# Assess Obama's first-year performance **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 15, 2010, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067 "2010-01-15T14:18:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/21 "2010-01-15T17:48:36Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > But I don’t get how people give him credit for health care reform. Maybe I missed something, but it seems like it’s 95% Congress and maybe 5% Obama. Pelosi and Reid should get whatever credit is due, not Obama. He seems to have been mostly an observer, doing little more than setting meaningless deadlines. Until just the past few days, you’re right: the Dems in Congress have been doing all the heavy lifting. But if it weren’t an Obama priority, they’d be doing the heavy lifting on something else instead. And if Obama hadn’t run such an effective campaign, there wouldn’t be 60 Dem Senators to make this possible to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/22 "2010-01-15T17:50:32Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > The level of bile - at least seen from over here - is risible compared to that levelled at Bush. Never mind the deluge of slime which greeted Sarah Palin. But that’s _different_! Overall, BHO has not been as bad as he could have been. He said his main priorities were the economy, health care, and global warming. On the economy, he has done nothing of any value. The stimulus package has driven the deficit to unsustainable levels (unlike the TARP payments). HCR has achieved neither what he wanted, nor what the country needs. It doesn’t address the causes of health care inflation much, if at all, costs a whole bunch, and doesn’t cover anybody. So if this is what he winds up with on HCR, pfft. He has done nothing on global warming - all the foreign governments who are now so friendly to us now that Bush is gone don’t seem to have changed their tune on AGW at all. He is handling Iraq better than he might. He seems to have learned something from being wrong about the surge in Iraq, and therefore is doing better in Afghanistan than someone with as little experience as he has would be expected. I’m feeling generous, so C-. I have the feeling the GOP is going to be in a rather different position come the 2010 elections, so we will see how wheter Obama does better, or worse, with fewer allies in Congress. His approval ratings are not trending well for the Obama-ssiah ([cite](http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll)) either. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/23 "2010-01-15T17:50:46Z")
> [@Lantern](#): > > B+ seems about right. Anyone who is disappointed about Obama from the left should have paid greater attention during the campaign. He campaigned as a fairly mainstream Democrat and that is how he has governed. I guess we were paying too much attention to what the **right** was saying about him . . . :o ---
**Author:** ![Anduril](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@Anduril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduril)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/24 "2010-01-15T17:53:03Z")
> [@Lantern](#): > > But let’s keep things in perspective. It looks nearly certain that he will sign a major health care bill. That is an astonishing legislative victory: perhaps the greatest since the civil rights bills of the 60’s. You appreciate it all the more when you consider how complicated and difficult the whole process was particularly in the Senate and how many other presidents have failed on this issue. What astonishing legislative victory are you talking about? The health care bill has been compromised into ineffectivity. Any one can pass that ridiculous health care bill. That he spent a big portion of his political capital on it while accomplishing very little is an embarassment. Give me one particular provision that was SO difficult to get through with the right amount of support. ---
**Author:** ![Anduril](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@Anduril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduril)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/25 "2010-01-15T17:56:31Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I guess we were paying too much attention to what the **right** was saying about him . . . :o Nope. The Obama fans during the campaign believed all of that. In fact, they used a lot of those arguments in voting for him over Hillary in the primaries. ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/26 "2010-01-15T17:56:51Z")
Obama has yet to recover from the stumble he took with his friend, Prof Gates, in Cambridge. His popularity has been on a steady decline ever since. Based on ineffective stimulus plans, Afghanistan, & the all too many broken campaign promises as to how his administration would run - Overall a **D** at best ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/27 "2010-01-15T17:59:23Z")
> [@Anduril](#): > > B+?!? That’s the Kool-Aide talking. Are you _still_ smarting from Clinton’s nomination defeat? Holy cow, man, let it go already… ---
**Author:** ![Anduril](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@Anduril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduril)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/28 "2010-01-15T18:04:24Z")
> [@Digital\_Stimulus](#): > > Are you _still_ smarting from Clinton’s nomination defeat? > > Holy cow, man, let it go already… What does that have to do with anything? I can tell you’re still drinking the Kool Aide. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/29 "2010-01-15T18:07:23Z")
> [@Anduril](#): > > What does that have to do with anything? I can tell you’re still drinking the Kool Aide. FLAVOR AID. Jesus Haploid Christ, if you’re gonna use that particular witticism, at least get it right. ---
**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:** [January 15, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/30 "2010-01-15T18:12:05Z")
> [@Anduril](#): > > What does that have to do with anything? I can tell you’re still drinking the Kool Aide. Anduril, your only points in this debate so far are that Obama has been an embarrassment, and anyone who says otherwise, is drinking the Kool Aid. I wonder if you have anything to back up your succinct opinions? Others here have posted reasoned arguments to and fro. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/31 "2010-01-15T18:12:23Z")
> [@Anduril](#): > > What astonishing legislative victory are you talking about? The health care bill has been compromised into ineffectivity. That’s nonsense. The health care bill is enormous and moves the US a lot closer to universal health care. This [post](http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/12/starting-over)by Kevin Drum does a good job of listing the main points. > [@](#): > > - Insurers have to take all comers. They can’t turn you down for a preexisting condition or cut you off after you get sick. > \* Community rating. Within a few broad classes, everyone gets charged the same amount for insurance. > \* Individual mandate. I know a lot of liberals hate this, but how is it different from a tax? And its purpose is sound: it keeps the insurance pool broad and insurance rates down. > \* A significant expansion of Medicaid. > \* Subsidies for low and middle income workers that keeps premium costs under 10% of income. > \* Limits on ER charges to low-income uninsured emergency patients. > \* Caps on out-of-pocket expenses. > \* A broad range of cost-containment measures. > \* A dedicated revenue stream to support all this. Any one of these alone would have been significant; the combination of all these things is enormous. And it’s not so much any single part of the bill that was difficult to pass as the sum of the parts. So many things could have gone wrong. Not a single Republican was willing to vote for it despite extensive negotiations. A single Democrat or Lieberman could have sunk the bill. So many lobbies which have a powerful stake in health care could have sunk the bill. There were many people calling on Obama to postpone health care; if he had done that in all likelihood it would have never gotten passed. He decided to stake the whole first year of his Presidency on health care and in all likelihood will be rewarded with a big win. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/32 "2010-01-15T18:14:01Z")
> [@Anduril](#): > > What does that have to do with anything? It seems to me that the only people who immediately reach for terms like “drunk the Kool-aid” (yes, yes, “Flavor-aid”) when discussing Obama – besides the idiots who don’t know the difference between socialism and fascism…but Obama is _both_! – are Clinton supporters still bitter about the nomination. You’re not an idiot, from what I recall. Perhaps I have you mixed up with someone else. At any rate, that’s the connection, since you asked. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/33 "2010-01-15T18:15:23Z")
> [@flickster](#): > > Obama has yet to recover from the stumble he took with his friend, Prof Gates, in Cambridge. His popularity has been on a steady decline ever since. You’re claiming Gates-gate is his undoing? Chrissakes, man, that barely lasted a news cycle. ---
**Author:** ![Anduril](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@Anduril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduril)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/34 "2010-01-15T18:22:30Z")
> [@Lantern](#): > > Any one of these alone would have been significant; the combination of all these things is enormous. And it’s not so much any single part of the bill that was difficult to pass as the sum of the parts. So many things could have gone wrong. Not a single Republican was willing to vote for it despite extensive negotiations. A single Democrat or Lieberman could have sunk the bill. So many lobbies which have a powerful stake in health care could have sunk the bill. There were many people calling on Obama to postpone health care; if he had done that in all likelihood it would have never gotten passed. He decided to stake the whole first year of his Presidency on health care and in all likelihood will be rewarded with a big win. Nonsense. All of those could have easily passed. A legislative victory would be a truly universal health care. As it is, the health care reform bill is the insurance industry’s dream. And BTW, they won it by bribing the last hold outs. How skillful do you have to be to bribe? ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/35 "2010-01-15T18:25:46Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > You’re claiming Gates-gate is his undoing? Chrissakes, man, that barely lasted a news cycle. I’ll continue to stand by my claim, as referenced by at any number of [approval polling charts](http://www.gallup.com/poll/politics.aspx) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/36 "2010-01-15T18:26:03Z")
Can we get grades for Bush41, Clinton and Bush43 on their first years, just for comparisons? ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/37 "2010-01-15T18:31:20Z")
I’m a fiscal arch-conservative and social (mostly) liberal who did not vote for Obama. Judging him on his own merits, I give Obama the following scores for his first year: - Message and delivery: A - Progress towards goals: B+/A- - Actual achievement of goals (to the best of his ability given Congress): B - Handling of Cabinet offices and Departments: B+/A- - Honesty and integrity/trustworthiness: A-/A - Ability to rise above scandal and distraction: B+/A- - Diplomacy and world interaction: A - Ability to keep America and Americans safe from “Teh Terror”: A - Handling of the Economic crisis: B+/A- - Health care reform: B- - LGBT rights: C - Other Civil Rights: B+ - Energy and the Environment: B- - Crime and punishment: A- - Gun control: D+ Total: B+ FTR, the first-year scores I gave past Presidents were: Bush Second Term: D Bush First Term: B (come on, we were all riding that “let’s roll!” high) Clinton Second Term: F- Clinton First Term: D Bush Senior: C Reagan Second Term: D Reagan First Term: B Carter: C ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/38 "2010-01-15T18:33:09Z")
> [@flickster](#): > > I’ll continue to stand by my claim, as referenced by at any number of [approval polling charts](http://www.gallup.com/poll/politics.aspx) I can’t claim to have gone over that entire site/cite, but I did search for “Gates” and came up snake eyes. I’m not pretending that Obama’s approval ratings are anything but what they are … but what does it have to do with that entirely trivial and minor event? ---
**Author:** ![kingbighair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/13edae/32.png) [@kingbighair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingbighair)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/39 "2010-01-15T18:38:42Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > But that’s _different_! > > Overall, BHO has not been as bad as he could have been. > > He said his main priorities were the economy, health care, and global warming. > > On the economy, he has done nothing of any value. The stimulus package has driven the deficit to unsustainable levels (unlike the TARP payments). > > … > > Regards, > Shodan Mark Zandi, Chief Economist and Cofounder, [Moody’s Economy.com](http://www.scribd.com/doc/25245626/Bankster-Hearings-Zandi). Also economic adviser to the McCain campaign. Page 4. > [@](#): > > The Great Recession finally gave way to economic recovery this past summer, due largely to the benefits of the fiscal stimulus. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed in early 2009 reduced payroll tax withholding, sent checks to Social Security recipients, and provided financial help to unemployed workers whose normal benefits had run out. The cash for clunkers program revved up vehicle sales, and the housing tax credit boosted home purchases. It is no coincidence that the Great Recession ended just as the stimulus began providing its maximum economic benefit. The stimulus did what it was supposed to do: short-circuit the recession and spur recovery. Page 15. > [@](#): > > The cost to taxpayers would have been measurably greater if government had not intervened aggressively. The recession would still be in full swing, undermining tax revenues and driving up spending on Medicaid, welfare, and other support programs for distressed families. It is a tragedy that the nation has been forced to spend so much to tame the financial crisis and end the Great Recession. Yet is has been money well spent. From the [American Enterprise Institute](http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Enterprise_Institute) report [The Year Ahead](http://www.aei.org/outlook/100928): > [@](#): > > The real economy also responded to the massive stimulus but remained heavily dependent on it. In the United States, growth during the second half of 2009 probably averaged about 3 percent. Absent temporary fiscal stimulus and inventory rebuilding, which taken together added about 4 percentage points to U.S. growth, the economy would have contracted at about a 1 percent annual rate during the second half of 2009. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067/40 "2010-01-15T18:40:07Z")
Una, what was it about Clinton that you didn’t like? The peace or the prosperity? And what could Obama have done to warrant a D+ in gun control? I don’t recall him saying a thing about it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assess-obamas-first-year-performance/525067.md?page=3)