Obama’s Presidency in Review

I am not a Republican and I never vote for them. I am not a conservative. I disagree with today’s conservatives on most political issues. That puts what I’m about to say in context: Barack Obama will go down in history as one of the worst US Presidents.

I didn’t say he’ll be the worst president ever. James Buchanan, George W. Bush, Woodrow Wilson, and a few others were as bad, if not worse. Obama may not even crack the bottom five, but trust me, many decades into the future when his charisma has long worn off and future historians can focus on the facts, he will be ranked as one of the worst we’ve had.

Where is this country now, after eight years of this wimpy, corporatist, establishment warmonger who successfully duped his delusional left-wing base, with a bunch of dazzling bullshit about Hopechange, into voting for him?

– The US is now at war with seven different countries. That’s right. We are, right now, bombing seven different countries(!). Isn’t that amazing? Gotta love that Hopechange. That Obama sure is a nice guy.

By the way, during the 2008 election, libertarians like Lew Rockwell (and others) warned the left-wingers that the man they were slobbering over was a militarist. They laughed at him, just like they laughed at Ross Perot (who turned out to be right about everything he warned) and Ron Paul (who will also turn out to be right about everything he warned, though that will take more time).

– The US has now become a full-bore surveillance state, far worse than under George W. Bush. Americans no longer have any real online privacy. Go watch the movies Citizen Four and Snowden and you’ll see exactly how easy it is for the US government to infiltrate and track your phone calls, texts, Facebook page, email, and various other things. Thanks Obama!

– Under Obama’s watch, ISIS was birthed, and we now have the most unstable Middle East since World War II. That Obama is a foreign policy genius!

– Obama added $7 trillion to the US debt, which is now at almost at $20 trillion(!). His administration has run a half-trillion dollar deficit pretty much every year he’s been in office.

– Under his watch, interest rates went to zero and stayed there, punishing the middle class and enriching Wall Street.

– Obama’s signature “achievement,” the corporatist scheme Obamacare, did the exact opposite of what was promised. Instead of lowering insurance premiums, it raised them. Instead of keeping your doctor or plan if you like it, you can’t. If you don’t get health insurance, you actually get fined by the IRS. He also suspended many of the mandates for the big corporations who complained, which is blatantly unconstitutional (you can’t pass a law, and then after the fact, cherry-pick people or companies the law doesn’t apply to).

– Under Obama, race relations in the US crashed to the worst they’ve been since the 1960s. Simply amazing.

– Real wages under Obama have been more or less stagnant throughout his entire presidency. Worse, under the first black president, blacks are now doing economically worse, with lower home ownership rates, and lower net worth as compared to whites, lower job participation rates, and lower median family incomes.[*][*]

– There has been a 42% rise in Americans using food stamps since Obama became president. 42%!!! Isn’t that amazing? And before you say it, explain to me how this is “Bush’s fault” when he hasn’t been around in eight friggin’ years.

I could go on and on. There are many more catastrophes I could talk about, but man, I am so tired of talking about this corrupt, incompetent, dingleberry that I’m thankful he’s finally leaving.

It’s bittersweet, as usual. When George W. Bush left office, as bad as that guy was, I was thinking that Obama would be either as bad or worse. I was right; he was at least as bad. Today, I can clearly see that Trump will likely be bad as or worse than Obama, and I’ll probably be right on that one too.

Again, I’m not one of these right-wingers who scream about how Obama did nothing right. Osama Bin Laden was killed on his watch, and you have to give Obama credit for that, since Bush kept talking about how “I just don’t think about him anymore.” Obama opened trade relations with Cuba, which is a very good thing. His supporters also say he averted a greater recession, but that’s bullshit. The government didn’t actually avert anything; they just pushed it into the future a few years. Nothing systemic in the corporatist banking system has been fixed since 2008. Indeed, it’s worse.

Nor did Obama “ruin this country.” No, that was done under George W. Bush’s watch. Obama, as I’ve said before, was simply another Bush. He was another nail in the coffin of a nation that was already unfixable when he became President in 2009. If anything, Obama has accelerated the eventual collapse of the US.

Oh well.

In 2017 my plans to move out of the country ramp up into the next phase. I’ll keep you all posted.

Is it 2025 yet?

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14 Comments
  • Makeshift
    Posted at 06:33 am, 2nd January 2017

    ” His administration has run a half-trillion dollar deficit pretty much every year he’s been in office.”

    Doesn’t the talking point that he inherited it have some merit, or could he have been reasonably expected to cut it?

  • Dennis
    Posted at 10:24 am, 2nd January 2017

    Low interest rates have decimated pension plans and retirement plans. Many state and city pension plans will go bankrupt within 5 years. Look at Dallas now. The low income elderly can barely make ends meet. As the pension and retirement plans go bankrupt the spending from retirees will decrease substantially and our economy will nose dive

  • Steve
    Posted at 11:51 am, 2nd January 2017

    “Osama Bin Laden was killed on his watch, and you have to give Obama credit for that,”

    If you believe that. I don’t.

  • Caleb Jones
    Posted at 11:59 am, 2nd January 2017

    Doesn’t the talking point that he inherited it have some merit

    For his first few years, yes. For his entire run of eight years? No.

    Even the ARRA (stimulus) of 2009 murdered this for him, and that was his baby.

    could he have been reasonably expected to cut it?

    Yes, he could have been easily expected to cut it. I could have. He could have ended all the wars and brought all the troops home and instantly saved trillions over his eight year reign, and that’s just one example; I could give many others.

    Low interest rates have decimated pension plans and retirement plans. Many state and city pension plans will go bankrupt within 5 years.

    Correct. It’s the crisis very few people are talking about.

    If you believe that. I don’t.

    Government always lies, of course. With Osama being killed, I believe it’s more than 50% likely. For me to get that number way below 50%, someone would have to show me real evidence. I’ve seen lots of conjecture, but no evidence.

  • Kurt
    Posted at 04:16 pm, 2nd January 2017

    “He could have ended all the wars and brought all the troops home and instantly saved trillions over his eight year reign, ”

    HA! Tell me how that will ever be possible with the Military Industrial Complex firmly grasping the balls of every senator, congressman, governor and cabinet member? The wars will only grow. Our country is on an inevitable path to self-destruction through ever-increasing militarism.
    Eisenhower tried to warn us.

  • Paul Murray
    Posted at 05:43 pm, 2nd January 2017

    > The US is now at war with seven different countries.

    And despite your constitution clearly stating that the warmaking power lies with congress, not one formal declaration of war.

  • Paul Murray
    Posted at 05:53 pm, 2nd January 2017

    @Steve “If you believe that. I don’t.”

    The ol “Yeah, we dumped him in the sea.”. OBL was a Saudi connected to the ruling family. No way he’s dead. They just moved him to Argentina or something. Or quite possibly he’s right back at home, raping the servants.

  • Caleb Jones
    Posted at 08:07 pm, 2nd January 2017

    “He could have ended all the wars and brought all the troops home and instantly saved trillions over his eight year reign, ”

    HA! Tell me how that will ever be possible with the Military Industrial Complex firmly grasping the balls of every senator, congressman, governor and cabinet member?

    Obama is the fucking President. He could have done it if he really wanted to. Yeah, it would have been very hard, and he would have been extremely unpopular with the other elites had he done this. He probably would have even lost re-election. But he could have done it. He just didn’t want to.

    Trump doesn’t want to either.

    he wars will only grow. Our country is on an inevitable path to self-destruction through ever-increasing militarism.

    Correct. The USA is fucked. I’m outta here!

    Eisenhower tried to warn us.

    Eisenhower was part of the the very military industrial complex he was bitching about. He only tried to warn us AFTER he left government life and was done directly contributing to the problem. He can go suck a dick.

    And despite your constitution clearly stating that the warmaking power lies with congress, not one formal declaration of war.

    Correct. Politicians in my country have been pretty much ignoring the Constitution on that point ever since the 1950s, and the stupid voters keep voting for them anyway. That’s why I’ve said the next one (Constitution 2.0?) needs an enforcement clause.

  • Sean
    Posted at 10:18 am, 3rd January 2017

    Caleb, So, you don’t buy the conspiracy theory that the president is a figurehead for the elite and doesn’t matter at all?

  • Caleb Jones
    Posted at 10:27 am, 3rd January 2017

    Caleb, So, you don’t buy the conspiracy theory that the president is a figurehead for the elite and doesn’t matter at all?

    Of course he’s a figurehead, Obama in particular. But that doesn’t mean the President has no individual power. He still has massive power, particularly over military matters.

  • CrabRangoon
    Posted at 09:34 am, 4th January 2017

    I never understood this love affair people have with this guy. I ended up disliking Bush as well but this guy is just as bad. He continued many of Bush’s policies and just kept spending like money grows on trees. A quick glance at facebook and you see people are actually sad to see him go to a level I’ve never seen. I don’t think he’s the devil incarnate but he was a very lame president. ineffective across the board and just dug us an even deeper hole. I think a lot of white people feel it would be racist to say he sucked-it’s the world we live in now. All emotion based thinking.

  • Notme
    Posted at 11:54 am, 4th January 2017

    i believe your debt calculations are off. According to :

    https://treasurydirect.gov/NP/debt/current

    The debt has increased nearly 10 trillion dollars since obama was sworn in. It basically doubled on his watch

  • Caleb Jones
    Posted at 12:33 pm, 4th January 2017

    I never understood this love affair people have with this guy.

    He’s extremely likeable, charismatic, and cool. (He’s also black, which touches a soft spot for a lot of left-wingers.)

    It’s the classic case of people falling in love with a leader’s likeability rather than his actions. It happens all the time (sadly).

  • Ergeniz
    Posted at 11:24 am, 5th January 2017

    “It’s the classic case of people falling in love with a leader’s likeability rather than his actions. It happens all the time (sadly)”.

    *cough* Trump.

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