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Grade Obama so far!

How do you grade Obama's presidency so far


  • Total voters
    81
In that case, grade Obama accordingly. My post detailed the pros and cons of why I thought Obama was worth an A-. You disagree? Post your own grade and outline the reasons for it.





You could, except that I made no outline of political action, only what I wanted to see more of policy-wise. In addition, need I remind you that you took issue with my liberal position in the first place, and by making the statement "More liberal? Don't you guys care about what the rest of America likes? We're a center-right nation, and Obama is already starting to alienate independents and moderates, and don't expect a Tea Party-Party to take votes away from the GOP, because, according to liberals, the Tea-party IS the GOP..." - you'll excuse me if I find your belief that you are somehow more 'socially liberal' than myself a bit suspect.

I don't have a problem with your grade. I was just making a general statement about your policy goals in general, though I may have read into your words a little more than was necessary...:2razz:

My personal grade for Obama would vary upon the perspective I assume; purely ideologically speaking, I would give him an F, and say that he's an abomination of a President for many reasons; looking at it from a "pragmatic" perspective, I would give him a solid C; the status quo is still pretty much in place and in tact.
 
ECONOMY: Reappointing Bernanke is the best thing he's done on this front. The stimulus package was good, although it should have been bigger. But that's not really Obama's fault...more Congress' fault. The bailouts have had hits and misses...more hits than misses. Most of the banks have already repaid their TARP loans with interest and are actually set to turn a profit for the year. Aside from the gratuitous bailouts to the UAW (err, I mean GM, Chrysler, and GMAC), he generally did a pretty good job. He has spoken favorably about continuing to allow small businesses to expense their capital expenditures when they're paying their taxes, which is a good sign. Economy grade: A-

FOREIGN POLICY: He's generally been pretty good. Certainly better than Bush, but then, that isn't setting the bar very high. Beginning the withdrawal process from Iraq is a step in the right direction, as is scrapping the missile defense system in Eastern Europe and trying to improve relations with Russia. I'm very skeptical about his Afghanistan strategy...frankly I agree with the warhawks who criticize him for wanting to pull the troops out as soon as they get there. If we're going to have a surge, let's surge. If his heart isn't in it, then let's just come home. I have a BIG problem with sending troops to die for no good reason. On Gitmo, progress has been slow but nevertheless progress has been made. I also give Obama a lot of credit for not getting too deeply involved in the Iranian election mess last summer, when he was under incredible pressure to do so. I would like to see him offer enthusiastic support to our pending trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea...so far, he's been disappointing on that front. Foreign policy grade: B

HEALTH CARE: This has been a mess. I realize that it isn't entirely Obama's fault, as the Democrats have exactly 60 votes (if Lieberman even counts) and almost all of the Republicans have chosen total opposition instead of constructive negotiation. However, Obama should have set the tone of the debate earlier. In his efforts not to repeat the Clintons' mistakes, he went overboard in the other direction by basically letting Congress do whatever they want. Health care grade: C+

Overall, I'd give Obama's first year in office a B.
 
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ECONOMY: Reappointing Bernanke is the best thing he's done on this front. The stimulus package was good, although it should have been bigger. But that's not really Obama's fault...more Congress' fault. The bailouts have had hits and misses...more hits than misses. Most of the banks have already repaid their TARP loans with interest and are actually set to turn a profit for the year. Aside from the gratuitous bailouts to the UAW (err, I mean GM, Chrysler, and GMAC), he generally did a pretty good job. He has spoken favorably about continuing to allow small businesses to expense their capital expenditures when they're paying their taxes, which is a good sign. Economy grade: A-

FOREIGN POLICY: He's generally been pretty good. Certainly better than Bush, but then, that isn't setting the bar very high. Beginning the withdrawal process from Iraq is a step in the right direction, as is scrapping the missile defense system in Eastern Europe and trying to improve relations with Russia. I'm very skeptical about his Afghanistan strategy...frankly I agree with the warhawks who criticize him for wanting to pull the troops out as soon as they get there. If we're going to have a surge, let's surge. If his heart isn't in it, then let's just come home. I have a BIG problem with sending troops to die for no good reason. On Gitmo, progress has been slow but nevertheless progress has been made. I also give Obama a lot of credit for not getting too deeply involved in the Iranian election mess last summer, when he was under incredible pressure to do so. I would like to see him offer enthusiastic support to our pending trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea...so far, he's been disappointing on that front. Foreign policy grade: B

HEALTH CARE: This has been a mess. I realize that it isn't entirely Obama's fault, as the Democrats have exactly 60 votes (if Lieberman even counts) and almost all of the Republicans have chosen total opposition instead of constructive negotiation. However, Obama should have set the tone of the debate earlier. In his efforts not to repeat the Clintons' mistakes, he went overboard in the other direction by basically letting Congress do whatever they want. Health care grade: C+

Overall, I'd give Obama's first year in office a B.

That's a pretty good synopsis.
 
ECONOMY: Reappointing Bernanke is the best thing he's done on this front. The stimulus package was good, although it should have been bigger. But that's not really Obama's fault...more Congress' fault. The bailouts have had hits and misses...more hits than misses. Most of the banks have already repaid their TARP loans with interest and are actually set to turn a profit for the year. Aside from the gratuitous bailouts to the UAW (err, I mean GM, Chrysler, and GMAC), he generally did a pretty good job. He has spoken favorably about continuing to allow small businesses to expense their capital expenditures when they're paying their taxes, which is a good sign. Economy grade: A-



With jobless around 10% with actual around 17% did you factor that into your A-?



FOREIGN POLICY: He's generally been pretty good. Certainly better than Bush, but then, that isn't setting the bar very high. Beginning the withdrawal process from Iraq is a step in the right direction, as is scrapping the missile defense system in Eastern Europe and trying to improve relations with Russia. I'm very skeptical about his Afghanistan strategy...frankly I agree with the warhawks who criticize him for wanting to pull the troops out as soon as they get there. If we're going to have a surge, let's surge. If his heart isn't in it, then let's just come home. I have a BIG problem with sending troops to die for no good reason. On Gitmo, progress has been slow but nevertheless progress has been made. I also give Obama a lot of credit for not getting too deeply involved in the Iranian election mess last summer, when he was under incredible pressure to do so. I would like to see him offer enthusiastic support to our pending trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea...so far, he's been disappointing on that front. Foreign policy grade: B


You grade easy my friend.... :lol:



HEALTH CARE: This has been a mess. I realize that it isn't entirely Obama's fault, as the Democrats have exactly 60 votes (if Lieberman even counts) and almost all of the Republicans have chosen total opposition instead of constructive negotiation. However, Obama should have set the tone of the debate earlier. In his efforts not to repeat the Clintons' mistakes, he went overboard in the other direction by basically letting Congress do whatever they want. Health care grade: C+

Overall, I'd give Obama's first year in office a B.



:lol: this sounds like less than a C+ to me... but your grade. :shrug:
 
HEALTH CARE: This has been a mess. I realize that it isn't entirely Obama's fault, as the Democrats have exactly 60 votes (if Lieberman even counts) and almost all of the Republicans have chosen total opposition instead of constructive negotiation. However, Obama should have set the tone of the debate earlier. In his efforts not to repeat the Clintons' mistakes, he went overboard in the other direction by basically letting Congress do whatever they want. Health care grade: C+

Overall, I'd give Obama's first year in office a B.

how the **** are the REpublicans supposed to be involved when they can not even get in the door?

also guess you missed all the republican ideas that would not cost a dime and would only take a few pages to write
how about writing across state lines
taking it with you when you change jobs
eliminate pre-existing conditions
tort reform
etc...

just because you are not listening, does not mean alternatives are not being proposed. You sound like Reid *fingers in ears* lalalallaalalalal
 
With jobless around 10% with actual around 17% did you factor that into your A-?
wtf are you talking about? because he rushed through the stimulus unemployment did not go above 8%
thank god for the Messiah. we must eliminate presidential term limits

/sarcasm
 
With jobless around 10% with actual around 17% did you factor that into your A-?

U6 is not a measure to go by entirely. As far as labeling it actual.... well that's really pushing it!

* U1: Percentage of labor force unemployed 15 weeks or longer.
* U2: Percentage of labor force who lost jobs or completed temporary work.
* U3: Official unemployment rate per ILO definition.
* U4: U3 + "discouraged workers", or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.
* U5: U4 + other "marginally attached workers", or "loosely attached workers", or those who "would like" and are able to work, but have not looked for work recently.
* U6: U5 + Part time workers who want to work full time, but cannot due to economic reasons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemploymenthttp://
 
With jobless around 10% with actual around 17% did you factor that into your A-?

No. I didn't really grade him on the state of the economy, but more in terms of how he's responded to it. After all, it's not like unemployment is high because of Obama.
 
how the **** are the REpublicans supposed to be involved when they can not even get in the door?

They've chosen to not be a part of the debate.

DeeJayH said:
also guess you missed all the republican ideas that would not cost a dime and would only take a few pages to write

I'm not talking about a few token ideas that Republicans have advocated so that they can say they have an alternative. Where are the enthusiastic proponents of these ideas, and why didn't they seriously try to implement any of them when they had the White House and Congress?

DeeJayH said:
how about writing across state lines
taking it with you when you change jobs
eliminate pre-existing conditions
tort reform
etc...

A public option would also allow more portability across states/jobs, so that is not exclusively the domain of Republicans. Nor is eliminating preexisting conditions; I've yet to see a serious health care reform proposal that DIDN'T do that.

Tort reform is certainly a good idea as well, but it's hardly an alternative plan by itself. The effect of tort reform alone would be pretty small. At any rate, the Republicans don't seem particularly interested in getting some version of ANY of these ideas into the health care reform bill.
 
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They've chosen to not be a part of the debate.



I'm not talking about a few token ideas that Republicans have advocated so that they can say they have an alternative. Where are the enthusiastic proponents of these ideas, and why didn't they seriously try to implement any of them when they had the White House and Congress?



A public option would also allow more portability across states/jobs, so that is not exclusively the domain of Republicans. Nor is eliminating preexisting conditions; I've yet to see a serious health care reform proposal that DIDN'T do that.

Tort reform is certainly a good idea as well, but it's hardly an alternative plan by itself. The effect of tort reform alone would be pretty small. At any rate, the Republicans don't seem particularly interested in getting some version of ANY of these ideas into the health care reform bill.
ours does not cost $ trillions of $s
It does not get the govt more involved in a huge part of our economy
and the republicans can not contribute jack **** if they are not allowed in teh room where the bill is being created. So just cut the bull**** about obstructionists, it is so ****ing weak
 
ours does not cost $ trillions of $s
It does not get the govt more involved in a huge part of our economy
and the republicans can not contribute jack **** if they are not allowed in teh room where the bill is being created. So just cut the bull**** about obstructionists, it is so ****ing weak

Republicans aren't in the room because they've chosen not to be there. Of course the Democrats aren't going to compromise with them on anything when they've already pledged to oppose the final bill. Why would they give up anything if they aren't even going to get extra votes?

Witness Chuck Grassley's negotiating with Max Baucus last summer while simultaneously bragging to the voters back home how he was going to kill the bill. If that isn't bad faith negotiation, I don't know what is.
 
enjoy your delusions. why are the dems crafting this abomination behind closed doors?????? their own party does not know what is in it. starting to look like this bill may not pass. makes me happy

if the bill does pass, dems will lose both houses come elections, and than the presidency.

check your polls. most americans do not want this travesty of progressive idealism
 
enjoy your delusions. why are the dems crafting this abomination behind closed doors?????? their own party does not know what is in it. starting to look like this bill may not pass. makes me happy

if the bill does pass, dems will lose both houses come elections, and than the presidency.

check your polls. most americans do not want this travesty of progressive idealism
You guys elected Obama. Suck it up. lol
 
what retarded logic do you use to think a Conservative voted for Obama? :confused:
The American people elected Obama (he won the popular vote) - so you can whine that politicians don't rule for the people, but in the US every politician was either directly or indirectly put into power by the will of the people, so if they're unhappy then they should've picked someone else.
 
check your polls. most americans do not want this travesty of progressive idealism

The GOP approval rating is lower than the Dem approval rating, but the Dem rating is quickly sloping and almost evening out with the Repubs.

Both parties are spineless. I think the reelection results will be mixed.
 
MEMORANDUM

From: Barack Obama

I have just noticed the grades given to me by members of Debate Politics, and that the most votes are for "F". Therefore, by executive order, the meanings of these grades are to be changed to the following:

F- Fine
D-Dandy
C-Clever
B-Bad
A-Awful

And thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
 
MEMORANDUM

From: Barack Obama

I have just noticed the grades given to me by members of Debate Politics, and that the most votes are for "F". Therefore, by executive order, the meanings of these grades are to be changed to the following:

F- Fine
D-Dandy
C-Clever
B-Bad
A-Awful

And thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
 
MEMORANDUM

From: Barack Obama

I have just noticed the grades given to me by members of Debate Politics, and that the most votes are for "F". Therefore, by executive order, the meanings of these grades are to be changed to the following:

F- Fine
D-Dandy
C-Clever
B-Bad
A-Awful

And thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama

I appreciate you trying to be funny, but we got it the first time.
 
I appreciate you trying to be funny, but we got it the first time.

My browser hung up, and I accidentally posted it twice. Duh!!!! But, I imagine, that to you, this has to be some kind of Conservative conspiracy. :mrgreen:

And who is TRYING to be funny? I WAS funny. :mrgreen:
 
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Let's see. I'll try to be as objective about it as I can:


Economic Policy: B

Health Care: Still pending, so I'll give him a "B" for effort.

Foreign policy: A-

Defense: B

Speeches: A-

Environment: still pending, but if he succeeds in Copenhagen then probably a "B" or even "A-"

So I guess that would give him a B+. Hey, not bad.
 
Let's see. I'll try to be as objective about it as I can:

If you don't mind I'll make a similar list:


Economic Policy: D so far, but we will see where all this stimulus spending gets us.

Health Care: C, simply because he's obviously baling on the public option, trying to appeal to conservatives.

Foreign policy: B

Defense: B

Speeches: A

Environment: B, I don't really follow environmental politics, but I haven't heard anything stupid from him yet.

Despite all the Bs and the A, I still give him a C, but he has 3 years ahead of him. Obama has done a lot of stuff whether you agree with him or not, he has still done a lot, which means the time until 2013 should be used wisely.

I think he still has time to redeem himself.
 
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