FOX News Focus Group - Obama's Accomplishments

[Smash255]

Well Phil, since you came up with this thread and we all know why you really wanted to be President.  Name an accomplishment of Santorum??

[Jake]

Um... I'm sure you'd see the same thing if you put any group of supporters in a room.

Exactly! Put 25 McCain supporters in a room and ask them to name one major McCain legislative accomplishment. You'd get just as much stuttering and blank stares, probably more.

Uh, most could name McCain/Feingold as Rush and the boys have been harping on it for awhile. They also probably would know about McCain/Kennedy for the same reason.

[Keystone Phil]

Um... I'm sure you'd see the same thing if you put any group of supporters in a room.

Exactly! Put 25 McCain supporters in a room and ask them to name one major McCain legislative accomplishment. You'd get just as much stuttering and blank stares, probably more.

Well, at least they can cite issues that McCain is connected to. Obama is "HOPE, UNITY, CHANGE."

Well Phil, since you came up with this thread and we all know why you really wanted to be President.  Name an accomplishment of Santorum??

Welfare reform, champion of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban (the Born Alive Infants Protection Act), champion of faith based initiatives (the CARE Act), champion of Aimee's Law, champion of the Iran Freedom and Support Act...

I support and admire people based on what they say and do, not just on platitudes, Smash.

[Torie]

Well Phil, since you came up with this thread and we all know why you really wanted to be President.  Name an accomplishment of Santorum??

He proposed shutting down the national weather service, because it competed with private services. I guess he was a fan of Bastardi's hurricane hyperbole. He also managed to lose in a landslide to a drone. He won the dumbest Senator award, albeit most of the votes were from Dem staffers.   And then he has a daughter  with arresting sartorial tastes.  

[Keystone Phil]

Well Phil, since you came up with this thread and we all know why you really wanted to be President.  Name an accomplishment of Santorum??

He proposed shutting down the national weather service, because it competed with private services. I guess he was a fan of Bastardi's hurricane hyperbole. He also managed to lose in a landslide to a drone. He won the dumbest Senator award, albeit most of the votes were from Dem staffers.   And then he has a daughter  with arresting sartorial tastes.  

Some people never seem to grow up.

Anyway, I'd hate for this to turn into another Santorum debate so I'll just say that Santorum, while the loser in a race against "a drone," had to run against "a drone" who happened to have the best political name in PA politics in a year that was terrible for the GOP. Santorum actually stood up and put what he believed on the line unlike his opponent and, yeah, sometimes that costs you big time. Oh well. I know I supported the right guy.

[Torie]

Keystone, I am a baby boomer, so of course I will never grow up. Our hero is Peter Pan. Sorry to be snarky. I just couldn't help myself. It was an irresistible impulse to cross over the River Styx to the dark side of snarkiness. I no doubt need help.   But hey, Santorum did land some whoppers.

[Iosif is a COTHO]

Uh oh, the attacks begin.

Soon the starry-eyed Obama cultists will realize that what they thought was the vaunted 'Clinton attack machine' was really a kitty kat terrified in the face of a hostile media and pumped up by the GOP to look big and bad; while they begin to taste what real political warfare means.

Now, we start to see what Obama is made of.

Of course, and your candidate has proven what a formidable contender she is with her shambles of a campaign.

[TheresNoMoney]

Uh, most could name McCain/Feingold as Rush and the boys have been harping on it for awhile. They also probably would know about McCain/Kennedy for the same reason.

His biggest accomplishment in the Senate is McCain/Feingold and most conservatives hate it. McCain/Kennedy immigration bill is not an accomplishment, as it has never been passed or signed into law.

[Torie]

The thing about manias, is that the emotional intensity leaves one exhausted and depressed eventually. There is a cost to climbing up to mountain top. When the the rocky mountain high fades, maybe voters will begin to evaluate Obama in a bit more dyspeptic mood. I just don't think rhetorical pablum, no matter how well packaged, will sustain Obama forever. At some point, he will have to flesh out the hard choices, and quantify and justify that the pain is worth the gain. Voters are just not as air brained over a sustained period as many assume. We shall see.

[Beet]

The thing about manias, is that the emotional intensity leaves one exhausted and depressed eventually. There is a cost to climbing up to mountain top. When the the rocky mountain high fades, maybe voters will begin to evaluate Obama in a bit more dyspeptic mood. I just don't think rhetorical pablum, not matter how well packaged, will sustain Obama forever. At some point, he will have to flesh out the hard choices, and quantify and justify that the pain is worth the gain. Voters are just not as air brained over a sustained period as many assume. We shall see.

One of the main reasons why I am for Clinton. I just wish that people, especially the politically active and media talking heads, would like her more. IMO, her main liability has nothing to do with herself, though I'm sure the detractors would disagree. To be fair though, not many politicians are generally liked by the chattering classes.

[Torie]

I wonder what people would say about Larry Craig's biggest accomplishment?

He was a member of the singing senators, or course. In fact, he is the last one left in the Senate now. Time flies when you are having fun.

[Beet]

Uh oh, the attacks begin.

Soon the starry-eyed Obama cultists will realize that what they thought was the vaunted 'Clinton attack machine' was really a kitty kat terrified in the face of a hostile media and pumped up by the GOP to look big and bad; while they begin to taste what real political warfare means.

Now, we start to see what Obama is made of.

Of course, and your candidate has proven what a formidable contender she is with her shambles of a campaign.

That assumes the advantages she had (name recognition, chiefly) without the liabilities. And the liabilities have been significant:

Her oppo's got the best media coverage of any candidate in a long, long time for about a month, is absurdly charismatic, and has legions of devouted organizers. 32 California newspapers and just about every national newspaper except for the NYTimes and the Denver Post endorsed her opponent. He outraised her 3-1. Two Massachusetts Senators, including the ancient icon of the party and the previous Presidential contender, campaigned for her opponent. They compared him to that liberal deity JFK.

Yet she still won the most votes (by a hair, admittedly) on Super Tuesday and essentially tied for delegates. It wasn't a good night for her, but it wasn't a good night for her opponent either, and that's saying something.

[Torie]

Uh, most could name McCain/Feingold as Rush and the boys have been harping on it for awhile. They also probably would know about McCain/Kennedy for the same reason.

His biggest accomplishment in the Senate is McCain/Feingold and most conservatives hate it. McCain/Kennedy immigration bill is not an accomplishment, as it has never been passed or signed into law.

McCain pushed the surge first, has pushed reforms in telecommunications, helped craft the gang of 14 (a good deal for the Pubbies despite what they say), has been a resolute foe of pork, was a player in the immigration debate, etc. In short, he is one of the most influential senators in that body. Roads lead to McCain more often than not.

[Eraserhead]

Obviously most American voters would not be able to name any accomplishments from Clinton or McCain either, so this is pretty pointless.

[phk]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tjOjjI-hr8c

[Keystone Phil]

Obviously most American voters would not be able to name any accomplishments from Clinton or McCain either, so this is pretty pointless.

They at least know where they stand on substantive issues.

[elcorazon]

There is really nothing on TV right now so I turned on HANNITYand Colmes. Frank Luntz was doing his usual bit. He asked the group to name one major accomplishment by Senator Obama. One man said he votes as a Senator. Another said he "gave an excellent speech against the war." One woman passed. So Luntz asks, "Does anyone know an accomplishment?" A young man raises his hand. "He's the only African American Senator."  "So being an African American in the Senate is an accomplishment," asked Luntz. "Yes," the young man responds, "because he's the only one."

Now I know there are plenty of intelligent people here who support Obama and have good reason to do so but it makes you wonder about the average voter. Why do they like this guy? They know next to nothing about him. It's just like the JFK obsession that no one can understand. "He was young. He was the first Catholic President. He was killed." There is so little substance when it comes to JFK and I think it's safe to say the same with Obama.

I'd bet a similar focus group couldn't name a single accomplishment of Hillary's, McCain's, Romney's, Huckabee's, Richardson's, or probably even Gore's, other than saying jokingly he invented the internet and won an Oscar.

[Eraserhead]

Obviously most American voters would not be able to name any accomplishments from Clinton or McCain either, so this is pretty pointless.

They at least know where they stand on substantive issues.

Do they? I doubt many know more than the basics which they probably know about Obama as well.

[elcorazon]

Obviously most American voters would not be able to name any accomplishments from Clinton or McCain either, so this is pretty pointless.

They at least know where they stand on substantive issues.

but obama supporters know where he stands as well.  he just doesn't spend every speech talking specific policy points, which is actually smart politics.

[opebo]

Haha - 'accomplishments'.   What a joke.  He's certainly more accomplished than the other two (McCain and Hillary). 

In the first place, accomplishments are a funny criteria for Republicans to bring up given that we've just suffered through two terms of Bush, who has never had any accomplishment in his life (nor did he need to).

Secondly, to be African-American and become a Senator is nothing short of an amazing accomplishment.  It is easily 50 times as difficult as it would be for the typical rich white senator.

[Kalimantan]

Onto the Fourth page, and no-one has actually LISTED his accomplishments yet?? Make of it what you will, but here is a summary (lifted from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama)

Obama received his B.A. degree in 1983, then worked at Business International Corporation and NYPIRG before moving to Chicago to take a job as a community organizer. As Director of the Developing Communities Project, he worked with low-income residents in Chicago's Roseland community and the Altgeld Gardens public housing development. He entered Harvard Law School in 1988 and was elected as the Harvard Law Review's "first black president in its 104-year history". He completed his J.D. degree magna cum laude in 1991. On returning to Chicago, Obama directed a voter registration drive. As an associate attorney with Miner, Barnhill & Galland from 1993 to 1996, he represented community organizers, discrimination claims, and voting rights cases. He was a lecturer of constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1993 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996. As a state legislator, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation reforming ethics and health care laws. He sponsored a law enhancing tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare. Obama also led the passage of legislation mandating videotaping of homicide interrogations, and a law to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they stopped. During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, he won the endorsement of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, whose president credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms.

Obama wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Keyes's 27%, the largest electoral victory in Illinois history. Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 4, 2005. Although a newcomer to Washington, he recruited a team of established, high-level advisers devoted to broad themes that exceeded the usual requirements of an incoming first-term senator. Obama hired Pete Rouse, a 30-year veteran of national politics and former chief of staff to Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, as his chief of staff, and economist Karen Kornbluh, former deputy chief of staff to Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, as his policy director.

Obama took an active role in the Senate's drive for improved border security and immigration reform. In 2005, he co-sponsored the "Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act" introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). He later added three amendments to the "Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act", which passed the Senate in May 2006, but failed to gain majority support in the U.S. House of Representatives. In September 2006, Obama supported a related bill, the Secure Fence Act, authorizing construction of fencing and other security improvements along the Mexico–United States border. President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act into law in October 2006, calling it "an important step toward immigration reform."

Partnering first with Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN), and then with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Obama successfully introduced two initiatives bearing his name. "Lugar-Obama" expands the Nunn-Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons, including shoulder-fired missiles and anti-personnel mines. The "Coburn-Obama Transparency Act" provides for a web site, managed by the Office of Management and Budget, listing all organizations receiving Federal funds from 2007 onward, and providing breakdowns by the agency allocating the funds, the dollar amount given, and the purpose of the grant or contract. In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the "Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act," marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor.

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In August 2005, he traveled to Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan. The trip focused on strategies to control the world's supply of conventional weapons, biological weapons, and weapons of mass destruction as a first defense against potential terrorist attacks. Following meetings with U.S. military in Kuwait and Iraq in January 2006, Obama visited Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories. At a meeting with Palestinian students two weeks before Hamas won the legislative election, Obama warned that "the U.S. will never recognize winning Hamas candidates unless the group renounces its fundamental mission to eliminate Israel."

n the first month of the newly Democratic-controlled 110th Congress, Obama worked with Russ Feingold (D–WI) to eliminate gifts of travel on corporate jets by lobbyists to members of Congress and require disclosure of bundled campaign contributions under the "Honest Leadership and Open Government Act", which was signed into law in September 2007. He joined Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in sponsoring S.453, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections, including fraudulent flyers and automated phone calls, as witnessed in the 2006 midterm elections. Obama's energy initiatives scored pluses and minuses with environmentalists, who welcomed his sponsorship with John McCain (R-AZ) of a climate change bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by two-thirds by 2050, but were skeptical of his support for a bill promoting liquefied coal production. Obama also introduced the "Iraq War De-Escalation Act", a bill to cap troop levels in Iraq, begin phased redeployment, and remove all combat brigades from Iraq before April 2008.

Later in 2007, Obama sponsored with Kit Bond (R-MO) an amendment to the 2008 Defense Authorization Act adding safeguards for personality disorder military discharges, and calling for a review by the Government Accountability Office following reports that the procedure had been used inappropriately to reduce government costs. He sponsored the "Iran Sanctions Enabling Act" supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry, and joined Chuck Hagel (R-NE) in introducing legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism. A provision from the Obama-Hagel bill was passed by Congress in December 2007 as an amendment to the State-Foreign Operations appropriations bill. Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to provide one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries. After passing both houses of Congress with bipartisan majorities, SCHIP was vetoed by President Bush in early October 2007, a move Obama said "shows a callousness of priorities that is offensive to the ideals we hold as Americans."

[Gustaf]

Barack Obama absolutely has stances on the issues.  It's just that, until recently, that hasn't been the focal point in his campaign; the focal point was instead on the general overview of what his campaign is all about, and on how his ultimate goal is bridging and healing partisan divides and changing the fundamental tone in Washington.  He also has Senate accomplishments that are there for people wanting to look it up.

Really, I find it rather funny when people say that Obama has no substance and that his supporters are just blindly following what he says.  I find that those claiming as such often are just as guilty, if not more so, of blindly following what someone else said without looking anything up.

The thing is, if you look at the introductions of the subjects they're still very vague.

"We must build a world free of unnecessary barriers, stereotypes, and discrimination .... policies must be developed, attitudes must be shaped, and buildings and organizations must be designed to ensure that everyone has a chance to get the education they need and live independently as full citizens in their communities."

"As president, Barack Obama will implement a 21st century economic agenda to help ensure that America can compete in a global economy, and ensure the middle class is thriving and growing. He will increase investments in infrastructure, energy independence, education, and research and development; modernize and simplify our tax code so it provides greater opportunity and relief to more Americans; and implement trade policies that benefit American workers and increase the export of American goods. "

These are two of the first examples in the link. Now, while there are a few hints at policy in those items, they're mostly just saying "I will do good stuff that will improve things."

Now, before you jump on me, I know one can "read more" and access a lot of actual policy proposals. But I think this first stuff is what irks people. Obama hides his policy ideas, even though they exist, for good reason - while he claims to reach across the aisle very little of what he stands for is actually appealing to centrist voters. Being the darling of both the far-left wing of the party and the independents at the same time will only work as long as he stays away from specifics.

[Democratic Hawk]

McCain has been around forever , led the largest squadron in the US military in Vietnam, sponsored many bills, and has been one of the most active and influential senators in the US senate.

Exactly. So much so, he'd be 8 years too late. Yesterday's man if ever there was one

Dave

I guess you would have said the same thing about Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

Not necessarily

Unlike McCain, Nixon was defeated by JFK and preceeded by LBJ, two men actually worthy of holding such office. Face it George W Bush was never going to be that. Reagan, meanwhile, came along at the right time. America was in a state of deep malaise and his ideas were, seemingly, the solution

Getting back to McCain, however, for Republicans to nominate him now when they really ought to have the good sense to nominate him back in 2000 is, frankly, too little, too late

A Democratic president, who would better positioned to mark a clean break with the Bush era of failure, will be much better positioned to restore American prestige back to where it belongs. McCain, to his credit, is something of a free-thinker among Republican sheep but as a Republican, he should shoulder some of the responsibility for aiding and abetting Bush's incompetence

Bush, IMO, should have gone a serious primary challenge in 2004. It might just have stopped the rot, but I doubt it. Too many Republicans can't find much, if any, fault with him

Given the context, McCain is yesterday's man. Eight years too late . Time to move on

Dave

[MODU]

Thanks Kalimantan.  This is going to be the problem with Obama.  Outside of what he did in Illinois, he doesn't have much to tie his name directly to in order to point out any major accomplishments.  That is what jumping from a first-term Senator to Presidential candidate will do to you.  Edwards had a similar problem in 2004.  If Obama would have waited to 2012, he would have had much more time to be active and gain more name recognition with major bills, but that also comes with risks.  He will be able to talk his way out of this lack of experience, but it will definitely be a target by his opponents.  Killary went softball on it, but I wouldn't expect her (if this primary drags out further and stays close) or McCain to hold back.

[Keystone Phil]

Thanks Kalimantan.  This is going to be the problem with Obama.  Outside of what he did in Illinois, he doesn't have much to tie his name directly to in order to point out any major accomplishments.