Can Obama catch any break?

 

What a difference a year makes. The country was neck deep in recession and yet everything Obama said was hailed as the second coming. He was a media darling, everybody but the Fox News loved him.

 

Now he cannot catch a break no matter what he does. He thought making large HMO and healthcare companies the target would make his job easy to get healthcare reform bill passed. But people and media criticized him bullishly and actually siding with those same companies that they praised as villain all these years. It’s a good thing that he is the man with the most power in US and has majority in both houses, he was able to pass the bill.

 

Then he thought, financial reform should be easier. People know and hate wallstreet and the big CEOs, so he goes to media and now to cooper union criticizing these entities and now the media is against him again, showing the outcry of wallstreet and its broker as the victims not the culprit.

 

Given that Obama is a politician and he is not a saint, but the guy is trying to do what he believes and what everybody else believed..until last year. Now everybody is agianst him.

 

Does this remind you of anything else? I guess politics and public outcry is same regardless of the measure of a country’s development. Nepal-US, doesn’t matter.

 

..

can you elaborate why?

..

Passing stimulus, generating jobs. On February 17, 2009, Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus bill into law. In December 2009, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued a report estimating that "in the third quarter of calendar year 2009, an additional 600,000 to 1.6 million people were employed in the United States" due to that legislation. According to the White House Council of Economic Advisers, CBO has increased its estimate to 800,000 to 2.4 million additional employed through the fourth quarter of that year. Moreover, a November 20, 2009, New York Times article reported that the "consensus" among "dispassionate analysts" is that "the stimulus package, messy as it is, is working," citing nonpartisan analyses of gross domestic product and total employment figures by several companies specializing in economic forecasting. Further, a January 25 USA Today article stated that, according to its "quarterly survey of 50 economists," "[u]nemployment would have hit 10.8% -- higher than December's 10% rate -- without Obama's $787 billion stimulus program," adding, "The difference would translate into another 1.2 million lost jobs."

Eliminating wasteful spending. Obama was able to achieve some significant cuts to wasteful spending -- most notably, the elimination of the F-22 fighter jet program after he successfully lobbied the Senate to vote to strip out financing for more jets from a defense funding authorization bill. The Washington Times reported on January 14 that Obama won "60 percent of his proposed cuts" and also managed "to get Congress to ax several programs that had bedeviled President George W. Bush for years."

Sotomayor nomination. On May 26, 2009, Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court to replace the retiring Justice David Souter. She was confirmed by the Senate on August 6, 2009, and sworn in August 8, making her the first Hispanic justice, and only the third woman, on the court.

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The first bill President Obama signed into law, on January 29, 2009, was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which expands the rights of workers to sue employers over wage discrimination claims.

SCHIP expansion. On February 5, 2009, Obama signed a bill expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover 4 million more lower-income children.

Public lands bill. On March 30, Obama signed an omnibus public lands bill, which The New York Times reported "allows for 2 million more acres to be declared wilderness... [with] more than 1,000 miles designated as scenic rivers, and adds land for national trails."

Credit card reform. On May 21, 2009, Obama signed into law a bill providing what USA Today called the "most sweeping changes to the credit card industry in 40 years," adding restrictions on interest rate increases and fees and restricting the marketing of credit cards to college students.

Transparency. The Washington Post reported that moves by the Obama administration to improve government transparency "included a ban on lobbyist gifts; restrictions on the hiring of lobbyists; publication of White House visitor logs and other records; and a move to bar lobbyists from serving on advisory boards." A report by Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, and U.S. PIRG stated that: "The cumulative effect of the Administration's actions has been to adopt the strongest and most comprehensive lobbying, ethics and transparency rules and policies ever established by an Administration to govern its own activities."

Tobacco regulation. On June 22, 2009, Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which, for the first time, gave the U.S. Food & Drug Administration the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of tobacco.

National service. On April 21, 2009, Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which expands the scope of AmeriCorps and provides opportunities for young people and senior citizens to join in service programs.

Stem cell research. On May 9, 2009, Obama signed an executive order easing restrictions on the use of federal money for embryonic stem cell research.

if you still consider president Obama to be SHIT then you are moron

All,

Be careful when you slam a leader in this forum without knowing much, a typical Nepali tries to give a label to everything without a thought; most of my Nepalese friends have proven this many times in the past. Not all people are against Obama's ideas unless you are a Russ Limbaugh Republican. Not everyone's mind is polluted by the Wahington political junkies and media tycoons who measure polls every hour and they say how Obama is failing. I wish I believe this media propaganda and jump up and down as the polls indicate. They like impulse and sensation to create hypes. Seems like some of my fellow Sajha users are feeling the same. It is not "people vs Obama", it is the "powerfull vs. Obama". I voted for him and proud to defend him and his policies. There is no comparison of him with a Bihari type Nepali leader.Got it?

La! La! We need to call WH and tell them to add one more name, ChitraP, on the list of 10 top contenders for the Supreme Court. 

"a typical Nepali tries to give a label to everything without a thought."

Ok, first of all I hate when they say "typical" anything. Nepalese aren't the most unique animal in the planet that their ways are totally different from others. Typical this typical that.

Second, you are putting yourself on that typical category by assuming we didn't give much thought.

Please read my original post carefully. The title doesn't mean all the people are against Obama, it just is a spin-off of the title "People vs larry flint" as represented in a court of law. Not everybody were against Larry Flynt, its just that when a prosecution files charge against you and when the government/town/village is represented as defendent, they call it people vs.... Read the post in its entirity and you will understand.

And don't teach me about the media bias; I have known Rupert Murdoch's control with his Fox channel to Limbauh-Hannity politics of shock and awe. The point I am trying to raise is how come a leader has been doing so much, as listed by Cylegend above, and we are seeing better days now and yet their is angst against the leader. The tea party is not a small grass root force, and CNN which is more tilted towards right is giving the full coverage. There definately is a large percentage of people agianst the leadership even though the leadership is trying to, and almost suceeding in, rescuing the fallen ship.

@CyLegend

Government cannot create job, atleast not productive job. Private sectors create jobs. Stimulus bill did nothing but increased American debt ( which is almost 3 trillions).

If Obama really wants to save wastefull spending then the best place to make a cut that will save Americans billions is its empire. Bring all its troops home and close down the 700 bases all around the world.

What is so great about sotomayer nomination ? I don't see any significance in it.

Others, I am not so interested in. Nothing important.

Bring all the troops, easier said that done. They will burn his effigies if he does that. Beside strategically us cannot do that.

Stimulus bill increased the debt eh? Imagine what woulda happen if govt had just done nothing? Do u know it was still less than what it cost for iraq war? Nobody fussed then about the spending.

Nuc arm treaty, healthcare reform r the biggest things any president has done recently...and u say nothing .... fox got u boy.

what private sector are you talking about? the same private sector, FINANCIAL industrt, that compromised the economy and fked everyone in the ass? i don't know about those A holes creating job when i have seen so many losing it as a result of your so called private sector. if it wasnt for the stimulus a lot of people would have been out on the street by now.

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