I am guessing as the election season starts in full season the Obama administration will start to gear up the slogans of “We inherited this”. They are not wrong in saying this. It is very true the President Obama inherited The United States at it’s worst in decades. Now the question that Republicans need to ask is, ” what have you done to get us out of it ?”
I remember like it was yesterday. Hearing Obama read speeches in front of thousands of cheering people. Preaching on change. Telling the American people we need to get out of Iraq, we need to become energy independent, we need to become united as a country, we need to put people back to work. Here we are going into the final year of the President’s first term in office and none of these have been accomplished. So I ask again….What has he done?
I give the President credit for two areas. Healthcare and Afghanistan. I give him credit for healthcare strictly because of the fact that he got this country debating instead of complaining. This administration was the first to actually take a step to solving this crisis in this country. Healthcare is an issue the previous administrations ignored and it has killed the middle and lower classes. I am in no way supporting “Obamacare” In fact I think it is not the best policy out there, But Obamacare has gotten us talking and actually searching for real answers to a real problem. For that Mr. President I give you credit. I also give him credit for switching the focus of the Afghan war to Pakistan. This led along with some policy passed by the previous administration into the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Not only did we get Bin Laden but we have killed more top ranking terrorists in the last year than we have in a while. Once again for that I give him credit.
Now that I have given him his credit I would like to point out his failures. The current administration had a majority for the first 2 years of Obama’s Presidency. Many thought his first 100 days in office would resemble that of FDR. This was far from the case. Instead of passing the bulk of his promised policy changes he really missed the opportunity to push his policy through. The frustration of the American people was shown when the Republicans won overwhelmingly in the mid elections. So where does this leave us? It leaves us more divided than ever before. No policy is getting done, budgets are not being passed, unemployment is rising, the stock market is falling, gas prices are going up, and the state of the country is in the exact same spot as we were when President Obama took office. We have not invested any money into alternative energy and instead gave billions of dollars of stimulus money to companies who have already blown it away on bonuses instead of creating jobs.
Now in the last month he has been on his “bus tour for jobs” or what I like to call, “the start of his campaign season”. He is bringing home the troops from Iraq knowing that this is what the majority of the American public wanted. Everything the current administration does from here on out is going to be a big re-election process. It seems as if both Democrats and Republicans agree that President Obama has been somewhat of a disappointment. You for certain can not say he has been a President of change. He has gone from the President of change to the President of status quo.
This election will be one of the most interesting. It resembles the election of 2004. The current administrations approval rating is falling fast and hard. But can the right provide a valid candidate that the party can rally around and get elected? Only time will tell.
Not Tea Party Republican 