Has Obama been a good President, or a poor President?

[regexcellent]

But not what he wanted passed. The democrats passed the health care bill that they did so that they could pass something called health care reform. That bill was a draft which was never intended to become law.

[Ben Kenobi]

Zero budgets in 4 years. Minus five on a scale of 1 to 10.

Obama is now losing the non-citizen vote!

[regexcellent]

Zero budgets in 4 years. Minus five on a scale of 1 to 10.

For once an actual valid point by Ben.

Oh, more on healthcare: if he really wanted bipartisanship, Obama could have yielded on one of the many policy proposals Republicans made, such as making it more difficult to sue doctors for malpractice and the general overhaul of our tort system, which would cut costs dramatically. But no, the dems are too beholden to plaintiffs' attorneys.

[Asher]

For once an actual valid point by Ben.

Oh, more on healthcare: if he really wanted bipartisanship, Obama could have yielded on one of the many policy proposals Republicans made, such as making it more difficult to sue doctors for malpractice and the general overhaul of our tort system, which would cut costs dramatically. But no, the dems are too beholden to plaintiffs' attorneys.

Cite?

[DinoDoc]

Cite?

On which part?

[Asher]

There's only one assertion in the post...

Malpractice/tort reform. It definitely needs to be reformed in the US.

[DinoDoc]

There's only one assertion in the post...

Malpractice/tort reform. It definitely needs to be reformed in the US.

There were actually several but re tort reform:

The man then asked why tort reform was not part of any health overhaul.

Dr. Dean replied that the more items in a big bill, the more enemies it will have. “The people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everyone else,” Dr. Dean said.

Dr. Dean also said he believed that patients should be able to bring actions against health care professionals, but they should go to arbitration. Then the case could go to trial, he said, but the arbitration verdict should be submitted as evidence. Not much reaction to that either way.

Mr. Moran [Northern Virginia Congressman Jim Moran] then apologized to the man whose identity he had questioned and added his 2 cents about why tort reform was not part of any bill. He said if it were, such a bill would have to go through the judiciary committee, which he said was one of the most partisan in Congress and would never have reported it out.

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.c...d-in-virginia/

[MrFun]

Obama has been a good president.

[kentonio]

Democrats controlled the ENTIRE GOVERNMENT with a supermajority in the senate for over a year and he couldn't get anything passed.

They had a senate supermajority for about 6 months from July 7, 2009 to February 4 2010 with a gap inbetween when kennedy needed replacing. They also had Leibermann in that 60 to contend with.

He made no attempts at bipartisanship whatsoever, for that matter.

Don't be a ****, there were endless attempts at working with the Republicans, and they were met with "Our number one priority is to make Obama a one term president".

His foreign policy has been an unmitigated disaster. His "Russian Reset" was a complete failure, he basically sold out eastern Europe, his middle east "let's **** Israel and then the Arabs will like us!" idea completely backfired, and his general policy of screwing over our allies and making overtures to our enemies convinces everyone to be our enemy instead of our friend.

If you actually believe this then you need to turn off Fox news and put down the crack pipe. **** over Israel? Is that why Ehud Barak said..

"I think that from my point of view as defense minister they are extremely good, extremely deep and profound. I can see long years, um, administrations of both sides of political aisle deeply supporting the state of Israeli and I believe that reflects a profound feeling among the American people," said Barak. "But I should tell you honestly that this administration under President Obama is doing in regard to our security more than anything that I can remember in the past."

Please explain how his Russia policies have failed exactly, and how he is supposed to have sold out Eastern Europe. I know already how completely wrong you are on both, but I'm interested to hear what bull**** you've been believing.

As for 'screwing over' your allies, who exactly the **** do you think your allies are? You seem pretty contemptuous about the European nations who worked closely with Obama over Libya for instance.

Euros like his foreign policy because he spent a couple of years telling everyone how much better Europe is than the United States, which is of course a load of horse**** but somehow liberals believe that poor socialist failed or failing states are superior to the most powerful country on earth.

Sure, he has. You can of course back that up with an actual quote can't you? Oh no wait, of course you can't believe it would be a ****ing ridiculous thing for an American president to say, which is why he didn't say it. You know what though, in a host of ways our countries ARE superior to yours, mostly only because while most of the world followed America's progressive lead for half a century, we continued to be progressive while you guys bunkered down and started living off your wet dreams about 'American Exceptionism' without bothering to actually do anything exceptional any more.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

I'm amazed by the confusion of ideas that could lead to a Yugoslavian believing that the US is on the brink of collapse because it might elect a capitalist.

Hey we have experience, and capitalist Bush did you a lot of good, as will this guy

[giblets]

See, my problem with this: A president should not be evaluated on 'Good' vs 'Bad'. He should be evaluated as to whether he accomplished the goals he desired to accomplish; and separately, on whether those goals were beneficial goals. I don't care if you like or don't like W, for example; he largely accomplished the goals he set out to accomplish (well, post-9/11 anyway). So he wasn't all bad - even if those goals were not beneficial goals in your mind. I'd always rather a president get something done, even if it's not what I agree with (with some limits, like, not Stalin) than get nothing done - and that's largely what Obama's done (or, rather, not done).

So if Obama's sole goal had been to end Don't Ask Don't Tell you'd rate him as "good" for accomplishing everything he set out to accomplish?

[snoopy369]

So if Obama's sole goal had been to end Don't Ask Don't Tell you'd rate him as "good" for accomplishing everything he set out to accomplish?

I suppose the 'accomplished goals' part, sure. But he wouldn't have been elected on that goal; and on the 'quality of goals' part he'd get a D (not that I disagree with it, but it's not important enough to be the sole goal of a President).

I think a lot of people forget why Obama was the candidate instead of Hillary. "Change." He spent a year convincing people he was progressive and would work for "Change". "Hope". Whatever. None of that happened. The world is not one iota different now than in 2009 in any way that matters. His healthcare bill is a joke - and I don't mean that as a Republican, I mean it doesn't do anything to fix the real problem (spiraling cost of health care). Doesn't deal with tort reform. DADT repeal is nice but it's just not that meaningful (Especially when a R could just reinstitute it). No change in Washington politics. No change in civil liberties (except maybe for the wores!). Higher and higher deficits. Didn't even repeal the tax breaks he ran on repealing... and we're still embroiled in Afghanistan with no end in sight (and possibly worse off than we were four years ago there).

For all you might hate GWB, he actually did much of what he set out to. He got his tax breaks. He fought the war in Iraq and got Saddam. Like I said before, you might disagree with his goals, but at least he had a goal and accomplished it, largely. A country with a direction is better off than a country without a direction, whichever direction that is.

During the healthcare debates, I very strongly wanted to see Obama pass a meaningful, comprehensive healthcare bill. Not because I would vote for one myself - but because it's AN answer, and maybe it's the right one. I don't claim to know everything. At least pass something, see if your answer is right, and if it's not, then we'll try something else. But I can't stand what they did - passing a worthless compromise bill that accomplishes nothing.

What happened to JFK? FDR? Ike? Nixon? People that actually tried to do things, instead of just trying to run for office 4 years later.

[DaShi]

His largest success is something he seems reluctant to run on: Obamacare. Which he got done by letting other priorities fall to the wayside.

He has run on that.

[DaShi]

They had a senate supermajority for about 6 months from July 7, 2009 to February 4 2010 with a gap inbetween when kennedy needed replacing. They also had Leibermann in that 60 to contend with.



Don't be a ****, there were endless attempts at working with the Republicans, and they were met with "Our number one priority is to make Obama a one term president".



If you actually believe this then you need to turn off Fox news and put down the crack pipe. **** over Israel? Is that why Ehud Barak said..



Please explain how his Russia policies have failed exactly, and how he is supposed to have sold out Eastern Europe. I know already how completely wrong you are on both, but I'm interested to hear what bull**** you've been believing.

As for 'screwing over' your allies, who exactly the **** do you think your allies are? You seem pretty contemptuous about the European nations who worked closely with Obama over Libya for instance.



Sure, he has. You can of course back that up with an actual quote can't you? Oh no wait, of course you can't believe it would be a ****ing ridiculous thing for an American president to say, which is why he didn't say it. You know what though, in a host of ways our countries ARE superior to yours, mostly only because while most of the world followed America's progressive lead for half a century, we continued to be progressive while you guys bunkered down and started living off your wet dreams about 'American Exceptionism' without bothering to actually do anything exceptional any more.

Agreed on the foreign policy. You have to ignore a lot to say Obama has done a poor job on foreign policy. To be fair, Hillary can take a lot of credit for it. But man, the changes to American foreign policy over the last four years have been phenomenal. Like the Titanic avoiding the iceberg.

[SlowwHand]

Obama is the very epitome of a weak leader. You say Clinton has helped? I say without her, he could have achieved the near-impossible, by doing even worse.