Do you still trust Obama's judgment?

[Cyrano]

I do.

He's fighting an entrenched bureaucracy of mostly Republicans (and some Democrats) who would go over Niagara Falls in a barrel before giving in one inch to Obama on any issue, big or small, important or inconsequential.

Obama has been president for a little over eight weeks and he's taken as much criticism as George Jr. has in any one of his eight nightmare years. Why? Because Republicans have a propaganda machine we can only envy.

Even so, Obama hasn't helped himself lately. He's allowed the media and the Republicans to set the tone and the agenda.

President Obama: Snap out of it. You're a giant being gnawed to death by gnats. It's time to kick ass. It's time to be the man we voted for. It's time to take control of our government, our national consciousness, and our sense of outrage.

It's time to do what we elected you to do. LEAD.

[liberal N proud]

1. It's only been 2 months, You can't turn the country around overnight

Why would I feel any differently.

He was handed one of the biggest messes anyone has ever seen and too many people expect a miracle from this man and the team he put together. It hasn't happened so they are going to call for his head.

I don't have to agree with all his decisions, I would be a moron if I did. But give the guy and his team a fucking chance.

[Cyrano]

2. I'm with you on this. As I said in the OP, it's only been eight weeks

Nonetheless, he's up against a vicious Republican machine that has no values, conscience or soul. All they want is power.

Unfortunately, the rate of change in the world keeps increasing. Obama doesn't have the time that FDR had to turn things around.

Obama is no fool and he must know that the Republicans in congress are his enemies. It's time to stop being "Mr. Nice Guy" and attack. If he doesn't, it won't take them long to strip him of his moral authority.

[notesdev]

3. If you trust any politician

you deserve what you vote for, and deserve to get it good and hard

Obama's economic policies have me wondering who he really works for.

[Cyrano]

5. And your alternative is ... ?

[notesdev]

8. Smack him with a dead fish?

I dunno, someone has to wake him up and explain "It's the economy, stupid!"

Maybe a visit from Bill Clinton might knock some sense into him.

Running interference while allowing the financial elites to loot the Treasury is NOT what I voted for, that's for sure!

Geithner at Treasury is like a consigliere heading the FBI. Obama CAN'T regain my faith why Geithner is in there, Geithner is a walking, flashing neon sign indicating bad judgement.

[rucky]

4. I would like to hear his reasoning about a couple of his decisions...

i.e.: Not nationalizing the failing banks.

[soryang]

13. right investment banks are not banks but speculators...

Deriatives are not assets- they are illegal insurance contracts. Why is Obama calling them assets and paying tens of billions for them each month? Why isn't the Attorney General investigating naked short selling by the investment bankers and hedge funds that started the collapse at BS and Lehman Bros?

Let's see, I take out an insurance contract on every home on block but mine. I burn them all down. I find the insurer AIG mislabelled the insurance and called it derivatives so it wouldn't be required to keep adequate reserves to pay the insurance claims. So I go to the Congress and President because I contributed to their campaigns and tell them they have to have the taxpayer pay for my illegal insurance claims. I just want the money, I'm not going to rebuild the homes and neither are they.

Congress and the President don't question the original felonies that triggered the crisis nor do they question the derivatives which are against public policy; they just dole out the trillions to their banker cronies at taxpayer expense and the economy continues to collapse.

[CTyankee]

14. The way I hear/read it, his reasoning is that we need to keep some of the Wall STreet people in

jobs on Wall Street because they are knowledgable about their business and government can't just take over their role and run things. Caveat here: I assume the proponents of this argument are talking about Wall St. people who were not complicit in the disgraces of late, just the people who run the nuts and bolts of the system. This appears to be the Obama approach.

On the other side, there are those who want a Swedish style nationalization of the worst banks. They point to the success that Sweden had with this plan and they also point to the failure of the "keep some in their place and try to shore up the system" plan in Japan, where it took 10 years to get their economy back on its feet. This is the Krugman et al approach.

I know I am over simplifying. Those seem to me to be the two basic arguments. If I am missing something I'd would like to know. My knowledge base of econ is limited to one grad course that I found incredibly thick headed, but that's a fine arts major for you!

[Enthusiast]

6. I am very suspicious.

I want to believe, I really want to believe. I fear that powers behind the scene are manipulating Obama's decisions.

[NOW tense]

7. If you transported yourself

back two years. Would you think maybe President Obama would seem like a good option and a leader? 2 months and you are writing everything off because you have watched too many talking heads. He has a 65% approval rating. That means 13% didn't vote for him, but like what he is doing.

[Cyrano]

12. Sigh. No one's writing him off.

But as I said in post number two, the rate of change keeps increasing.

FDR had a few years to attack the problems left by Hoover and the Robber Barons.

Obama doesn't have that much time. He has to deal with TV's 24 hour news cycle, Twitter, hate radio, Faux News, and the Republican echo chamber that repeats and repeats and repeats every talking point put out by their "Think" tanks.

Who knows whether or not FDR would have succeeded if he had to deal with today's Republican propaganda machine.

Obama knows what he's up against. And it's time for him to fight it with everything he has before they manage to strip him of his moral authority.

[saltpoint]

9. He's a good man who inherited a huge mess.

I like and trust him. The previous owners trashed the joint. It will take more than a couple of weekends to clean up.

[crim son]

10. I trust his more than anybody else's.

We may be too deep in shit for anybody to save us. As for "allowing" other forces to set the tone and agenda, I think maybe he's focusing on his job, and not what Faux news has to say about him.

[leftchick]

11. not as far as the economy goes

I have not seen one economist who agrees with this shit. As long as he keeps repeating the same 'mistakes' (unless you are wealthy) by relying on a brand that does not work, the friedman theory, I can not. I mean really, are you seriously blaming this on repukes and the media? They are freakin background noise. Real people suffering, like my family, know wtf is going on and it is just not sustainable. He has made horrible decisions, from picking his gang of wall street boys as 'advisers' to totally ignoring advice from experts who are completely neutral. He is losing political capital as fast as he is doling out our money to the robber barons.

[abunlifemin]

17. Chill out

Everybody chill! He's got this too. He is the right one.. in
the right place ... at the right time 

[SammyWinstonJack]

20. .

:eyes:

[MoJoWorkin]

15. YES. Do we have to repeat the primaries again? I have about quit coming to DU for all the

naysayers and hand wringers. I thought this was a Democratic board. Not a bash Obama and Geitner all the time site. It is sickening to see this trash on here. Constructive criticism is one thing, but this stuff goes WAY beyond that.
It is also WAY too early to be hammering him in this way. I see this as no better than the Repugs answer of NO to everything. Are all these posters really Democrats? I doubt it, but they have all but taken over DU.

Obama has been in office for how long? Two months. How long did it take us to get in this mess---YEARS.

GIVE THE MAN AND HIS TEAM A CHANCE, for God's sake.

[BlooInBloo]

18. "I thought this was a Democratic board. Not a bash Obama and Geitner all the time site."...

Live and learn, eh?

[ThomWV]

16. I held him at about an 80% trust level when I voted for him, about the same now.

I don't completely trust any of them but he hasn't failed us any more than one might expect. I do have to say that he has done a pretty poor job of filling jobs.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

19. Compared to what? Bush?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[KharmaTrain]

21. Try Parallel Parking An Aircraft Carrier

That'll give you an idea of the job this man is facing. It's real easy to be a back seat driver and say he's not angling the right way...or going too fast or too slow, but you hop behind that wheel and see how well you navigate!

Leading isn't just stomping feet and acting on impulse. We had 8 years of that...the big reason for the mess we're in. It's the things under the surface...the communications, the organizing and the long term execution that matter. We've had 8 years of dictatorial rule from a party that could talk the talk, but not walk the walk. Don't confuse the talk with the walk...unlike the corporate media.

It was expected the "media" would turn on President Obama, his role and the storyline has changed. From challenging authority, he nos is authority and no matter which way he goes, he either is doing too much or not enough. Seems like you've fallen into their gotcha game.

[stillcool]

22. The people allow the media..

to set the tone. Every day. Especially here.

[Saboburns]

23. Now more than ever

I trust Obama now more than ever.

NOTE** THis doesn't mean I worship him**

For some reason I feel the need to add the note for many who browse this Message Board.

[western mass]

24. He's a corporate Dem, but we already knew that..

So far he's done an excellent job at what's he's been brought in to do: soothe the people on the center and left with his intelligent, reasonable rhetoric while making sure that the corporate criminals who destroyed the economy make a clean gettaway, their pockets stuffed with as much taxpayer $$ as they could loot on the way out.