Can someone who watched provide a synopsis? I’m not a fan of giving politicians my attention while they suck their own D, but maybe there was one or two meaninful sentences uttered between the self-filating, finger wagging, and fist shaking.
Was that last night? It would be hard for me to care less about what Obama has to say at this point…and I didn’t care much to begin with.
Anyone catch that video of the 120 SOTU promises Obama has made and not even come close to keeping?
If he doesn’t go down as one of the most ineffective, limp-wristed presidents of all-time, I’ll be shocked. It’s not so much that he’s bad. It’s more like he’s not even there. A good president doesn’t have to have all the right answers - they should have good advisors for that - but he/she must be a great leader. When it comes to leadership, he’s as bad as, if not worse than, Carter.
the only reason I knew about it was because it prevented me from being able to see the Grinder Grind, my week is ruined.
He’s coming for our guns, Turd. They’re gonna take our guns, they’re gonna give our jobs to the Chinese and we’re all gonna have to marry the gays Turd. The whole countries going to sheit. Itera tried to warn us and we didn’t listen!
Thank GOD Trump is going to save us all.
Which is still significantly better than GHWB & “the decider” GWB. I would personally love to see all the promises presidents make during SOTU addresses stacked up. Historically the SOTU is just where the POTUS announces his policy objectives (so it should sound like a wish list) and tbh I can’t believe people watch that thing. Its like an award show with the standing and clapping and non reactions from the other side. Its all pomp & circumstance and a huge waste of time.
That show is absolutely hilarious. Decided to watch Grandfathered, which I found very unfunny, and The Grinder came on after it and I was laughing the entire time. Grinder Rests.
^ The rallying cry of democrats for the last 7 1/2 years: He’s not as bad a GWB!
In related news, I can jump higher than my 3 year old, so I’m clearly awesome.
I dont think anyone is saying obama is awesome. But when you make a sweeting statement like STL made and compare him to Carter while skipping over two terrible presidents that seems rather odd.
^Nope, Obama is awesome. I would love to have him for a third term if it was legal. Since he doesn’t care what the Constitution says, hopefully he will try.
I keep hearing this complaint about constitutional violations, but every challenge leveled to the Supreme Court gets struck down so I’m a bit skeptical.
Thats a solid point I havent really thought of BS. There is an apparatus in place to challenge moves by the pres, and they have been, for the most, part upheld in court. As for decisions he makes and uses executive orders to accomplish, those are easily overturned by the next administration if they choose, and can be challenged in court.
BS is full of good logic these days. I hadn’t thought about the Supreme Court angle. And it’s not as if he’s got the Supreme Court in his pocket either.
Nonetheless Citizens United has basically legalized one-dollar one vote, or at least one-dollar one minute of floor time, so maybe it all doesn’t matter.
Anyway, getting most things done requires that the President and Congress agree on enough to get policy legalized and financed appropriately. If you like the policies, then you blame whoever opposed them, if you don’t like them, you blame whoever proposed them. I think what the Obama presidency shows is how enough hate in Congress can cripple a president and make him ineffective. We had a preview under Clinton. Perhaps the Democrats can learn a few plays from the republican playbook and learn that Republicans don’t actually believe in compromise or are structurally incapable (thanks Grover Norquist) of doing it.
Overly predictable response. Plus, I’m not talking about who’s better. I was very specific on Obama’s leadership abilities. Both Bush’s may or may not have been better presidents, but if you think Obama is a better leader than them, you’re insane in the membrane.
Apparently the woman who gave the response to the SOTU knocked it out of the park. Only people complaining are the Ann Coulters of the world, and if thats the case, you are on the right track. Moderate repubs & even dems thought it was a breath of fresh air.
Maybe you and I have different ideas of Leadership skills. I would say that deciding (or allowing Cheney to decide) that you need to spend trillions of dollars and lose thousands of american lives, on top of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis/Afghan, whilst giving out billions in no bid contracts to a subsidiary of the company the VP was a former CEO of, would make one a pretty terrible leader. Or does he just get the “Guiliani bump” in leadership skills as he was in charge for 9/11?
I didn’t pick up on that distinction. In that case, I’ll have to agree that W was better than Obama at getting the country riled up and supportive of his policies, especially the wars. Not sure at all that GHWB was a very good leader (though not so bad on policy). Clinton had everyone loving him but didn’t really face any strong leadership challenges he had to get through, though if he hadn’t had the Lewinsky scandal, he might have had a freer hand to nip Al Qaida before it grew into the organization that executed 9/11. At the time, everyone was saying he was just doing Wag the Dog to distract from Lewinsky, but it turns out that attacking Al Qaida was the real deal after all
My sense is that Obama believed too much in the possibility of effective compromise through rational discussion, a la cooperative game theory. He couldn’t believe that the Republicans in Congress would rather strangle the country if it meant stopping anything he could claim as a success.
Perhaps prioritizing Obamacare in his first term ended up being just too costly, but it’s hard for me to think the outcome on other policies would have been all that different if he had just given in on that one too.
Yeah, you and I have a very different definition of what it means to be a great leader. Putin is a great leader. Hitler was a great leader. Their policies were bad (and in Hitler’s case, you know, really, really bad), but no denying their leadership abilities.
Obama doesn’t inspire anyone, can’t rally his own base and openly loathes the right, and has basically been an absentee landlord for the last 7 years. That makes him a poor leader. He’s disenfranchised those that voted for “hope” eight years ago.
Feel free to respond about Bush again, but I’m more curious if you could provide anything that points to Obama’s leadership ability.
Obama seems to be able to rally support from his base when needed. What he lacks is the political capital to accomplish much. When you go into office with the other side more concerned with making sure you have no legacy than actually moving the country forward, there really is no hope.
I like what I am hearing from Ryan though, he seems like a logical person. I assume he is trying to position himself for a presidential campaign in 2020 or 2024, which wouldnt be a terrible way for the party to go.
As for those great leaders you mentioned, one wonderful thing they have in common is a control of the media and crushing/killing anyone who dare threaten/oppose them. If WWII Germany or Russian had as free a media as the US I would imagine dissent would be much higher. From reading online it seems that there are many in russia who are frustrated but not publicly allowed to say so.
I don’t know. Many people in the US think Obama is like Jesus. I’m pretty sure at least one person on AF is straight but would have actual physical sex with Obama. However, Obama’s agenda is related to controversial policies, and therefore, he is unlikely to receive overwhelming support. It is easier to label someone as a great leader - let’s say Churchill - when they have a widely supported agenda (in this case, not losing WW2).
Obama’s job isn’t to be a leader, it’s to execute his agenda through the machinations of government. It’s impossible to be a leader when half the country hates you regardless of your action. When Obama does something, it’s executive overreach, and when he steps back, it’s absenteeism, so really it doesn’t matter.