-06-06T21:41:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/121 "2010-06-07T14:12:05Z")
> [@adhay](#): > > :rolleyes: > > I seldom use smilies and IIRC this is the first time I’ve been moved (in spite of some real provocation) to use rolleyes, but, really. > > Obama=Bush in black face. The list of his Bush extensions is long but his most egregious to date, even including his coddling of BP, is his present SCOTUS nominee. If you have honestly changed from “Obama is different from other politicians” to “Obama = Bush in black face”, I hope that this experience has made you a tad more realistic in your political thought. If you believed election slogans were real, and you were getting a “vehicle for change” - someone who was fundamentally not a politician and was beholden to no special interest groups… Then you were one of the naive people I was referring to. Congratulations for wising up. On the other hand, it’s possible that you’re another of the people who never believed it in the first place, and are looking for any excuse to crap on Obama. Only you know which group you fall into. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/122 "2010-06-07T14:19:35Z")
Why would I have remorse? He’s doing a fine job. Everything he’s done has been well-informed and quietly competent. He’s done his job without too many blatant mistakes, and with a minimum of fuss. It’s, as I said before the election, like the adults are back in charge. After eight years of infantile ravings, it’s refreshing. Would (and will) vote for him again, no problem. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/123 "2010-06-07T14:20:28Z")
> [@Cort](#): > > Well, he hasn’t started any immoral and needless wars yet so he’s still ahead on points. Astute enough? No, not **started.** ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/124 "2010-06-07T14:24:38Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > [snip] > > 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: Great. Now I’m going to have a Billy Joel “We Didn’t Start the Fire” ear-worm running all day. He’s doing fine. I had hopes for “terrific” three years back but I can take fine. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/125 "2010-06-07T14:31:15Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > She isn’t on a list I would have assembled as President, but it’s hard to see what’s objectionable about her. She’s not Diane Wood [Diane Wood - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Wood) , also on Obama’s short list. Not only is Diane better looking, she has a stellar judicial record and probably wouldn’t countenance further shredding of The Bill of Rights. Kagan? Who the fuck is she? A Presidential suckup. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/126 "2010-06-07T14:33:23Z")
So far, Obama has performed as I expected, as a right-of-center pragmatist who takes few chances. The main difference between the Democrats and Republicans today is in their approach to government policy. Republicans start with ideology, such as religious morality or libertarian theology, and derive their policies forthwith, with insufficient analysis of on-the-ground facts or real-world consequences. The fundamental error made by Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld was that in believing that they held the ultimate understanding of geopolitics and formulating their policy based on their _assumptions_, believing them to be _facts_. Republicans drink their own kool-aid and the rest of us suffer for it. Democrats are prone to timidity and compromise, which are exactly Obama’s weaknesses. But this weakness is less dangerous than the Republicans’ weakness, which amounts to unjustified self-confidence. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/127 "2010-06-07T14:45:19Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > If you have honestly changed from “Obama is different from other politicians” to “Obama = Bush in black face”, I hope that this experience has made you a tad more realistic in your political thought. … :o Really. When he early on “changed his mind” and decided that campaigning solely on Federal money would cramp his style, I should have known. But his grassroots nickel and dime campaign sounded good and I gave him a pass. It was all downhill from there. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/128 "2010-06-07T14:48:37Z")
I’m pretty sure we bought the extended warranty at checkout. Obama hasn’t fixed everything in 18 months that it took eight years (or more) to fuck up? Oh dear, whatever shall we do? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/129 "2010-06-07T14:52:28Z")
It appears that outside the Dope, some well-known lefties are beginning to feel some remorse. > [@](#): > > Polls show that around 10 per cent of those who voted for Obama in 2008 now disapprove of his performance and the heavy turnout of young people and black voters among the 69 million who back him will not be repeated again. > > \ > > That reality has now begun to dawn on some of Obama’s natural constituency - Hollywood and the Left. The “no drama Obama” demeanour that served him so well on the campaign trail is now becoming a liability. > > Bemoaning Obama’s passivity after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the director Spike Lee thundered: “He’s very calm, cool, collected. But, one time, go off! If there’s any one time to go off, this is it, because this is a disaster.” > > This is the same Spike Lee who once described Obama’s election as a “seismic” change that represented “a better day not only for the United States but for the world”. > > The ladies of The View, the liberal-dominated morning talk show moderated by Whoopi Goldberg, spent a lot of time last week sympathising with Mrs Obama about how difficult it must be to argue with a husband who never shows any fire or emotion. > > Even the liberal chattering classes are deserting Obama. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times jeered that his “Yes we can” slogan had been downgraded to “Will we ever?”, while fellow colunnist Frank Rich blasted his “recurrent tardiness in defining exactly what he wants done”. > > Perhaps Obama’s toughest critic over the BP oil slick has been James “Rajin’ Cajun” Carville, the mastermind of Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and one of those Democrats who represents the beating heart of the party. He blasted Obama’s “political stupidity” and “hands off” attitude, concluding: “It seems the President is madder at his critics than he is at BP.” > > \ > > It is an irony of Obama’s presidency - which came into being because he was the unBush - that it shares some of the worst traits of his predecessor’s administration. Among these are insularity and a blinkered arrogance. [Cite](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/7805775/Obama-loses-the-Left-suddenly-its-cool-to-bash-Barack.html) I applaud their honesty. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/130 "2010-06-07T15:01:37Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I’m pretty sure we bought the extended warranty at checkout. … Oh dear, whatever shall we do? Tough one. It’s underwater, no one is going to fix it and it’s too toxic to recycle. It in part got that way by recycling toxic loans thru the Treasury. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/131 "2010-06-07T15:03:13Z")
> [@](#): > > That reality has now begun to dawn on some of Obama’s natural constituency - Hollywood and the Left. “Hollywood” is a separate category from “the Left” now? Man, I am so out of date on my conservative pigeonholing. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/132 "2010-06-07T15:04:00Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > It appears that outside the Dope, some well-known lefties are beginning to feel some remorse. > > [Cite](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/7805775/Obama-loses-the-Left-suddenly-its-cool-to-bash-Barack.html) > > I applaud their honesty. Whose honesty? That collection of excised quotes doesn’t really fit with the mortar that Harnden has tried to join them with. Spike Lee wants him to “go off” and the ladies of the View think he would be hard to argue with? Does this mean that they wouldn’t vote for him in the future? Is that the honesty you’re thanking them for? As to James Carville’s opinion of Obama - now, whyever would he have sniping comments to make about Obama? Gee, let me think… ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/133 "2010-06-07T15:04:59Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I applaud their honesty. You applaud them for complaining that Obama is not liberal enough? Whoa… ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/134 "2010-06-07T15:07:38Z")
> [@Starving Artist](#): > > It appears that outside the Dope, some well-known lefties are beginning to feel some remorse Oh heavens! Voters aren’t bowing and scraping to their leader and worshipping every single policy or personal quality of a president as if it’s come straight from Jesus’s magic wand! Clearly that means they’re ready for revolution! Look, I understand that the official stance for many Republicans under _their_ leaders is “All Hail King Perfect” and that any criticism whatsoever equals “traitor to the Cause,” but here in progressiveville, we’re quite able to find things wrong with our politicians. (Actually, if anything, we sometimes rush to attack our own, which is why there’s so much internecine battling among our number. We’re big on letting “perfect” be the enemy of “the good.”) Nothing I read in your quote indicates that the liberals described wish that they’d voted for someone else. They wish Obama would do \_\_\_\_ differently, but that is quite healthy in assessing one’s political leaders. Sorry. They still don’t wish McCain/Palin had won. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/135 "2010-06-07T15:13:03Z")
Even if he’d done a truly shitty job, I’d have no regrets. The President isn’t just a leader; he’s a symbol. The last two years are the first time in our history that black parents could look at their children and tell them that one day _they_ could be President (with a straight face). By extension, I will one day be able to look at _my_ kids and tell them they could be President. As a symbol, he is indeed infallible, much as **Evil One** bitches. As the head of the executive, commander-in-chief, nominator of judges, and so on, he’s been decent. Not great- this business of trying to build consensus in the face of obstruction for obstruction’s sake is pointless, for example- but decent. A _million_ times better than Bush, certainly. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/136 "2010-06-07T15:14:35Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > It appears that outside the Dope, some well-known lefties are beginning to feel some remorse. > > [Cite](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/7805775/Obama-loses-the-Left-suddenly-its-cool-to-bash-Barack.html) > > I applaud their honesty. So we’ve found another motherlode of people who want Obama to emote more. I’m supposed to care? P.S. Since when are MoDo and Carville lefties? We sure don’t want to take responsibility for them. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/137 "2010-06-07T15:14:56Z")
The thing is, **choie** , the OP didn’t ask if anyone would change their vote to McCain; he asked if anyone who voted for Obama was feeling remorse yet. I think those who are, and many of the rest of us who didn’t vote for him to begin with, are beginning to feel that he is in over his head, doesn’t know what he’s doing, and is relying mostly on his unflappable demeanor to try to carry the day. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/138 "2010-06-07T15:15:48Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > [Cite](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/7805775/Obama-loses-the-Left-suddenly-its-cool-to-bash-Barack.html) OMG! Spike Lee suggested that Obama was being too calm and cool in a crisis! The dopey bints on _The View_ (who do not speak for the left in any way, shape, or form) believe that his calm and reasonable demeanor in the public sphere means that he has no fire or emotion in his personal life! Maureen Dowd, who has made a career on shallow character portraits and personality-based opinion pieces, is a critic! And James Carville? Are you kidding me? This guy is a “leftist” in the same way that Glen Beck is an “analyst.” That is, not at all. As **Hentor** noted, these quotes lend basically no support to the idea that those who voted for Obama are unhappy with the decision, or that they wouldn’t vote for him again. > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I applaud their honesty. You wouldn’t know honesty if it bit you on the ass. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/139 "2010-06-07T15:16:33Z")
No buyer’s remorse. He’s not the shiny, brand-new, ultra-efficient, whitens-your-teeth-and-freshens-your-breath wonder product he tried to look like in his campaign, but for us gay folk, the tarnish was showing early on (Donnie McGlurkin in N(?)C) and spreading by inauguration day (Rick Warren, and the _non-televised_ opening prayer of the National Mall celebration by Bishop Gene Robinson). But no buyer’s remorse. The other product on display was both old, stupid and harder to use. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201/140 "2010-06-07T15:23:10Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > You wouldn’t know honesty if it bit you on the ass. Yeah, you to spout shit like this, and then when challenged to find one…just one…dishonest quote out of my close to 5,000 posts, you invariably waffle and stammer and equivocate, eventually sputtering out something about how I may not be ‘technically’ dishonest but the nature of my posts are…all of which means little but that you disagree with my position. So now, which one of us is a liar again? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feeling-buyers-remorse-about-obama-yet/542201.md?page=8)