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Obama has impressive list of accomplishments
I want to thank columnist Todd Dorman for his excellent analysis (Tuesday column) to a distraught reader relative to President Barack Obama. I would like to add the following mentioned briefly at the end of his article: “He’s not without accomplishments.”
Andrew Sullivan was quoted in The Week, a centrist publication, that Obama has a rather impressive record of accomplishment. In only two short years, he’s headed off a full economic meltdown with the stimulus, saved the U.S. banking system and the automobile industries at a minimal cost to the taxpayer; imposed new regulations on the financial sector; ended the Iraq War; gotten rid of “don’t ask, don’t tell”; killed Osama bin Laden, and, oh yes, overhauled the profoundly dysfunctional U.S. health care system. And he did all this while “fighting a global depression and a brutal, extremist right-wing opposition.”
President Obama also had something to do with the fall of the Gadhafi administration in Libya.
Joel C. Snell
Cedar Rapids
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Oh, geez. Spare me. No, he is not without accomplishments, but many of his “accomplishments” are not truly so.
- It could be argued that the recession had reached it’s height of its own accord. An accomplishment would be reversing it, which he has not done, nor has he even made any progress… at all.
- Banking and automobile maker bail-outs. He can have partial credit for this, but he should have attached strings that these companies re-invest in American jobs, etc. He lacked foresight and did not, so they, for the most part, have not.
- The new financial regs, were in the works from his predecessor.
- He did NOT end the Iraq War. There are still tens of thousands of troops in Iraq fighting in combat situations. Changing the wording on a piece of paper here at home does not change that fact. (As a side note: He also dramatically increased the troop numbers in Afghanistan, and increased the scope of that war, with no discernible difference.)
- He did end “don’t ask, don’t tell”. Kudos for that one.
- He did not kill bin Laden. He may or may not have given the final ‘ok’, but again, that was something initiated by his predecessor. It’s a good thing that happened, but he just got lucky it happened on his watch.
- He didn’t get nearly everything he wanted in health care reform. It is still questionable whether it will work or be another government bureaucratic red-tape boondoggle.
He has not ended the recession but may I remind you that when he took office the country was loosing jobs at the rate of 700,000 per month. Now, we are adding jobs. We are not adding enough jobs and the economy is not recovering as fast as we would like, but we are making progress.
While I wholeheartedly agree with you that Obama did NOT kill Bin Laden Kyle, I disagree that he doesn’t deserve the credit for it happening during his Presidency. That’ssomething no other POTUS will be able to say about their Presidency. Had Bush seen it happen during his Presidency, or had McCain been elected in 2008 and seen it happen during his time in office they too would have been able to claim “credit” for it happening during their watch. Whoever the Commander in Chief had been when Bin Laden had been caught and/or killed would have (in my opinion) deserved to say it happened while on their watch, even though the actual credit for the killing deserves to go to those Navy Seals who carried out the mission.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/08/19/double-civilian-force-iraq-withdrawal/
“Brutal, extremist right-wing opposition”? My aren’t we the little drama queen?
The only brutality I’ve seen is by the Left, in the form of brave SEIU union thugs ganging up on handicapped tea partiers and the extremely uncivil demonstrations happening in Madison.
I’ve never thrown up in my mouth before. Then I read this letter…
If your stomach is so sensitive, Joel, try some Pepto Bismol.
That’s the reaction I had when GWB prematurely yelled “Mission accomplished.”
Boy, still stuck in the past. Though I’d much rather recall the days of Bush than the present crises we are in. Sure would be nice to have economic security again or even a plan for one. Shows what happens when anyone can vote and society values symbolism over substance.
When past actions affect present day situations then being “stuck in the past” is warranted to see how we got where we are.
I would but Obamacare has already driven up medical costs and I can’t afford it anymore. I’d get a second job to pay for it but in his 17% true unemployment economy those are hard to come by too. Guess I’ll just have to “hope” for “change” I can “believe” in.
And Gazette, two posts in ten minutes and that’s “too quickly”?! It’s 2011, catch up already.
His big accomplishment was he talked big, but backed down at many confrontations, a strong leader backs his own agenda.
Harold is half right: Obama has backed down too many times: only one example is when he agreed to extend the GW Bush tax cuts. That capitulation only emboldened congressional Republicans, who then almost let the federal government go into default a few short months later.
However, let’s not forget Obama’s important financial reform, which works to put some teeth back into regulation of the banking and securities industries, and implements important consumer protections. The GOP still refuses to approve Obama’s choice to head up the new Consumer Financial Protection agency, so yet again, Obama tries to do something, and all the GOP can do is stick its foot out and try to trip him…