Thoughts on Obama SO FAR?

[hippifried]

So when did the factors which led to runaway unemployment start?

August 15, 1971.
But this particular recession started showing its fangs in 2004 & 2005. That's why the republicans were swept out of power in the Congress in 2006. Remember the 2007 stimulous tax rebate? Yeah, it was kind of half hearted & didn't really work. But it did stave off the financial collapse for a year or so. Couldn't hold it off forever. By 2008, the financial industry was insolvent across the board. Oh well...

[ghbryans1]

Same old stuff. Better than Bush, but that's not saying much. Just the latest in a string of mediocrities.

[Ben]

He's an idiotic moron!
Piece of shit!
Apolegetic Socialist!
Embarassed he's the president of this GREAT COUNTRY.
Yes - I purposely used the small p!

Can I tell you how I REALLY feel?

Well, Obama isn't an idiot. (I'm not a fan of Obama. Nor was I a fan of Bush. But it's silly to label him as stupid. That's completely false.) A socialist?!?!?! Give me a break. We use that word, wrongly, to disparage people. I mean, what is socialism? What's the core and essence of socialism? Oh!, I know. It means overwhelming state power. WRONG!!!!!!! The core is democracy. Handing power over to the people. So that people can run their own lives. Now, well, either you like democracy or you don't. You decide. But at its core socialism is about deep democracy.
Not control; be it state control or corporate control. PLEASE STOP USING THE WORD socialism to describe Obama. You can certainly describe Obama as: A MODERATE NATIONALIST WITH A FIRM COMMITMENT TO THE CORPORATE STATE.
But stop misusing the word socialist or socialism.

[yodajazz]

See, this is the kind of response I can't stand. No one with any sense holds up the ultra religious Conservative Republicans as the benchmark by which we should be governed. Saying that Obama is the lesser of two evils doesn't make him a good president, it makes him less bad than the alternative. The health care reform bill is AWFUL and benefits insurance companies more than the citizens. I believe we should have national health care and I also believe that this is about the worst way we could have gone about doing it.

I cant say that I'm an expert on the Healthcare bill. So I cant say that you are right or wrong. The provisions have not taken effect yet, so how can you really judge? But if you are right about it benefiting insurance companies, I think the public health care option would have provided some honest competition for the insurance companies. But wasn't the that part of the bill killed by the strongest Republican opposition?

I have no problem with you, talking about specific laws or government actions. I think that a part of healthly debate. But you have to be honest there is a lot of undercurrent, talking about his parents, religion, etc, which has nothing to do with government policy. There is a lot of brainwashing techniques led by the conservative media talking heads. You cannot ignore that. It translates into hate and anger, all to be used to get Republicans back in power. I'll use one word as an example; "liberal". That is a very general term, yet it has been associated with the most negative, unrelated terms, such a pedophiles. I often look at the comments. No matter what the story, the comments are filled with negative comments towards Obama and towards liberals, Democrats, etc. I would say at least 95% of the negative comments are simply name calling, and address no solutions to the complex issues facing us today.

I can see that the name callers, are not using reasoned arguments, but display symtoms of brainwashing techniques, using loaded code terms, to trigger emotions. The millions of people who elected Obama President do not all think alike, and they certainly don't hate America, which is illogical, yet used by many as making sense.

I do thank you for reading my previous post, whether you liked it or not. I could relate many specific things, why I don't think that several ideas, that Republicans assume are truth are really valid. And that should be part of the public discourse. But you have to admit that there is less than ever of it these days. That's what I'm talking about.

By the way I like Obama. I do not consider him the lesser of two evils. I do feel that what he could accoplish is limited by a system which grants undue influence to those with money. That then would relate to your complaints about the healthcare bill. He's working within the established system, making compromises. So how doe that translate into "hating America", and other nonsense terms?

[yodajazz]

He's an idiotic moron!
Piece of shit!
Apolegetic Socialist!
Embarassed he's the president of this GREAT COUNTRY.
Yes - I purposely used the small p!

Can I tell you how I REALLY feel?

Well, Obama isn't an idiot. (I'm not a fan of Obama. Nor was I a fan of Bush. But it's silly to label him as stupid. That's completely false.) A socialist?!?!?! Give me a break. We use that word, wrongly, to disparage people. I mean, what is socialism? What's the core and essence of socialism? Oh!, I know. It means overwhelming state power. WRONG!!!!!!! The core is democracy. Handing power over to the people. So that people can run their own lives. Now, well, either you like democracy or you don't. You decide. But at its core socialism is about deep democracy.
Not control; be it state control or corporate control. PLEASE STOP USING THE WORD socialism to describe Obama. You can certainly describe Obama as: A MODERATE NATIONALIST WITH A FIRM COMMITMENT TO THE CORPORATE STATE.
But stop misusing the word socialist or socialism.

Thanks for responding to that other post. @tslvrnyc: That's a prime example of what I am talking. Terminology misused, by loading it was misleading meanings ('socialism'), falsehoods, (calling him and idiot), "piece of shit", when he was elected by millions of people who had ample time to judge his qualities. And how is this country supposed to be so great, if the majority of the electorate voted for a "moron, piece of shit"? So does that kind of post really lead to any intelligent debate?

BTW: There are many instances in the Bible where 'lies and deception" are said to be tools of Satan. So I'm backing what I said in a previous post, with this specific example.

[Ben]

Thanks for responding to that other post. @tslvrnyc: That's a prime example of what I am talking. Terminology misused, by loading it was misleading meanings ('socialism'), falsehoods, (calling him and idiot), "piece of shit", when he was elected by millions of people who had ample time to judge his qualities. And how is this country supposed to be so great, if the majority of the electorate voted for a "moron, piece of shit"? So does that kind of post really lead to any intelligent debate?

You're welcome yodajazz -- We need a thoughtful and intelligent debate. To label Obama as stupid is silly. It's untrue.
I mean, again, we need thoughtful and intelligent debate. Tantrums are pointless... and counterproductive.

[tslvrnyc]

I cant say that I'm an expert on the Healthcare bill. So I cant say that you are right or wrong. The provisions have not taken effect yet, so how can you really judge? But if you are right about it benefiting insurance companies, I think the public health care option would have provided some honest competition for the insurance companies. But wasn't the that part of the bill killed by the strongest Republican opposition?

I have no problem with you, talking about specific laws or government actions. I think that a part of healthly debate. But you have to be honest there is a lot of undercurrent, talking about his parents, religion, etc, which has nothing to do with government policy. There is a lot of brainwashing techniques led by the conservative media talking heads. You cannot ignore that. It translates into hate and anger, all to be used to get Republicans back in power. I'll use one word as an example; "liberal". That is a very general term, yet it has been associated with the most negative, unrelated terms, such a pedophiles. I often look at the comments. No matter what the story, the comments are filled with negative comments towards Obama and towards liberals, Democrats, etc. I would say at least 95% of the negative comments are simply name calling, and address no solutions to the complex issues facing us today.

I can see that the name callers, are not using reasoned arguments, but display symtoms of brainwashing techniques, using loaded code terms, to trigger emotions. The millions of people who elected Obama President do not all think alike, and they certainly don't hate America, which is illogical, yet used by many as making sense.

I do thank you for reading my previous post, whether you liked it or not. I could relate many specific things, why I don't think that several ideas, that Republicans assume are truth are really valid. And that should be part of the public discourse. But you have to admit that there is less than ever of it these days. That's what I'm talking about.

By the way I like Obama. I do not consider him the lesser of two evils. I do feel that what he could accoplish is limited by a system which grants undue influence to those with money. That then would relate to your complaints about the healthcare bill. He's working within the established system, making compromises. So how doe that translate into "hating America", and other nonsense terms?

I can't really defend comments made by someone else. I never claimed Obama hated America, I find the accusation to be absurd frankly. I also can't stand the jingoism on the right; constantly invoking God while discussing America is simply cheaply pandering to the religious right. While I agree that the Conservative media does use a certain lexicon to create fear, I think that Obama's crowd actively stokes it. Take for example the birthers, they look like complete idiots to most people. Instead of showing his long form birth certificate, he withholds it to keep all these people looking silly. In turn, others will say that they're all racists for wanting for him to prove he was born here. His actions aren't one of a leader to reaches out to both sides, they're the actions of a leader who will do anything in the name of politics.

I believe our biggest problem is the two party system. It's created a binary system where everyone is liberal or conservative. They blindly follow the jingoism they're given and don't think freely and creatively on how to approach the problems we're facing.

[bte]

I really don't have an opinion of Obama. I listen to FoxNews and Talk Radio and hear how he is bring the country down, a racist, and the mixed version of Hitler. I look at MSNBC and CNN and any other "liberal" news show and they say he is black Jesus. Time will tell what kind of impact he will make on the U.S.

I do think that he set himself up for failure. During the campaign, he made it seem like he was going to be this breath of fresh air, but it hasn't happened yet. I don't think he will get elected president again.

[bat1]

who is going to run in 2012?

[bte]

I am going to say Mitt Romney for the Republicans is going to run again. I honestly think that if Obama wants to win, then he has to get the unemployment rate under control. Isn't it like 9.6% right now and that's not even counting people who have just given up looking for work.