What Is He Doing for America?

This article, from outside our country, sums up Obama's time as President. It outlines what he has(n't) done.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/simonheffer/7913468/If-President-Obama-carries-on-like-this-he-will-turn-into-a-lame-duck.html

If President Obama carries on like this, he will turn into a lame duck
The president hasn't grown into the job - all that's needed to beat him is a serious Republican, says Simon Heffer in New York.

The shock about coming to America after an absence of four months is how, in that time, respect for and confidence in President Obama has slumped. It wasn't good in March; now the effect of what one blogger has called his apparent "impotence" has taken hold. It is not clear what Mr Obama actually does. He isn't engaged with the economy; he certainly isn't engaged with foreign policy; he has abandoned hope of a climate change bill this year (and probably for ever); he has seen his health care bill into law, but America awaits news of how it will be implemented; he is under attack for a casual approach to illegal immigration, notably from the Mexican narco-state. He has only just girded himself to go campaigning for his party in the mid-term elections. Last Sunday was the 100-days-to-go mark, and the talk in politics here is of little else. Joe Biden, the vice-president, has been nominated as "campaigner in chief". Why? What is the President doing?

He appears to be reading the newspapers and the blogs and watching television. Last week, a twisted opponent put out a selectively edited video of a black Department of Agriculture official, Shirley Sherrod, apparently admitting discriminating against a white farmer. Mrs Sherrod had done nothing of the sort – either the discrimination or, therefore, the admission of it – but was immediately sacked, for fear that Fox News was about to broadcast the video. This outrageous act was followed by an even more outrageous apology by the president the next day – outrageous in that Mrs Sherrod was not immediately given back her job. In the White House there were, we are told, great mutual congratulations (to start with) that swift action had stopped this becoming "a story". Well, it's a story now, not least because it exemplifies the incompetence and disconnection of the administration. Mrs Sherrod's husband was a leading civil rights activist and her father was murdered by white racists in 1965, so there is a resonance to this story that is causing discomfort.


This immediate proof of mismanagement adds to the cumulative feeling on so many other fronts that Mr Obama and his team simply don't understand governance. Last month Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Fed, warned America that without more care being taken it could have a Greece-style debt problem. The president seemed to regard this warning as so self-evidently absurd that he quickly asked Congress for another $50 billion for various social projects. Last week, benefits for the long-term unemployed were extended for another six months at a cost of $34 billion. The health care programme is forecast to cost at least $863 billion. The total deficit this year is to be $1.47 trillion. America's debt is likely to be $18.5 trillion by 2020, though it will be so low as that only if growth is maintained at 4 per cent: it is currently 3 per cent, and rocky.

Unemployment is 9.5 per cent and forecast to stay there for the time being. There are three million more jobless than when Mr Obama came to power, and unemployment among teenagers is around 25 per cent. The very constituencies to which he made his greatest appeal – the young and the disadvantaged – still suffer. This is despite the $787 billion stimulus programme last year, much of which was sucked into America's corrupt and inefficient local government system, or did favours for congressmen and senators, or provided wonderful pay days for trade unionists, or in some cases all three at once. The President sought the stimulus on the grounds that it would stop unemployment rising above 8 per cent; so that has been an expensive failure. All Mr Obama appears to have done is wave the money goodbye. Last week, trying not to sound provoked, Mr Bernanke announced that there was "unusual uncertainty" about economic recovery. The dollar fell against sterling and even the euro.

Congress At Its Lowest

In 2006, our dream began. In 2008, our dream achieved. In 2010, a democratic nightmare. The Democratic House and Senate has made a major achievement, the lowest public confidence EVER. It is quickly becoming a disgrace to be called a Democrat.


http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/07/28/grading_congress_106510.html


Why Have We Lost Confidence?
By Jay Ambrose July 28, 2010

A Gallup poll reveals that only 11 percent of Americans have a great deal of confidence in Congress, and though it's the lowest ranking ever, one wonders what malady afflicts the yea-sayers. Might a review of reality correct their misperceptions?

Democrats Magical Thinkers?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/07/magical_thinkers_in_washington_1.html

Magical Thinkers in Washington
By Deane Waldman July 27, 2010


Small children are natural magical thinkers. Ask any psychologist, pediatrician, or parent. Magical thinkers believe that because they want it or can conceive of it, "it" is so, or will be so. The magically thinking child ties a cape on his back and knows that with it on, he can fly. When he jumps off the roof, he will, of course, fall, not soar like Superman. The usual cure for magical thinking is ToT (tincture of time) and evidence.

If House Speaker Pelosi says that HR 3590 will save money, it must save money. If President Obama says his health care "reform" will increase care, reduce errors, and improve quality, it will happen (because he said so).

Dems Produce Bad Candidates

Here is another example of a bad Dem candidate. First, Gore (man you felt he should be president) gets into sex scandal. Actually, no surprise there, his boss made a great example. Edwards does the same. Second, '04 candidate (man you felt he should be president) tries to avoid paying taxes, yet votes for every tax increase possible. Of course, when it is his turn to pay taxes, he doesn't lead by example.

How can democrats be taken seriously when they are such bad human beings? Hippicrats, everyone of them. No wonder why America has turned sour on the Democratic Party. It is always the same song and dance - do as I say; not as I do. We complain hard about Bush but we had nothing, I mean, NOTHING, to put in his stead. Gore and Kerry. What disgraces to the Democratic Party. We dodge a bullet by NOT electing those two nimwits.

http://bostonherald.com/track/inside_track/view.bg?articleid=1269698

Sen. John Kerry skips town on sails tax
By Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa Friday, July 23, 2010

Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.

Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.

But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.

More Racism - This Time its Al Qaeda

President Obama, White House: Al Qaeda Is Racist
July 13, 2010 9:17 PM


http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/07/president-obama-white-house-al-qaeda-is-racist.html

In an interview earlier today with the South African Broadcasting Corporation to air in a few hours, President Obama disparaged al Qaeda and affiliated groups' willingness to kill Africans in a manner that White House aides say was an argument that the terrorist groups are racist.

Obama Not Looking Good in Polls

It's the economy stupid!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/13/opinion/polls/main6675137.shtml

Dems Turning on their Own

Zuckerman talking trash on Obama


http://politics.usnews.com/opinion/mzuckerman/articles/2010/07/02/mort-zuckerman-obama-is-barely-treading-water.html

Mort Zuckerman: Obama Is Barely Treading Water
The president's problem is simple: the economy and jobs

Even some in Obama's base have turned, with 17 percent of Democrats disapproving of his job performance. Even more telling is the excitement gap. Only 44 percent of those who voted for him express high interest in this year's elections. That's a 38-point drop from 2008. By contrast, 71 percent of those who voted Republican last time express high interest in the midterm elections, above the level at this stage in 2008. And these are the people who vote.

Supreme Court Usurp. Nice Going

Attack the Supreme Court; that will get you somewhere. Unfortunately it got you going the wrong way.


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/07/06/2010-07-06_holdin_court_at_73_justice_kennedy_tells_pals_hes_not_retiring_for_years__thats_.html


Bad news for Obama: Conservative Justice Kennedy tells pals he's in no rush to leave Supreme Court


http://www.latimes.com/news/health/la-na-court-roberts-obama-20100706,0,7184862.story

Obama and Supreme Court may be on collision course
The president's agenda on healthcare and financial regulations sets the stage for a clash with the Supreme Court's conservative majority.

More Bias?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/06/ex-official-accuses-justice-department-racial-bias-black-panther-case/

Ex-Official Accuses Justice Department of Racial Bias in Black Panther Case Published July 06, 2010 FoxNews.com


In emotional and personal testimony, an ex-Justice official who quit over the handling of a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party accused his former employer of instructing attorneys in the civil rights division to ignore cases that involve black defendants and white victims.


The department abandoned the New Black Panther case last year. It stemmed from an incident on Election Day in 2008 in Philadelphia, where members of the party were videotaped in front of a polling place, dressed in military-style uniforms and allegedly hurling racial slurs while one brandished a night stick.

Like Prez; like VP

An we wanted this man to be president.


http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/al-gore-sex-abuse-case-reopened-portland/story?id=11059203

Portland Police Reopen Al Gore Sex Abuse Allegations
Masseuse Claimed Former Vice President Subjected Her to 'Unwanted Sexual Touching' in 2006

Racial Payback Time

I suppose it is understandable Obama and black appointees use their postion to equalize things. These tactics that they tried to hide and sweep under the rug are a throwback to the Reconstuction time after the Civil War


http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/30/justice-dept-lawyer-accuses-holder-dropping-new-black-panther-case-political/


Former Justice Department Lawyer Accuses Holder of Dropping New Black Panther Case for Racial Reasons


"I mean we were told, 'Drop the charges against the New Black Panther Party,'" Adams told Fox News, adding that political appointees Loretta King, acting head of the civil rights division, and Steve Rosenbaum, an attorney with the division since 2003, ordered the dismissal.

Asked about the Justice Department's claim that they are career attorneys, not political appointees, Adams said "obviously, that's false."