Is Barack Obama's personality crippling his presidency?

[Yank2133]

Obama has gotten more done then any President since LBJ......so I would say no his personality isn't crippling his presidency.

[Yank2133]

Obama has gotten more done then any President since LBJ......so I would say no his personality isn't crippling his presidency.

Yeah, lots of watered down pieces of legislation. The impression I am getting in Double Down is that Obama hates the Presidency, and hates elections, but continues onward due to ego. His White House staff was in chaos in 2011, with power struggles against Valerie Jarrett in particular causing a lot of tension.

He got healthcare passed(which no D since Truman has failed to do), got the largest stimulus in US history passed, Wall-Street reform, the auto bailout. There are very few Presidents whom's record are going to be as accomplished as his.

The whole notion that his personality makes him ineffective is nonsense when you actually look at his record.

[Yank2133]

Obama has gotten more done then any President since LBJ......so I would say no his personality isn't crippling his presidency.

Yeah, lots of watered down pieces of legislation. The impression I am getting in Double Down is that Obama hates the Presidency, and hates elections, but continues onward due to ego. His White House staff was in chaos in 2011, with power struggles against Valerie Jarrett in particular causing a lot of tension.

You should finish the book. A passage I just read during Obama's debate prep that seems to pertain to this thread: "Axelrod and Plouffe thought something more radical was in order. For the past six years, they had watched Obama struggle with his disdain for the theatricality of politics-not just the debates, but even the soaring speeches for which he was renowned. Obama's distrust of emotional string-pulling and resistance to the practical necessities of the sound-bite culture: these were elements of his personality that they had accepted, respected, and admired."

Like I said, he hates fighting and politics. He doesn’t want to beat my party so he caves.

Obama has gotten more done then any President since LBJ......so I would say no his personality isn't crippling his presidency.

Yeah, lots of watered down pieces of legislation. The impression I am getting in Double Down is that Obama hates the Presidency, and hates elections, but continues onward due to ego. His White House staff was in chaos in 2011, with power struggles against Valerie Jarrett in particular causing a lot of tension.

He got healthcare passed(which no D since Truman has failed to do), got the largest stimulus in US history passed, Wall-Street reform, the auto bailout. There are very few Presidents whom's record are going to be as accomplished as his.

The whole notion that his personality makes him ineffective is nonsense when you actually look at his record.

All of his legislative achievements are paper tigers, spare Iraq and Osama. He compromises on everything. He could have had single payer. He could have had a bigger stimulus. He caves, and my side bashes him anyway. We win every time for a reason. Hillary Clinton wouldn't be taking this.

Obama is not the LBJ of the 21st century. He is the George H.W. Bush with a second term.

That is a ridiculous criticism.

You can make that same stupid argument for any president. You can bitch about LBJ's Civil Rights Act not going far enough, same for Medicare. The point is Obama was able to get major transformative legislation passed. Who gives a damn if he wasn't able to get what he originally wanted, in politics you rarely do.

[Yank2133]

How the f could Obama get single payer? Every special interest group would be running ads 24/7 calling him an invasive communist *insert black pejorative term here* and the bill would be as unpopular as AIDS within two months. Obama could propose any minor healthcare reform and it would polarize the country by the late summer of 2009.

He had both Houses of Congress. He was going to be hit hard in the midterms anyway. Why not go all the way and come back in 2012?

I support single payer over this mandate bs, and the fact that we can't repeal it completely at this point shows how strong single payer could have come.

Admit it: You may like Obama, but he could certainly be better. I think that about Rand Paul all the time.

The Democrats never had the votes for a single-payer system.(the blue-dogs would never have gone for it). So Obama did what any good politician would have done, he compromised and got something passed that will help the problem, but also can be built in the future.

Lmao, single-payer! Just look how difficult it was to pass ACA, which is more conservative then Nixon's healthcare plan.

[Yank2133]

How the f could Obama get single payer? Every special interest group would be running ads 24/7 calling him an invasive communist *insert black pejorative term here* and the bill would be as unpopular as AIDS within two months. Obama could propose any minor healthcare reform and it would polarize the country by the late summer of 2009.

He had both Houses of Congress. He was going to be hit hard in the midterms anyway. Why not go all the way and come back in 2012?

I support single payer over this mandate BS, and the fact that we can't repeal it completely at this point shows how strong single payer could have come.

Admit it: You may like Obama, but he could certainly be better. I think that about Rand Paul all the time.

The Democrats never had the votes for a single-payer system.(the blue-dogs would never have gone for it). So Obama did what any good politician would have done, he compromised and got something passed that will help the problem, but also can be built in the future.

Lmao, single-payer! Just look how difficult it was to pass ACA, which is more conservative then Nixon's healthcare plan.

Pelosi was one of the strongest Speakers in history. She would have gotten the votes. The ACA is the result of Obama caving, and smelling blood, my party's sharks stormed ahead and tried to stop him completely.

....excuses, excuses....

He could have had single payer

W.T.F.

What a reasoned argument. Care to post a tumbler meme while your at it?

Bullsh**t.

There is no way Pelosi would have been able to deliver any blue-dog democrats, single payer was DOA on arrival.

[Yank2133]

How the f could Obama get single payer? Every special interest group would be running ads 24/7 calling him an invasive communist *insert black pejorative term here* and the bill would be as unpopular as AIDS within two months. Obama could propose any minor healthcare reform and it would polarize the country by the late summer of 2009.

He had both Houses of Congress. He was going to be hit hard in the midterms anyway. Why not go all the way and come back in 2012?

I support single payer over this mandate BS, and the fact that we can't repeal it completely at this point shows how strong single payer could have come.

Admit it: You may like Obama, but he could certainly be better. I think that about Rand Paul all the time.

The Democrats never had the votes for a single-payer system.(the blue-dogs would never have gone for it). So Obama did what any good politician would have done, he compromised and got something passed that will help the problem, but also can be built in the future.

Lmao, single-payer! Just look how difficult it was to pass ACA, which is more conservative then Nixon's healthcare plan.

Pelosi was one of the strongest Speakers in history. She would have gotten the votes. The ACA is the result of Obama caving, and smelling blood, my party's sharks stormed ahead and tried to stop him completely.

....excuses, excuses....

He could have had single payer

W.T.F.

What a reasoned argument. Care to post a tumbler meme while your at it?

Bullsh**t.

There is no way Pelosi would have been able to deliver any blue-dog democrats, single payer was DOA on arrival.

Read my first paragraph in my last post.

They wouldn't have had a enough votes for it to pass the house without them and this doesn't even get into the subject of the Senate.

There was no chance of single-payer ever been a realistic option.

[Yank2133]

How the f could Obama get single payer? Every special interest group would be running ads 24/7 calling him an invasive communist *insert black pejorative term here* and the bill would be as unpopular as AIDS within two months. Obama could propose any minor healthcare reform and it would polarize the country by the late summer of 2009.

He had both Houses of Congress. He was going to be hit hard in the midterms anyway. Why not go all the way and come back in 2012?

I support single payer over this mandate BS, and the fact that we can't repeal it completely at this point shows how strong single payer could have come.

Admit it: You may like Obama, but he could certainly be better. I think that about Rand Paul all the time.

The Democrats never had the votes for a single-payer system.(the blue-dogs would never have gone for it). So Obama did what any good politician would have done, he compromised and got something passed that will help the problem, but also can be built in the future.

Lmao, single-payer! Just look how difficult it was to pass ACA, which is more conservative then Nixon's healthcare plan.

Pelosi was one of the strongest Speakers in history. She would have gotten the votes. The ACA is the result of Obama caving, and smelling blood, my party's sharks stormed ahead and tried to stop him completely.

....excuses, excuses....

He could have had single payer

W.T.F.

What a reasoned argument. Care to post a tumbler meme while your at it?

Bullsh**t.

There is no way Pelosi would have been able to deliver any blue-dog democrats, single payer was DOA on arrival.

Read my first paragraph in my last post.

They wouldn't have had a enough votes for it to pass the house without them and this doesn't even get into the subject of the Senate.

There was no chance of single-payer ever been a realistic option.

If Obama threatened to pull the plug on the wavering Democrats, he could have brought a few more in. If he failed, well, then he failed. As it stands now, he passed a watered down healthcare bill that is being whittled away more and more overtime. Do you call that a success?

What exactly would Obama be able to threaten the Blue-dogs with? And by going after single-payer and failing would have been the end of his presidency and he would have no political capital to pass anything else.

And yes, passing ACA is massive success. It is the biggest overhaul of the healthcare system since medicare/medicaid and no Democratic president has been able to do so.

[Yank2133]

Give it up, Sanchez.  There is absolutely no way in Hell single-payer was ever remotely plausible under Obama, period.  If he'd tried that, there would have been no "compromise on Obamacare."  The backlash would have caused us to get nothing.

You guys got nothing in the end anyway, so what does it matter?

On an unrelated note, can I assume the new I-MS avatar is because of the decision by the administration today?

How the f could Obama get single payer? Every special interest group would be running ads 24/7 calling him an invasive communist *insert black pejorative term here* and the bill would be as unpopular as AIDS within two months. Obama could propose any minor healthcare reform and it would polarize the country by the late summer of 2009.

He had both Houses of Congress. He was going to be hit hard in the midterms anyway. Why not go all the way and come back in 2012?

I support single payer over this mandate BS, and the fact that we can't repeal it completely at this point shows how strong single payer could have come.

Admit it: You may like Obama, but he could certainly be better. I think that about Rand Paul all the time.

The Democrats never had the votes for a single-payer system.(the blue-dogs would never have gone for it). So Obama did what any good politician would have done, he compromised and got something passed that will help the problem, but also can be built in the future.

Lmao, single-payer! Just look how difficult it was to pass ACA, which is more conservative then Nixon's healthcare plan.

Pelosi was one of the strongest Speakers in history. She would have gotten the votes. The ACA is the result of Obama caving, and smelling blood, my party's sharks stormed ahead and tried to stop him completely.

....excuses, excuses....

He could have had single payer

W.T.F.

What a reasoned argument. Care to post a tumbler meme while your at it?

Bullsh**t.

There is no way Pelosi would have been able to deliver any blue-dog democrats, single payer was DOA on arrival.

Read my first paragraph in my last post.

They wouldn't have had a enough votes for it to pass the house without them and this doesn't even get into the subject of the Senate.

There was no chance of single-payer ever been a realistic option.

If Obama threatened to pull the plug on the wavering Democrats, he could have brought a few more in. If he failed, well, then he failed. As it stands now, he passed a watered down healthcare bill that is being whittled away more and more overtime. Do you call that a success?

What exactly would Obama be able to threaten the Blue-dogs with? And by going after single-payer and failing would have been the end of his presidency and he would have no political capital to pass anything else.

And yes, passing ACA is massive success. It is the biggest overhaul of the healthcare system since medicare/medicaid and no Democratic president has been able to do so.

Cutting off pork and DCCC funding? Most of them were dead in the water come 2010 anyway. If you call empty legislation a success, well, more power to you. As I said earlier, it seems to me that Obama is now just Bush Sr. 2.0 with a second term?

How is it empty legislation, it is one of the most important pieces of legislation in years. The alternative of going for single-payer and getting nothing would have been far worse. The ACA doesn't fix the problem, but it is far better then the old system.