# President Obama is off to a good start **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 23, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651 "2009-01-23T15:51:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651/41 "2009-01-24T06:05:52Z")
> [@spike404](#): > > I am still waiting for any opinions as to what the reponses would be if GWB had done the same thing? No, “what-ifs”, just an opinion in-re to the exact same order. > > Simple–positive, or negative, responses? If George W. Bush had issued such an order in his first week, my response would probably have been something along the lines of “Maybe he’s not such a tool after all.” It might cause me to start reevaluating the negative opinion I had formed of him during the campaign, unlike the present case, in which Obama’s actions have pretty much matched my expectations so far. ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651/42 "2009-01-24T08:07:03Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > Obama takes a huge step in the right direction on lobbyists and people are giving him grief that he is not doing it perfectly. I think we may need to get used to it. Obama also limited the pay of the staff and the first response I heard was “Well they’re all millionaires anyway, now Obama limits them to ‘just’ $100,000 a year!” That’s right. I guess Obama is just lining the pockets of rich Democrats unless he gets an all-volunteer White House staff (which after asking, was honest to God what he wanted).:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651/43 "2009-01-24T11:53:42Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > If you make a rule which excludes exceptions, THAT is an indicator that you’ve made an asinine rule. I’m talking about a rule in which you exclude people with a blanket prohibition, but decide not to include John Doe in your rule. For example: I make a rule that no convicted felon can work in my business, but I make an exception for Bill Smith because I know that while he was convicted of tax evasion 30 years ago, he is a changed man and a hard worker. Now, that should be the first indicator to me that my rule might not be a good one. How many other "Bill Smith"s are out there that I will toss away without a second look because of a prior felony conviction? So, then I learn, and instead of making exceptions, I tweak the rule. Perhaps no violent felonies, or no felonies in the past 15 years. ---
**Author:** ![Yodalicious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yodalicious/32/8195_2.png) [@Yodalicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yodalicious)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651/44 "2009-01-24T12:33:35Z")
This [article](http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/23/campbell.brown.lobbyists/index.html) on [cnn.com](http://cnn.com) has a quote from the president: > [@](#): > > “The executive order on ethics I will sign shortly represents a clean break from business as usual. As of today, lobbyists will be subject to stricter limits than under any other administration in history. **If you are a lobbyist entering my administration, you will not be able to work on matters you lobbied on, or in the agencies you lobbied during the previous two years.** (bold for emphasis) When you leave government, you will not be able to lobby my administration for as long as I am president.” It seems pretty clear that Mr. Obama is trying to get around his own rule. That being said, it doesn’t really bother me. Maybe, I’m just cynical about government. I joined the Obama Nation of my own free will, but I had no doubts in my mind that he is still a politician. If politicians are known for one thing, it’s trying to get around their own rules. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651/45 "2009-01-24T12:50:53Z")
Meh, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. What did W do when he first got elected? go and clear some bush in Crawford, now comes Obama and does the same thing at the White House… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651/46 "2009-01-24T14:26:15Z")
I think Obama created more trouble than it was worth with this policy statement, since it’s essentially meaningless. It boils down to: “I won’t hire lobbyists, unless I feel like doing so.” He should have just said something like: “Look, I don’t like having a lot of lobbyists in government, so I’ll try not to hire too many of them. However, if I feel like someone really is better than all of the other candidates, I’ll hire them, whatever their lobbyist status is.” Don’t make something so wishy-washy a written policy; he should have just made it a verbal statement of intention. So yeah, this is a minor fuck-up, but I still think he’s doing just fine in his first three days. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651/47 "2009-01-24T15:50:15Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > I’m talking about a rule in which you exclude people with a blanket prohibition, but decide not to include John Doe in your rule. If you have a built in waiver process, it’s not a blanket prohibition. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2009, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651/48 "2009-01-25T05:13:32Z")
Moving on (yeah, right), [whitehouse.gov](http://whitehouse.gov) now has what is meant to be the first weekly video [address](http://www.whitehouse.gov/president-obama-delivers-your-weekly-address/) from Obama. This one is all about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, and is accompanied by the text of the address and a PDF that goes into more detail. There’s a lot of stuff in there. Some highlights: • Create or save 3 to 4 million jobs over the next two years. Independent analyses by Macroeconomic Advisers and [Economy.com](http://Economy.com) have confirmed that the recovery plan will meet this job goal. Jobs created will be in a range of industries from clean energy to health care, with over 90% in the private sector. • Spend out at least 75% of the package in the first 18 months after passage. By including major fast-spending provisions like tax cuts for middle class families, measures to avoid state health care cuts, and temporary expansions of unemployment insurance, food stamps and health care for unemployed workers, the package will spend out at least 75% of its total commitment within the first 18 months after passage. The Administration will work with Congress to refine this package to ensure that it meets this 75% goal. • Doubles renewable energy generating capacity over three years. • Launches the most ambitious school modernization program on record, sufficient to upgrade 10,000 schools and improve learning environments for approximately 5 million children. • Enacts the largest investment increase in our nation’s roads, bridges and mass transit systems since the creation of the national highway system in the 1950s. • Launching a Clean Energy Finance Initiative to leverage $100 billion in private sector clean energy investments over three years. • Accelerating adoption of health IT systems to modernize the health care system, save billions of dollars, reduce medical errors and improve quality. • The plan will increase the Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage so that no state has to cut eligibility for Medicaid and SCHIP because of budget shortfalls. This investment will protect roughly 20 million people whose eligibility might otherwise be at risk. • Providing health care coverage for nearly 8.5 million Americans. The plan will also provide newly uninsured Americans who lose their jobs a new tax credit to keep their health insurance through COBRA as well as a new option in Medicaid for low-income people that lack access to COBRA. • Making the single largest investment in prevention in history. • An historic investment to school modernization, sufficient to renovate and modernizing 10,000 schools. • Increasing college affordability for 7 million students by funding the shortfall in Pell Grants and increasing the maximum award level by $500. • Providing a new higher education tax cut to nearly 4 million students. • Tripling the number of undergraduate and graduate fellowships in science, • The plan will double the Early Head Start program, which will not only provide an additional 350,000 children access to quality pre-k services, but will create at least 15,000 new teaching and teaching assistant jobs, as well as new supervisory and support positions. • Preventing teacher layoffs and education cuts in every state, maintaining key reforms, and ensuring all schools have advanced technology for the 21st century economy. Rebuilding America’s Roads and Bridges and Investing in 21st Century Infrastructure • Enhancing the security of 90 major ports, to improve homeland security, increase international trade and commerce, and create jobs. • Modernizing our nation’s water systems with funding to support 1,300 new wastewater projects, 380 new drinking water projects and construction of 1000 rural water and sewer systems, ensuring that 1.5 million people have new or improved service. • Supporting our troops and veterans by making much-needed repairs to military housing units and accelerating modernization of VA medical facilities to properly serve our veterans Supporting America’s Working Families • Providing a $1,000 Making Work Pay tax cut for 95 of workers and their families. • Cutting taxes for more than 16 million children through an expansion of the Child Tax Credit. • **No earmarks for any proposal in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan**. • **Full transparency. When the plan is enacted, all citizens will have the ability to see how recovery funds are spent on a new website, [www.recovery.gov](http://www.recovery.gov).** • **Strict oversight with independent review.** ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2009, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651/49 "2009-01-25T05:29:59Z")
Reading that list, it strikes me that the severity of our current economic crisis may actually be a blessing in disguise for Obama, in this way: Were he to seek to enact all this stuff so swiftly and comprehensively during a time of prosperity, the opposition to such (what would be characterized as) profligate spending and federal debt ballooning would surely be strong enough to truncate much of what he proposed. But the times are so dire, the needs are so great, that Obama has a lot more leeway, a lot more support for such wide-ranging, dramatic programs because half-measures and timidity it’s clear can’t solve our problems and the public to a large degree are willing to trust Obama to do what’s necessary. Which is not to say that he’s going to get everything he wants, or considerable swathes of it without some major fights; but I do believe he has more of an upper hand than he would in more conventional times. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2009, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651/50 "2009-01-25T06:35:53Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > Which is not to say that he’s going to get everything he wants, or considerable swathes of it without some major fights; but I do believe he has more of an upper hand than he would in more conventional times. I suspect he will be selling his health care and environment reforms by telling people that they are necessary to help the economy. If you want to make yourself nauseous, imagine (like I just did), what McCain would have done with this unprecedented political power. It’s actually hard to think about. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2009, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651/51 "2009-01-25T06:54:52Z")
I’d rather not think about McCain in charge of this, thankyouverymuch. Let alone Palin. _shudder_ ---
**Author:** ![rainwalker78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rainwalker78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rainwalker78)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651/52 "2009-01-26T16:25:25Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > Bad idea. If he wants to do this preemptively, the signature of the White House counsel should be fine. The Attorney General should be out of this loop - as the Justice Department is not involved in these decisions and indeed, in cases of prosecutions against White House officials, would be the ones bringing these cases to the grand jury. > > Worse than the president defending executive privilege claims independently would be him dragging the Justice Department into it. I don’t know, I think the point is that someone outside the whitehouse is involved in the decision. We could probably find specifics to debate about all day, but my point was that he was making an effort at openness. I know I disagree with him about some stuff, and I am sure that even when I agree with him I will disagree about the execution of some of his policy. I am just impressed that some of his first actions seem to indicate that he is indeed serious about this whole change thing. > [@Windwalker](#): > > I think Obama created more trouble than it was worth with this policy statement, since it’s essentially meaningless. It boils down to: “I won’t hire lobbyists, unless I feel like doing so.” He should have just said something like: “Look, I don’t like having a lot of lobbyists in government, so I’ll try not to hire too many of them. However, if I feel like someone really is better than all of the other candidates, I’ll hire them, whatever their lobbyist status is.” Don’t make something so wishy-washy a written policy; he should have just made it a verbal statement of intention. > > So yeah, this is a minor fuck-up, but I still think he’s doing just fine in his first three days. This pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter. Windwalker - cool user user name. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651/53 "2009-01-27T23:14:50Z")
> [@](#): > > I suspect he will be selling his health care and environment reforms by telling people that they are necessary to help the economy. > > If you want to make yourself nauseous, imagine (like I just did), what McCain would have done with this unprecedented political power. It’s actually hard to think about. To be fair, McCain’s energy policy was almost identical to Obama’s (and pretty decent in either case, in my opinion). So on that score, at least, we wouldn’t have been too bad off. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651/54 "2009-01-28T18:11:48Z")
I had serious doubts about his ability to be effective against an simply-oppositionist opposition, but yes, so far he’s said and done all the right things (in his first week :D). [I like this, for instance:](http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/01/28/obama_presses_gop_ahead_of_stimulus_vote/) > [@](#): > > Republicans praised Obama’s candor and willingness to reach across the aisle, but said he conceded little ground and probably won few, if any, converts. He staunchly defended one of their least favorite provisions, a $500-per-individual tax credit that can be claimed by people who make too little to pay income taxes but currently pay payroll taxes. Republicans oppose the so-called refundable credits, arguing they are a form of welfare. > > “ **Feel free to whack me over the head because I probably will not compromise on that part** ,” Obama said of the refundability portion, according to a GOP participant who took notes during the House meeting. “ **I will watch you on Fox News and feel bad about myself**.” Hillary Clinton couldn’t have said it better herself.😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-is-off-to-a-good-start/482651.md?page=2)