August 2010 Update on SoLow Obama Voters -- Are you happy with your President?

Theo

Active Member
During the campaign, SoLow often seemed like a Barack Obama campaign site. In fact, there were threads where members posted pics of Obama as a caped superhero, and posted messages about how they wanted to have sex with him.

Just curious what those Obamatrons think of their hero and idol today.
 
For the record, let me unequivocally state that I have never wanted to have sex with Obama, nor did I ever depict him wearing a cape, tights or a superhero costume of any kind. That said:

"Happy" is not a word that I would ever associate with politics. I voted for Obama because he comported himself with dignity, spoke in steady, measured tones, elucidated a vision of an America that I thoroughly agreed with, and generally behaved like a rational adult (which is more than I can say for the other side).

Overall, I give Obama a B-/C+. He's not the stunning A student that I was hoping for, but he takes his job seriously, does his homework, and generally acts exactly like what he is: a measured, centrist, low-key policy wonk. He's assumed all the responsibility for a terrible time of crisis while his fellow politicians pander, demagogue, tweet inanely, throw spitballs, smash furniture and set fire to the school.

He inherited one of the worst economic meltdowns in US history and kept us from plunging over the supply-side cliff. We're still in big trouble, no doubt about it, but the economy is inching forward, as opposed to flooring it in reverse. God only knows what would have happened if we continued down the road that led us here in the first place. He has reversed many of the trends that I found abhorrent in the last administration, but he hasn't managed to sell those changes to the public. Of course, all of his decisions would be cast in a very different light if the economy had dramatically improved. The continuing global economic grind has cast a pall over everything.

I'm VERY disappointed with some of Obama's policy decisions, I think he's strangely politically naive, and I'm often frustrated that he doesn't bring the fight to the other side. Also, he doesn't (publicly) push his own party hard enough, often leaving the Congress to thrash around on their own. His leadership skills haven't modulated with the tone of our politics, which is increasingly shrill to the point of insanity.

I think Obama's race is causing this administration to be more reactive and calculating than it would otherwise have to be, which is a great shame.

So, overall, I've had no reason to regret pushing that little button with the "X" next to Obama's name. He's managed to hold things together while his political opponents melt down into an increasingly pure ball of dangerous, misguided ideological hatred.
 
I'm astonished at how little conniving he is, considering he came out of Illinois politics. (We can't convict our governor of bribery and selling Obama's Senate seat because what he did was so thoroughly business as usual that it just doesn't merit conviction, apparently.)

I'm disappointed, but unsurprised. There was no alternative. It was not possible to reelect a Republican president. Something had to break the circuit. I'm surprised he hasn't blossomed as a charismatic leader, considering the rousing start he had, pre-election. It's as Worm says, he needs to more loudly and clearly state his convictions to rally us. As it is, he's too reserved, too rational, too standoffish--he looks like a pushover.

He inherited an impossible situation--just look at how he's being blamed for the economy, when the seeds for this wreck and ruin were sown long, long ago. I smelled trouble in the mortgage industry the first time I shopped for a mortgage, in 1997, and was offered ridiculous loans I knew I could never afford, but could be made to work on paper. The mortgage crisis is not his fault, the oil spill is not his fault, global warming is not his fault. I'm not sure he realized the extent to which he'd be blamed, and the extent to which his presidency would deevolve into a partisan catfight.

If the presidency is a job for a Reagan-type Daddy figure/cheerleader, then Obama is the wrong man for the job.

It seems obvious, but maybe he needs to remind everyone that he is not Santa Claus. But that's not what we want to hear, is it?
 
I'm astonished at how little conniving he is, considering he came out of Illinois politics. (We can't convict our governor of bribery and selling Obama's Senate seat because what he did was so thoroughly business as usual that it just doesn't merit conviction, apparently.)

Yes, Obama is sort of the anti-Chicago politician, somewhat ironic, given the fact that his enemies paint him as the quintessential Chicago politician.

I'm disappointed, but unsurprised. There was no alternative. It was not possible to reelect a Republican president. Something had to break the circuit. I'm surprised he hasn't blossomed as a charismatic leader, considering the rousing start he had, pre-election. It's as Worm says, he needs to more loudly and clearly state his convictions to rally us. As it is, he's too reserved, too rational, too standoffish--he looks like a pushover.

Agreed.

He inherited an impossible situation--just look at how he's being blamed for the economy, when the seeds for this wreck and ruin were sown long, long ago. I smelled trouble in the mortgage industry the first time I shopped for a mortgage, in 1997, and was offered ridiculous loans I knew I could never afford, but could be made to work on paper. The mortgage crisis is not his fault, the oil spill is not his fault, global warming is not his fault. I'm not sure he realized the extent to which he'd be blamed, and the extent to which his presidency would deevolve into a partisan catfight.

God, I knew when we were shopping for our mortgage that there was no way that people were buying property within their means. We were shut out of nearly every housing market, and that was with two good jobs! There was no way that so many people could afford to buy those houses at those prices, and still pay all the other bills. It was staggeringly obvious.

Anyway, I think that, as a rational person, Obama projects onto other people, and expects them to be rational as well. The degree of political irrationality seems to have stymied his administration. He's still behaving as if considered, common sense decisions will be appreciated as self-evidently correct. He's still behaving like a law school professor, but he's really presiding over Animal House.

If the presidency is a job for a Reagan-type Daddy figure/cheerleader, then Obama is the wrong man for the job.

I dunno, Bill Clinton managed to handle presidential politics pretty well without being either a daddy figure or a cheerleader, before he, er, screwed it up.
 
I dunno, Bill Clinton managed to handle presidential politics pretty well without being either a daddy figure or a cheerleader, before he, er, screwed it up.

He came across as a peer, didn't he? The Baby Boomer president. It's funny, I sort of see Obama as a peer--somehow I think that a parent of kids the age of mine is going to have some of the same priorities I do--especially when compared with older candidates who aren't acutely aware of what society does to kids these days. I thought he'd have a focus that was balanced between short-term consequences and long-range planning. And he does, I think, it's just that he's so busy putting out fires that he's not able to do all that he could.
 
He came across as a peer, didn't he? The Baby Boomer president. It's funny, I sort of see Obama as a peer--somehow I think that a parent of kids the age of mine is going to have some of the same priorities I do--especially when compared with older candidates who aren't acutely aware of what society does to kids these days. I thought he'd have a focus that was balanced between short-term consequences and long-range planning. And he does, I think, it's just that he's so busy putting out fires that he's not able to do all that he could.

I agree, for the first time in my life, I thought of the President as someone I could relate to. He seems very real, like someone I would know (OK, someone exceptional that I would know).

This is what is so frustrating - many, many of our fellow Americans see Obama as some kind of "other," some kind of foreigner, when he seems quintessentially American and actually very normal to me.
 
I'm amazed that every weekend he is on vacation. There was a big story about how they have a garden at Martha's Vineyard and buy from 20 local farmers, but the menu was a secret, which makes no sense since they tell the items they buy. Anyway, this idea of buying local was pushed as them leaving a light carbon footprint. haha. Never mind the amount of pollution caused getting them and their retinue there and back, they ate some heirloom tomatoes while they were there! Oh well, I have a feeling we're going to have a whole new set of problems soon, because President Palin's Reality Show may take over in 2012. I kind of think "they" (the mysterious they) are just messing with us. Otherwise she would still be in Alaska protecting us from the Russians.
 
"Our rulers live in a different country."
 
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