Not personally a fan of Obama as I was disgusted at how appallingly he handed the Deep Horizon crisis a few years back. Scapegoating a 49% US owned company (who was contracting 100% US companies) as being all an evil non US company breaking rules and as a direct result causing share prices (which a LOT of people's pensions are invested in) just to look like "the big man" during a crisis does not sit well with me and is certainly not something I would expect from someone in office as high as the US president.
However, as a politician, I think he has been let down by the US electorate who basically crippled him from making any real changes by putting Republicans in charge of the House of Representatives who then throw their toys out of the pram at anything and anything they possibly could trying to gain leverage and destabilize the government.
Deficit ceiling nonsense leading most recently to the federal shutdown and also all this pushing back at "Obamacare" despite the fact that it has been passed into legislation.
If they were going to be constructive against "Obamacare", they should be running their next election on the pledge to revoke it and let the population give them a clear answer as to whether that's what they want. That's what a real democracy is about.
I also think medicare although it doesn't go far enough, is better than nothing at all. Though obviously my preference of a universal health care system is skewed by the fact that I live in the UK.
RIP Dad 25/11/51 - 13/12/13. You will be missed but never forgotten.
