Obama's Accomplishments

[Iris]

From time to time we see someone say that Obama hasn't accomplished anything. Nonsense! Let's put that talk to rest. I apologize for the link but research showed this to be the best source. Some of you might want to book mark this for the next time the subject comes up.

<a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... 8">Obama's Accomplishments</a>

[SETIsLady]

Good Stuff Iris He will make a great President !!! I have this stuff booked marked on my puter, but its nice to have it all in one place !!

[Iris]

Glad you liked it, Linda. It's good to keep these things handy, as we never know when we'll need them, huh? Anyway, I think Barack's accomplishments look great.

And I have to say I'm glad he hasn't got decades of being corrupted by Washington. To me, that's a big one in the plus column for him.

He does have experience in both state and federal government. I don't know how anyone can call that "no experience." Abe Lincoln had no experience.

[joequinn]

So sorry, but in my opinion, Obama's major achievement has been in not leaving an incriminating political footprint behind him. I intend to vote for Obama in November as the lesser of two evils, but I am sure about neither his progressivism nor his ability.

My hope about the future is a highly qualified one...

[Psychicwolf]

From time to time we see someone say that Obama hasn't accomplished anything. Nonsense! Let's put that talk to rest. I apologize for the link but research showed this to be the best source. Some of you might want to book mark this for the next time the subject comes up.

<a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... 8">Obama's Accomplishments</a>

Great link. I too have most of that saved but the links take up half my "favorites". LOL I can clean house! Thanks, Iris.

[Iris]

So sorry, but in my opinion, Obama's major achievement has been in not leaving an incriminating political footprint behind him. I intend to vote for Obama in November as the lesser of two evils, but I am sure about neither his progressivism nor his ability.

My hope about the future is a highly qualified one...

I sure understand. But there are so many good reasons to vote for Obama over McCain that it should be a no-brainer.

He's got some good folks around him and so far he's voted right. What remains to be seen is if in time he'll cave in to corporate pressures. So far so good.

One example is net neutrality. With McCain we can kiss goodbye our chance to ever hear any real grassroots news and truth on the 'net. In contrast, Obama has spoken out about it several times and saying it's a tremendously important issue to him to protect our net freedom as we have it now.

That alone is worth voting for Obama!

[Psychicwolf]

Glad you liked it, Linda. It's good to keep these things handy, as we never know when we'll need them, huh? Anyway, I think Barack's accomplishments look great.

And I have to say I'm glad he hasn't got decades of being corrupted by Washington. To me, that's a big one in the plus column for him.

He does have experience in both state and federal government. I don't know how anyone can call that "no experience." Abe Lincoln had no experience.

It has been recommended to me that if you want to know how Obama will govern that you should read "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin . BHO's hero has always been Lincoln. When he was contemplating making the run for POTUS, way back in late 2005, he read Ms. Kearns book and saw how he wanted to both govern and campaign. It was truly his inspiration. He has stated that in his administration you will see many of his former rivals on the "team" and even many from across the aisle. I've read it...if this is what we'll be electing in November he is truly the man for the time.

[joequinn]

Iris, Obama has been missing from approximately one-third of his Senate votes. He says that he is opposed to the Iraqi-Afghanistan War, but we will never know whether he would have supported the war because he wasn't in the Senate at that time. We DO know that he has "supported the troops" in his Senate votes and that he has not utilized his membership on a crucial Senate committee to expose the farce of Afghanistan. He opposes true national health insurance, although he has free insurance for life as a result of his Congressional membership. He has assured the Canadian Government that he won't rock the boat on NAFTA (any more than Clinton would have done). He has threatened Pakistan militarily, and worst of all, he has openly supported Bush's doctrine of the pre-emptive strike, a doctrine that flies in the face of two centuries plus of American (sic) foreign policy experience.

Iris, I will vote for Obama in November, but I will do so without illusions...

Iris, we need an (electoral) revolution here in Amerika, and Obama's not going to give it to us...

[Iris]

It has been recommended to me that if you want to know how Obama will govern that you should read "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin . BHO's hero has always been Lincoln. When he was contemplating making the run for POTUS, way back in late 2005, he read Ms. Kearns book and saw how he wanted to both govern and campaign. It was truly his inspiration. He has stated that in his administration you will see many of his former rivals on the "team" and even many from across the aisle. I've read it...if this is what we'll be electing in November he is truly the man for the time.

That sounds great, PW! I know we all want so much to believe, but after all we've been through it's really hard to trust anyone. Can you please tell us more about the style the book suggests to govern?

[Iris]

Iris, Obama has been missing from approximately one-third of his Senate votes. He says that he is opposed to the Iraqi-Afghanistan War, but we will never know whether he would have supported the war because he wasn't in the Senate at that time. We DO know that he has "supported the troops" in his Senate votes and that he has not utilized his membership on a crucial Senate committee to expose the farce of Afghanistan. He opposes true national health insurance, although he has free insurance for life as a result of his Congressional membership. He has assured the Canadian Government that he won't rock the boat on NAFTA (any more than Clinton would have done). He has threatened Pakistan militarily, and worst of all, he has openly supported Bush's doctrine of the pre-emptive strike, a doctrine that flies in the face of two centuries plus of American (sic) foreign policy experience.

Iris, I will vote for Obama in November, but I will do so without illusions...

Iris, we need an (electoral) revolution here in Amerika, and Obama's not going to give it to us...

I can't argue with what you're saying, Joe. But be careful who you talk out of what please. There are no mesiahs, no perfect beings. As always, we get limited choices, hand picked by those in power. The wiggle room is tiny. Plus they have to say the right things to the right people to get into office. Once in office, time will tell. I can't in my wildest imagination think he would be as bad as what we have, or as McCain. I hope in my heart he will let us in for some pleasant surprises. But they will be surprises.

It's a delicate line we walk between realism and hope. I'm hoping for an inch or two here and there and I'll take my mile when and where and if I can find it. How about you?

[Psychicwolf]

That sounds great, PW! I know we all want so much to believe, but after all we've been through it's really hard to trust anyone. Can you please tell us more about the style the book suggests to govern?

From Publishers Weekly
Pulitzer Prize–winner Goodwin (No Ordinary Time) seeks to illuminate what she interprets as a miraculous event: Lincoln's smooth (and, in her view, rather sudden) transition from underwhelming one-term congressman and prairie lawyer to robust chief executive during a time of crisis. Goodwin marvels at Lincoln's ability to co-opt three better-born, better-educated rivals—each of whom had challenged Lincoln for the 1860 Republican nomination. The three were New York senator William H. Seward, who became secretary of state; Ohio senator Salmon P. Chase, who signed on as secretary of the treasury and later was nominated by Lincoln to be chief justice of the Supreme Court; and Missouri's "distinguished elder statesman" Edward Bates, who served as attorney general. This is the "team of rivals" Goodwin's title refers to.The problem with this interpretation is that the metamorphosis of Lincoln to Machiavellian master of men that Goodwin presupposes did not in fact occur overnight only as he approached the grim reality of his presidency. The press had labeled candidate Lincoln "a fourth-rate lecturer, who cannot speak good grammar." But East Coast railroad executives, who had long employed Lincoln at huge prices to defend their interests as attorney and lobbyist, knew better. Lincoln was a shrewd political operator and insider long before he entered the White House—a fact Goodwin underplays. On another front, Goodwin's spotlighting of the president's three former rivals tends to undercut that Lincoln's most essential Cabinet-level contacts were not with Seward, Chase and Bates, but rather with secretaries of war Simon Cameron and Edwin Stanton, and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. These criticisms aside, Goodwin supplies capable biographies of the gentlemen on whom she has chosen to focus, and ably highlights the sometimes tangled dynamics of their "team" within the larger assemblage of Lincoln's full war cabinet. "

Of course it's well written, it is Kearns. But what I was taken aback by was the similarities between Obama and Lincoln. It is a little frightening to consider a modern day politician in the same breath with Mr. Lincoln, but it is there. The obscure, taciturn nature, brilliant mind, but the ability to communicate through soaring rhetoric. At the same he proves to be a shrewd political operator, for a one-term Congressman, who always "surprised people" with his ability to get things done. It is less about the events swirling around him, as it is a story about the people who solved the problems and managed the events.
http://www.amazon.com/Team-Rivals-Doris ... 0684824906

[Iris]

Very interesting, thanks PW.

From the official review:
How he soothed egos, turned rivals into allies, and dealt with many challenges to his leadership, all for the sake of the greater good, is largely what Goodwin's fine book is about. Had he not possessed the wisdom and confidence to select and work with the best people, she argues, he could not have led the nation through one of its darkest periods.

~~

So far I've been impressed with Obama's campaign management and style. I hope he gets elected and that he finds his Sewrd, Chase, and Bates. The Bush administration has wreaked such havoc for so long that if the damage is to be undone, the job is immense.

[moonchild2]

Originally posted by joequinn We DO know that he has "supported the troops" in his Senate votes and that he has not utilized his membership on a crucial Senate committee to expose the farce of Afghanistan.

He really had no choice but to support the troops after they were already there. What would folks be saying now, if he had voted against supporting the troops?

A no win!

[HB3]

So you're advocating political dishonesty.

Asteroid. Earth. Now.

[Linnea]

Political = dishonesty? No. Dishonesty is just one of its attributes.

Political expediency is the polite term.

Hey, HB!