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fastyxx said:
binary solo said:
He hasn't achieved much or anything of what he wanted to achieve, so from that perspective he was not a very successful President. But then it was a lesson that a President without a compliant Congress has little real power to achieve much. And his Democratic party in Congress is so scared really push a progressive agenda that there is almost no way any democratic President can hope to have a compliant congress even if the Democrats hold a majority in both houses, and even a fillibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

Ironically Republicans should probably see these last 8 years as a success. So while they have been opponents of the president they should consider that he's been successful for them by being unsuccessful for his own party/ideology.


Umm, ok.

Search for any list of 2008 campaign promises, and he accomplished 75% of them in the first two years.  Others he's gotten done in the meantime.  A good chunk of the ones he hasn't been able to accomplish deal with energy policy and renewables, where he's been completely blocked by GOP refusing to even discuss the issues, let alone create bills.

Unless the ACA goes completely belly up in the next deacde, history will treat Obma very well when the story is finally written and parsed.  To this point, the ACA has been a success - even Republicans in the plans overwhelmingly are positive about the changes. It's cost less (so far) than budgeted and rates of increase have slowed since before the implemntation. The only really negative health care news comes form the states that chose not to participate, mostly with GOP governors.  

There's always more he would have liked to do, which you could likely say for any president.  And something things turned out more susccessfully than others, as with any president.  

His approval ratings are still pretty good, despite the media portraying them as "in the tank."  He's at 42%.  Only Clinton and Reagan and Ford have been higher at this point in their terms since the 50s.  (And Kennedy was higher but for obvious reasons, he didn't make it to this long.)

And unlike previous presidents, a big piece of the unfavorable rating is that he's not being liberal enough - - so Dems that think he's too conservative/not doing enough but who would never vte for a GOP president.  If you factor them in, he's well over 50%.  The perception of his overall effectiveness and popularity is certainly tainted through the lns of a more effective GOP in terms of communication and controlling public messaging and by their road-blocking of agenda items which gives the appearance of his not doing much.

You have the conservative base screaming on the one hand about how unhelpfully and hugely he has changed the country for the worse, but on the other hand saying he's done nothing.  The logical impasse there is quite easy to see.  

Look at the exit poll results from the midterms.  The most popular issues that polled highest?  Legalization of pot, minimum wage increases, etc. passed with flying colors, but then GOP people voted for candidates most likely to block or reverse legislation thats upports the issues.  Look at Arkansas.  Passed minimum wage bill by large numbers, but then voted GOP across theboard, and candidates that ran on platforms against minimum wage.  There's more at play here than just the efficacy of Obama against long odds.  

If you think the ACA is getting what he wanted then you are sadly mistaken. The ACA is as good as he was able to get, but that's not saying her got what he wanted. And IMO the ACA is not good, and is an embarrassment to any true social progressive.



“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” - Bertrand Russell

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