General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn my opinion Obama was the best president of my lifetime. He had one weakness that hurt him.
He was to cautious.
kennetha
(3,666 posts)Thrown caution to the wind, given an Oval Office speech, descrying the Russian attempt to help Trump and defeat Clinton.
How would that have been covered by our vapid media?
How would that have been received by the Republican party and their supporters?
Would that have increased or decreased the likelihood of Trump winning the election?
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)And, haven't thought of this before until you said it, it might have given Trump the victory if he had given an Oval Office speech.
La Lioness Priyanka
(53,866 posts)and he thought the nation were not utter idiots.
Cosmocat
(14,574 posts)He just believes that regardless of it all, he needs to be the standards from which we would want our leaders to operate.
Freddie
(9,275 posts)And actually believed that Repugs would work with him for the good of the country. If we ever have another Dem president he/she will know better.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,022 posts)Cosmocat
(14,574 posts)I think he believed that regardless of how insane the right was, he had to be the standard that we would hope our leaders would be.
I am not saying that is right under the circumstances and would like to see someone who had a little more fire to them like Bernie or Warren.
BUT, I don't think it is what people want to think.
The man is pretty fin smart, and the singular greatest political figure in our lives.
He knew, he just had a standard that he believed he had to set regardless of how insane republicans were.
HipChick
(25,485 posts)He wore a tan suit, and then he put his feet on the oval table...
Everyone lost their minds..
trixie2
(905 posts)you.and.me.both.
whathehell
(29,095 posts)I do agree he was too cautious.
Cosmocat
(14,574 posts)45 is an unabashed lunatic run by Russia, and his party has his back bigly.
Team D tends to leave its POTUS out in the wind.
People want to blame him for not getting Universal healthcare, the issue was that his party did not have the belly for that fight.
POTUS is one man - there 535 members of congress.
I could not even begin to name the repubican congressmen and senators who are fire breathing zeolots.
You can count on two hands the number of Ds in congress with two functioning balls, Bernie, Warren, Waters ...
whathehell
(29,095 posts)and, in terms of 45, there is clearly NO comparison.
I don't blame him on the healthcare thing, but I do think he would have done his party and himself
a great deal of good if he supported unions beyond the most minimal lip service, and if, as he promised, 're-negotiated NAFTA
in a way which actually helped workers.
On the whole, I liked him very much.
shockey80
(4,379 posts)I agree. That's not his fault. A President sometimes has to throw caution to the wind. Obama was too careful. I have no doubt Obama will go down as one of our best presidents. He was amazing in many ways.
unblock
(52,331 posts)people wanted a calm, steady, reliable hand at the helm after the shrub debacle and particularly with the whole financial meltdown going on.
if it were in his nature to be more imprudent, he might have gotten himself caught on camera being an "angry black man" and then he might never have made it to the white house in the first place.
patricia92243
(12,603 posts)politicians leave a lot to be desired.
Skittles
(153,199 posts)Obama endlessly tried to get repukes to like him, and it was sickening
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,858 posts)If you recall, even Democrats in Congress needed strong prodding!
I didn't care for the appointment of Timothy Geithner and his secret meetings with businesses about the Pacific "free trade" agreement. It was just another attempt to help investors and the wealthy, the main concern of the USA government going back to when only white males with property were allowed to vote, while increasing the insecurity of labor.
FDR is still my favorite by a long shot on economic issues, but not about race and other matters. African Americans didn't get the help they needed.
Azathoth
(4,611 posts)He imagined himself an above-the-fray statesman, when in fact he was a lieutenant in the Battle of the Somme. This was trench warfare, not a debate at the Harvard Law Review.
It wasn't until his final years in office that he truly realized the kind of radical, implacable vandalism he faced from the other side.
Doodley
(9,135 posts)he should have addressed the nation and made the moral case why healthcare had to be changed - that over 50 million people had no healthcare and millions were turned away because of pre-existing conditions. Even now, probably most people do not understand that Republican governors have blocked healthcare to millions of people.
Democratic politics is about doing the right thing for the many and not the few who are already privileged, because that is the right thing to do. That should have been a constant in the direction of the messaging. His failure to communicate helped lead to a situation in which Trump could win and systematically destroy all the good he has done.
shockey80
(4,379 posts)Not on the radio, on TV. Obama had to overcome certain things that no other president had to overcome. Racism for one. Obama was not a bragger. He should have talked to the american people more about his accomplishments.
Obama put great faith in the american people. That's risky because the american people are being blasted by propaganda everyday.