sunnykerr

Well, sure, Obama came in on "we're gonna do better" and then he actually had to do the job and, surprise, it's different than he anticipated. Didn't the guy before him go through the exact same thing? And the guy before that guy?

No one ever delivers on their electoral promises. Ever. I get that 2008 Obama was inspiring, but that's just not the reality of politics.

And maybe he does go around like his poop doesn't stink... I'll be honest and admit that I have a different opinion on this specific perception of the man... but let's say he totally does. Don't they all?

Obama's got a crap record with a whole lot of issues. And I seriously don't want to play the "blame the predecessor" game. He's the one in charge now and the buck stops with him. The thing is, he didn't become president in a vaccuum. A lot of those issues, and now I'm thinking specifically of the NSA and the VA ones, pre-date his administration. By how much, I don't know.

But the VA issues are especially long-standing. They may date back to freaking Reagan (and beyond) for all I know. It's no justification for the man in charge now to have failed on that front. It really is not, nor will it ever be. I'm just saying that, again, he's hardly unique in that regard.

And, like I said, for all I know, Obama broke the law by getting the soldier back without consulting Congress. I did find opinions on both sides of the issue. Apparently, Senator Feinstein has one. That's hardly surprising, considering she's a member of Congress. I can't imagine any of the members of either houses are particularly pleased they weren't consulted.

For sure, Obama had a lot of opportunities to pass a whole lot of legislation. And I don't think it's "blaming Congress" to say that Congress has a part of why that didn't happen. If Congress was irrelevant, or likely to simply pass those legislations because they belonged to the same party, or however you want to slice it, you wouldn't be living in a democracy.

I'm hardly an expert on U.S. politics, but I do know that even your Democrats skew conservative, especially when it comes time to making certain controversial calls. Look at gun control, for instance. Now, maybe the status quo is the best thing on that front. I'm just saying, that's a clear instance where even Democrats went "against" President Obama.

Another example is how "Obamacare" is considered a flop. Again, not questioning how people perceive the thing. It's entirely within anyone's right to have formed whatever opinion they want to have about it. Where I live? It's seen as a success. One that got off to a spectacularly bad start, for absolute sure. But one that got there in the end.

And I'd hate to "blame Congress" for that one as well, but isn't it a widely known thing that the law was tooled around so much in the House that what wound up being passed was a pale reflection of what was the original intention?

And, hey, I love Clinton just as much as the next lilly-livered tree-hugger, but everyone also knows it's his administration that passed DOMA and "Don't Ask Don't Tell." So obviously, his accomplishments were many, but some of them clearly came at the result of pretty questionable compromises.