I'll give Obama credit. He's made tremendous strides in health care, ended the war in Iraq, caught the world's most wanted terrorist and repealed 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' There's no doubting his intelligence or his commitment to the job he's been elected to do. Not to mention, he's got a great sense of humor, which, in his job, can carry you a long way. Yet, why, when many other presidents have been re-elected for accomplishing far less, does it feel like he's let us down? I believe it has to do with the expectations he, himself, set on the campaign trail. Could it be that the thing that rocketed him from obscurity to the front of the pack -his incredible ability as an orator -is also to blame for his downfall? I'd have to say "Yes." We all know you're not supposed to fall for most of what a politician says when they're campaigning, but I believed him. Like many others, to me, he was more than a politician. Live and learn.
I don't know about you, but I'm still seriously pissed off at him for not being the 'kick-ass' type of guy he campaigned to be, and I just can't bring myself to support him, wholeheartedly, for another four years, no matter what his accomplishments are, because I still feel he let me down in a big way.
That being said, I'd rather stick an eighty-foot straw into a recently fracked natural gas well and start sucking than vote for any of the circus clowns the GOP have reluctantly paraded before us. Watching Gingrich, Bachmann, Perry, and of course, Cain, is like an episode of the $1.98 Beauty Show. And, I definitely feel we're overpaying.
One example of why Obama is a major disappointment, is Obamacare. Wasn't he elected on health care reform? So, what went wrong? It's not so much the policies, or the individual mandate, "It's the COST, stupid!" But, Obama & co. totally blew it, as a great majority of us still think Obamacare will add a trillion dollars to the deficit. And, since we're going broke, who would want that? When the Congressional Budget Office came out with their evaluation of the first incarnation of Obamacare, the republicans did a masterful job of screaming to the heavens about it. And when they did, did Obama go before the cameras and say, "This is not what I asked for. Now get yer butts back in there and give me the damn health care plan I promised the American people?" No, he did not. He and his peeps quitely put their tails between their legs and went back to the drawing board. Then, when they ultimately emerged with a new version of Obamacare, one that the same Budget Office determined would SAVE the deficit over a hundred-billion-dollars-plus down the line, did he scream to the heavens and burn that result into the minds of the people and make sure the republicans' unsubstantiated cries were silenced once and for all? Let's put it this way: If you asked 100 people right now if Obamacare would subtract from or add to the deficit, I'll bet ninety percent would say "Add." And that's a shame, but the republicans apparently know much more than the democrats about first impressions.
Granted, it's just another in a never-ending string of failures by the Democrats as a whole to defend themselves, dating all the way back to Kerry not demanding a recount, but it's also a failure of our Commander-in-Chief, who seemed to wear that red cape like a glove when he was campaigning, but, inexplicably, the moment he took office he fashioned the cape into a skirt.
I applaud his effort for attempting to reach his hand across the aisle and offer it to the GOP, but when they chomped, chewed, and bit down on it to the point where all he pulled back was a bloody stump, that was the time the gloves should have come off. And, they didn't. He kept allowing them to take pot shots until he resembled the frozen meat Rocky pounded on in the freezer.
When Mitch McConnell publicly stated his one mission was to make sure Obama was a "one-term president," there should have been outrage. Working against Obama means working against the American people. So, where was the fury he demonstrated so eloquently on the campaign trail now that he was up against a clearly unmotivated and immovable object? Ya got me.
Where is the fury now that it's been exposed Congress can legally commit insider trading fraud? (This one just boggles the mind.) Where is the rage when we send Wall Street crooks to jail for decades, yet our Congressmen and women are rewarded with huge sums of money for trading on the same information? Supposedly, there's a bill "in the works" but that could take years and in the meantime, the Facebook IPO is just around the corner. Merry xmas, Congress.
Unfortunately, it seems Occupy Wall Street, and all its spin-offs, are a direct result of Obama's lack of command over this rag tag bunch of hooligans. He could have been a one-man Occupy Wall Street. After all, wasn't that also part of his campaign? Instead, he seems like the substitute teacher who took over Mr. Kotter's class last Tuesday and still hasn't figured out he's got a "kick me" sign on the back of his jacket. No doubt, his re-election campaign will attempt to put the horses back into the barn with all their "This time, we're really gonna crack that whip," but had he cracked that whip a bit earlier the horses would still be in there.
Of course, I'm voting for him, but I'm also hoping Eliot Spitzer throws his hat in the ring for the next one. Any guy who can piss off Wall Street to the point where they hire a private detective to tail him while he's getting tail is exactly the kind of guy we need in the White House. If Spitzer were in office, Mitch McConnell would be stuffed and hanging in the oval office as we speak.
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