Does Obama do anything else besides give speeches?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Not really; I think people would be pretty happy and see him as 'decisive' if he just freed some skimmers

You're wrong, though. The unions would complain because he used non-union labor to deploy them. The skimmer manufactuers' association would be furious because chinese-made skimmers were purchased at half the price in half the time. The build-a-wall folks would insist on full background checks of every worker who agreed to man the skimmers for $8/hour in 90 degree heat and hazmat conditions. The tea-partiers would attempt to block the use of federal funds for any cleanup at all, while the Republicans would express outrage that BP is being unfairly penalized, holding up the transfer of any non-public funds the project so desperately needs.

Bush didn't have to deal with any of that bullshit, because it was national security; he established this us-versus-them, with-us-or-against-us, ad hominem dialectic which circumvented our right as citizens to weigh in on policy. Unfortunately, it doesn't apply in the case of an industrial disaster.

[Anonymous]

I'm actually talking about his response to Katrina which is starting to look positively heroic. A few people might bitch if Obama freed up the skimmers; doubtful many though. It would only make them/their cause look the worse. Ludicrous that he has not done it yet,.

[Anonymous]

Dumb Republican Ideas.

1) Invading Iraq for Weapons of mass destruction that didn't exits costing thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars.

2) Deregulation: Leading to financial crisis costing trillions of dollars.

3) Drill Baby Drill Chant at Republican Convention.

4) Criticizing Democrats for budget deficits that Bush and Reagan played a huge role in creating. Reagan raised taxes and Clinton actually BALANCED THE BUDGET BITCHES

Dumb Conservative Ideas

1) Evolution is fake.

2) Separation of Church and State is bad even though its in the constitution

3) White people have an innate right to rule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UM, the oil spill is certainly a large scale disaster where the administration could show its desire to get things done.

Ah. So you're envisioning a Patriot Act style bill which would seize BP's assets and send its executives to Guantanamo, call troops home from the wars overseas to clean up the beaches, impose penalties on over-consumers of fossil fuels, and investigate anyone who so much as googles "Chevy Tahoe".

What kind of support do you think a bill like that might get in Congress?

YES! And, if anyone protests this, they are "Unamerican" and will be put on No-Fly lists because of suspected terrorism.

Not really; I think people would be pretty happy and see him as 'decisive' if he just freed some skimmers

Didn't they just send the single largest skimmer in the world, capable of 21 million gallons a day throughput, into the Gulf?

[Anonymous]

The same people deriding Obama for not doing more in the gulf disaster are the same people deriding him for supporting the health care reform. Either you want more federal involvement or you don't. Can't have it both ways. Unless you're a conservative, I guess.

[jsteele]

"A new poll of leading presidential scholars ranks Barack Obama as the 15th best president of the United States, just below Bill Clinton but ahead of Ronald Reagan."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39283.html

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:"A new poll of leading presidential scholars ranks Barack Obama as the 15th best president of the United States, just below Bill Clinton but ahead of Ronald Reagan."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39283.html

When I first saw that I figured they had a Dem bias, but then I saw that they put Carter down toward the bottom, two below Nixon, so I think they may be party-neutral. They appear to have a formula based on various characteristics, so if one disagrees with the ranking, perhaps that's due to a different assignment of weights.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:"A new poll of leading presidential scholars ranks Barack Obama as the 15th best president of the United States, just below Bill Clinton but ahead of Ronald Reagan."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39283.html

I'm an Obama supporter, but this is just silly. It's only a couple years into his first term. Far too early to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/01/AR2010070100388.html?hpid=topnews

He has achieved zilch in his first term, but I guess that's also "Bush's fault".

You do know that his first term will not end until January 20, 2012.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/01/AR2010070100388.html?hpid=topnews

He has achieved zilch in his first term, but I guess that's also "Bush's fault".

You do know that his first term will not end until January 20, 2012.

That may well be the end of his first and only term.

[jsteele]

Unlike Bush, Obama has been able to create a few jobs (not enough, sadly, but at least some):

[Anonymous]

I read somewhere that the spike in jobs was due in part to the census, and the many temporary workers who will be unemployed again shortly. Don't know how big a factor that is...

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I read somewhere that the spike in jobs was due in part to the census, and the many temporary workers who will be unemployed again shortly. Don't know how big a factor that is...

There was a spike in public sector jobs due to the census, but those jobs are over so this month there is a public sector drop off. The chart I posted is "private" sector jobs, so the census is not a factor.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read somewhere that the spike in jobs was due in part to the census, and the many temporary workers who will be unemployed again shortly. Don't know how big a factor that is...

There was a spike in public sector jobs due to the census, but those jobs are over so this month there is a public sector drop off. The chart I posted is "private" sector jobs, so the census is not a factor.

Ah yes. Thanks. Do you have a link to that chart?

[Anonymous]

Yea, he makes television appearances on shows like "The View". Important stuff!