The President is always the focal point for vitriolic attacks.  In Bush’s case, he deserved them and more.  In the two years since he left office my opinion of him hasn’t changed much—he’s still the worst President of my lifetime, and the worst (IMHO) America ever had.

But Obama has NOT been what I hoped. I didn’t expect miracles, or us out of Iraq and Afghanistan in 6 weeks or anything idiotic like that. 
What I expected him to do was LEAD and be a LEADER, not a follower of Pelosi, Reid and Biden’s
Washington.
I expected him to stand up and refuse the GOP’s absurd demands as the price of getting 10% of what he wanted.
I expected, with a 60 vote Senate and a solid House that he would push back HARD against GOP recalcitrance.
I expected him to use executive orders and recess appointments to skunk GOPers who deliberately destroyed the federal court appointment process.
I expected him to use his veto.
I expected him to realize that the GOP wasn’t going to bend so he would have to break them, rather than bend to them.

I didn’t expect miracles. I did expect leadership.

Before this line closes down I have to make another point that always gets left out:  The people don’t have any ACCESS to state their case or take action.
  If they write, phone, sign petitions, form lobbying groups, they are ignored because that doesn’t raise any campaign money for incumbents.  So why listen?  If they demonstrate in the street, they are dragged off to jail and asked to pay a fine for the privilege of getting no media coverage or twisted media coverage.  If they “get violent” due to frustration or betrayal from stooges within, they are hammered. 
  Letters to the White House get “canned” answers.  Nothing coming from below gets anywhere because the channels are all clogged and to open them costs millions of dollars in campaign donations.  Even then it’s more or less a shouting match as to who gets heard.
  Plainly speaking, democracy is utterly impossible in such a situation. Who is kidding who?

I don’t often just come out in support of another post but I think G.Anderson has made an excellent point re Bush and Obama.  More particularly it is about the Left-Right discussion.

The philosphies of Left and Right both have merit but the actions of the current politicians mainly do not.  How can that be?  Very simply, as G.Anderson says, they support the Plutocracy (aka the rich) at the expense of any valid political position.

The Left v Right discussion is a totally abstract argument when politicians are off on a tangent taking money from everyone and shovelling it towards their political donors.

In this respect Obama and Bush are just the same.  So in this environment what would you grade a President on?  To buck this system is the only way to get an ‘A’ no doubt.  There isn’t much room left to decide and what’s left is mostly image.  So, Obama has massively improved the image of the U.S. around the world (from a very very very low base).  Personally, even those who don’t like him don’t seem to think he is stupid or ignorant.  Is that enough to get a ‘B-plus’?  A pretty sad indictment of the actual power of politicians.

G.Anderson

No, not blaming the “victims.” What a weak argument on your part. We “elect” our
politicians (with the exception of GWB). As a result, we get the government we
deserve. If Obama turns out to be a “failure” he won’t be reelected.

No that is not true, the American people are not the problem.. that’s the same old thing that Bush pulled.

Blaming the victims, yet again.

Millions voted for Obama, millions supported him, people who couldn’t afford it sent him money, because they felt for once in this country, there was some hope… that something would change…

He sold it that way, He said, “we are the change, we’ve been wating for”...

I, like many others remember the day he took office, the feeling that people had, it’s finally over.. we’ll be ok…

Then what happened? He betrayed the trust people had given him, he betrayed on health care, he was completely missing in action on that one, and on the wars too… he appointed plutocratic corporate heads to his departments, he left Goldman Sachs in charge of the economy, didn’t support real financial reform, allowed Geithner to keep derivativs unregulated…and on and on and on, things he did…

These things were all his decisions, put through by him…his choice…

The people did not vote for this…

He sold the people Hope just like it was Heroin, he used people…. and yes he’s responsbile…

If he was honest he would resign, right now…

Yes, delusions are comforting, keep on believing, and keep on hoping, keep on buying the Heroin of hope..

But when he tries to gut social security, due to deficits he created by his payroll tax scheme, and tries to continue demolishing every New Deal reform FDR put through, don’t say I didn’t warn you….

But maybe that’s what you want anyway and that’s why you defend him.

RayLan and Gerard - I don’t disagree with you. I’ve simply grown tired of this phenomena…no let’s call it the “Obama-bashing fetish.” It’s turned into an industry (something GWB could never claim because he was an utter incompetent…even he knows it). It makes the nastiness surrounding Bill Clinton look like a cottage industry….and, simply put, it’s pulled our focus away from the real problems we face. Gerard, you’re absolutely correct: the American people are missing in action. If Obama’s sin is that he associates with corporate interests and all that, then it is our sin that we continue to put money in the coffers of the very industries that have sold us out. So who owns the lion’s share of the blame: WE THE PEOPLE do. But of course, we will continue to blame Obama for our fragile situation (one that he did not create)because looking at the ugly reality of America-the-sold-out is simply too awful to ponder.

mrfreeze:  Asking the question “who would have ...? or “who could have ...? is
an imponderable hypothetical. Fact is, he campaigned, and won, presumably on
the idea of stopping the going wars.  True, he did not spell out how to do it,
and quite probably did not know how.  Neither does anybody else to date.  Nor
has the question even been seriously raised in terms of practical possibilities. 
My point being that we, the people—whoever that is—are strangely missing
from the scene.  Not entirely through a fault of their own, either.  The “snoop”
agencies set up by Bush and Cheney have scared the wits out of most people
who have to earn a living to feed their kids.
  So it is at least half our own stinking fault, and it burns me too that we dump
on Obama—which is mean-spirited and cowardly as well.  But ... if Obama had
taken hold of key issues right at the beginning and gone to the people directly,
stating a definite policy and plans, he would have had enormous support, and
probably would have inspired on-going support for other future changes.
  Leadership is vital in a democracy—the biggest part of which is clear and
forceful articulation of massively popular policies like ending the wars, and like
preserving the “social net” such as it is, and like job creation not dependent
upon private capital—that articulation was missing, and still is.  The people
who might have helped him, were not led to help him, didn’t know how, and
soon found out that they couldn’t get their word in edgewise because others
more powerful were filling his ears with myths and legends like “American
supremacy” and “combatting terrorism” and “public health care is socialism.”
  Both he and we missed a great chance, and the price for missing it will be
high, as always.  That’s more or less my take.

@mrfreeze
“The United States is a failing empire”
Hate to dilute the Kool-Aid, but the first sign of a failing empire is the rank corruption of its leadership to moneyed interests. The vitriol against Obama is not so much due to what he is hasn’t accomplished but the fakery of having accomplished anything that would ruffle the elite status quo. The perpetuation of the grand illusion of administrative benevolence and concern for the average citizen deserves as much vitriol as it takes to dispel it. To call Obama a shill is to distinguish him from the corporatocracy of which is a card-carrying member and at the moment their number one ad man.

I get the “gap” arugment: That President Obama seems to have pulled some sort of “bait and switch” regarding his politics. I “get it” but I doubt any of you Obama critics can come up with any other serious politician who could give you all the things you want:

1) Who would have pulled us out of both Iraq and Afghanistan? Name one politician who could have pulled that off in two years. 
2) Name one person in government today that could have pulled off a “single payer system.” Where was the person and THE PLAN by which this congress (note: a democratically run congress)could have pulled it off.
3) Name one president who has pushed through as many controversial and hotly contested agenda items as this president in recent times. The repeal of DADT? SALT treaty and many others?
4) Name one serious presidential-level member of congress who is not beholden to special interests and Wall Street. Name one person who would not have “played the game” as president.

I could go on. My point is, all this vitriol against this particular president shows a lack of focus and clarity on the part of his critics. Whilst you all go on and on about what a shill he is or that he hurt your feelings (poor babies), we at least have someone of intelligence in the office today. I’m not always happy with the compromises and the “pandering to special interests” stuff but I happen to believe that President Obama will require several more years to get things done. I’ve seen 10 presidents come an go and despite what any of you think, this particular president has had an incredibly tough job. He not only has to fight the real enemy (Republicans and all those pussy independents who are too cowardly to pick a side), but he is under a level of scrutiny by a cynical and incompetent Media that is determined to undermine everything he does.

Finally, face the brutal facts: The United States is a failing empire. We are already a de facto banana republic and we are quickly sinking into self destruction. Obama is presiding over a society in decline and, unfortunately, the very people he needs as allies are too busy making his enemies’ job easier. In the end, Americans will continue to wish and dream and believe in “morning in America” only to discover that the dream was nothing more than a bad joke.

To even try and compare the Obama “health insurance bailout bill” to Medicare and Social Security is to compare apples and river rocks—there is no comparison! I knew a year ago when they were working on that POS that it was going to be used as an accomplishment of this corporatist administration spun to make everyone believe it was/is worth a shit for the common person. Making people become customers of a private industry and then calling it “health care” is too big a lie for anyone but the most deluded to swallow.

I suppose though, that we should be grateful he and his handlers didn’t decide to use this same tactic for bailing out the auto industry or the bankers or we would all be forced to buy a Chevrolet with a loan from BOA with no controls on the price or interest rate.

Then to put Afghanistan aside, as the author tries to do, is equally idiotic. How can anyone separate a commander-in-chief from his wars? By that token then G.W. Bush, Iraq aside, would get pretty good marks for peace. And I suppose a student who couldn’t read would be educated if you put reading aside. What logic! Obama is a failure and I wish I could take back my vote.

National Health Care? You’ve got to be kidding - Except for prohitibions against refusing for pre-existing conditions - the Health Insurance Corporations are completely free to raise premiums (which mine already has) and find loopholes to avoid coverage. Not to mention forcing everybody to buy unaffordable substandard health insurance. If Obama gets anything more than a C minus its for colluding with the oligarchy.

Obama is a wall street stooge just like Bush before him.

I don’t cut and past anything, your a professional shill, or turning yourself into a pretzel
to accommodate the lies.  Bush, was trounced daily. So they knew they couldn’t get
another NWO political past the voters. That’s why they dressed up Obama to play The
part, of a progressive. He walks and talks and says the right things, but his actions are
0’ for the plutocracy.

MrFreeze,  I don’t know where you were but I don’t remember Bush being a popular figure.  Just about every move he made was criticized and heavily.  On this site at least, I don’t recall ever seeing articles the cheered for Bush like this one cheers for Obama.  I also remember many many long anti-Bush rants from commentators on just about every thing he did (rightfully so).

I don’t think anyone is trying to say that Bush wasn’t a very terrible president, but honestly Obama has been much more like Bush as a president than I would have ever guessed.  When Obama continues to support wars, continues the favor the rich over the rest of us, continues the practice of extraordinary rendition, continues to hold suspects indefinitely without charges, continues spying on citizens without warrants, he is acting like Bush and should be criticized vigorously. 

Support has to be continually earned through actions.  He had my support during the campaign but has lost it by his actions as President.  I bear no illusions about Republicans and their goals, but I am ready to stop pretending that Obama is some sort of protective wall for the people keeping Republican desires in check.  He’s just not.

MrFreeze: It’s the gaps.  The gap between his campaign promises and his actions.  The gap between people’s needs and his siding with the top minority in the country who don’t know what the word “need” means.  And above all, it’s the fact that there are no open channels between him and the people, whose opinions have nowhere to go but places like Truthdig.
Plus the overwhelming squelch of public opinion except for “think tank” polls engineered to fit the need for some evidence, no matter how slanted and false, of “public opinion.” 
  As to your “going after the real enemy”—the real enemy is the fear of going after the real enemy.
The entire country is in suspense, trying to calculate just how valid that fear is, and just what would be the way most likely to succeed in making change.

“Please Bush was excoriated daily…...”

Baloney. Not in the way this president has been. The 24/7 Right Wing propaganda machine was hardly the “critical” media that exists against this president. Vilifying Obama is an “industry.” Probably one of the only businesses that hasn’t been “off-shored.” And you’re one of it’s best customers.

G.Anderson - You need to stop cutting and pasting the same old baloney in every post you write here. You (and a lot of others) sound like a broken record when it comes to Obama…..yes, he’s made mistakes….yes, he’s “cozy” with corporations…..yes, he’s an insider….yes, yes, yes…...........BUT, he isn’t a fucking, jerk-off creep as was the last president and his buddies (Cheney). In fact, I’d be willing to bet that, unlike GWB, in an open debate over issues with the likes of you, he’d eat you up and spit you out.

I’m not particularly pleased with everything Obama has done. I can point to some real accomplishments achieved under the worst of political/economic circumstances….That’s more than I can say for a lot of his predecessors.

Please Bush was excoriated daily, even by conservatives. He did the same thing Obama
did. He ran as a conservative, but used those ideals, as a cover to work for the
plutocracy. Obama did the same ran as a progressive, and used those ideals as a cover
to future the agenda of the plutocracy.

Cosmetic change is all we will get, feel good media events. But the plutocracies agenda
of fascism advances unabated.

Faux progressive mouth pieces for the plutocracy will tout Obamas faux
accomplishments, that’s how the next election will play out.

But for the people life in an unreal dream world will have no relationship to the delusions
spewed forth by the paid corporate shill. Both Bush and Obama have created a surreal
political landscape that they wish to use to deny reality.  Peak delusion and nothing
more.

Obama presidency is a failure for the people but a success for the plutocracy, as it was
intended to be all along.

Wow, are the commentators on this thread paid by the word to spew vitriol about the President? Certainly, he has not lived up to the false image of him created by the Right Wing Media. And certainly, he didn’t inherit “morning in America.” But here’s my problem with all the whining and complaining:

For eight long years this sort of commentary was virtually non-existent when it came to GWB and we all know that he was, in all likelihood the one man who literally ushered-in the real destruction of the U.S.. My dear commentators. If you’re really liberals or progressives, why don’t you devote more time to vilifying the real enemies in government: those scum-bag, low-life Republicans (and let’s not forget the DINOS). Your ideas would be more helpful and productive if you spent more time going after the real enemy. You’re too easily distracted by headline Obama bashing.

What will be remembered is how, at a time of enormous power wielded by corporations and the wealthy, Obama stood up for the rights and interests of regular citizens.  Or did not.

“If the rich behave selfishly and the poor are goaded into struggling for their life and livelihood, havoc ensues. Who has created this state of affairs? Politicians must bear some responsibility here.”
- World Teacher Maitreya through an associate and as reported in Share International magazine

?Mr. Reeves, Please, review this record and tell me again this President is a B
plus.

3,400,000,000 or $ 3.4 BILLION in ‘loans’, bailouts and guarantees given to
Wall Street from the public coffers.

And

The largest shift of debt (i.e. losses) from the private sector to the public in
American history.

?And

?Billionaires enjoying all the benefits of our country, but pay only 15% on their
incomes (carried interest).

And

100’s of 1000’s of ‘mandated customers’ brought to the insurance industry and
guaranteed the industry will get to keep 15-20% of the ‘premiums’ received
from the new ‘mandated customers’ (oh, if a ‘mandated customer’ cant afford to
pay the insurer, taxpayers will pay the insurer , but the insurer can still keep
15-20%). Only 80% of your and my premium has to be spent on actual health
care services.

?And

?Afghanistan, pre-emptive war (starting wars to avoid wars), torture, renditions,
etc continued.

And

?Non-reform of the financial industry (six largest banks still too-big-to-fail,
and investment and commercial banking functions still greyed - so, your and
my deposits are at risk).

And

The system manipulated so banks can borrow from the government at 1%, to
buy government bonds that pay banks 3.4%; thus, ‘making’ 2.4% by simply
shuffling paper. (This is a great trick! And illustrates clearly why a huge finance
industry provides nothing to the nation)

And

Rejecting what American voters wanted:

1 The American people wanted a government administered plan like Medicare -
for everyone. (72% - CBS/New York Times poll June 2009)
1A. Democrats gave private sector insurers a windfall: mandated customers,
with a taxpayer-paid overhead rate of 20% for ‘mandated customers’ (20% of
our premium spent on administration, CEO salaries, bonuses, sitting on Boards
to set rates and decide who’s covered, lobbying for the insurers’ benefit,
advertising and propagandizing to redefine more and more as ‘health care
service’ while delivering fewer and fewer services—- essentially, we’re just
giving our tax money to insurers to do with it what they will).

2 64% of the American people opposed expanding the war in Afghanistan and
wanted to disentangle from Bush-era ‘War on Terror’ and ‘preventive war’
policies.?
2B. Democrats gave us an expansion of the war in Afghanistan.

3 The vast majority of Americans opposed the transfer of taxpayer wealth to
cover private company debt – the bailout.
3B. Democrats kept the 6 too-big-to-fail banks – now bigger than ever; kept
deposits at risk by maintaining huge grey areas between commercial and
investment banking; didn’t ‘punish’ the financial industry - now even more
profitable, with bonuses among the biggest ever.

Then, a new ‘bi-partisanship’, necessitated by the clobbering of the Democrats
in House, Senate and State races.

I’d give the guy a D.

I guess the question now will be how can the truth prevail against lies, and delusions?

Either Obama totally blew it, or he just did what he was told to do. In either case it’s up to the true believers to get him re elected. But the more he does the plutocracy’s bidding the more he’s heading into Carter Country.

No amount of corporate propaganda is going to change the hard facts of people’s lives. Bread and Circuses, and tax schemes will not restart the economy, but only make the day of reckoning all the harder. 

There’s no money for anything, foreign governments are dumping the dollar, both wars are a failure, and Wall Street and the plutocracy remain in firm control.

The people of this country will never invest in the stock market again, because it’s now common knowledge it’s run by crooks. Plus, no one but the rich has any money. So, they will be desperate to privatize social security, this will be the final straw.

On the bright side, the bankrupt states are likely to turn away from the federal government, and the plutocracy that owns it, with serious succession movements continuing. Especially in the now permanently poisoned Gulf States. The people understand that their only hope for freedom remains in states rights.

Recall movements have already started in California for Boxer and Feinstein. 

Who cares what grade Obama gives himself. The student should never give himself grades. The people already gave him a grade last November. If he continues to lie to himself, and the people, then he’s going to find himself out of a job.

“National health care”?  “Universal health insurance”?  Surely you’re joking in using such terms to describe Obama’s corporate-friendly lemon of a health care plan.  Either that or you’re clueless.

haha, B plus? It is absurdly hilarious that anyone in America still thinks Obama
gives a shit what grade his populace would bestow upon him for his activities.
If you really suspect that public opinion is something that he is concerned with
at all as regards his “progress” as President, you are either a billionaire with a
direct line to his office, or one of the brain-washed many that think he is there
to actually change something for you, and your religious sort of belief in
Obama’s un-apparent better half is actually quite entertaining. You wonder why
there is still 4 wars of aggression being waged (Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq,
Afghanistan) you wonder why he gave 700 billion away to the rich (largest
transfer of wealth in history) why was there no public option for Health Care,
duhh, you quizzically ask why there is and will not be any progress vis-a-vis
Global Warming/The Environment (Failure of COP15,& Cancun) and you wonder
why Gitmo is still a go, why torture is still A OK?, ... it comes down to you
Americans being too cowed and bought out. You the taxpayer, you are getting
what you allow to go on. And you act as if a “B+” grade is something Obama is
even considering? He clearly does not give a shit what you have to say, he is
clearly governing a populace of completely gutless idiots, thats right, you, and
none of us in the rest of the world are going to say any longer, “their
government made them do it” of the Americans, we will say, you did it, and you
liked it. Fuck you America

I’m an Equal Opportunity Employer. It is with that in mind that I give him a big F. Failure. Wall St. Flunky. Environmental Fiasco.

F as in “We are Fucked.”

Not Barack (I don’t have the negotiating skills of a day old rock) Obama.

The Left and Obama-Trauma, 12/15/2010, by Glen Ford

Obama sold out from before day one.

He had a chance to follow the lead of FDR.
He choose to sell out the people instead.

Instead of taking on the wall street crooks
that caused this world wide mess.
He choose to waste a whole year on a republican health care bill.
He had single payer advocates arrested.

Opened east coast up to drilling.

Let Bush and cronies run free.

Waging bull shit wars everywhere.

He has done NOTHING for the left.

We had our chance and Obama sold the people out. 
He will go off to the gated communities and the other 90 percent of us will be kept in line by the predator drones.

I bet his dog hates him.

As one who lost his illusions about the Democratic Party during the McGovern campaign, I have observed with amazement tending towards scorn, the illusions cultivated around each business-as-usual turd to drop out the backside of the Donkey.  Obama has always been a servant of war and Wall Street, and he has been utterly faithful to his campaign pledge to bring more war to Afghanistan.  Why are people surprised—even shocked—to learn that their FDR/Lincoln/MLK hero has shown himself to be in crucial ways, worse than Dubya?  Have you paid any attention at all to what has become of civil liberties in this nation?  Of privacy?  Of due process?  Remember those?  Well, it’s long past time to shed the blinders and realize that Obama does what Dems in office always do:  try to out-do the Republicans in helping the rich grow richer and the war industries to hum profitably along.  Figure it out, people—we won’t always have time to be stupid.

Unrealistic though it was, we did expect more from our first African-American President.  We vastly underestimated the gross power of the military-corporate domination of national policies.  We vastly underestimated the hangover effects of the Bush Administration’s lies and deceits (particularly its regime of torture) and the almost complete control of powerful media sponsoring ignorance, fear and violence.  We failed to stop the onslaughts of a bureaucracycrazed by its urge to purge by using
“surveillance”. We still haven’t shown much public effort to stop the sickness of foreign wars as a corporate money-maker and a jobs machine.  We still haven’t curbed our feelings of international supremacy and the desire to dominate others.
  So we have some share in Obama’s “rating” which I would place at a little lower than D-, everything considered.  Probably the rest of the world feels pretty much the same way—and it’s not just Obama, remember. It’s US in the US of A.

“Other things, some quite impressive, may also check a historical box,
particularly bringing national health care to the capitalist capital of the world”.

Sure those in the Congress and most of Government in the Capital have
National Health Care .. It’s the rest of the nation that’s having to deal with the
problem of high costs, limited coverage and losing their policies.. And the mandate to purchase private policies is tyranny. (always wanted to use that word).

The thing that really stands out to me about this latest article by the
excellent Mr Reeves.. it reads like an obituary! Has our charismatic Democratic President busted more than his lip? (like maybe the trust of the people who voted him in). Is this notice to resign ourselves to nothing better in the next two years?

Sorry.. the Obama we have is not the Obama I voted for.. excuses don’t cut it
and he’s not in high school anymore.. In real life, and especially with the
important issues he’s entrusted with .. only an A+ gets the gold. The author
says Obama has not earned that high grade.. and I agree.

Adios!