Obama accomplishments in 50 hours vs. Bush in 8 months

[Hokie]

It is interesting to compare the current President's first 2+ days with his predecessor's first 8 months:

Bush: (Through September 1, 2001)

Inaugural attended by 40,000 and had limo "egged". Dozens arrested.
Submitted a huge tax cut that was a god send for the wealthy.
VP held closed door energy policy meetings attended only by energy industry executives. Refused to release list of attendees or records from meetings. (Still secret 8 years later.)
Lost a high tech spy plane to China and has it returned in pieces.
Established a "faith based" money give away program for fundy religious groups to preach abstinence.
Fretted over a month long vacation in August and issued a convoluted and weird ruling on embryonic stem cell research that drove the significant research abroad.
Ignored daily intelligence briefings that warned of an imminent attack on US soil by Al Qaeda.


Obama (Through 50 hours):

Inaugural attended by 1,800,000 (largest crowd for any event in DC history) and not a single arrest or protest.
Completely reversed stupid policies on paranoid secrecy in government.
Ordered that all federal agencies suspend enforcement of "midnight executive orders" pending review.
Initiated sweeping ethics reforms in the executive branch.
Closed Guantanamo and restored rights to those held at Guantanamo per Geneva Convention.
Established a daily economic briefing.
Ended illegal torture practices.
Froze salaries for most of his staff.
Appointed distinguished special envoys to Israel/Palestine and Pakistan/Afghanistan.
Modernized the Whitehouse.gov web site and had it up and running at 12:01 PM on 1/20.

Feel free to add to either list.

[Kerrytravelers]

1. Bookmarking as I'm sure this will be a great thread full of entries!

:thumbsup:

Didn't * reinstate the Global Gag Rule on Family Planning? And President Obama has now taken the gag off the rule and women and families are now provided with health information again.

[Hokie]

6. That's tomorrow (NT)

[napoleon_in_rags]

10. Plus the fact that the list above doesn't do justice to the size of the accomplishments.

Here is a story from the tech world that goes over some of the praise and ramifications for his work on creating more open government:
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/22/1525258
These are big steps here, not easily captured by any brief description the OP could give. Obama is kicking ass, getting a lot done.

[proud patriot]

2. Big sigh of relief

:)

[Muttocracy]

3. great post. nt

[NYC_SKP]

4. Kicked, recommended, and bookmarked.

I'm at a loss for a quick contribution, but look forward to those of others.

:kick:

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. Here's another! He ordered all federal agencies to halt all pending legislation until he can

review it.

He is simply AWESOME!

[NYC_SKP]

7. Restored rights to those held at Guantanamo per Geneva Convention

And thus somewhat restored our standing in the world as a civilized nation.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-01-22-execorder-gitmo_N.htm

:patriot:

[Hokie]

8. I will update the OP until the edit time runs out - thanks for the additions

[Hawkeye-X]

9. Planning on a major upgrade on computers... so what I hear...

They are STUNNED that the computers are 10 years old or more.

Hawkeye-X

[intheozone]

11. You could add to Bush's list the submarine accident with the Japanese fishing boat. nt

[Sinistrous]

14. ...submarine packed with fat-cat rethug donors on a joy ride...

[Hokie]

16. Yeah, I forgot that one

[boppers]

12. Not a single protest?

You might want to strike that, there was a "God Hates Obama" sign. I'm guessing Westboro loonies.

[Hokie]

15. Do those idiots really count?

[architect359]

23. Well, kind of.

It *was* a protest, don't you think? Albeit, a puny one.

[mt13]

17. unfotunately, you are...

correct:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AQVsIu-dsk&eurl=http://www.inquisitr.com/16081/westboro-church-says-god-hates-obama-protest-at-inauguration/

[Posteritatis]

20. Not a single *arrest* is the big thing

Not one in the inauguration or anywhere else in Washington, DC that day.

[Colobo]

13. President Obama is not dissapointing.

[NYC_SKP]

18. Appointed a critic of Warrantless Wiretaps to Justice Dept. Nat'l Security Division

Per OP by DUer Pirate Smile:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3702754&mesg_id=3702754

Source: New York Times

President Obama announced the nomination on Thursday of a former government lawyer, who had been critical of the legal rationale for the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, to lead the Justice Department’s national security division.

The lawyer, David Kris, served as a senior Justice Department official in both the Clinton and Bush administrations from 2000 to 2003, and is widely respected in Washington for his knowledge of intelligence law. He is deputy counsel for Time Warner Inc. and adjunct law professor at Georgetown University, and he worked on the Obama transition team at the Justice Department.

The selection offers yet another indication of sharp changes in policy at the Justice Department by the incoming leadership.
In late 2005, following the public disclosure of the N.S.A. wiretapping program approved by President Bush, Mr. Kris wrote a 23-page legal analysis that described as “weak’’ and likely unsupportable some of the Bush administration’s key legal arguments in justifying the program.
And when he was still at the Justice Department, he advised his boss, who was at the time Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, not to sign a mysterious batch of wiretapping warrants — which grew out of the program — because intelligence officials would not reveal how the information in the wiretaps was obtained.

-snip-
If he is confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Kris will not only oversee intelligence and national security law but may also be responsible for assessing how and whether detainees now held at Guantanamo Bay can be tried in American criminal courts.

:patriot:

[sohndrsmith]

19. Well, don't forget that Bush was on vacation for - what - a third

of his second term? So shouldn't he be given credit for doing so much with 1/3 of his time away from work (okay - maybe 1/4, because vacations to recoup and renew are necessary for anybody, so some of those days are legit... well, not 1/4, but at least a week or two hear and there. Never mind).. 1/3 of his time away from work -

He had to be pretty productive on those few work days he had, you know...!

(I don't know how to include the dripping sarcasm graphic, so just imagine it here: sarcasm).

[underpants]

21. Correction to the Bush list

Enviromental and consumer groups WERE given a meeting. With Cheney's staff. All of them. At once. They each got 5 minutes. They were not allowed to see even a draft of the legislation (they basically read their mission statements)

Bush failed to properly translate and cross-translate the response to the spy plane downing and Chinese media (state run-not like ours) properly reported that the US apologized for their knocking down of our plane.

[Hokie]

22. This is pretty a pretty stark comparison

Wouldn't it be great if the US captured Bin laden in the first few months and he was tried in the US court system vs. a Bush style military tribunal? That write the final chapter ont he Bush Presidency.