President Obama

I have to tell you that I did not vote for the President in the last election because I was ticked off at the way his campaign was handled and the way people were responding. For the first time, Oprah announced her support of a candidate which I felt swayed millions of her followers. As a Senator, Obama kissed up to Teddy Kennedy and it helped get him the Democratic nomination.

I was totally frustrated that people thought the race was about color or religion instead of qualifications. I heard Obama make campaign promises that he couldn’t keep; some of which I’m happy he didn’t (example - ending the Middle East wars too soon). This past spring, I heard reporters say that although Obama promised that it wouldn’t be business as usual in the White House if he were elected, the hammerlock of money on American power and our government continues. The Center for Public Integrity says that about 1/3 of Obama bundlers (those that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his campaign) or their spouses have joined the administration in some role. And, 80% of those that collected $500,000 or more took key administration posts as defined by the White House. The Center looked at the administration of George Bush that was widely criticized and found that Obama has placed as many donors in 2 years as Bush has placed in 4 years, making Obama’s administration worse. In a separate study by the American Foreign Services Association, Obama has nominated more political people to ambassadorships over career diplomats than any president since Ford. I don’t know if putting political people over career diplomats in ambassadorships is good or bad as I haven’t heard much about them. I do object to key administration roles being filled with those with a lot of money as it could lead to decisions in favor of corporate greed. However, with the proposals the President is making (specifically raising taxes on the rich) this doesn’t seem to be the case.  

People are going out of their way to try and make sure the President is a one timer. The book Confidence Men written by Ron Suskind is filled with lies regarding the treatment of women at the White House. According to the women who spoke with the Washington Post - the author got it wrong. Ten congressmen were suing Obama for not getting Congress’ permission for assisting the Libyan rebels. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 says if the US is involved in hostilities after 90 days, the President shall consult with Congress. According to what I read, this applies to US forces likely to be engaged in combat (does not apply to the airspace or waters of a foreign nation). I agree with Republicans in that whether or not we are on the ground or in charge of the operations our bombing of Libya meant we are involved in hostilities. However, Ford, Reagan and Carter all avoided the 90 day clock. The Resolution needs fixing as it has not accomplished its intent. As far as I’m concerned the lawsuit was just another power play. The Republicans are knocking the President for doing what others did before him and this includes carrying on the Israel/Palestine policy of his predecessors. It’s my belief, that if our assistance to Libya was part of our NATO agreement we keep our word and not be hypocrites. The Republicans attacked Obama’s troop withdrawal in Iraq even though he’s abiding by an agreement signed by Bush. It’s said that we’ll be making arrangements with Iraq similar to what we have in Jordan and Columbia. 

I knocked Obama for the purchase of a bus by the Secret Service. It turns out that he’s using the bus to try and get people to understand the Jobs Act that he introduced on September 8, 2011. The Act didn’t fly as a whole package so it was portioned out. The first part to fail was on October 21^st because Republicans didn’t like the ½% tax increase on 300,000 Americans. The President continues to use the bus to spread his ideas to the people. On October 24^th, the President unveiled a program to help homeowners refinance even if their home loans are 125% more than the home’s value as long as no late payments have been made in the last 6 months. On October 26^th he came up with a plan to help with student loan payments. Although these are not enough, they are a step in the right direction. I haven’t heard of Congress doing anything; where are they, what are they doing, why are we paying them.   

I don’t believe that a Republican will come up with ideas that will benefit the average American over the corporations. As such, I think the only way we get the change we need is by keeping Obama in office. This hopefully will show the Republicans that they need to start acting as if they care about us as a nation.