Daily Telegraph:The stunning decline of Barack Obama: 10 key reasons why the Obama presidency is in meltdown

[nonniey]

I'm sure this blog article will be a big hit among my liberal friends on this board. I posted the last part of the article so if you want to start from the beginning click the link first.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100050412/the-stunning-decline-of-barack-obama-10-key-reasons-why-the-obama-presidency-is-in-meltdown/

"..............................

Can it get any worse for President Obama? Undoubtedly yes. Here are 10 key reasons why the Obama presidency is in serious trouble, and why its prospects are unlikely to improve between now and the November mid-terms.

1. The Obama presidency is out of touch with the American people

In a previous post I noted how the Obama presidency increasingly resembles a modern-day Ancien Régime, extravagant, decaying and out of touch with ordinary Americans. The First Lady’s ill-conceived trip to Spain at a time of widespread economic hardship was symbolic of a White House that barely gives a second thought to public opinion on many issues, and frequently projects a distinctly elitist image. The “let them eat cake” approach didn’t play well over two centuries ago, and it won’t succeed today.

2. Most Americans don’t have confidence in the president’s leadership

This deficit of trust in Obama’s leadership is central to his decline. According to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, “nearly six in ten voters say they lack faith in the president to make the right decisions for the country”, and two thirds “say they are disillusioned with or angry about the way the federal government is working.” The poll showed that a staggering 58 per cent of Americans say they do not have confidence in the president’s decision-making, with just 42 per cent saying they do.

3. Obama fails to inspire

In contrast to the soaring rhetoric of his 2006 Convention speech in Chicago which succeeded in impressing millions of television viewers at the time, America is no longer inspired by Barack Obama’s flat, monotonous and often dull presidential speeches and statements delivered via teleprompter. From his extraordinarily uninspiring Afghanistan speech at West Point to his flat State of the Union address, President Obama has failed to touch the heart of America. Even Jimmy Carter was more moving.

4. The United States is drowning in debt

The Congressional Budget Office Long-Term Budget Outlook offers a frightening picture of the scale of America’s national debt. Under its alternative fiscal scenario, the CBO projects that US debt could rise to 87 percent of GDP by 2020, 109 percent by 2025, and 185 percent in 2035. While much of Europe, led by Britain and Germany, are aggressively cutting their deficits, the Obama administration is actively growing America’s debt, and has no plan in place to avert a looming Greek-style financial crisis.

5. Obama’s Big Government message is falling flat

The relentless emphasis on bailouts and stimulus spending has done little to spur economic growth or create jobs, but has greatly advanced the power of the federal government in America. This is not an approach that is proving popular with the American public, and even most European governments have long ditched this tax and spend approach to saving their own economies.

6. Obama’s support for socialised health care is a huge political mistake

In an extraordinary act of political Harakiri, President Obama leant his full support to the hugely controversial, unpopular and divisive health care reform bill, with a monstrous price tag of $940 billion, whose repeal is now supported by 55 per cent of likely US voters. As I wrote at the time of its passing, the legislation is “a great leap forward by the United States towards a European-style vision of universal health care, which will only lead to soaring costs, higher taxes, and a surge in red tape for small businesses. This reckless legislation dramatically expands the power of the state over the lives of individuals, and could not be further from the vision of America’s founding fathers.”

7. Obama’s handling of the Gulf oil spill has been weak-kneed and indecisive

While much of the spilled oil in the Gulf has now been thankfully cleared up, the political damage for the White House will be long-lasting. Instead of showing real leadership on the matter by acing decisively and drawing upon offers of international support, the Obama administration settled on a more convenient strategy of relentlessly bashing an Anglo-American company while largely sitting on its hands. Significantly, a poll of Louisiana voters gave George W. Bush higher marks for his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with 62 percent disapproving of Obama’s performance on the Gulf oil spill.

8. US foreign policy is an embarrassing mess under the Obama administration

It is hard to think of a single foreign policy success for the Obama administration, but there have been plenty of missteps which have weakened American global power as well as the standing of the United States. The surrender to Moscow on Third Site missile defence, the failure to aggressively stand up to Iran’s nuclear programme, the decision to side with ousted Marxists in Honduras, the slap in the face for Great Britain over the Falklands, have all contributed to the image of a US administration completely out of its depth in international affairs. The Obama administration’s high risk strategy of appeasing America’s enemies while kicking traditional US allies has only succeeded in weakening the United States while strengthening her adversaries.

9. President Obama is muddled and confused on national security

From the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the War on Terror, President Obama’s leadership has often been muddled and confused. On Afghanistan he rightly sent tens of thousands of additional troops to the battlefield. At the same time however he bizarrely announced a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces beginning in July 2011, handing the initiative to the Taliban. On Iraq he has announced an end to combat operations and the withdrawal of all but 50,000 troops despite a recent upsurge in terrorist violence and political instability, and without the Iraqi military and police ready to take over. In addition he has ditched the concept of a War on Terror, replacing it with an Overseas Contingency Operation, hardly the right message to send in the midst of a long-war against Al-Qaeda.

10. Obama doesn’t believe in American greatness

Barack Obama has made it clear that he doesn’t believe in American exceptionalism, and has made apologising for his country into an art form. In a speech to the United Nations last September he stated that “no one nation can or should try to dominate another nation. No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed. No balance of power among nations will hold.” It is difficult to see how a US president who holds these views and does not even accept America’s greatness in history can actually lead the world’s only superpower with force and conviction.

There is a distinctly Titanic-like feel to the Obama presidency and it’s not hard to see why. The most left-wing president in modern American history has tried to force a highly interventionist, government-driven agenda that runs counter to the principles of free enterprise, individual freedom, and limited government that have made the United States the greatest power in the world, and the freest nation on earth.

This, combined with weak leadership both at home and abroad against the backdrop of tremendous economic uncertainty in an increasingly dangerous world, has contributed to a spectacular political collapse for a president once thought to be invincible. America at its core remains a deeply conservative nation, which cherishes its traditions and founding principles. President Obama is increasingly out of step with the American people, by advancing policies that undermine the United States as a global power, while undercutting America’s deep-seated love for freedom."

[twa]

I wouldn't shovel in the dirt just yet,there is still time to grow up.

Someone else is already writing his obituary though.

The Obsolescence of Barack Obama

The magic of 2008 can't be recreated, and good riddance to it.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704164904575421363005578460.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

There remains the fact of his biography, a man's journey. Personality is doubtless an obstacle to his recovery. The detachment of Mr. Obama need not be dwelled upon at great length, so obvious it is now even to the pundits who had a "tingling sensation" when they beheld him during his astonishing run for office. Nor does Mr. Obama have the suppleness of Bill Clinton, who rose out of the debris of his first two years in the presidency, dusted himself off, walked away from his spouse's radical attempt to remake the country's health-delivery system, and moved to the political center.

It is in the nature of charisma that it rises out of thin air, out of need and distress, and then dissipates when the magic fails. The country has had its fill with a scapegoating that knows no end from a president who had vowed to break with recriminations and partisanship. The magic of 2008 can't be recreated, and good riddance to it. Slowly, the nation has recovered its poise. There is a widespread sense of unstated embarrassment that a political majority, if only for a moment, fell for the promise of an untested redeemer—a belief alien to the temperament of this so practical and sober a nation.

Mr. Ajami is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School

[aREDSKIN]

Given what Obama had accomplished prior to winning the presidency and his qualifications is this really a surprise? Come on the guy was/is unqualified for job the but to be fair McCain was/is not any better.

[Landryslegend]

11. The fact that he is also a total doofus just may have something to do with it too.

Noun1.doofus - a stupid incompetent persondimwit, nitwit, half-wit

Put it this way. The right has always hated him, the polls show that he has also lost the independents. He is also losing the support of the middle of the road types, and now..........the extreme left doesnt like him anymore either, they feel he USED them. Which he did. Whats that spell? D E F E A T !!

[Chopper Dave]

Jesus ****ing Christ, you people are insane. The only "point" containing anything resembling a tangible fact is number two; everything else in the article is, at best, speculation. I know the left gave Bush a rough go, but wow. At least he earned it. Obama's done nothing but prevent economic catastrophe and push forward, though imperfect, the only health care reform we've ever had.

You all just don't like his politics, which is well within your rights. You just shouldn't act like this is anything but partisan nitpicking, because that's all it is. Call me when he actually wrecks the economy, actually ruins our foreign policy standing, and actually loses the faith of the country, all things Bush actually did that you're now smacking Obama around for.

Until then, stay in your big tent and jerk off to tax cut proposals or whatever you guys like to do.

[luckydevil]

Jesus ****ing Christ, you people are insane. The only "point" containing anything resembling a tangible fact is number two; everything else in the article is, at best, speculation. I know the left gave Bush a rough go, but wow. At least he earned it. Obama's done nothing but prevent economic catastrophe and push forward, though imperfect, the only health care reform we've ever had.

You all just don't like his politics, which is well within your rights. You just shouldn't act like this is anything but partisan nitpicking, because that's all it is. Call me when he actually wrecks the economy, actually ruins our foreign policy standing, and actually loses the faith of the country, all things Bush actually did that you're now smacking Obama around for.

Until then, stay in your big tent and jerk off to tax cut proposals or whatever you guys like to do.

Tend to agree with the partisan bit, but the whole he prevented an economic catastrophe is an opinion, not a fact. It's only halftime. And if a double dip recession goes down, Obama economic polices will rightfully be seen as a failure.

[Chopper Dave]

Tend to agree with the partisan bit, but the whole he prevented an economic catastrophe is an opinion, not a fact. It's only halftime. And if a double dip recession goes down, Obama economic polices will rightfully be seen as a failure.

It's completely factual. Has an economic catastrophe occurred? No. Would it have if not for the actions of the Obama administration? Yes. Catastrophe prevented. If the negative consequences of what it took to rescue the economy eventually wreck the economy, that's not Obama's fault.

If you're dying, and someone gives you CPR, and they break your ribs and you die from a collapsed lung, it sucks, but you don't blame them. You'd have died anyway. In a situation like we were facing, you stop the economic collapse, and then you figure out how to proceed, and if someone criticizes you for it, they're a douchebag.

[The Evil Genius]

There is a reason why this blogger has appeared on Fox News before.

That said - I can't see how people in the UK would have a problem with #10.

:evilg:

[Dan T.]

What a partisan, circle jerk of a hit piece.

[Bang]

Put it this way. The right has always hated him,

That's really all that needs to be said.

~Bang

[luckydevil]

It's completely factual. Has an economic catastrophe occurred? No. Would it have if not for the actions of the Obama administration? Yes. Catastrophe prevented. If the negative consequences of what it took to rescue the economy eventually wreck the economy, that's not Obama's fault.

If you're dying, and someone gives you CPR, and they break your ribs and you die from a collapsed lung, it sucks, but you don't blame them. You'd have died anyway. In a situation like we were facing, you stop the economic collapse, and then you figure out how to proceed, and if someone criticizes you for it, they're a douchebag.

It is important to note that we are still in a recession. It's not over. In fact, it doesn't look it going to end anytime soon. So the "collapse" scenario is still on the table. What I fear, like the previous administration, is that Obama economic approach is simply delaying the inevitable ( and the crash will only be worse because of it).

[Chopper Dave]

What a partisan, circle jerk of a hit piece.

It doesn't even hit. It's just idiotic drivel written for idiots by a ****ing idiot. I don't care what your politics are, if you are capable of forming cogent thoughts, this article, and more specifically the attempt to pass it off as even halfway legitimate, should offend your intelligence. I'm offended to be in same genus as the writer of this imbecilic ****.

[Dan T.]

It is important to note that we are still in a recession. It's not over. In fact, it doesn't look it going to end anytime soon. So the "collapse" scenario is still on the table. What I fear, like the previous administration, is that Obama economic approach is simply delaying the inevitable ( and the crash will only be worse because of it).

Do you propose we Herbert Hoover the thing and let it collapse?

[Landryslegend]

It is important to note that we are still in a recession. It's not over. In fact, it doesn't look it going to end anytime soon. So the "collapse" scenario is still on the table. What I fear, like the previous administration, is that Obama economic approach is simply delaying the inevitable ( and the crash will only be worse because of it).

Hate to say it, but your worst fears will probably be realized. Double dip here we come. Not a doubt in my mind.

[luckydevil]

Do you propose we Herbert Hoover the thing and let it collapse?

Well, the thing is that Hoover didn't actually let it collapse. The establishment version of Hoover is dead wrong. He many ways was the father of the New Deal ( which many in FDR administration gave him credit for paving). There is a reason why FDR campaigned on a small government platform.

[Chopper Dave]

It is important to note that we are still in a recession. It's not over. In fact, it doesn't look it going to end anytime soon. So the "collapse" scenario is still on the table. What I fear, like the previous administration, is that Obama economic approach is simply delaying the inevitable ( and the crash will only be worse because of it).

At what point does something go from delaying the inevitable to maintaining the status quo? I know we're still in a recession, and the economy is kinda tenuous at this point, but so far we still have a proverbial roof over our heads, and for now that's good enough. Two, three years from now it won't be, but let's reserve judgement for now, and let's do what we have to do to fix things rather than taking potshots at the President for what amounts to nothing.

[Chopper Dave]

Hate to say it, but your worst fears will probably be realized. Double dip here we come. Not a doubt in my mind.

Well I'm glad an expert has finally weighed in.

It's almost as if you want it to happen so you guys can take back the government and find newer, more interesting ways to **** up everyone's lives.

[heyholetsgogrant]

I never read so much drivel on in my life, literally I feel dumber now that I have read it. Your telling me most of 1-10 would have never happened if the GOP was still in power? (especially the economy)

Editorial Fail

[JimboDaMan]

It doesn't even hit. It's just idiotic drivel written for idiots by a ****ing idiot. I don't care what your politics are, if you are capable of forming cogent thoughts, this article, and more specifically the attempt to pass it off as even halfway legitimate, should offend your intelligence. I'm offended to be in same genus as the writer of this imbecilic ****.

Hush. You're disturbing the grinning, capering, masturbating intellectuals who eat this stuff up with a spoon.

[mcsluggo]

what a steaming load of un-needed verbage.

The stunning decline of Barack Obama: the economy sucks. end of story.

(fwiw.. the WORLD economy sucks)

[The Evil Genius]

Hush. You're disturbing the grinning, capering, masturbating intellectuals who eat this stuff up with a spoon.

Please don't give intellectuals a bad name.

:evilg:

[Chopper Dave]

Your telling me most of 1-10 would have never happened if the GOP was still in power? (especially the economy)

Nah man, they would've cut taxes. It would've worked wonders.

[Landryslegend]

Well I'm glad an expert has finally weighed in.

It's almost as if you want it to happen so you guys can take back the government and find newer, more interesting ways to **** up everyone's lives.

ObamaBOT much?

http://www.gifbin.com/981396

[luckydevil]

At what point does something go from delaying the inevitable to maintaining the status quo? I know we're still in a recession, and the economy is kinda tenuous at this point, but so far we still have a proverbial roof over our heads, and for now that's good enough. Two, three years from now it won't be, but let's reserve judgement for now, and let's do what we have to do to fix things rather than taking potshots at the President for what amounts to nothing.

Interesting and good question. I don't really know, I am not sure any of us do. What I believe is the status quo is ultimately untenable. As for the rest of the post, fair enough ( though I wasn't really defending the article and I come from the camp that believes Obama economic approach is/has been dangerous).

[Chopper Dave]

ObamaBOT much?

http://www.gifbin.com/981396

Another substantive, logical, completely non-ironic argument.