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JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

Obama's likability is keeping him afloat

World Sep. 25, 2011 - 05:56AM JST ( 22 )

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22 Comments

0

JapanGalSep. 25, 2011 - 11:48AM JST

Misleading title. American law gives him 4 years.
-2

SerranoSep. 25, 2011 - 12:40PM JST

"There are a lot of voters out there who are giving him the benefit of the doubt"

There's no doubt in my mind that Obama has been a disaster and is in way over his head.

That being said, Obama's re-election is ... sigh... probably a foregone conclusion, with the Republicans beating each other up, Obama's charisma... unless... Hillary turns against him! Bill would give her his full support!
-1

LagunaSep. 25, 2011 - 02:27PM JST

Obama was given one historically lousy legacy and had to right the ship of state against the gale of Republican opposition. Read those opinion polls carefully: Democrats are disappointed that he has compromised so repeatedly on issues important to them, yet Republicans are not impressed and will never support him.

For a variety of reasons, I guess his reelection has been a major factor in his decision making since 2008; after 2012, though, I think we'll see the real Obama: he'll fight more, compromise less, and force the issues on the do-nothing Republicans.
-2

DSSep. 25, 2011 - 06:25PM JST

"Obama was given one historically lousy legacy and had to right the ship of state against the gale of Republican opposition."

No, he didn't.

He had a Democratic congress and a Democratic senate when he was elected. The Democrats had in fact controlled BOTH houses since the 2006 elections. That control finally ended with the 2010 elections, which left the houses split.

Sorry, the current mess is the President's to own. No use blaming anyone but the Democrats and their president.
0

yabitsSep. 25, 2011 - 06:40PM JST

Sorry, the current mess is the President's to own. No use blaming anyone but the Democrats and their president.

You are actually claiming that the financial meltdown of 2008 was all the fault of the Democrats?
0

DSSep. 25, 2011 - 06:59PM JST

Nope. But there was no "gale of Republican opposition" when he was elected. He had a golden chance to work with a friendly Congress and didn't do it.

The blame for the meltdown can be spread around between both parties, Wall Street, and a number of parties.
0

LagunaSep. 25, 2011 - 07:02PM JST

DS, ever heard of the filibuster? You are aware, I'm sure, that the Republicans in the Senate used that obstruction tactic almost twice as many times in the first two congresses of Obama's term than the previous record. Obama was able to pass his health plan barely, and without many provisions that would have vastly improved it such as a public option, not because of the Democrats in Congress but due to Republican obstructionism. This all happened such a short time ago; it's surprising you don't remember.
-1

yabitsSep. 25, 2011 - 07:06PM JST

But there was no "gale of Republican opposition" when he was elected.

Really? What would you call the Tea Party movement?

He had a golden chance to work with a friendly Congress and didn't do it.

Not quite. Obama actually got a lot of legislation passed, including the Affordable Health Care Act. But many of the Democrats he had to work with often aligned themselves with the Republicans so it's not accurate to say they were all friendly. More than a few Democrats were elected in strongly conservative-leaning states like Montana and Virginia, and couldn't be expected to vote as a bloc with the representatives of Vermont and Massachusetts.
-1

MadvertsSep. 25, 2011 - 08:11PM JST

Obama inherited a mess, anyone stating otherwise has no grasp on reality.

His performance however is up for debate. Personally I think 4 years is slightly too short a term...

Especially when the media hysteria and the mud-slinging commences around US election time.
0

SerranoSep. 25, 2011 - 08:14PM JST

"You are actually claiming that the financial meltdown of 2008 was all the fault of the Democrats?"

You are actually claiming that the financial meltdown of 2008 was all the fault of the Republicans?

"Really? What would you call the Tea Party movement?"

The Tea Party doesn't even begin to control either the House or the Senate, and what would you call Democratic control of both the House and the Senate for the first 2 years of the Obama admin?
0

DSSep. 25, 2011 - 08:20PM JST

More excuses for poor performance. Obama is undeniably intelligent, and I don't doubt his sincerity. Unfortunately, he is not a very able politician and also isn't much of a leader. Not surprising, since he demonstrated little/no leadership in his life before the presidency.

Americans elected an image, and are paying the price.
1

MadvertsSep. 25, 2011 - 09:01PM JST

Heh, Americans elected Bush junior too, twice, remember. Only not just Americans paid the price.

I think Obama was given over high expectations, but I concur that he has failed to deliver. I don't think it's fair to say it's all his fault mind, he took the proverbial wheel in opposite-lock steering while the car was in a nasty four-wheel slide...

OBL in a bodybag and that gutsy call (read political balls in titanium) is enough for me to see the man is a leader.

The Democrats in the US a poor at their own PR in my opinion.
0

MadvertsSep. 25, 2011 - 09:43PM JST

are poor dammit
-2

SerranoSep. 25, 2011 - 10:05PM JST

"he took the proverbial wheel in opposite-lock steering while the car was in a nasty four-wheel slide"

Oh, but he wanted it so bad, and the car has since flipped over and is unable to right itself.

"OBL in a bodybag and that gutsy call"

Good grief, he was informed by the military of OBL's likely location, what was he going to do, order them to keep watch for awhile?
-4

Lieberman2012Sep. 25, 2011 - 10:19PM JST

"Likability" is a liability in this case.

Obama can't run on his record.

So he will need to demonize the repubs and the idle rich and Americans who refuse to believe that the Service Employees Union should be the most powerful and well-funded voting bloc in America.

And then even the "likability" is gone....
-1

DSSep. 25, 2011 - 10:28PM JST

Killing Bin Laden was a fine moment for Obama. However, he made a HUGE mistake in publicizing it so soon after the fact. Instead of doing the "victory lap", it would have been far better for the US to sit on the information. That way, they would have had time to act on any intelligence and information learned from BinLaden's files and computer.Instead, Obama went for the cheap publicity.

Like I said, he's a nice guy, but in way over his head. He doesn't have 5% the political skills of Bill Clinton, who managed to govern and get his measures passed while dealing with Republican majorities in Congress.

The last line of the original story made me laugh. Obama came from "humble beginnings"?!?!? His parents were both highly educated, he attended private schools most of his life, grew up in Hawaii....

I dont see much humble about it.
-1

yabitsSep. 25, 2011 - 10:29PM JST

and Americans who refuse to believe that the Service Employees Union should be the most powerful and well-funded voting bloc in America.

LOL! Certainly you were aware of the strong support by unions towards the Democrats when you registered, right?
1

MadvertsSep. 25, 2011 - 10:31PM JST

After the "intelligence" that sent you to Iraq? Seargeo?

Pu-lease. That call took real balls, and if you doubt, imagine the fall-out from a botched raid on a target un-ananounced, in a soveriegn territory that already has a good part of an un-educated population that despises everything America is?

Bush failed to catch da man, despite igniting the bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan that America can't afford to pay for.

The car was out of control, despite the change of pilot. A chain-reaction, even when a better technician is sent to the controls, is still prisoner to the explosion inevitabilty.
1

LFRAgainSep. 25, 2011 - 10:37PM JST

"Sorry, the current mess is the President's to own. No use blaming anyone but the Democrats and their president."

Talk about short-term memory loss. Nice try, but no dice.

Obama has had to deal with a pretty lousy hand from the very first day he took over as President. It's going to take far more than four years to clean up the mess that brewed under Bush and Clinton, and he certainly can't do it by being the same sort of intractable, unyeilding, zero-compromise asshat that many Republicans bizarrely seem to believe constitutes the best an elected representative has to offer: "No weakness! No surrender!"

How about, "No progress?"

The ability to seek and reach compromise is at the very heart of a healthy democracy. Without it, nothing gets accomplished, and we're stuck in the same cyclical pointlessness that've been the Senate and House races for the past three administrations.

Obama's pragmatic, smart, and determined. He'll get my vote again, without reservation.
-1

yabitsSep. 25, 2011 - 10:49PM JST

The last line of the original story made me laugh. Obama came from "humble beginnings"?!?!? His parents were both highly educated, he attended private schools most of his life, grew up in Hawaii...

LOL! HIs father's father herded goats. You can't get much humbler than that. But he barely knew his "highly educated" father. His mother specialized in anthropology -- particularly the weaving by the women of Indonesia -- which took her to live a great deal of her life in rather poor and backward villages. Sounds pretty humble to me.

Lots of people who attended Catholic schools -- giving you an example of "private" -- are from very humble backgrounds. It was because of his humble background that Barack could attend the Punahou school with financial assistance in the form of a scholarship from the school.
0

DSSep. 25, 2011 - 11:04PM JST

Father's father is irrelevant. His father was an economist who studied at Harvard. Stepfather worked for an oil company. Obama attended private Catholic schools almost exclusively throughout his youth. His mother had an M.A. and worked for various government sponsored development agencies.

Definitely NOT humble.
1

WolfpackSep. 26, 2011 - 12:45AM JST

@Laguna:

DS, ever heard of the filibuster? You are aware, I'm sure, that the Republicans in the Senate used that obstruction tactic almost twice as many times in the first two congresses of Obama's term than the previous record.

For the record, the filibuster did not apply to the Democrat controlled Congress for the first nearly two years of President Obama's presidency. Democrats controlled the House and 60 seats in the Senate which made the filibuster moot. The problem was that members of his own party opposed parts of President Obama's agenda which made it possible for the filibuster to be an effective strategy for Republicans to thwart small pieces of Obama's European socialist agenda.

Likeability is a well known political asset that has helped many flawed politicians succeed. However, there is a tipping point in which likeability no longer will assure a successful election outcome. For President Obama, it is his failure to improve the economic prospects of his voters since he assumed office during a very difficult time. Reagan succeeded under similar circumstances in his first term which led to his landslide re-election. Obama can still win re-election, but not as long as the unemployment rate remains over 8% - the rate he said the unemployment rate would not exceed if his huge and costly stimulus program was passed through Congress.