The President I wish Barack Obama had been...

[kentuck]

First of all, let me say that I believe Barack Obama is superior to any Republican running for President and he will get my vote in the next election.

However, I wish he had been a different President. I wish he had stopped the wars by now. I wish he had denounced the Bush policies more publicly. I wish he had not signed the renewal of the Patriot Act.

I wish he had looked at the economic situation in a different way. Rather than bailing out the banks, I wish he had let a few go under and called for the break-up of the other big banks into smaller entities.

I wish that instead of the Bush leftovers for his Cabinet and the fellows from the Fed and the Big Banks, he had appointed people with different ideas and solutions to advise him. I think he did not choose wisely. He appears to be a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, believing in the magic of taxcuts and the status-quo philosophy of the marketplace.

I wish he had not extended the Bush taxcuts and had put pressure on the Republicans to extend the benefits before the last election. I wish he did not have so much faith in "free trade" and the existing trade treaties which are siphoning jobs away from America every day.

I wish he had been more honest about his opposition, instead of trying to compromise with them. Neither he nor the country have benefitted from such policies. I wish he had asked his Attorney General to investigate any questions of criminality in regards to torture and other crimes by the previous criminals in charge.

Instead of calling for a return to the very minimal tax rates of the Clinton years, I wish he had made an appeal for the wealthy to pay back what they stole from the people in the last ten years and had made a case for a much higher tax rate. He never asked for sacrifice from anyone.

I wish he could communicate better with the people to alleviate their concerns about Medicare and issues that people are concerned about. For example, I wish he would say that if that piece of crap comes on his desk for a signature, he will veto it in a New York minute.

There are many things I wish this President had done differently, even though I understand the critical condition of the economy he inherited from the previous Administration. Also, I understand that matters would most likely be a lot worse if the Republicans were in the White House.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[iwishiwas]

2. I grow weary of

compromising. My decision will be made closer to the election.

[tabasco]

18. ZZZZZZZZZzzzz zzz ... .

:boring:

Crawl back under your rock.

[KG]

3. obama was handed a once in a generation opportunity, a dem WH and dem controlled

capitol hill, and pissed it away on 'bipartisanship'.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[kentuck]

6. I understand...

But one thing I have learned in life is that no matter how bad things seem at the moment, they can always get worse.

[blindpig]

8. Yeah, tell me that in a year...

after this 'austerity' crap has jelled.

[kentuck]

10. There are no good choices on the horizon...

However, one choice is worse than the other, I am convinced.

[indepat]

7. I wished for all of those: I wished for a complete repudiation/reversal of all of junior's

initiatives, policies, actions for they were wholly about advancement of an extreme ideology that has done/is doing further irreparable harm to this nation and most of its people and was nothing about good governance. :patriot:

[Name removed]

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[Mira]

11. I wish that there had been an immediate investigation of the previous

administration. Letting admitted war criminals go free is complicity once you have the power to show America and the world we don't stand for it.
I don't.

[txlibdem]

38. As agenda item #1 by damn

I knew there was something rotten the moment I heard no investigations.

[MineralMan]

12. I wish for many things, too, including the ones on your list.

Those are my ideals. Those are the things I wish to happen.

Unfortunately, I do not live in a place where my wishes override reality. The reality is that most of the things you mention could have been done by any President following the 2008 election. Possibly one or two might have been accomplished, but even then, they might have caused other things to to have been accomplished that have been accomplished.

Ideals are inside my head. They're always there. I live in a real place, though - a country where almost half of the population does not share anything close to my ideals. In fact, I live in a place where almost half of the population is actively opposed to my ideals. I don't like it, but that is the situation.

I am forced to be a realist by...well...reality.

[kentuck]

13. Does your reality contain any expectations??

And are expectations anything other than wishes?

[MineralMan]

17. Expectations differ from wishes.

For example, I expected DADT to end during President Obama's first term.

I wish that everyone would simply treat GLBT people absolutely equally.

My expectations about DADT were based on a belief that it could be ended with perseverance, despite the opposition to it.

My wish, however, is not a practical one, so I don't expect it to happen.

I expect that we'll be out of Iraq and Afghanistan more or less completely withing President Obama's second term. The process has begun already, and I believe it will continue, and may even be accelerated. I expect the process to be complete early in 2013. I do believe that there will still be a presence in those countries, but not to prosecute a war.

I wish that both wars would end immediately and that all our troops would be withdrawn. I have no expectation of that happening.

Wishes are ideals, without reference to the probability that the wishes will actually be fulfilled.

Expectations are based on information and an understanding of how things actually happen. Expectations can be fulfilled, because they are achievable.


I have both wishes and expectations. They are not often the same.

[kentuck]

19. I could name more areas where I disagree with the President.

Where my expectations were not met. I expected him to be more of a progressive. However, who am I going to vote for? Is there anyone else? Barack Obama does not walk on water. He has failed to meet "expectations".

[MineralMan]

23. Of course. I also disagree with him in some areas.

I'm very careful with my expectations, though. Before I stake a lot on one, I take a close look at the overall environment.

I want very much for same-sex marriage to be universally legal across this country. I feel very strongly about that.

I do not expect it to happen, however, for some time. What I expect to happen is that one state after another will make it legal, as appears to be happening. I do not expect President Obama to make it happen. It is not a federal issue, except for the equal justice concept. The California case is working its way through the federal court system. I'm cautiously optimistic that Prop. 8 will be no more, once the 9th Circuit finishes with it. I'm hopeful, but not strongly optimistic that the SCOTUS will let such a decision stand without review. Eventually, however, the SCOTUS will take up one of these things. With its current makeup, however, I do not expect a ruling that would produce the desired result. It is simply not in President Obama's power to make same-sex marriage legal. A state can do it. The SCOTUS can do it, but that seems unlikely to me. The President, however cannot do it. It is not within a President's power. So, I'd never expect a President to do something that is impossible for him/her to do. I wish it could happen, but to expect it would be to deny reality.

Wishes are one thing. Hopes are another. Expectations are still another. It's a sliding scale, really.

I wish same-sex marriage were legal. I hope the courts will make it so. I expect that it will happen, at some point, but I don't expect it to happen soon.

I hope I'm making sense with these distinctions.

[kentuck]

25. My wishes were my expectations.

I don't think they were unrealistic, at all. Which of the above do you think were not realistic? Were any of your "expectations" not met?? Did you make the distinction between the rhetoric of the candidate and the policies of the man?

[MineralMan]

26. Sadly, I don't have time today to go through those one

by one and discuss them.

I did listen to candidate Obama very carefully. I realized before the election that I did not agree with all of his positions, nor with some of the things he said. Then, I looked at his opponents. When I voted for Barack Obama, my expectations were that he would win. He did.

May of the things he said he would do, he has done or is in the process of doing. He did not say he would simply end Bush's two wars. He said he would begin to draw down troops from Iraq and end military actions initiated by our troops. He has done that. His position on Afghanistan is, I'm afraid, much the same as it was when he was campaigning. I do believe that he will start the end and withdrawal as he said.

So, yes, I heard what he said during his campaign very clearly, and I remember what he said. He said DADT would end. He did not say he would push for marriage equality. I was disappointed in the second, but did not expect that he would do other than what he said.

In many areas, he has done as he said he would do.

Again, I considered his opponent, and my vote was clearly indicated. I will repeat that vote in 2012.

[kentuck]

27. Like you, I considered his opponent, and my vote was clearly indicated.

However, he is a different President than I expected. I don't think I am alone in saying that. That does not mean I will not vote for him the next time. But I will not be deceived into thinking that he is some sort of progressive Democrat. I will not have any expectations that he will challenge the status quo in any meaningful way, no matter how much it is needed. There is an old saying, we are known by the company we keep.

[MineralMan]

29. I'm afraid that a truly progressive candidate would not have

been elected in 2008. The alternative does not bear considering, in my opinion.

We have the society we have, unfortunately. It would have been easy to lose the 2008 election. Very easy.

[kentuck]

31. I disagree ...

Of course.

[MineralMan]

32. OK.That's fine.

We do disagree on that point.

Which of the primary candidates for the Democratic nomination in 2008 would you say met your standards, then?

[kentuck]

33. I'm not sure the candidates met their own standards...

...they were looking for votes. Regardless, we have who we have and I don't expect any improvement any time in the future, unfortunately. I think the times called for much more but we are where we are. We get what we accept. We have to be like Republicans because that is where the majority of the country happens to be. It is a conservative country and we just have to accept that fact and accept politicians that compromise with that majority. What's the best we can hope for with this reality?

[MineralMan]

36. We have the ability to change the government.

Not individually, but en masse. If we fail to do that, through inaction or failure to convince others of our position, then we get whomever is elected to whatever office. If we reject one candidate for one office, then we needn't refuse to participate in an election. There are many candidates for many offices. All too often, we forget that simple rule, and to our detriment.

[FarLeftFist]

14. Didn't Bush bail out the banks?

Under TARP? Which Obama did vote for.

[kentuck]

15. Obama and the Treasury insisted all the banks take the money

So they would all appear equally strong and none weaker than the others.

[JonLP24]

16. I'm unhappy about a lot of things with him

One of the things you didn't mention is appealing the decision that gave Bagram detainees the right to challenge their detention using Habeas Corpus.

However, I remember reading there was a good reason for that at the time. If only struggling banks took the money, that would affect the confidence in them and therefore hurt their ability to recover. By having it where they couldn't tell them apart, made sense in that regard. Trust me, there is a much better way to explain it than I'm doing right now. I wish I had a link to that thread handy.

[Exultant Democracy]

20. I wish he hadn't hired Rahm! The progressives got screwed with our pants on when he did.

[NNN0LHI]

21. We are just goddamn lucky to have a president who understands that most voters are idiots

If we didn't have that going for us we would really be in some deep shit.

I wake up every morning and thank my lucky stars we have a president who understands this phenomena.

Don

[kentuck]

22. Obviously you exclude yourself from the "idiot" label...

:-)

[NNN0LHI]

24. Yes, I never approved of Bush like 90% of Americans once did

As I said luckily for us President Obama has not forgotten this either. The bad part is that the GOP hasn't forgotten this either.

Are those the folks that you are trying to convince of something? Shouldn't be too hard to do.

:P

Don

[Avant Guardian]

34. Obama sees most Americans as idiots?

That explains a lot...

[NNN0LHI]

37. Did you think President Obama forgot that Bush once had a 90% approval rating?

Think about that for a minute. The guy that drove us into a recession and let 9/11 happen on his watch and 90% of Americans approved of him.

If you don't want President Obama to take that under consideration that is fine. I do want him to remember that and consider it. Because I know the GOP will.

Don

[4lbs]

28. You could have said the exact same thing about the Senate in 2009 and 2010.

.

[hulka38]

30. By choosing the phrase "I wish"

I hope you're not suggesting that these policies were some kind of daydream fantasy.

[somone]

35. I wish he was on the side of the average working American

instead of corporate CEOs and their ilk

[emilyg]

39. +1

[txlibdem]

40. Me too. But remember that Pres. Obama's net worth is now $10 Million

He *IS* siding with his people when he twists the laws and legislation to favor the rich. He's one of them!