You have an aging veterans population with increasing medical problems combined with the Republicans cutting budgets: how exactly is the VA supposed to treat everyone?
given his pullout and the collapse of the region and subsequent rise of ISIS drawing us into a war with Russia, that’s exactly what Obama has done.
Not to be content with that he poured fuel on the Arab Spring fire by removing Gaddafi.
WTF?? Did I miss the news that thousands of American service men and women died in combat in the last 8 years?
Not done well is a gross understatement. It is a massive fuckup and has been from the day it was passed.
You said they died for nothing. Obama’s handling of the region is on track to ensuring that will be the case.
There was no possibility that they could have died for something. It was an impossible cause from the beginning, and the least bad option was to get Americans out of there to keep more from dying for nothing.
uh huh. Now we have ISIS and 18 thousand more dead bodies.
Would have had that anyway, unless we never had gone in in the first place. Once we took down Saddam, ISIS (or equivalent) was inevitable, and there’s nothing we could have done about it, short of something like keeping half a million soldiers in the country for 50 years, which would have meant hundreds of thousands of Americans dead.
Not worth it at all.
Most Canadians like Obama. I think his administration was ethical. He was handed a mess by Bush and performed modestly, not showing enough gumption until the end of his second term. Obamacare was needed but made too many compromises and really required signing up more healthy people to make it work. His foreign policy was perhaps a little naive, and he earned a reputation for being anti business. He faced enormous obstructionism in an era where bipartisanship was very difficult, even simple matters like budgeting. He had a golden opportunity to improve race relations which seem worse now, though it is unclear he is fully blameworthy. He had exceptional poise and conducted himself with class and humour. His successes would have lasted longer had he been better at negotiating with the Republicans despite being difficult to do. Since his popularity remains high it is unclear he is responsible for the mess the Democrats are in. I wish he had made more reforms and stuck closer to his original vision.
The thing about race relations is that when people expect progress and it doesn’t come as fast as they like, unrest occurs. We saw it during LBJs time too. When republicans are in charge, or more conservative Democrats, like Clinton, there’s grumbling but not widespread anger and rage because no one expects anything. Obama was supposed to improve race relations, but he couldn’t do that by just being the first black President. In fact, being the first black president was constraining. He couldn’t be seen to be focusing on African-American issues, that wouldn’t have just alienated whites, but also Latinos and Asians too. When you’re President, you’re President for everyone and he tried his best to be that President.
Well, if by deterioration, you mean that his Presidency helped expose the ugly underbelly of racism that still exists in America, I agree. I don’t think it really reflects badly on him though.
Well, of course, Obamacare will not survive in name but my guess is that many of the provisions of it will likely survive. The Republicans are going to find it rather difficult to rollback the popular provisions like kids staying on their parents’ insurance, no exclusions for pre-existing conditions, subsidies to get health insurance, …
He was ultimately responsible for the decision to go ahead with the operation, despite the uncertainties. He certainly would have gotten a good share of the blame if it had been unsuccessful, so he gets a good share of the credit since it was.
Cite providing evidence that healthcare costs have been increasing more rapidly than the trajectory they were on?
Bush inherited a fiscal situation so good that the biggest concern that Alan Greenspan had was that the debt would be paid down too quickly. He immediately squandered it and left office with a huge deficit as well as an economy in economic free-fall that could only be stopped with massive government spending.
Obama inherited that mess and has steadily reduced the deficits, as well as unemployment.
Total different situations. The U.S. invaded Iraq (and after Saddam had been successfully forced to comply with an intrusive inspection regime that was only showing that the U.S. intelligence regarding supposed weapons of mass destruction was garbage: Inspectors Call U.S. Tips 'Garbage' - CBS News ). In Libya, there was a civil war and a time-critical decision had to be made as to whether to just let the regime beat back the rebels or to help the rebels topple Kahdafi.
We have also had the longest streak of private sector job growth in history. And, that is despite having a Congress after the 1st two years whose only stated goal was to undermine the President.
As usual, you conservatives live in a world unencumbered by actual facts.
The Good:
He did save our financial institutions, and the nation’s economy itself from utter ruin.
Obamacare finally gave people a way to get healthcare without a middleman “broker” and see what they’re really getting.
The increased MPG standards, got electric cars off the ground, and promoted environmental improvement and innovation.
He re-instituted embryonic stem cell research funding, promoted abortion choice, and marriage equality.
The Bad:
He alienated allies like Israel, muddied things with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and others in the name of being contra-Bush. Even for allies publicly critical of Israel, tho privately friends with them or not hostile, it made them wonder who was next to go under the bus.
Muslim jihad has continued to spread, and America is not leading to stop and beat it, for fear of offending a few people or being too “Bush-like” regarding use of force.
His Iran deal gives them $150 billion and they don’t even stop chanting "death to " countries, let alone us getting anything else. Iran still races towards a nuke.
He got into divisive issues like Trayvon/Zimmerman (whereas Bill Clinton stayed out of ones like OJ Simpson), the “beer summit,” he let his surrogates accuse Republicans of racism a little too liberally, delved into the Washington Redskins, had an AG that called America a “nation of cowards,” and others like transgenderism.
His apology tour made America look weak and timid, as well as angered more fervent patriots. It made America lose face in the world. Leading from behind on Libya was also bad news.
I think he’s grown incredibly over the past eight years—as a leader, a world leader, as a politician, and as a statesman. Kudos to him.
This is false. Their ability to develop nukes is massively reduced by this deal.
There’s no way he could have avoided most of this. He could have not fought for trans rights, but he wanted to help people who were discriminated against rather that cater to bigotry.
There was no apology tour. This didn’t happen. Your criticism is mostly not based on facts.
He did not alienate Israel. Likud Party != Israel (where I am using != in the Python sense- “not equal to”). I don’t even know what you mean about muddying things with Saudi Arabia.
Again, a bunch of horseshit. Your beef with Obama seems mainly to be based on the fact that he is not willing to use the type of language and say the sorts of things that would be ideal for ISIS recruitment videos.
The money was Iranian money that had been frozen. Evidence that “Iran still races towards a nuke”?
You have repeatedly been unable to successfully defend your arguments on why what he said was divisive in threads where you have brought this up.
There was no apology tour…That is a figment of the Right’s imagination. As for admitting that the U.S. has ever been less than perfect in the past, that strengthens America’s face in the world. It is who you call “fervent patriots” (because you don’t understand the difference between patriotism and jingoism) who make America lose face in the world.
“his pullout”? Obama’s pullout? :dubious:
No it wasn’t inevitable. But by walking away we made it so. Obama then doubled down on it by eliminating Gadaffi and walking away.
Question, who set the timetable for withdrawal?
I’m just wondering if you know that the date of withdrawal was set by Bush, and the Iraqis refused to extend it.
And that if we stayed without the agreements necessary US troops would be subject to arrest and prosecution.
It appears that you are advocating either US soldiers have no legal protection, or of re-invading to take control of their government. Which is it?
If we hadn’t left, hundreds or even thousands more American service men and women – guys I served with – would be dead.
You might be willing to sacrifice their lives just on the slight chance that the situation was manageable in Iraq, but I’m not. The US military is not a sponge to absorb hell abroad just because we’re a tiny bit afraid of a minuscule organization that, at most, could kill a few dozen Americans per year, unless we stayed and presented an easy local target.
Boo to Americans willing to get my friends killed just to feel slightly safer when they have no reason to feel unsafe to begin with.