New START Treaty, killed the F-22/.... the list goes ON

Imagine what he could have done with a congress that wasnt populated by 12 yr olds throwing tantrums.



What did my idealized version of him not do that I wanted him to do?

Lots of stuff.

But I also didnt get you all to show up in 2010 and 2014 and the results were horrendous.

... So true!!!

I'm not happy with plenty of things that the guy's done, but more and more I've realized the need to be pragmatic, especially when the opposition is as repugnant and frankly dangerous as today's GOP.

Doing all the horrible things!

Didn't Iraq kick us out after we tried to remain?

But, whatever.

I think Obama has started more wars than he's ended. We are still in Afghanistan, Iraq, and have started a war in Syria. He's left Libya in a state of Bush-like turmoil and despair. He's no slouch when it comes to the war machine that we are.

as an occupying force but we didnt do that.
No what happened is our government asked to stay a bit longer and was told no.

I expected and was thankful for everything else already from Obama, but I thought Cuba was never gonna happen, so this was quite the surprise.

It's quite convenient that when liberals want something it is a pony that can't be had, but when Wall Street wants something we just give it to them without a fight.

I predict the perpetually outraged avoid this thread like the plague.

Sid

As for the 2 wars ended, there have been many more started:

http://www.thenation.com/article/179050/why-us-military-averaging-more-mission-day-africa

http://www.thenation.com/article/176045/us-militarys-pivot-africa

Obama has made some positive contributions but on the whole I believe his continuance of Bush-era foreign policy, criminalization of adversarial journalism, and assertion of the President's right to execute citizens without due process undermines those contributions. Oil prices and the Dow will go up and down over time. The corrosive policies began by Bush and cemented by Obama will last forever.

I've always wished he'd govern more liberally, but then I've also wondered if the media would have "allowed" him to win re-election had he actually done so? And I don't greatly enjoy voting for centrist/center-right (Obama's somewhere in that spectrum) Dems, but when the opposition is literally straight out of a Margaret Atwood novel (Todd Akin???) I don't see much of an alternative.

just with a conscience and a sense of what is right. Prosecuting torturers is not an exclusively Liberal endeavor, just as condoning torture is not an exclusively Conservative one.

The Left v. Right conflict in American politics is just a foil for the real agenda: transfer of wealth and power from the public into a few private hands. Obama is abetting that.

(But real good!)

and when I saw the photo I had to laugh.

Good job with that — someone knows their way around Photoshop.

has me wondering what fucking planet they live on. Because in reality, it's just the opposite of what they say.

Those wars aint over.

predecessor lowered the bar to the point that it's impossible for me to condemn our current President, especially when I happen to like the guy on a personal level (intelligence, charisma, seems to actually have a heart).

we can speculate on what we know now, but it usually takes a decade or more to pin down the quality of the performance.

I'm sure the bar for success will lowered back down to where it used to be to regard a presidency as "successful."

The TTP will be shoved down our throats and Obama will let it happen. The Keystone pipeline will go through, he will sign the budget bill with a big give away to the Wall St. banks. and, and, and he's not the worst president ever, but he is far from being the best.

I like reminding folks that President Obama has done quiet a lot of good things since he's been in office. Besides, his actions sure piss off the conservanazis, druggie Limbaugh and Fox not-the-News.

On a loop with the wing nuts.

..he hasn't done a lot for Kenyans or Communists. Maybe that's what the Republicans count as "worst."

I'm proud of the votes that I gave this man, all three of them. More so than any of my 40 some odd years of voting record.

Yes, he did those good things. How about he also:

basically gave BFEE and all future regimes of that ilk license to torture
called torturers patriots and only person he put in jail was the one who outted the torture
TPP
TPP
TPP (it's that bad)
low taxes for the 1%
yes, he took military out of Iraq, before he put them back there
gave banks free reign to crash the economy once again
offerred to cut SSI (chained CPI is a cut)
championed the bill to reduce pensions
took single payer off the table
didn't raise minimum wage

He's been a mixed bag, some good some bad.

Any opportunity to punish the oldest and most vulnerable Americans for the mistakes of Wall Street.

Chained CPI as you mentioned, and the recent pension cuts in the Omnibus Spending Bill.

The GOP put granny at the end of the cliff and Obama has been pushing her over! (last minute canvassing for votes with the blessings of Citicorp)

...wingers

It would be an entirely different list from wingers. If you support the things I listed, think you need to look again because the shoes' on your right foot and the kool aid is in evidence.

... you can go to mixed isle boards and see it ad nausem.

0ut of 1234123 things Obama hasn't disappointed on 100 and 80% of that is out of his control... or ... he just disappointed

its boring

Neo-cons, right?

Either put the asshole in the picture above ^ and his sidekick on trial or just pardon them so that history remembers.

It's still Buchanan!

with higher wages for working people!

I remind him (it's invariably a man) of the Harding administration, many of whose senior officials were extremely corrupt. Take, for example, the Attorney General, Harry Daugherty. Daugherty blocked an investigation of the Wright-Martin Aircraft company which was charged with overcharging the government on aircraft contracts to the tune of $2.3 million (in 1920 dollars) Daugherty owned considerable shares in Wright-Martin.

When the warden of the Federal pen in Atlanta started to investigate narcotics dealing in the prison, Daugherty fired him and stopped the investigation. Daugherty's brother-in-law was head of the Federal Prison System.

Daugherty almost certainly took graft from bootleggers, and it is generally thought that the only reason he did not go to prison was that his personal assistant/bagman, Jess Smith, burned a lot of documents and then killed himself in Daugherty's apartment in 1923. Or, at least, the official verdict was suicide.

The Secretary of the Interior went to prison for accepting bribes in the Teapot Dome scandal, and the Secretary of the Navy probably should have been his cellmate, were it not for the destruction of documents by Jess Smith.

Charles R. Forbes, the Director of the Veterans Bureau, embezzled nearly half of the bureau's budget through kickbacks on hospital construction contracts and selling off hospital supplies. One of Forbes' assistants, Charles Cramer, shot himself on the day he was to be arrested for improperly selling some government property.

Albert Lasker, head of the US Shipping Board, was supposed to sell off surplus ships that had been built for the WWI war effort. He sold them to various cronies for less than a quarter of their assessed value.

Thomas Miller, head of the Office of Alien Property, was convicted of accepting bribes.

All of these men were Republicans.

You forgot Benghazi!

I probably shouldn't say this -- but -- VERY close friend of mine was at a White House policy briefing in past 48 hours where XXXXXX said White House policy for the next two years is:
-- take no prisoners
-- if it helps the American people, do it
-- fuck a bunch of Republicans

At least in my lifetime.

Obama would be 2nd or 3rd worst. Your list doesn't trump mine. Not for me.

1. Arne Duncan and RTTT As a teacher, NOTHING TRUMPS THIS ONE.

2. Economic recovery for corporations...his undying support for Wall Street

3. Some of his other neoliberal Democratic appointments: Rahm Emmanuel; Geithner; Summers; Vilsack; Penny Fucking Pritzker...and so many more...

4. Speaking of appointments: Baucus to lead health care reform.

6. His support of fracking as a "bridge."

7. His signing of the FAA reauthorization bill

8. His general willingness to pander to the right while throwing the left under the bus at every opportunity.

9. His support for the TPP.