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President Obama's report card: Solid "F"


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2014 Jun 18, 3:00am   19,394 views  64 comments

by Strategist   ➕follow (3)   💰tip   ignore  

http://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2014/04/04/barack-obama-legacy/

As Barack Obama moves toward the end of his career, expect to hear lots of talk about his legacy. I believe the first African-American president will be remembered kindly by the academic establishment, writing from their ivory towers, because of the historic nature of his election. But for average Americans, itll be a different story. Most Americans judge a president based on what he promises versus what he delivers, and they judge him using the question Ronald Reagan asked voters in 1980: Are you better off today than you were four years ago? At this point in the Obama presidency,...

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1   Strategist   2014 Jun 18, 3:13am  

This is what I would give him:

Economy C+ The recovery is too slow, he needs to do better.
Foreign Policy D- His handling of the Ukrainian crisis was pathetic.
Terrorism A Capturing Bin Laden and killing Awlaki was awesome
Middle East F His handling of Syria and Iraq is a disgrace.
Real Estate B+ Real Estate meltdown was prevented. Still shaky
Stock Market A+ Record highs. Congrats.
Pollution A+ Thanks. A+++.

Overall B.

2   Rin   2014 Jun 18, 3:16am  

I'd say a 'B', because the outsourcing to India has slowed down, thanks to all the quality issues and the fact that the US currency is weaker than Asia-Pacific, thus, eliminating the arbitrage of having a low quality body shop in South Asia.

But don't worry, in time, corporate America will succeed at eliminating jobs stateside.

3   smaulgld   2014 Jun 18, 3:19am  

Half think the President is incompetent:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/about-that-wall-street-journal-poll-is-the-public-saying-obamas-presidency-is-over/article/2549878

11% think he is very competent
39% somewhat competent
31% not competent at all
19% not too competent

4   smaulgld   2014 Jun 18, 3:28am  

Strategist says

Economy C+ The recovery is too slow, he needs to do better.

Foreign Policy D- His handling of the Ukrainian crisis was pathetic.

Terrorism A Capturing Bin Laden and killing Awlaki was awesome

Middle East F His handling of Syria and Iraq is a disgrace.

Real Estate B+ Real Estate meltdown was prevented. Still shaky

Stock Market A+ Record highs. Congrats.

Pollution A+ Thanks. A+++.

Overall B.

The president really isn't in charge of the economy-that is Fed driven- monetary policy and congressionally driven fiscal and tax policy. I wouldn't give the President a score on the economy.
The stock market and real estate markets are also outside of his purview.

Basically Presidents can be judged on foreign policy and legislation that they endorse (Obama care, FDA carbon regulations) and tone (statesman? visionary? motivator?).

Those are the areas where the President can be graded.

5   Strategist   2014 Jun 18, 3:34am  

smaulgld says

The president really isn't in charge of the economy-that is Fed driven- monetary policy and congressionally driven fiscal and tax policy. I wouldn't give the President a score on the economy.

The stock market and real estate markets are also outside of his purview.

Basically Presidents can be judged on foreign policy and legislation that they endorse (Obama care, FDA carbon regulations) and tone (statesman? visionary? motivator?).

Those are the areas where the President can be graded.

No doubt the federal reserve plays the most crucial role with regards to the economy, but people will still hold the President responsible as they too play a crucial role with their policies and nominating the Fed Res chairman.
"It's the economy, stupid" - Jimmy Carter lost because of that. Reagan and Clinton won second time because of the economy.

6   Ceffer   2014 Jun 18, 3:41am  

He gets an "F" because he didn't steal all the free stuff and give it to me like he promised.

7   Analyzer   2014 Jun 18, 3:58am  

What about all the scandals that have not been graded...............Benghazi, IRS, VA, protecting the border, you can keep your health plan period.....etc? He looks weak, why do you think Putin is jerking his chain left and right?

8   Analyzer   2014 Jun 18, 4:04am  

For a long time I have been trying to understand how we can talk about protecting this country from terrorism and yet we continue to allow a sieve at the southern border. Am I missing something?

9   bob2356   2014 Jun 18, 4:20am  

Absolutely amazing. No one thought about civil rights?? Economies go up and down usually in spite of government. foreign policy is frequently nothing but posturing, but once you give up your civil rights they are gone forever.

10   smaulgld   2014 Jun 18, 4:24am  

bob2356 says

Absolutely amazing. No one thought about civil rights?? Economies go up and down usually in spite of government. foreign policy is frequently nothing but posturing, but once you give up your civil rights they are gone forever.

Yes, "enforcing the law" is important- The NSA & IRS run amock is not an achievement

11   smaulgld   2014 Jun 18, 4:25am  

Strategist says

"It's the economy, stupid" - Jimmy Carter lost because of that. Reagan and Clinton won second time because of the economy.

Analyzer says

What about all the scandals that have not been graded...............Benghazi, IRS, VA, protecting the border, you can keep your health plan period.....etc? He looks weak, why do you think Putin is jerking his chain left and right?

Most of those would come under "tone" or as bob points out civil rights enforcement. Benghazi is under foreign policy

12   MisdemeanorRebel   2014 Jun 18, 4:39am  

bob2356 says

Absolutely amazing. No one thought about civil rights?? Economies go up and down usually in spite of government. foreign policy is frequently nothing but posturing, but once you give up your civil rights they are gone forever.

Decency and Privacy, at least among White Gentlemen, is 19th Century.

Only people who hate freedom care about civil rights. Who cares about Parallel Construction, or the US having multiple times more people in prison than the OECD average while having a higher crime rate than average? Or the fact that crime has decreased in countries with similar age cohort demographics like Canada, despite the lack of embracing community policing/poor people harassment, mandatory minimums, reducing public defenders, a conviction/guilty plea rate closer to Saddam's election results due to crass overcharging where the risk of going to a jury trial are too great, etc. etc.?

Or how routine things, like a parent leaving a 7-year old in a car for 5 minutes while they run in an pick up the dry cleaning on a 50 degree Autumn Day can and does result in CPS intervention, or the Cash-for-Kids Scandal, or the arming of one-light town Alice's Restaurant Police Departments with SWAT teams, or the beating to siezure of a woman who instinctively elbowed a plainsclothes cop when grabbed from behind, followed by a multiyear prison sentence?

Good thing Daniel Ellsberg didn't leak the Pentagon Papers today, he'd be in Gitmo or Solitary and most of the press and BOTH party talking heads and politicians would be defending his incarceration.

(EDIT: shortened the rant)

13   MisdemeanorRebel   2014 Jun 18, 4:57am  

BTW, you know who made attempts to charge Ellsberg with the Espionage Act? Nixon. It was the only attempt in his Presidency, even though he faced a lot more civil disobedience, press hostility, and general disorder than this President ever had.

This President can't stop charging people under the Espionage Act for Whistleblowing and Journalism. He holds the record for more charges combined since 1945:


Most tallies, like the one by the investigative service ProPublica, begin with Daniel Ellsberg and the release of the Vietnam War era documents known as the Pentagon Papers. Including Ellsberg, the government has used the Espionage Act 10 times to prosecute government workers who shared classified information with journalists. If we push back to 1945, there is one more case. So of those 11, seven have taken place while Barack Obama has been president.

Law professor David Pozen at Columbia University, has researched the culture of unauthorized disclosures in the nation’s capital and said generally, there has been an uptick in these prosecutions on Obama’s watch..

"There’s not really any doubt," Pozen said."The spirit of the assertion is correct."

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/jan/10/jake-tapper/cnns-tapper-obama-has-used-espionage-act-more-all-/

This can't be laid at the door of Congress, it's 100% the Administration.

14   smaulgld   2014 Jun 18, 5:59am  

impressions on Presidential tone

Based solely on demeanor not politics or policy
Nixon paranoid trickery
Ford- standin to be tolerated
Carter hard working incompetence (other than Camp David)
Reagan early optimism & strength, later out to lunch
Bush-bureaucratic entry level competence
Clinton-confident & informed but slick, esp. towards the end
W Bush -bumbling incompetence almost throughout other than 9/12-9/13
Obama- arrogantly out of element

15   mell   2014 Jun 18, 6:04am  

val x = "Keynesian remedies"
x: java.lang.String = "Oxymoron"

16   Rin   2014 Jun 18, 6:16am  

thunderlips11 says

Good thing Daniel Ellsberg didn't leak the Pentagon Papers today, he'd be in Gitmo or Solitary and most of the press and BOTH party talking heads and politicians would be defending his incarceration.

Perhaps we can rename ourselves, the Banana Republic of America. And then, it won't be hypocrisy anymore.

18   HEY YOU   2014 Jun 18, 7:06am  

Republican report card: Solid F for Fuck 'em, substantially?

19   🎂 Tenpoundbass   2014 Jun 18, 7:59am  

I give the voters a bad grade.

20   Strategist   2014 Jun 18, 9:05am  

We should add these too:

National Security & NSA .............A He has done his best to keep us safe.
Obamacare .............? Too hard for me to decipher.
Golf skills ..............? Too hard to decipher
Reducing Crime .............. C Hasn't done much. Recession?
Reducing Welfare .............. C Hasn't done much. Recession?

21   Strategist   2014 Jun 18, 9:08am  

If there was a third term:
Ronald Reagan would have made it.
Bill Clinton would have made it.
George Bush would not have made it.
Barack Obama 50/50

22   smaulgld   2014 Jun 18, 9:20am  

Strategist says

If there was a third term:

Ronald Reagan would have made it.

Bill Clinton would have made it.

George Bush would not have made it.

Barack Obama 50/50

Yep and that squares with my tone analysis above

Reagan might not have made it due to age and the perception he was slipping but putting that aside he could have been reelected

23   Heraclitusstudent   2014 Jun 18, 9:28am  

Obama is a C-.

At the very least he should have:
1- let the banks fail down to $2,
2 - bought/nationalized them for $2 each.
3 - guillotined their leaders on general principles and decreed a 85% tax on bonuses above $20K.
4 - forced them to liquidate foreclosures
5 - Restored Glass-Steagall and broken down public banks to enforce it.
6 - recapitalized and sold the resulting operations.
7 - done no stimulus until business leaders force house members to beg him publicly to run one.
8 - let the Bush tax cut expire the first time around and let the republicans beg him to run a new tax cut based on social security contributions (i.e. targeted at the first 100K revenue or so)
9 - only after all this take up healthcare.
10 - he should have left a big force in Iraq.

Obama is too kind. He doesn't have the badassness necessary for this job.

24   indigenous   2014 Jun 18, 9:50am  

Strategist says

If there was a third term:

Only FDR did that (4x), the constituents were really ignorant back then. But today with all the information technology are we any smarter?

25   Analyzer   2014 Jun 18, 9:52am  

Heraclitusstudent says

Obama is too kind. He doesn't have the badassness necessary for this job.

Yeah, he needs an edge...............

26   mell   2014 Jun 18, 10:29am  

CL says

That's why I'd give Obama a better than 50/50 on a hypothetical 3rd term. The public doesn't buy what the GOP is selling, and they can't resist the crappiest candidates and platforms.

Nobody said you have to buy what the GOP is selling, there's more than Republicrats and Demoplicans. In the grand scheme of things, they are one and the same - throw in some public theater on fringe issues, but when the US needs to go to yet another war or the bankstas need yet another Fed bailout they stand united.

27   indigenous   2014 Jun 18, 10:37am  

indigenous says

mell says

In the grand scheme of things, they are one and the same - throw in some public theater on fringe issues, but when the US needs to go to yet another war or the bankstas need yet another Fed bailout they stand united.

Spending is the only real issue and the only one neither party will bend on.

Not that this is newsworthy but it illustrates more of the same on and on, this time for opulent spending on the facilities to house Frank Dodd to the tune of 200 million spent autonomously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfRc8Sn5hiY&feature=youtu.be

28   mmmarvel   2014 Jun 18, 10:47am  

Strategist says

Jonathan Johnamp; NSA .............A He has done his best to keep us safe.

Obamacare .............? Too hard for me to decipher.

Golf skills ..............? Too hard to decipher

Reducing Crime .............. C Hasn't done much. Recession?

Reducing Welfare .............. C Hasn't done much. Recession?

No - let's really grade these areas:

National Security and NSA - C he's gotten lucky on National Security and NSA has WAY overstepped it's bounds WITH his approval.

Obamacare - F only because there isn't a lower grade. Lied about the cost, lied about keeping your own insurance. Quality is lower, more government regs ... a dismal failure.

Golf skills - C despite spending LOTS of time on the course, he's still not that good.

Reducing crime - F haven't seen anything that makes it look like crime has been reduced OR that he's had anything to do with it (beyond a beer summit).

Reducing welfare - F sort of depends on what you classify as welfare, LOTS more people getting government handouts of one type or another, the man is a walking disaster.

29   indigenous   2014 Jun 18, 10:55am  

mmmarvel says

Reducing welfare - F sort of depends on what you classify as welfare, LOTS more people getting government handouts of one type or another, the man is a walking disaster.

Where he really fails and is a liability to this country is with legislation that will do nothing but grow. Same as LBJ and FDR. The lefties think the ACA or Consumer Protection Act will not grow, but they are denying history.

30   Bellingham Bill   2014 Jun 18, 11:34pm  

Objectively, Obama hasn't been that good a president.

Reagan took a $600B government and nearly doubled it to $1.1T

W, same thing, $1.8T to $3.5T

On Obama's watch, gov't spending has only gone up 10%, to $3.9T.

Can't continue to have the greatest nation on the planet with such a paltry increase in its spending.

Having lost his Congressional supermajority after less than a year in office, and the House completely after 2 years -- and the Republican House one of the most comically hostile (to the Executive) bodies in all of history AFAIK -- Obama's been pretty much a "nothing burger" for the nation.

His greatest failure was not being the man we needed in 2009, after the Bush Economy went to complete shit on us.

He was a centrist, like Carter appointing Volcker in 1979, and his advisors did not (apparently) understand the severity of the bomb the previous administration's utter incompetence had set up for him, 2003-2008:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=DJW

shows credit was expanding at a sustained ~20% pa clip during this period, something not seen ever. Losing this money showering upon the entire economy was going to really hobble the 'recovery', but nobody apparently understood this simple dynamic.

Commander-in-Chief-wise, I don't see any intelligent criticism to make of his performance. He's appointed Republican DOD secretaries FFS, and followed a centrist line.

Like Nixon, he's had to extract the Army from a loser of a war. Two, actually.

The Dems have been lackluster for a very long time, but the GOP has been a total clownshow for even longer.

This is not a (D) vs (R) issue as much at is a left vs. right thing.

Conservatism -- anti-abortion, anti-evolution, anti-labor, pro-corporatism, anti-redistribution, pro-globalism, pro-guns, pro-war, pro-racism -- is destroying this country, and since conservatives have taken over the GOP, this cancer is a largely GOP thing now, though of course there are still a few conservative Dems rattling around.

31   dublin hillz   2014 Jun 19, 3:13am  

It's amusing to hear those on the right acting like barack is the second coming of marx/lenin because when you listen to real "leftist" outlets like KPFA radio from their perspective Barack is the same old american imperialist war monger like all other presidents who also bows down to corporate interests.

32   HydroCabron   2014 Jun 19, 3:15am  

It's also amusing to hear them pretend to think Bush was a disaster - not that they'll say it very often. They're too busy whining that liberals won't renounce Obama.

The next Republican president we get, there will be war. And every staunch conservative and pretend libertarian will support it wholeheartedly.

33   indigenous   2014 Jun 19, 3:24am  

HuggyBumbers McLovkins says

The next Republican president we get, there will be war.

Funny all but the Iraq/Afghanistan war were started by Democrats.

I think the stage is set for war above the presidents pay grade.

Partly by defense contractor lobbyists, but mostly by mercantilism. I would be leery of China leaning toward war.

34   Analyzer   2014 Jun 19, 3:27am  

Bellingham Bill says

Objectively, Obama hasn't been that good a president.

Objectively is the problem.................I don't have any reason to lean toward one particular party. As was said above at the end of the day they are not that different and really don't care about you anyway.

35   BoomAndBustCycle   2014 Jun 19, 3:34am  

On a purely economic standpoint... Obama should have an A+.

March 4th, 2009 - DOW 6000 ( 3rd month of Barack's presidency).
June 19th, 2014 - DOW 16871

Name another president who would have been deemed a failure when the stock market increased that much in 5 years!?

October 2009 - Unemployment rate was 10% (Barack caught a falling knife).
May 2014 - Unemployment rate is 6.3%

Name another president with unemployment rate that falls nearly a 1% a year, that would be deemed bad president?

******

Anyway... You can say all you want about the FED and inflation... But until the house of cards collapses... On paper.. Obama is an economic Houdini who deserves an A+ in that department.

36   BoomAndBustCycle   2014 Jun 19, 3:43am  

komputodo says

They get upset if you disparage their team. Why bother. Your favorite team doesn't give a crap about you.

I always said politics was the same as rooting for your favorite sports team. Blind faith and allegiance isn't the way you should support a political party though.

But then again, while i played sports as a kid.. I never had a favorite sports team. I will admit, my college football team I felt some of that "US against THEM pride". But i didn't lose any sleep over them losing.

Maybe i don't have the same desire to BELONG to a group as some sports fans. I guess I can see the benefits of communal celebration and pride.

Similar to patriotism.... But people always take it to the extreme that I never could. Now when i GAMBLE on a team... and lose.. THAT can make me lose sleep... and money :)

37   Analyzer   2014 Jun 19, 3:52am  

Call it Crazy says

Yep, a real Houdini!!

Houdini was famous for smoke and mirrors, right?

38   Strategist   2014 Jun 19, 3:57am  

komputodo says

hmm..Let me see..those that are doing well in this economy are going to give him a higher grade and those that aren't are going to give him a lower grade..I think that pretty much explains it.

There is also disappointment with any President when someone gets their high expectations not panning out. The perfect example is right here on these boards where many voters voted for Obama because of his opposition to the Patriot Act, Gitmo and American boots on foreign lands. After coming to power Obama realized his intentions are just not feasible, leaving a very disappointed voter in its wake.

39   Paralithodes   2014 Jun 19, 4:28am  

Bellingham Bill says

W, same thing, $1.8T to $3.5T

On Obama's watch, gov't spending has only gone up 10%, to $3.9T.

That's awesome... Include within government spending the allegedly one-time bailout/stimulus funds, as the baseline level for government spending left by Bush. Then despite years of continuing resolutions, essentially keeping high spending levels in place, give Obama credit for not increasing government spending that much despite having a nearly consistent $.5 Trillion or more per year above the last actual budget to spend.

Yep, that's "objective."

Of course, one can't claim Obama was responsible for the stimulus as a member of Congress because he simply didn't vote at all on it. Too bad Congress didn't double the one-time stimulus and then allow half of it to expire after one year. Then you could claim Obama cut government spending by XX%... "objectively" that is...

40   indigenous   2014 Jun 19, 4:31am  

Arguing over Bush vs Obama is like arguing over who was worse FRD or LBJ IOW they both suck so bad that it is hardly worth trying to figure out which is worse.

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