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What is your opinion of Obama?
Do you think he is doing this country good or bad?
Personal i intend to become a surgeon and to be truth full his plans have me concerned.Then again that's my opinion.
Whats your input?

I think it all depends on how this Health Care Bill turns out.

If it's a success he'll be up there with the greats. Otherwise he'll just be another forgettable president. Of course he's the first black President but I feel that if he screws the pooch while in office even that might not save his legacy.

I guess the short answer is: It's too early to tell.

If you are left leaning you may like him, if you are right leaning ou may not like him.

What plans have you worried. If you hear something that sounds crazy (Newt on fox this past week) go to fact check or ask the guys here.

I think he is being too middle of the road. His healthcare plan is what the republicans came up wit in the 90s. and this Nuke treaty is what Regan wanted in the 80's. He has signed on to off shore drilling and nuclear plants, when we wanted solar power and a super railway.

True but i think its kinda funny that before the election he was just an ordinary man but when he won he was a black man all of a sudden.


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I have heard that this bill will lower the pay of thous who work in the medical field and after i finish all my schooling im gonna have huge loans to pay off.

blood red 1 wrote:True but i think its kinda funny that before the election he was just an ordinary man but when he won he was a black man all of a sudden.

What does race have to do with anything?

Absolutely nothing im just stating what i have noticed.

This thread has hindenburg all over it.

jp400 wrote:

blood red 1 wrote:True but i think its kinda funny that before the election he was just an ordinary man but when he won he was a black man all of a sudden.

What does race have to do with anything?

Unfortunatly, in this election it figured in,many people who had never before voted did vote for Obama based on race...of course on the opposite side there are those who DIDN'T vote for him based on race...silly isn't it?
My personal oppinion...it's a bit soon to tell,but basicly all I see is another "politician",some good ideas...and a whole lot of compromise/business as usual.


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ShumaGorath wrote:This thread has hindenburg all over it.

Agreed...."Oh the Humanity!!!"

He was "black well before he ran. remember his crazy preacher, or how about that lie about his wife saying kill whity. He is was middle eastern when people made that lie about the anti christ being middle eastern. Remember all that hubbub about electing the first black pres?

How will this bill lower your pay? More people go to the doctor=more money coming in. Medicar payments may go down, but the millions of people who can get care will balance things out.


You want to be a surgon right? Doctors deal in facts. You can't go by what you heard, or what somebody says. you will have to do research. Take everything with a grain of salt.

ShumaGorath wrote:This thread has hindenburg all over it.

Surprised it hasn't gone up in flames already, quite frankly.

BR1:
Did you mean "before the election he was just an ordinary black man but when he won he was a black president all of a sudden."?

Because bro, that kinda happens when you get elected to the Presidency.

not exactly. Be for his election nobody (other then that preacher) was making his race a big deal but when he won the TV stations started showing and talking about how hes black and how that's so great. i think a president should be judged for being a president not y his race.

Looking at his CV, I don't think he has qualified for 'ordinary' in some time.

Politician always equal FAIL.

jp400 wrote:

blood red 1 wrote:True but i think its kinda funny that before the election he was just an ordinary man but when he won he was a black man all of a sudden.

What does race have to do with anything?

Did you watch the election coverage in 08? It had a lot to do with it.

Kanluwen wrote:

ShumaGorath wrote:This thread has hindenburg all over it.

Surprised it hasn't gone up in flames already, quite frankly.

Perhaps people are attempting to behave in the light of discussions elsewhere as to whether or not these discussions should be allowed. Let's prove the naysayers wrong.

He initially gained some brownie points by snubbing Brown and thinking him a dick, he was right there, even Labour supporters admit that. However the UK is losing patience with him after he sold us out over the Falklands in spite of all the support currently offered in Iraq and Afghanistan.

How popular he is in the US no longer really is an issue to us over here, we cannot and will not get over his casual dismissal of our own affairs while our troops are dying, and we are not likely to forget that for as long as he is president.

Orlanth wrote:He initially gained some brownie points by snubbing Brown and thinking him a dick, he was right there, even Labour supporters admit that. However the UK is losing patience with him after he sold us out over the Falklands in spite of all the support currently offered in Iraq and Afghanistan.

How popular he is in the US no longer really is an issue to us over here, we cannot and will not get over his casual dismissal of our own affairs while our troops are dying, and we are not likely to forget that for as long as he is president.

But... but... I thought we were all going to best friends after Obama got elected? We'd prance through moonlit meadows arm in arm with gumdrop smiles! Seriously though, a lot of his rhetoric in the campaign was based on repairing the United States' image abroad. He seems to be effing that up a bit. Whether the United States' image required repairing is an issue for another thread.

The people that didn't buy into the whole "Messiah" bit that some people pinned on Obama still support him. The only ones that are turning on him in the US were the ones that didn't know what he was all about in the first place.

Monster Rain wrote:

jp400 wrote:

blood red 1 wrote:True but i think its kinda funny that before the election he was just an ordinary man but when he won he was a black man all of a sudden.

What does race have to do with anything?

Did you watch the election coverage in 08? It had a lot to do with it.

Stopped careing right about the same time this was taken. Had better things to do with my time then listen to a bunch of overpaid mud slingers argue.

jp400 wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:

jp400 wrote:

blood red 1 wrote:True but i think its kinda funny that before the election he was just an ordinary man but when he won he was a black man all of a sudden.

What does race have to do with anything?

Did you watch the election coverage in 08? It had a lot to do with it.

Stopped careing right about the same time this was taken. Had better things to do with my time then listen to a bunch of overpaid mud slingers argue.

I love that picture.

I can't argue with your second point either, it's just something I'm fascinated by. I just can't look away from the train-wreck!

FITZZ wrote:

ShumaGorath wrote:This thread has hindenburg all over it.

Agreed...."Oh the Humanity!!!"

To get back on topic: Obama gets a resounding "meh" from me. After having 8 years of unambiguous EMORAGE towards Dubbayah, he is not interesting at all.

So far, I think he's doing good. I don't understand oppersition to the health bill though (granted I don't know alot about it)

Correct me if I'm wrong but it make Americans legaly have to take out health insurance (so nothing like the NHS or such) So that would mean more money for doctors = better services

Is that about right?

Monster Rain wrote:
But... but... I thought we were all going to best friends after Obama got elected? We'd prance through moonlit meadows arm in arm with gumdrop smiles! Seriously though, a lot of his rhetoric in the campaign was based on repairing the United States' image abroad. He seems to be effing that up a bit. Whether the United States' image required repairing is an issue for another thread.

While we would hate him for it I could imagine Obama finding political capital selling us out to curry favour with Latin America and the Hispanic vote. However its the wrong time to garner the Hispanic vote, by the time his own election looms 'Malvinas' will not be remembered, if they care now. As far as Latin America is concerned supporting Argentina doesn't prevent Chavez and other pro-Argentina supporters from continuing to have bad relations with the US.

All in all on a Machiavellian note he has lost friends he had and failed to turn enemies in the process. He still has the 'credentials' of being not-Bush but even that is wearing thin. obama the Wonder diplomat here to heal the world, it would have been better if he said nothing at all. Spain will be smug over the sell out of us but the rest of Europe will see his reaction to us as a big DO NOT TRUST sign. Sarkozy visited the US recently and you could see a sea change in US French relations. Not due to Falklands issue itself, they couldn't care much about that, but due to the growing realisation that Obama does not value European alliances and is prepared to cash them in.

Obama even managed to fail both the Palestinians and Israelis at the same time, and any US president who is not backing Israel will have no end of troubles at home. The only way to effectively defy Israel as the US president is if you are visibly making peace progress, Clinton managed that to some extent and so could force the Israelis to give ground that way.

Well for starters, he's better than Bush in that he's actually doing things. Bush was sitting on his backside until September 11th woke him up and then all kinds of crazy stuff happened.

I think Obama is being judged unfairly on the economy, because that nonsense was happening anyway. I wouldn't even blame Bush for that as the groundwork for financial collapse was laid over a decade ago.

As for Health Care, he's been forced onto middle ground which doesn't seem to take your wacky Health Care system in either direction and ergo pleases nobody.

I was mildly annoyed by the Falklands thing, but it's no biggie. We can take Argentina... as long as football isn't involved.

Most of the opposition is just to stick it to the Democrats.
As someone pointed out earlier, the healthcare bill is what the Republicans proposed in the 90s.

wizard12 wrote:So far, I think he's doing good. I don't understand oppersition to the health bill though (granted I don't know alot about it)

Correct me if I'm wrong but it make Americans legaly have to take out health insurance (so nothing like the NHS or such) So that would mean more money for doctors = better services

Is that about right?

Sort of. We don't need to pump more money into our healthcare system, it's already far too expensive. Obama's bill requires Americans to purchase health insurance in exchange for prohibiting the insurance companies from taking pre-existing conditions into account (if it wasn't mandated that they get insurance, people would have no motive to have insurance until they think they're sick). There are also some cost-control measures in the bill, although a similar bill in Massachusetts has seen healthcare costs increase.

Hehehehe.

That is all I have to say on the matter.

Those who know me know how I feel. Just look at my sig.

I dont like the guy personally, he is just too well oiled for my liking, and well.. you cant like ANY politician can you?

Still... i suppose he was better than the last guy though eh?

While we would hate him for it I could imagine Obama finding political capital selling us out to curry favour with Latin America and the Hispanic vote. However its the wrong time to garner the Hispanic vote, by the time his own election looms 'Malvinas' will not be remembered, if they care now. As far as Latin America is concerned supporting Argentina doesn't prevent Chavez and other pro-Argentina supporters from continuing to have bad relations with the US.

Yes. The oil islands you guys lay claim to from thousands of miles away that you now know doesn't even have enough oil to be worth drilling. Those islands. I think you trump up how much the rest of europe cares about this particular issue.

Sarkozy visited the US recently and you could see a sea change in US French relations. Not due to Falklands issue itself, they couldn't care much about that, but due to the growing realisation that Obama does not value European alliances and is prepared to cash them in.

And here I thought it was just home grown issues relating to the american part of the global economic crisis and the stunning defeat of his party at the polls forcing him to reevaluate his position in regards to workers party positions.

Obama even managed to fail both the Palestinians and Israelis at the same time, and any US president who is not backing Israel will have no end of troubles at home. The only way to effectively defy Israel as the US president is if you are visibly making peace progress, Clinton managed that to some extent and so could force the Israelis to give ground that way.

I think you also overestimate the relevance of Americans obsession with Israel in the new millennium. American sympathy for Israel has waned significantly over the last decade.

He's not as funny as Bush... that's about all I know about it... and care about.

In all seriousness though, before this bill I was kind of thinking like... has he actually done anything yet?

Orlanth wrote:
...I could imagine Obama finding political capital selling us out to curry favour with Latin America and the Hispanic vote.

Its not about the Hispanic vote at all. Foreign policy is not, historically, a featured issue within that voting block. The issue is developing a better relationship with (or greater control over) certain, ideologically 'vulnerable', Latin American nations. The intent being to counter Russian influence, while paying attention to a large, unstable landmass that is essentially at our back door. Mexico would be a better target for these overtures, but its also a political minefield.

Orlanth wrote:
All in all on a Machiavellian note he has lost friends he had and failed to turn enemies in the process.

What friends have been lost? I understand the argument that friendships have been tested or weakened, unnecessarily in several cases, but the notion that the US has outright lost allies strikes me as hyperbole.

Orlanth wrote:
Sarkozy visited the US recently and you could see a sea change in US French relations.

What sea change? France has never been a close US ally. Ever since the Cold War and de Gaulle they have been quite keen to chart their own course. I guess you could make the case that the French are now less trusting of the US, but that's not a shift of direction, but of degree.

Orlanth wrote:
Obama even managed to fail both the Palestinians and Israelis at the same time, and any US president who is not backing Israel will have no end of troubles at home. The only way to effectively defy Israel as the US president is if you are visibly making peace progress, Clinton managed that to some extent and so could force the Israelis to give ground that way.

No, that's no longer true. Much of the recent policy choices made with regard to Israel have as much to do with reminding that nation of its place in the context of the Iranian nuclear program. The US doesn't want to be placed in a situation where its forced to choose between its past support of the Jewish state, and a military confrontation with Iran. Throw in a weakening Jewish lobby, and diminishing support within the US Jewish community and you have a situation where the Cold War ties are starting to unravel.

Soladrin wrote:He's not as funny as Bush... that's about all I know about it... and care about.

In all seriousness though, before this bill I was kind of thinking like... has he actually done anything yet?

He was a better President not doing anything. Passing the bill only made him more of a tool.