13 Sep
11:05am, 13 Sep 2024
33,099 posts
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Johnny Blaze
Chrisull wrote: Obama was also a disappointing politician who didn't do as much in two terms as Biden did in one. Obama was a historically significant politician and there is nae doot. Hillary Clinton was a decent candidate with a lot of baggage and centuries of misogyny to deal with. Obama's accomplishments during the first 100 days of his presidency included signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 relaxing the statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits; signing into law the expanded Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP); winning approval of a congressional budget resolution that put Congress on record as dedicated to dealing with major health care reform legislation in 2009; implementing new ethics guidelines designed to significantly curtail the influence of lobbyists on the executive branch; breaking from the Bush administration on a number of policy fronts, except for Iraq, in which he followed through on Bush's Iraq withdrawal of US troops; supporting the UN declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity; and lifting the 7½-year ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Obama also ordered the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in Cuba, though it remains open. He lifted some travel and money restrictions to the island. Obama signed many landmark bills into law during his first two years in office. The main reforms include: the Affordable Care Act, sometimes referred to as "the ACA" or "Obamacare", the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act served as economic stimuli amidst the Great Recession. After a lengthy debate over the national debt limit, he signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. In foreign policy, he increased US troop levels in Afghanistan, reduced nuclear weapons with the United States–Russia New START treaty, and ended military involvement in the Iraq War. He gained widespread praise for ordering Operation Neptune Spear, the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for the September 11 attacks. In 2011, Obama ordered the drone-strike killing in Yemen of al-Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki, who was an American citizen. He ordered military involvement in Libya in order to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1973, contributing to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. Also: Zero impeachments Zero indictments Zero convictions Sorry. I find the idea that he "didn't do much" quite triggering! It's a fricking hard job, particularly if you don't have majorities in both houses. |
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13 Sep
11:13am, 13 Sep 2024
33,100 posts
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Johnny Blaze
Trump also deluging his socials with pictures of himself "defending" dogs, cats and ducks. This is what US politics has been reduced to. What a mess they are in.
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13 Sep
11:21am, 13 Sep 2024
11,631 posts
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Fields
Joe1970 is spot on, whoever is president they will still be supporting genocide in Palestine, and perhaps edging the world towards as least 2 superpower wars.
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13 Sep
11:28am, 13 Sep 2024
6,428 posts
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paulcook
I don't know if it was the historical importance of Obama, but I look back on his presidency as a complete letdown. Google "was Obama a disappointment" and "was Obama a success" and quite a few negative results from the first search show up in the second. It'll all be about visuals. And personally I pay absolutely no attention to the minutiae of American politics and internal improvements that many of the voters would be interested in rather than their importance on the international stage (a la Fields post above almost). And Obama does not hold any positives on the war fronts for me. Far from it. |
13 Sep
11:41am, 13 Sep 2024
22,120 posts
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Chrisull
The ACA was completely gutted, and pretty much useless, watered down from even what Clinton was attempting to get through. In fact you could argue in some ways it was worse for poorer families, because you still have to get insurance and for some it increased the premiums for some at the time (while increasing coverage for some who couldn't get it). I really wanted Obama to succeed, but ACA was not a great success. Good summary of how he was doing two years into his tenure here: policyoptions.irpp.org I totally accept "It's a fricking hard job, particularly if you don't have majorities in both houses." which made it very hard. But it's achievements that count and you compare to some of what Biden has achieved (student debt cancellations for starters, sadly not universal, but still impressive), Biden has been the more radical and more successful president. Weird that he leaves a good economic legacy in terms of jobs, inflation, GDP and yet the perception is that the economy is in the toilet. Obama remains a great speaker, and a complete game changer and I really like the guy, but in terms of war (same old/same old) and health, he didn't change much. |
13 Sep
11:41am, 13 Sep 2024
4,495 posts
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Cheg
Here is a piece on his 28 greatest achievements good.is One about his fragile legacy brookings.edu |
13 Sep
11:44am, 13 Sep 2024
46,099 posts
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SPR
Wasn't the Affordable Care Act about what he could get through? Americas policy on war is unlikely to change without significant internal pressure. |
13 Sep
11:46am, 13 Sep 2024
9,910 posts
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simbil
Wasn't TRO's point just that Obama was an amazing communicator? Seems uncontroversial and self evident to me  Biden (when younger), Clinton and Harris are adequate but not in the same league. Not many impressive leaders on the Republican side although Trump is a bit of an outlier, not a great communicator but an effective firebrand. In the UK we've had Blair and Churchill in their day, some would have Thatcher in the mix too I guess. |
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13 Sep
11:56am, 13 Sep 2024
22,121 posts
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Chrisull
SPR - yes totally, but I'm being harsh and judging on the end result, not the reasons for the end result. One of the reason Biden has been (IMO) better, is because he has had a more fragile majority and has had to listen to the left of his party (talking of great communicators, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is also very gifted), to rely on their support, and put through things like student debt cancellation that might not have been there otherwise. Alos Obama had a chance to deal with more difficult issues, (such as the inequities of the supreme court, the electoral college), ignored them totally and they have grown into massive problems that prevented Hilary from winning, led to a Supreme Court full of Republican geriatics, and threatens yet again to deliver Trump as president despite the near certainty he will win less votes than Harris. These problems were known about in advance, were difficult to fix, ignoring them has only made them worse. |
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13 Sep
12:08pm, 13 Sep 2024
22,122 posts
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Chrisull
On his 28 greatest achievements, I'd say killing Bin Laden and not bringing him to justice (4th on the list), wasn't exactly great. It smacked off US killing people first, worrying about justice later. Supported fight for LGBT marriage equality? I mean that should be a baseline ask, not a great achievement. Who in 2008 or 2012 wouldn't have supported that? It's only more recently we've gone backwards. Started withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan - well I'll let fozzy argue that one :). Nominated Sonia Sotamayor? Well again, I'd expect nothing less. Look there's some really good stuff on the list, and it was a different era where we didn't see Trump coming, but crikey I lay some of the blame for Trump at Obama's door (just as Blair/Brown must share the blame for 14 years of Tory misrule and catastrophe) and to borrow and misuse Osborne's metaphore, he should have been fixing the roof while the sun was shining. |
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