TIME: The Secrets of Obama's Underappreciated Success

[kpete]

The Secrets of Obama's Underappreciated Success
By Mark Halperin Monday, Apr. 26, 2010

Barack Obama's right-wing opponents have cast him as a socialist failure. His left-wing hecklers see him as an over-cautious hedger. But, critics notwithstanding, President Obama is on the path to be a huge success by the time of November's midterm elections.

Before the Right jabbers (what about the huge debt, the broken tax pledge, the paucity of overseas accomplishments?), the Left yammers (Guantanamo hasn't been closed, gays aren't serving openly in the military, too many policies cater to business interests!), and the media chides (POTUS and party poll numbers are down, Washington is more partisan than ever), look at the two key metrics that underscore Obama's accomplishments. It is too early to assess the ultimate measure of victory — whether the President's actions have been prudent and beneficial, domestically and internationally. But by Election Day, 2010, Obama will have soundly achieved many of his chief campaign promises while running a highly competent, scandal-free government. Not bad for a guy whose opponents (in both parties) for the White House suggested he was too green in national life to know how to do the job — and whose presidency began in the midst of a worldwide economic crisis that demanded urgent attention and commanded much of his focus.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1984460,00.html#ixzz0mDKhDKZO

[babylonsister]

1. From Halperin, no less. Yay! nt

[madokie]

2. I think the President is doing a hell of a good job

and especially if you take in the type of opposition hes had. If he can't walk on water he damn sure should be able to.

[Solomon]

16. If he did walk on water they would just say it's only because he

can't swim.

[crikkett]

23. ...can't swim!

:rofl:

[RedEarth]

18. I agree...... I think he's done a damn good job

When he was elected, I never expected him to do everything I wanted(single payer for one), but, for the most part, he's done a great job.

[kentuck]

3. K & R

I guess I'm one of those "Left yammers" but the President has done a good job overall.

[Captain Hilts]

11. This article shows that Obama has made conservatives like Halperin happy. I think he has done well

overall.

[FrenchieCat]

19. Perhaps it is simply that the proof of the pudding cannot be denied.

This man has been in office 15 months, and yet, every one and their mother has been carrying on like all of his campaign pledges should all have been done by now. That has been the problem......after suffering for 8 long years, everyone wanted the suffering to stop. That was an impossible level of expectation to have, that it all could happen right away, and let's be honest, many in fact did, for whatever their reasons, think that he could all get it done in the first 6 months!

So is it good that he didn't crash the stock market by in fact waiting till the market had been shored up on a sound foundation, and then do regulations after some order had been restored to the economy.

Was it appropriate for him to have a strategy that spanned longer than 6 months on how he would prioritize things, not simply for political calculation, but also because a certain order was needed to galvanize support without making everything fall apart? I think so.

One day, it will be written the wisdom of the first African-American President not to be also known as the President who nationalized the Banks, allowed the American Auto Industry to fail, who brought our financial markets down by instituting regulations at the wrong time, etc....

So, I don't think that he "satisfied" conservatives. I think he has been and will continue to do his job based on how he sees fit. Even if he wasn't allowed to govern without so many having something to say about everything he has said and done, he still did it, in spite of all of that...and that demonstrates his leadership skills, more than a whole lot of other things.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

26. yep

well put, FrenchieCat.

I admit, even I was worried a few months back---the freaking out fear was getting to me---but from a reality based perspective, the complexity, chaos and overwhelming size of the problems could not be approached in any kind of simplistic manner. And instant gratification is just not an option.

Because of the size of it all, we can't possibly have an accurate perspective. History will, though, once the partisanship and belligerence and personalitites have passed on -- and then we will see the kind of assessments we wish we could see now.

Hey, maybe by then, the education system will have been improved too with a greater respect for facts, context and critical thinking! :)

[sendero]

24. God knows..

... that making conservatives happy is a ringing endorsement.

[JNelson6563]

4. Quite amazing really.

Kudos to President Obama.

Julie

[Lord Helmet]

5. "left-wing hecklers"

:thumbsup:

[Tarheel_Dem]

12. +10,000

:thumbsup: :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[MadHound]

6. Achieved many of his chief campaign promieses?

Would that be doubling down twice on an illegal, immoral war?

Would that be increasing the privatization of our public school system at an ever increasing rate?

Would that be the continued encroachment of our civil rights?

These are promises that don't need to be kept.

[Moochy]

7. Obama is doing a fine job

much finer than Mccain Palin!
Yammer Yammer "(Guantanamo hasn't been closed, gays aren't serving openly in the military, too many policies cater to business interests!"

Halperin is pushing the false equivalence of the left and right's stance on Obama.

The Left supports him but is pushing him farther on issues that the left cares about.

The Right hates him and furthers the lies, racist tropes and fascist, xenophobic gun rallies of ignorant mother fuckers to their advantage, while the white-supremacist loving press supplies the gasoline for the bonfires.

[old mark]

8. I am amazed that this comes from TIME, and I hope it is only the beginning of

some REALISTIC MSM coverage of President Obama's accomplishments in his short time in office. I have given him hell in the past and certainly will again, but he is doing a fine job and I am hoping we can get together again in November to elect Democrats to all open offices. I'd love to see the GOP lose ground, and I KNOW it is possible if only we wish to do it.

The GOP knows it, too- they just don't want to talk about it...

m

[spanone]

9. k&r....

[tilsammans]

10. K & R!!!

:patriot:

[NI4NI]

13. His administration has also kept America safe

Remember during the 2008 campaign how then Senator Obama and Democrats were demonetize and lambasted for being unable to keep America's homeland safe.
How many terroristic bombing threats have actually been uncovered and thwarted since BO took office?
Even when many of the color coded Homeland Security terror alerts back in those days were contrived and illegitimate, imagine today how the supporters of the former administration would have been praising Boy George and his GOPstapo if they had our current president's actual record.
BTW.....when was the last time a color coded alert was broadcasted?......there use to be one a day.
Seems to me Obama's administration is preventing terror and fear both deligently and quietly.

[Tarheel_Dem]

14. This is why the Repubs are still trying to create his "Waterloo". They know

that this president's actions have lead to some positive changes.

[NJmaverick]

15. K & R!

[lillypaddle]

17. Nice

k&r

[flyarm]

20. he sure achieved what no repub could...Drill Obama Drill! eom

[Scurrilous]

21. K & R

:thumbsup:

[donheld]

22. .

:thumbsup:

[BlancheSplanchnik]

25. I especially like seeing intelligent pieces like this in MASS media

Time has a huge circulation. WOuld be great if this were on the magazine's cover, where more people would see it.

It's so good to see this in contrast to total pro-GOP media blackout.

heh, I kind of especially needed that after running into some tea-party misunderstanding of founding fathers quotes on ebay just now. Taking things out of context to whip themselves up with NO understanding of the larger picture (because the mass media they watch only feeds them what it wants)... yech.