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Obama The Weak and Indecisive President

11/13/2009, by Proloy Bhatta

HIGHLIGHTS

• Gallup 2010: Republicans 48%, Democrats 44%.
• Gallup Healthcare: For the first time in a decade, Americans do not believe health coverage is a responsibility of the government.
• Obama is indecisive on the war and on health care.

Obama is proving to be a pretty ineffective president on a countless number of issues.

• Under Obama's watch, Democrats are behind in the 2010 polls, 48% to 44%.
• Obama's slow decision making on Afghanistan seen as a "trainwreck in slow motion" by a former UN ambassador.
• Obama is not bringing people together.
• Obama broke his campaign promise of having an open presidency.
• Obama has not made it known whether he will vote for a health care bill with the Stupak Amendment and/or without a public option.
• Obama's demands in the Middle East have stalled peace negotiations.

Gallup's Poll

Gallup released a poll recently that is going to make Republicans cheer. Among registered voters, more Americans lean towards a Republican candidate for congress in 2010 than a Democrat.

The poll was conducted 11/5-8/09, a few days after stunning Republican governor victories in New Jersey and Virginia. The poll is likely biased due to the fact that Republicans were deemed as "winners" in the media for the whole week thereafter BUT it is not like the Democrats had huge leads before the 2009 elections -- it was a dead heat.

After the 2009 elections, Republicans have taken a lead of four-percent with the margin of error four percent. The margin of error is what is known as a 95% confidence threshold -- meaning that there is only a 2.5% chance the Democrats are ahead.

After Obama was elected, we were made to believe the Republican party was dead and buried in the way of the Whigs. Not so.

And on health care, "for the first time this decade", more Americans feel that it is not the government's responsibility to provide health care.

War in Afghanistan

Americans do not support the war in Afghanistan.

The latest poll by AP-GFK conducted 11/5-9/09 found that among American adults

• 57% opposed the war in Afghanistan
• 54% opposed sending more troops

Pew Research Center, in a survey they conducted Oct 28-Nov 8, found

• 57% of adults felt the war in Afghanistan was not going well

CNN found similar results in a poll they conducted Oct 30-Nov 1.

• 56% disapproved of Obama's handling of the war.
• 58% opposed the war in Afghanistan
• 56% opposed sending more troops to Afghanistan

But where is Obama's lead with regards to Afghanistan? How long have we been waiting on his decision on whether or not to send more troops?

John Bolton, the former US Ambassador to the UN, said that waiting for Obama's decision is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Here is his full quote:

This is like a slow-motion train wreck, watching this decision-making process, and it is really is having a debilitating effect, I think, on troop morale in Afghanistan. And globally, it's having a debilitating effect on America's reputation. It's not just the president's indecisiveness in Afghanistan, but his weakness and indecisiveness in other areas, as well, that gives the reputation that he's got a problem making hard decisions.

Bolton points out two very important points.

• Obama is weak and indecisive in other areas.
• Obama has trouble making hard decisions.

Bringing People Together

We were lead to believe that he was going to "bring people together". That has not happened. Only one Republican in the entire House of Representatives voted for health care reform last Saturday.

Most Democrats will argue that it is the Republicans' fault for not wanting to cooperate. But every president has to face disension from the opposing party. What Obama faces is no different than any other president and we still had hope despite that.

Open Presidency

Whatever happened to these open door meetings that was going to open up the Whitehouse to the American people?

Robert Scheer of TheNation.com said it far better than I could (with regards to TARP2)

Where is the openness and accountability that Obama promised? Why not pause for a few weeks for congressional hearings on how to spend the new money? We don't even know where the last batch went.

Health Care - Stupak Amendment

Where is Obama's leadership on health care? With Bush and Clinton, we knew where they stood on the most critical of issues. For example, Bush said that he'd never vote for an Iraq war funding bill if it had timelines for troop withdrawal. Support him or not, at least we knew where he stood.

But where does Obama stand on the Stupak Amendment? Does he believe that public money should be used for abortions or not. Will he vote for such a bill that has it ... or is without it?

The president is in a quandary because the health care bill may not pass without a Stupak Amendment. But this goes against what the Left wants. As pointed out by Karen Finney of the Huffington Post, "the Stupak Amendment threatens the rights of every American". If such a prominent left winged blog can make that statement, why can't their messiah do so?

Could it be because Hussein Obama is more willing to pass this bill at all costs regardless of its contents -- even at the expense of Left principles.

Health Care - Public Option

The other issue is with respect to the public option. True Democrats support a universal single payer plan such as the one drafted by Dennis Kucinich. But because they cannot pass such a bill they have come to a compromise -- the public option. Obama undoubtedly supports the public option but is he willing to vote for a bill that does not have the public option?

According to an article written by MSNBC, Obama shows his support of the public option:

Obama said, "I continue to believe that a public option within the basket of insurance choices would help improve quality and bring down costs."

But where does he ever say he will only pass health care reform if it has the public option? Democrats have already given up on a universal single payer system but if they give up the public option as well, what did they really achieve?

I've heard Obama sympathisers defend him by saying "he is not stubborn like Bush, at least he is willing to compromise". But as I stated before, when you only get one Republican to vote for your health care reform bill in the House, that is not compromise.

Relationships With Other Countries

Obama gets high marks with respect to how he handles US relations with other countries. Yesterday, we released a poll that stated Obama's approval rating with this issue was 58%.

Tony Karon of TIME Magazine on Tuesday wrote a post describing how Obama's demands are causing a stalemate in the Middle East. His article was entitled "Does Obama Have a Plan B in the Middle East?".

Conclusions

The polls and the news don't lie, Obama's presidency is not as advertised.

Comments

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