What he’s doing is putting Immelt and McChrystal in places where they can’t fuck anything up. Do you really think the White House “commission on military families” is actually going to do anything?
He could “ask” McCrrystal to retire.
As for the OP, I’m on board with the WTF?? sentiment, but this is pretty small stuff. Background noise, really.
I really can’t stand people who bitch about president Obama. The Democratic agenda in 2008 boiled down to, “Get the White House back from the Republicans.” Obama was determined to be the best compromise weapon to get that done. And boy howdy, what sane person isn’t glad the Dems got their way? Are we forgetting he defeated a reanimated corpse/puppet and Caribou Barbie? How sensitive does the OP think McCain (with Rove and Steele as puppet masters) would have been in…well, anything? We’d never know because the entire world would be too busy gawking at the VP and gasping in horror at every inane thing she babbled to ever notice what the grown-ups were getting up to.
Obama’s not perfect. The USA isn’t perfect. Democracy is an imperfect system. These are not mysteries. But until someone can demonstrate a soundly better alternative, it is just plain loony to decide any of them are “major disappointments.” Obama was born a poor black child who finally grew up some time in his 20s. Clinton didn’t exactly come the securest family either. There’s really no reason shrill bitches like the OP can’t put their money where their mouths are and seize control of the reins themselves if they think the job is so straightforward. But bitching is easier than doing.
A primary challenge will = a Republican victory. You better hope Obama with warts and all wins re-election as the Republican platform is so far from the left as to be frightening.
As a moderate independent, overall I still like what Obama is doing considering the obstacles in Congress. Once again the silly Dems could not rally behind their President the way the Repubs have been doing since Reagan. It is a shame the Repubs keep moving right and the Dems just stay ineffective.
Ironically, it’s folks like the OP that kept Obama from being able to accomplish much when the Dem’s controlled the whole kit and kaboodle.
C’mon somebody’s got to be the next Colin Powell*!
It’s so cute that you still have expectations . . . that you actually think other people are going to live up to.
Just curious, how old are you? Just trying to figure out if my cynicism is innate or a function of age.
(Is so nice being old enough to remember Nixon . . . but not JFK.)
CMC fnord!
- Everybody does know about Colin Powell and the My Lai Massacre, right?
… “I recall a phrase we used in the field, MAM, for military-age male,” Powell wrote. “If a helo spotted a peasant in black pajamas who looked remotely suspicious, a possible MAM, the pilot would circle and fire in front of him. If he moved, his movement was judged evidence of hostile intent, and the next burst was not in front, but at him. Brutal? Maybe so. … The kill-or-be-killed nature of combat tends to dull fine perceptions of right and wrong.” …
Door Gunner in Full Metal Jacket: Anyone who runs is a VC. Anyone who stands still is a well disciplined VC.
Y’all didn’t actually think Stanley Kubrick and Gustav Hasford just made all that shit up?
How about expecting him to live up to his campaign promises.
He folds every time the Republicans raise. Is it any wonder that the Republicans keep raising?
Is there anything he is willing to fight for? Anything he is willing to lose an election over?
Well, that one might not be irrational, but it’s sure as hell not an expectation grounded in tradition. 
But, seriously. This made a ghost of a flimmer of a blip on the radar on this side of the sea. When the analysts covered it, they basically said “Obama puts political embarassments in make-work appointments, expects them to work from home. Next, please.”