What is the issue that MOST needs attention once Barack Obama is President?

[The Doctor.]

There's been some discussion lately about what kind of priorities Obama should set once in office.

Obviously, these are all very important; so after marking what is most imperative, please discuss what order you might like to see each of these subsequently dealt with and even perhaps how or why.

{on edit}- Yeah, Health care should be on here. I could have replaced something on the list with it. So, just say 'health care' as "other" because I don't want to remove any of these other very important issues.

Thanks.

[DB1]

1. Retraction of the Bush Doctrine.

[The Doctor.]

5. Well, that actually covers a few of those.

I'd say eliminate torture first to make it clear we're the good guys again and re-establish our moral standing.

Then end the war in Iraq, balance the budget, tackle energy, and the rest with great deliberation or expedience wherever realistic.

[DB1]

17. Most can be completed or initiated in the first 100 days of recovering our great society.

[Massacure]

2. I voted eliminating rendition and torture.

But that's an easy thing to do, it only takes Barack by himself to issue an order. Balancing the budget would be the hard thing even with dems in control of Congress.

[ColbertWatcher]

3. I didn't see health care in there. n/t

[FlyingSquirrel]

4. Health Care?

Although restoration of the Constitution ranks above this, I'll admit. But Health Care should be listed

[The Doctor.]

6. I just didn't have enough spaces in the poll.

So I put 'other'.

But I agree that Health Care could have taken the place of something else.

[OmahaBlueDog]

20. How about making health care a constitutional right?

..just saying

[DrZeeLit]

69. How about making Education a constitutional right?

I'm just saying... education should be... we've been dealing with that a long long time.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. Restoring the Constitution

which would take care of the concern about prisoners, I believe.

[magellan]

41. Yes, that should take precedence

It would fix a LOT of what's been broken.

[blm]

61. That and OPENING GOVERNMENT to the people will end up benefiting every other issue.

The citizens need to KNOW what has been going on so no manipulators of our historic record can get away with their illegal operations done in our name.

That will also assure that citizens are informed when they do their duty and vote, too.

[Raksha]

68. That was my choice too: "Other," restoring the Constitution.

Restoring the right of habeas corpus, posse comitatus, and eliminating "free speech zones" at rallies, demonstrations and other public gatherings. Restoring the Bill of Rights!!!

[Blue_Tires]

8. Iraq, then the environment

[chatnoir]

13. Same here

[stuntcat]

25. yup

.

[Ohio Joe]

9. wow

How does one even pick... If someone had told me 8 years ago that this country could have become this messed up this quickly, I would have laughed at them. Honestly, I would have.

[The Doctor.]

10. Same here.

What's frightening is that most of the poor fools that still defend all this bullshit wouldn't have believed it either.

It's just mind-numbing.

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. kick for more voting

[The Doctor.]

15. Then rec it too.

Just call me curious.

[Liberal_in_LA]

29. done.

[saltpoint]

12. I think an apology to our veterans on the first full day of office is

in order, to be accompanied by expanded services for health, education, and housing for veterans and their families, and dedicated new facilities around the country to provide care and support.

Next, it would be great to have a President Obama convene an international summit in the United States, warmly inviting nations of the world, including the ones George W. Bush has lied to, or dismissed, over the last 8 years. The theme of this conference would be something along the lines of endurable commonalities shared among the cultures of the world and would stand as an emphatic gesture that this new American president can use the community-building skills he learned in Chicago for global cooperation and mutual respect as well.

I think President Obama should appoint Bill and Hillary Clinton to be U.S. Ambassadors to the Gulf Coast states with a view toward rehauling engineering there in vulnerable communities and with the power to rehaul FEMA closer to the Carter model and far, far away from the Bush model.

And I'd like to see a vigorous pre-Inaugural search for the most brainy, willful, progressive judicial appointments ever assembled onto one list, and then use that list for judicial appointments for the next 8 years and beyond. A President Obama will appoint a least 2 Chief Justices, IMO, in the first year of his term, possibly 3.

[Thothmes]

46. He will not appoint to Chief Justices

There is already a Chief Justice on the Supreme Court. He will get the opportunity to fill to vacancies on the bench. Most probably Stevens and Ginsburg due to their age.

[saltpoint]

53. Good catch. You're right.

[The Doctor.]

73. What would suck is not having a filibuster-proof majority.

We really do need to put more civil-rights minded (IOW; 'human') judges in the SC. I know that Obama will pick the best.

[stillcool]

14. Iraq

[done_left_austin]

16. Bring 'em home! (n/t)

[TxBlue]

18. End Torture AND Fix the Economy

The torture and them burning the Constitution and all, of course, needs to be fixed first. How so many could be so spiritually blind to allow torture, is beyond me, so I voted for that one.

NEXT, the economy needs work. Obama is pretty sharp, so I'm confident he'll be able to work on both of them pretty quick.

[fortyfeetunder]

34. I agree with you on this

The pocketbook issue is what is on most folks minds. The economics are so screwed it's pathetic.
Fix the economy, get us out of this deficit spending...

[BlooInBloo]

19. Torture first - it's the best combo of quick and important.

[qwlauren35]

21. Stimulating the Economy.

It's not that I don't want all of those other things. But he will be a VERY UNPOPULAR president if he can't relieve some of the economic distress that Americans are feeling right now.

My pet peeve is that we need to reverse our international standing. However, I think this will start to happen as soon as he gets elected. (Which we MUST do. No ifs, ands or buts.) Therefore, his choice of Secretary of State will signal the attachment he places on this. I wonder if Richardson would take this role? Hmmm...

My personal opinion is that repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell could be done in a day by Executive Order. The ripple effect to ensure that it's enforced is a different matter, but to me it's easy to do, so I can't prioritize it. Same with Guantanemo Bay torture. Then again, since it's "so easy", I guess he should take care of these two by the end of January. Oddly enough, these both seem to be functions of his power of Commander in Chief, so I guess the first thing I truly want to see is who he picks for Secretary of Defense. Clark???

Health care will be VERY difficult. So, while I want him to address it, I'm not expecting a quick fix. Maybe this needs a special task force led by Senator Clinton.

Whether we like it or not, Obama's first task is to establish his Cabinet. I would be THRILLED if he had most members picked out on Day One, and even more thrilled if every selection sailed through. I think that would demonstrate whether he's going to get Congressional Cooperation, and it will further reveal his judgment and character.

January - April of 2009 will be very interesting months - those first 100 days are such an amazing time.

[RB TexLa]

22. World poverty, reduction of world economic imbalance

[kitp]

23. election reform

i believe the liberal / conservative split is about 80 / 20 right now and has not been closer than 60 / 40 since ronnie's first "win". elections are stolen. until that is fixed, we'll never get out from under the fascists.

[stuntcat]

24. energy

so that we'll have more of a future in which to enjoy all the other great changes :)

[behave]

26. Bringing back the troops and terminating the war.

[leftofthedial]

27. holding the criminals of the past thirty years accountable

otherwise, they'll continue undermining our country and things will never get better.

[The Doctor.]

63. Amen to that. n/t

[behave]

28. & recommended.

[patomime]

30. Affordable health care

for 50 million Americans.

[Nictuku]

31. Transparency in Government

We need some sunshine to disinfect and end the corruption. This should improve all other issues.

[Omnibus]

32. Fairness Doctrine

Once we make it harder for the corporate publican spin machine to spew its bile indescriminately and brainwash everyone, we'll see less misguided stupidity in America.

[lonestarnot]

33. He's going to have to juggle a bunch of balls at once! Right away!

Hit the ground not just running, but on the sprint paced marathon of our lives! Hit it!

[WheelWalker]

35. Indictments, people....INDICTMENTS!

[Usrename]

39. Yep! Justice.

That should be first.

[dgibby]

36. restore the Constitution, Rule of Law, then

eliminate DHS, clean out the Justice Dept, for starters

[intheflow]

37. I'll bet he could bring the troops home and

abolish prisoner abuse with a single pen stroke. So I'm voting for both the "Bringing the troops home from Iraq" and "Eliminating the practices of rendition, torture, and denial of rights to prisoners." Good poll! :thumbsup:

[glinda]

38. I couldn't answer

because I see that to get Health Care, the war must stop, the economy-deficit must be addressed and a green economy must all come at one time.

[Truth2Tell]

40. Troops home

not just from Iraq but from all around the globe. Unwind the the global Empire and wean our economy and popular culture from endless reliance on suicidal militarism. The death of the Constitution is a predictable consequence of our bi-partisan culture of war-mongering.

I won't be holding my breath.

[LaPera]

42. Tax the rich & corporations make them pay their fair share for their.....

imperialism, use of our infrastructure and use of our military for profit that our taxes pay for....reverse Bush's first act as president, tax cuts for the rich & corporations and tax fairly for everyone making over 250K per year....I wouldn't mind it, if I was making over a quarter million dollars a year.

[jimlup]

43. From my prespective, it is too close to think about this right now

I'm from Michigan so that might influence my view here but I'm holding my breath and working like crazy. Every other political thread is out of mind. The day Barack is elected I will become a political opponent but right now WE MUST GET HIM THERE!

[The Doctor.]

45. I don't blame you.

It's all so damn important, and each piece is part of fixing another.

It's just not easy to pick one.

I'll put you down for; "Get him elected uber alles".

[OakCliffDem]

44. New Energy solutions top my list

I would attribute well over 50% of our current economic problems to petroleum based energy supplies. The privileged wealthy class of people have exploited their control of the petroleum industry into controlling the media and the government. Is it any surprise most of the people in the energy industry are Republican.

We need a way to diversity energy production away from point sources like refineries and coal fired power plants, and move it to the back yard with wind and solar.

If we can take away the concentration of economic and political power from the 'few' and give it back to the 'many', we will all be better off.

[Orsino]

47. Marriage equality.

Not because it's the most important issue out there, but because if Obama has the courage to take that stance, there's nothing else he won't do for us.

[OneBlueSky]

48. Other . . . there's too much of a mess to break it down and address one issue first . . .

Obama, should he be elected, will have to be something of a miracle worker along the lines of FDR, only better . . . he has to stop a wasteful and illegal war; he has to bring some stability to the economy; he has to address global warming and other environmental problems; he has to find a way to make American schools work; he has to revamp the U.S. healthcare system; and on, and on, and on . . . none of these issues are of the "wait until later" variety . . . all are crucial and, to some extent, interconnected e.g. what we do about the war and about healthcare directly impact the economic health of the nation . . .

Obama is going to have to pull together "the best and the brightest" and come up with ways to restructure many of the nation's critical systems in very short order . . . whether that is even possible, and whether he has it in him to do so successfully, will largely define the success (or lack thereof) of his presidency . . .

[varun]

49. Fix education

Public education system needs an overhaul

[OhioChick]

50. Unemployment/Jobs

People are losing everything. They need jobs, NOW.

[mmonk]

51. Freedom must come first and is what all other proposals should emanate from.

Restore all of the Constitution immediately and have a truth and reconciliation commission complete with news conferences. This will not interfere with addressing any of the other issues.

[Bluenorthwest]

52. Restoration

of the Constitution. That covers almost all of the other ones, including the equality issues.

[slackmaster]

54. Energy.

It's the root of most of our big problems.

[boomerbust]

55. Put AWOL in jail.

< GO PACK

[Romulox]

Turn on CNN. Our economy is collapsing, and the Feds are spending up to $ 1 trillion of our money.

A little focus, people? :hi:

[bvar22]

62. Its not "your" money.

The Republicans are spending your children's money.

Your money is still being used to pay off Reagan's deficit.

[W_HAMILTON]

56. Healthcare.

I'm tired of worrying about my hours getting cut and possibly losing my healthcare, and I'm tired of worrying about my friends and family members that do not have access to healthcare.

[lame54]

57. Arrest Bush & Cheney

[Name removed]

58. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Taliesan]

59. Energy

It's the root issue of the other ones on the list.

[Aloha Spirit]

60. Fixing whatever last-minute screw-up Bush will inevitably inflict on us.

[Marr]

64. Regulation of both the financial and media markets-- simultaneously.

They're part of the same problem.

[harun]

65. Other: HEALTH CARE (n/t)

[Stinky The Clown]

66. Other: The Media

Job One.

[TahitiNut]

67. Other: Prosecution of War Crimes and Crimes against the Constitution.

While I doubt it'll happen, the FAILURE to do so makes EVERY other problem a LEGACY ... to be repeated in the near future and even worse.

The failure to do so is a failure of deterrence ... assent by silence in establishing a precedent.

[WA98296]

70. Clean up vote counting, diversify the Media through reform, campaign finance reform

[WA98296]

71. AND...Make sure Corporations ARE NOT considered persons any longer.

[The Doctor.]

72. Wow, lots of great answers.

It's just not something that's easy to put a priority on. There are so many things that never should have happened, yet here we are.

I must say, it just plain sucks that somethings like equal rights that should be front and center by now are taking a back seat to the nightmares we have to deal with.

[laststeamtrain]

74. Other: Complete, total, scalp taking revenge against the far right...

that's been masquerading as the mere right for the last 30 years.

No mercy.

[BlueIris]

75. Other: illegal activities of the corporate media. Not sure what a president can do directly

to fix that, but he should try to do what he can.

[The Doctor.]

76. We need SO much done to fix this slide into Fascism.

I'm thinking it'll take damn near a miracle at this point, these fuckers have everything locked down.

They even have nearly half the nation convinced that nearly half the nation is their enemy, and listening to us would be 'weakness'.