administrations in history.

Not just that but 200 yrs of fuckups before that, and then he tried to fix it in the face of the worst obstruction by the stupidest people on the planet, and that is a statement of fact, teaparty are the stupidest people on the planet.

1. to 'let' certain things happen and
2. to further the myth that gov't doesn't work

Yes, it sucks to be him, but not as much as it sucks to live in Iraq, hoping he'll end the war instead of re-re-re-re-escalating it.

He decided to turn the page on corruption and crime, and meet his psychopathic enemies "half way". HIs presidency may be the biggest missed opportunity in US history.

Times one thousand!

for killing an unarmed teenager. Any such attempt at prosecuting the previous administration would last longer than 2 four year terms and most likely not produce any convictions. Meanwhile, absolutely nothing would get done, not to mention destabilizing the system since every incoming administration could prosecute the previous one for all manner of things.

The idea of prosecuting Bush has always been a fantasy and a pipe dream. Totally un realistic.

how about just DENOUNCING their corrupt actions? F*** that shit - he told us we needed to LOOK FORWARD! WHY????????????

Or any of the other issues listed in the OP.

Heck, "closing Gitmo" has the problem of no one wanting some of the prisoners - their home countries are not necessarily willing to accept them back. Prosecuting team W isn't going to fix that.

Those prosecutions are something that should be done in order to deter future Iraqs and other future problems, but it won't fix the existing ones.

Last edited Mon Jun 16, 2014, 02:34 PM - Edit history (1)

war profiteering chicken hawks up and prevent us from going back in and destabilizing the region even further

and also screaming for the next war.

The biggest thing any Dem can do to help the countryis to do anything possible to get fewer Repukes in charge of things. Dragging Bush and Cheney through protracted trials where every last crime was exposed would have obliterated the GOP. Passing Medicare For All would have put them out of business for at least 30 years. He chose instead to meet them half way (meaning 9/10 of the way toward them). It failed.

Invasion by re-enganging in the suck.

That has got to be the most sensible and true statement I've read in YEARS

Don't forget the disaster in Russia. He inherited that mess too.

yes, I'd say Abraham Lincoln inherited a far worse mess. More recently, Nixon inherited Vietnam, Ford inherited the whole Watergate mess . . .

Being president has never been an easy job.

Nixon inherited Vietnam, but he also inherited a strong economy.

"The whole Watergate mess" is a pretty trivial inheritance as far as Presidents are concerned - the job is to enforce the law. Which Ford failed at.

Lincoln did inherit quite a political mess, though it wasn't a war yet.

To really say anything definitive, we'd have to come up with some sort of "mess scale" against which we could measure.

We would need an objective mess scale in order to truly compare presidencies. I still think it can't be an easy job for anyone.

In 1860 Lincoln stepped into office at a time when the country was even more politically divided than it is today. The only answer at that time was a civil war, and I think Lincoln knew it at the time. Not only was it necessary to end the evil of slavery, but to define what we were as a country, as well. Without Lincoln's actions, we could very well have ended up as a loose conglomeration of states, each doing what it wanted without a strong centralized government.

Andrew Johnson inherited Reconstruction. That was probably the worst mess any president has ever had to deal with.

In more recent history, as far as the economy, Reagan arguably inherited a worse economy than Obama. The unemployment rate in 1980 was even higher than it was in 2008. Home ownership was virtually impossible for anyone in the middle class, due to interest rates. We had gas lines. On the foreign front, American diplomatic personnel were being held hostage to a terrorist government.

You might not know that Reagan secretly negotiated with Iran (WHILE THE CARTER ADMINISTRATION WAS NEGOTIATING PUBLICLY WITH IRAN FOR THEIR RELEASE) to withhold releasing the hostages until after the NOV. 1980 election so that Carter would not get credit for it and thus win re-election.

That is the definition of HIGH TREASON if you ask me. Most people aren't aware of this but you can look this up, it actually happened.

The repugs have always been about dirty tricks to win elections but that might have been even dirtier than what W Bush/Rove pulled in 2000 in Florida and 2004 in Ohio.

And IMO the 1980 economy was bad but not teetering on the brink of collapse like in 2008. Most people may not have been willing to get a mortgage at the high rates then but they were available — I know because I bought a house then myself. I'm saying that to say the '08 crisis/foreclosures/no mortgages/no small business loans/no jobs/Great Recession was much worse than in '80.

And btw, FDR inherited quite the mess himself, the real deal GREAT DEPRESSION.

What was your interest rate? We got a 12.75% mortgage in 1983, after they had come down somewhat. But, we knew people who lost their homes when they had to refinance balloon mortgages, which were (IIRC) like 16 or 17%. My dh was commuting about 80 mile round trip, and his car died. We got a car loan at 16%.

I'm not going to defend Ronnie Raygun, by any means, but the whole negotiating with Iran thing is a conspiracy theory. And I'm willing to bet that just about any source that claims it as a fact is just some whack-job website, and not really very credible. It's on a par with claiming that Daley stole Illinois for JFK in 1960. "Dirty tricks" and claims of dirty tricks have played a part in probably every election ever.

Anyway, I'm guessing that Reagan would have beaten Carter even without the hostages as an issue. Carter lost that election when he reinstated draft registration after the Russians invaded Afghanistan.

Last edited Tue Jun 17, 2014, 02:32 AM - Edit history (1)

And I guess Iran Contra is a conspiracy theory as well? That we know is true and should give you a clue that if they were willing to trade in arms and drugs to aid the Contras, negotiating behind Carter's back was no biggie to them.

Do some actual research and you'll find it's true . . . and you won't find it on some whack-job website.

And btw, are you also a fan of Rove and the neo-cons that are magically reappearing to bash Obama on the pundit shows now that their handiwork in Iraq is going to hell?

Talk about conspiring — they're trying to rewrite history and blaming Obama for pulling the troops out in 2011 so they don't look so bad — something W/Cheney signed with the Iraqi government in the Status of Forces Agreement.

That's no conspiracy either, they signed it and Obama carried it through but now the neo-cons are blaming him for pulling the troops out and the mess in Iraq.

No one believes Obama didn't inherit a disaster. He made it worse by making friends with the people who caused it.

supported and voted for Pres. Obama, both terms, no regrets. His second term will set his legacy. I'm confident he will accomplish more in the end, than he did in the beginning of this term.

Inheriting the most destructive war the US has ever engaged in, or in the case of Truman, the most destructive war HUMANITY has ever engaged in, pretty top of list I think.

Iraq/Afghanistan are bad, and were bad, but not quite the existential fight either of those two conflicts were, Civil war, or WWII.

I feel bad for the guy. Its gotta be unbelievably frustrating to have so much blocked by the republicans in congress purely out of spite, just so they can blame it on him.

life grinds us all down, he is being ground by a bigger grindstone:

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Picture of him then and now

but most Presidents get elected when they are in or approaching 50 years of age — just when gray hairs start appearing. So those before and after photos of how stressful the job is because of now graying hair are not really that accurate.

Anyone in their 50s can look at photos of themselves in their late 40s next to the ones in their 50s and see the same gray-haired difference — that is unless they do the Ronnie Reagan deal with Grecian Formula or some such.

a radical right majority Supreme Court . Oh yes, and a national media conglomerate who glosses over his achievements and promotes the failed policies of the RW.

and I think it's misplaced.

No, I really meant "empathy. "The ability to imagine oneself in another's place and understand the other's feelings, desires, ideas, and actions."

From the beginning, when I first heard him speak in Illinois, President Obama has come across to me as sincere about his stated goals. I think that he has accomplished a lot, considering the Congress with which he's had to work. I can imagine how frustrating it must be for him to keep having to deal with these terrible mistakes made by his predecessor.

But why is my empathy "misplaced?"

what it is to be in the position and live the life of the President of the United States.

is about, yellowwood. It's of course "not misplaced" at all.

There are those with ODS who have nothing but hate for this President so it's like talking to a brick wall of hate.

ODSers. of course.

the political environment in which he was forced to operate.

We can safely say that the banks were happy he is President.

Found on FB...

Robert Reich

"I'm here in Florida visiting my father, Ed Reich, who, at the young age of 100 and a half, just came up with one of the most incisive assessments I've heard of what's happened in Iraq: "George W. Bush and the crooks he hired are responsible for this. If they hadn't lied to the American people about weapons of mass destruction we wouldn't have lost nearly 5,000 American lives and god knows how many Iraqi lives, and stirred up this hornet's nest. Obama has spent his entire administration cleaning up Bush's shit, like someone with a giant pooper scooper." Dad has lived during the administrations of 17 presidents. "Bush was the worst," he says. "Reagan the second worst."

https://www.facebook.com/RBReich?fref=nf

Found on FB...

Robert Reich

"I'm here in Florida visiting my father, Ed Reich, who, at the young age of 100 and a half, just came up with one of the most incisive assessments I've heard of what's happened in Iraq: "George W. Bush and the crooks he hired are responsible for this. If they hadn't lied to the American people about weapons of mass destruction we wouldn't have lost nearly 5,000 American lives and god knows how many Iraqi lives, and stirred up this hornet's nest. Obama has spent his entire administration cleaning up Bush's shit, like someone with a giant pooper scooper." Dad has lived during the administrations of 17 presidents. "Bush was the worst," he says. "Reagan the second worst."

https://www.facebook.com/RBReich?fref=nf