Obama Administration: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, The Questionable

While the first 100 days are given high scrutiny, we are now almost 6 months into the new administration and can take a more accurate stock of what President Obama is like compared to Candidate Obama. Of the people I keep up with who are similar in political views to me, almost all either give President Obama a blind pass to do whatever he sees fit, or seem to think he is as bad as Bush. I tend to see a lot more gray.

I will start with the good things I think he has done so far, then move into the bad. Within the things I dislike about the Obama Administration are two categories which I will not make explicit: bad decisions on his part, and things he has chosen not to lead on. President Obama has a potential for huge political capital, even on issues that the Democratic leadership wants to drag their feet on. He has been unnecessarily frugal so far.

THE GOOD

#Unilaterally deciding to close Guantanamo Prison -- The prison there was designed to exist outside the US Constitution, and outside basic military and international law. If Bush had been successful in sending humans to Mars, he probably would have sent half of all Afghanis there. Everything about this program, and the rendition program, was wrong and illegal. More on this in the questionable section.

#Stimulus Package -- For the US Congress, this was a pretty decent bill. Money for environmental and infrastructure jobs is always a good thing. Didn't go nearly far enough (I'm thinking FDR here), but it was a good start.

#Talking to other countries -- Seeing a president talk to Venezuela, Iran and Russia is a breath of fresh air.

#Style -- I realize rhetoric and style don't amount to much in a cynical world, but it is so nice to watch a President who can think and speak clearly, and who at least believes in a little bit of transparency.

#Putting religion a smidge back into the private sector -- We don't need fighter jets at events that mix religion and government, we don't need to watch our president pray for an entire day, and we don't need to know what church the president endorses. John Adams was about the most religious founding father, and even he was a bigger secularist than President Obama. Everyone chill out.

#Putting the brakes on the drug war -- The drug war is one of the most racist, inhumane and wastes of money in America of the last 30 years. Quietly scaling it down is huge.

THE BAD

#Recent Signing Statement -- OK every president issues signing statements, but Bush took them to a new level and President Obama just continued his practice. President Obama issued a statement saying he would ignore an explicit portion of recent legislation saying he had to report on and keep the World Bank and IMF accountable for their actions. This is as mild as it gets. The World Bank and the IMF should be destroyed, or not be funded. The congress approved more money for them, and President Obama doesn't even want to follow some lame attachments to the funding. Thankfully, Congress just rebuked the signing statement.

#Iraq -- Timetable is good, and following the first troop removal deadline is good. Unfortunately, he has left the door wide open to not follow the timetable. This is the single biggest issue that has put the Democrats in power. Bring the troops home, no waffling!

#Wall Street bail outs -- If they are too big to fail, break them up! These people are crooks, stop giving them money.

#Don't Ask Don't Tell -- If you can close Guantanamo Mr. President, you can end Don't Ask Don't Tell. Commander in Chief is not a metaphor. At least stop the discharges. This is one campaign promise you completely lied about.

THE UGLY

#Larry Summers and Tim Geithner -- You didn't have to appoint Bernie Sanders, but come on. These guys were, are, and will be intimately involved in destroying the economic lives of millions of Americans. What in the world were you thinking?!

#No Bush Administration accountability -- There is a short memory here in the United States of Amnesia, but that does not excuse giving a free pass to any future president who wants to suspend the Constitution and commit war crimes. You don't even have to direct any of it, this is the job of the Justice Department, which you can direct or not direct. Lying to start a war, starting a war against a country that did not attack us, suspending habeas corpus, illegal signing statements, torture; these are not insignificant. This is what our republic has come to accept.

#Health Care -- President Obama appears to have completely caved on public health care. The majority of Americans support it, show some leadership! We are spending twice what any other industrialized country spends on health care, and we still have thousands of Americans dying who don't have to, and a million going into debt each year from this issue. You can push a good bill at least to a vote. There are at least enough votes to end a filibuster.

#Corporate bonuses -- This is the scandal that never ends. AIG is about to hand millions more out in bonuses. Either get our money back, or put a 100% tax on the bonuses. It's that simple.

#Foreclosures -- You need to put people back in their homes, and keep them there. Figure it out.

#Afghanistan/Pakistan -- The escalation in this part of the world is nothing short of disturbing. We are slaughtering dozens of people there every week without so much as a mention in the MSM. We are doing so with drones that bomb first, ask questions later. Every strike has almost exclusively killed civilians. The path toward a stable Afghanistan is simple: stop supplying the Northern Alliance, build infrastructure, pay afghanis to do whatever they are doing (ie, don't let the Northern Alliance or the Taliban give people jobs). They don't need more Marines there. They need more dignity.

THE QUESTIONABLE

#Israel -- This is definitely leaning toward the bad, but I'm willing to see if President Obama has something up his sleeve.

#Iran -- Willing to talk is good. It does not appear that he is meddling in the political uprising there which is good. Way too early to know what will happen here.

#Latin America -- Questions remain on how he will handle the drug violence in Mexico, how he will handle the coup in Honduras, and how he will handle economic independence in South America.

#"Enemy Combatants" -- Will President Obama release Guantanamo inmates after their trials? This could turn out terribly. The vast majority of these inmates were given over to the military for bribes with zero evidence against them. Supposedly the worst person we were keeping there was Osama's driver. We need to free most of these people and give them a huge apology.

#AIDS policy -- President Obama is dragging his feet and waffling here. Will he end the ban on needle exchange programs? Will he fully fund secular AIDS programs in Africa?

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At the end of the day, every president sucks. We can't rely on President Obama to turn this country around. Only we can do that. But he sure ain't Bush either.