San Bernardino

[Nodack]

I think Obama's proven himself to be nothing but an empty suit and mostly all talk.

Obama has been my favorite US President of my lifetime.

[ShelC]

He's been weak and nothing but a speechmaker. Bill Clinton will be regarded as one of the best Presidents we've had.

[Mori Chu]

I don't like a lot of the results of Obama's presidency, but I think a lot of that can be chalked up to the fact that the Republicans in Congress and the Senate got a lot more crafty at obstructing activity that they didn't want.

[Nodack]

He's been weak and nothing but a speechmaker. Bill Clinton will be regarded as one of the best Presidents we've had.

What has he been weak at? You paint real broad strokes with no details.

[Indy]

I think Obama's proven himself to be nothing but an empty suit and mostly all talk.

About this mass shooting?

[Indy]

I don't like a lot of the results of Obama's presidency, but I think a lot of that can be chalked up to the fact that the Republicans in Congress and the Senate got a lot more crafty at obstructing activity that they didn't want.

I think this will be looked back upon as either the beginning of the end, or one of the darkest times from which we thankfully recovered.

[ShelC]

What has he been weak at? You paint real broad strokes with no details.

That's how I roll:

Iran
Syria
Russia
Gun Control

[Mori Chu]

When Obama got elected, I really wanted to see him repeal or greatly weaken the PATRIOT Act and to close Gitmo. He didn't do either. That really bummed me out. He has done several things I've loved, like (presiding over) legalizing gay marriage and starting Obamacare. And I think he's generally led the economy back into a healthy state, though some of that is just cyclic. For weaknesses, I think he's really had to figure out foreign policy on the job, with mixed results. And he hasn't always been savvy about how to deal with his political opponents.

I feel for him that he's had to face a particularly stubborn and aggressive opposition from the other party. I know it's always that way to some degree, but it feels amplified for Obama. Questioning his birth, whether he's a Muslim (and indicating that it's bad to be a Muslim in the first place), blocking so many things that he's tried to do, the debt ceiling stuff, not being willing to pass a budget, government shutdowns, filibusters, ... The amount of obstructionism has been through the roof.

What other accomplishments would others here list as among Obama's best/worst? How do you rate his eight years in office overall?

[Indy]

What has he been weak at? You paint real broad strokes with no details.

That's how I roll:

Iran
Syria
Russia
Gun Control

What should Obama due about Iran or Syria or Russia? Just curious about your thoughts.

[Indy]

What other accomplishments would others here list as among Obama's best/worst? How do you rate his eight years in office overall?

It always seems that you compare sitting presidents to the predecessor. By that comparison, he:

(+) Hasn't seen another "9/11"
(+) Hasn't started a war with unrelated countries/governments
(+) Economy/Jobs (really seeing things we haven't seen in generations with job growth)
(+) Healthcare

(-) Patriot Act
(-) Gitmo
(-) We are still in the Middle East (and we have no good reason for it)
(-) Gun Control--I don't care how much the crazies fight this; there is actually quite a bit the average American supports
(-) Corporate tax structures (it is still much better for companies to be off-shore than on)


I am sure there are plenty more, but those are the big things.

[Nodack]

What has he been weak at? You paint real broad strokes with no details.

That's how I roll:

Iran
Syria
Russia
Gun Control

At least that's sort of specific.

Iran- The world minus Republicans in the US just signed a deal with Iran to stop them from acquiring nukes. Show me how Bush did any better. What would you have done differently? Sanctions? Sanctions have been in place against Iran for a long time already.

Syria- The infamous red line crossed. Obama promise action if Syria used chemical weapons and they did. Did that make us look weak. Perhaps but, Syria never even admitted to having chemical weapons before Obama threatened action and destroyed them after the threat so, the red line did yield results. Did Obama stop the war or oust Syrians leader? No. How do you do that? There are more than a dozen different factions fighting in Syria right now and most of them hate us. Russia has decided to join the fight protecting Syria's leader. I would like to know how you would handle this situation differently. Send in tens of thousands of American ground forces to fight who? Everybody? How does that turn out well? It doesn't. Thousands die and we spend trillions for what outcome, WWIII? We could all celebrate the fact that Obama wasn't weak as millions die.

Russia- Russia got fat again off of oil and Putin decided they were a Superpower again. Putin started flexing his muscles and decided to annex part of the Ukraine. Now Russia has been hit with low oil prices and sanctions crippling their economy. Russia is hurting. They are flexing their muscles but, it is costing them. No Obama didn't declare war on Russia and start WWIII trying to prove how tough he is. I think he handled it pretty well considering.

Obama's weak. I would bet my house that no matter what Democrat was President the Republican Party would say the exact same thing no matter what the situation. "Democrats are weak, they want your guns, they want to raise your taxes and they hate America." It's been the same lines used for many decades for every election as far back as I can remember.

Gun control- Obama has blasted the lack of gun control from day one and has after every single shooting rampage. Go to any media site right now and there is at least one article detailing Obama wanting more gun controls. He can't make laws. He signs the ones that make it to his desk. Maybe you are against gun controls and are thinking Obama is weak because he has championed gun controls. I don't know. Your lack of details makes it hard to know.

Obama has been my favorite us President of my lifetime. Half of it because I like what he has done and half of it because I have come to despise what the Republican Party has become. They are evil to me now. The more they hate him, the more I like him.

[Nodack]

What other accomplishments would others here list as among Obama's best/worst? How do you rate his eight years in office overall?

It always seems that you compare sitting presidents to the predecessor. By that comparison, he:

(+) Hasn't seen another "9/11"
(+) Hasn't started a war with unrelated countries/governments
(+) Economy/Jobs (really seeing things we haven't seen in generations with job growth)
(+) Healthcare

(-) Patriot Act
(-) Gitmo
(-) We are still in the Middle East (and we have no good reason for it)
(-) Gun Control--I don't care how much the crazies fight this; there is actually quite a bit the average American supports
(-) Corporate tax structures (it is still much better for companies to be off-shore than on)


I am sure there are plenty more, but those are the big things.

Obama pushed hard to close Gitmo and still is. No US state is willing to take the inmates and Republicans have blocked all efforts t close it while simultaneously complaning that Obama didn't close Gitmo like he promised.

[Nodack]

Listing of Obama accomplishments.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazi ... p?page=all

[Indy]

What other accomplishments would others here list as among Obama's best/worst? How do you rate his eight years in office overall?

It always seems that you compare sitting presidents to the predecessor. By that comparison, he:

(+) Hasn't seen another "9/11"
(+) Hasn't started a war with unrelated countries/governments
(+) Economy/Jobs (really seeing things we haven't seen in generations with job growth)
(+) Healthcare

(-) Patriot Act
(-) Gitmo
(-) We are still in the Middle East (and we have no good reason for it)
(-) Gun Control--I don't care how much the crazies fight this; there is actually quite a bit the average American supports
(-) Corporate tax structures (it is still much better for companies to be off-shore than on)


I am sure there are plenty more, but those are the big things.

Obama pushed hard to close Gitmo and still is. No US state is willing to take the inmates and Republicans have blocked all efforts t close it while simultaneously complaning that Obama didn't close Gitmo like he promised.

Either way, Nodack, it isn't done and he said it was something he was going to do. He didn't live up to his promise there.

[Nodack]

You are right. Still, it doesn't change my opinion of him one bit. If he promised to close it and then didn't try, I would have a different opinion. Republicans have fought against closing Gitmo and heavily criticized Obama for trying while at the same time are criticizing Obama for breaking his promise of not closing it.

"You promised to close Gitmo and we Republicans were able to stop you from accomplishing that. Now we get to criticize you for breaking your promise."

I am supposed to be mad at Obama for that? He gets a pass from me.

[Indy]

I get what you are saying, but he clearly knew the GOP would fight him in closing it from the beginning. So he doesn't get a pass from me. That said, can you imagine how f'd up our country would be right now if Romney were president?

[Nodack]

Obama clearly knew he would face a fight on anything he wanted to accomplish from Republicans. That doesn't stop you from trying. Clearly Republicans know they couldn't repeal Obamacare while Obama was President and that didn't stop them.

With Romney who knows? I think they all just say all that BS they do when trying to get elected because they are just saying what they think their base wants to hear. They all do it from any party. Once elected they are freer to make real decisions.

Obamacare was patterned after Romneycare. Romney had to totally distance himself from Romneycare during the election and never mentioned it once even though it was his biggest accomplishment.

He promised to eliminate FEMA. I don't think he had any intentions of actually going through it.

[SDC]

My rant wasn't about gun control. It was about FOX News intentionally trying to get their base to hate the other half of the country for political gain. It's really dangerous and divides the country needlessly. People are getting killed because of it. As far as I am concerned FOX New has blood on their hands.

where's your proof of foxnews intentionally trying spread hate towards the other half of the country? you dont even watch foxnews.

in other news, obama said this

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... oliticized

[SDC]

I also feel very sad about how much Muslims are being painted as "the bad guys" by certain networks and politicians. There are some Islamic extremists, yes, but there are also Christian extremists and atheist extremists and so on. 99.999% of Muslims are good people; this is not a religion of evil and hatred. To say otherwise is ignorant and discriminatory, and it's sad that it is even remotely acceptable to talk like that in 2015.

i'm sure there are extremists of christian and athiest background, but they dont kill in the name of their religion, and they are not as organized and as global. many kill based on ideology though (communist, leftist groups).

as for the numbers of support radical islam gets from muslims, here's the latest from pew

[SDC]

I also feel very sad about how much Muslims are being painted as "the bad guys" by certain networks and politicians. There are some Islamic extremists, yes, but there are also Christian extremists and atheist extremists and so on. 99.999% of Muslims are good people; this is not a religion of evil and hatred. To say otherwise is ignorant and discriminatory, and it's sad that it is even remotely acceptable to talk like that in 2015.

I never really understood how Germany in the 30s could have happened, but we are seeing germs of it now... it is really, really scary.

here a FANTASTIC answer from bridgitte gabriel about radical islam and the national socialist party of germany in the 30s

[video][/video]