If You Have Not Benefited from Two Years of The Obama

[MineralMan]

Administration in a direct way, what does that mean to you? Do any of the following options express your belief? There's an Other response, if none of them fit, so please respond that way and help us understand your thinking, if that's your answer. My vote will be "It Takes Longer..."

[Taitertots]

1. Other: Compared to what?

Compared to a McCain presidency and a Republican congress: YES

Isn't it like asking if you benefit when a drunk stops pissing on your shoe? Yeah we are better off with Obama, but we are still wearing Bush's piss shoes.

[MineralMan]

6. The poll question didn't really call for a yes or no answer.

I didn't ask if you had benefited. I asked that if you had not, what you think is the reason. I don't write yes or no polls, because politics is far too complicated.

[Skink]

2. he accomplished a lot getting the ball rolling on healthcare reform.

now with the cabinet shake up things might actually turn more progressive.

[HuckleB]

9. +1

[AndrewP]

3. It Takes Longer For Change in Difficult Economic Times N/T

[flvegan]

4. Depends on which way my mind spins it.

Fact is, nobody in my tiny inner circle has seen a benefit. It would be easy to say that it's a failure, or we were lied to. If I expand my scope and think about where we would be under a McFailin regime, I have to say we've all seen a benefit (you know the opening of The Terminator where they show the futuristic world as a war torn wasteland? that's how I envision us under them.) and things can only get better. Therefore, I can easily say that in those regards, this admin has been a success.

Or, I can simply say that I still have my job. I know my industry is picking up (a bit). I still have my house. I can't help but think that's somehow a benefit resulting from this admin. We were going downhill really damn fast.

I'm critical and I condemn, but I can see the positive and appreciate too.

[MineralMan]

5. Good answer. It's not a simple question, and there's no simple

answer. Thanks.

[blondeatlast]

23. +1; that's where I am on the question. nt

[glowing]

7. I know I had a tax break directly on my pay check (yes I'm lucky to have one)

However, it didn't seem like a big deal because I took a huge pay loss at the same time.. and it hasn't come back... so I need a new job or a part time job to help out the income loss.

The mortgage nightmare is still a nightmare. Perhaps President Obama has been bamboozled into thinking the economy is fixed, but the mortgage nightmare is still looming large.

The stimulus is starting to work (it does take time to develop projects and put people to work), however, we need more or what has been built will collapse in on itself. Worrying about Deficit right now because of the "future generation" is b.s., the pukes don't care about anyone but themselves. They want their tax break, use all of the USA resources, pollute wildly (Gulf), and scam the only source of money left (social security) away from retirees.

The biggest problem is obstruction.. but honestly, Reagan gave out the phone number to Congress.. Where is the President. Why isn't he using a bit of the bully pulpit? People like it when he talks and explains things... He needs to shame the pukes.. not hold their hand. AND it would help if he dumped his own toxic assets (sumner and geitner and duncan).

[MineralMan]

8. He's talking, but we're often not listening.

His Saturday addresses have been very informative, but even on DU, very few people bother to watch, listen, or read. When President Obama speaks, he has some very good things to say. We're just not listening a lot of the time, I think.

[glowing]

12. No one listens to those in a large enough market... You need to steal

Dancing with the morons time and blast away...

[One_Life_To_Give]

10. Overreached

Tried to do too much at the same time. People gave him 14-16 months to fix the economy. Much of the opposition is tied back to that fundamental issue.

[MineralMan]

14. Bush left us with a lot to do...too much to fix in less than two

years, I think. Maybe, by the end of President Obama's second term we'll have made significant progress in fixing all of Bush's disasters. I can't imagine how we'd do things any quicker than we have, given the sorry, delicate state of the economy when Obama took office. We were on the verge, I believe, of a complete collapse. Trying to do too much might have been as bad as doing nothing at all.

But, I'm not schooled enough on those complex issues to really know. I'm not sure that very many people are...maybe nobody, really.

[One_Life_To_Give]

24. Then first, last and only job should of been economy

Most people I know there concerns are all routed in economic uncertainty. Everything else is just noise. There were those of us who predicted a backlash if the economy wasn't fixed back before he set foot in office.

[MineralMan]

29. Well, I sort of tend to agree. However, there are many, many

areas where things are needed, and dissatisfaction among those whose needs haven't been met is a major thing. There are many social issues that need addressing, along with the economic situation. And, like that economic situation, the change is coming slowly. It can be very frustrating in the short term.

[BlueIris]

31. Yep. I love your avatar, by the way. nt

[Enrique]

11. other: we lost a huge opportunity

Obama had an incredible mandate, and he chose to let it fizzle out. We now have democrats, including Joe Biden, talking about extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

[jgraz]

34. Correction: we lost many huge opportunities

Single Payer

Real financial reform

Ending the wars

Investigating and prosecuting the Bush criminals

Crushing the Repukes for good


All lost, probably forever.

[treestar]

13. I think a combination of all, but mostly, we need more liberals in Congress

that is the bottom line. We have to work for it too, not just depend on the leaders and criticize them when it does not happen.

I have benefitted by knowing my country is no longer international pariah, with a tendency to attack other countries for self benefitting reasons, that there is no longer a worry about people letting fear inspire them to give up their rights, and that there is progress on a health care plan in spite of 25% of the population rabidly against helping anyone other than themselves. There is the benefit of knowing the executive branch will enforce the laws when it comes to regulation of businesses - to the best of its ability.

[MineralMan]

16. Thanks. I feel the same way, pretty much. I guess having lived

for 65 years makes it impossible for me to visualize quick fixes for desperate situations. I've certainly never seen them happen. Patience and endurance are difficult things to have. But, I think they're going to be the only things that make it possible to make the progress we need.

[walldude]

15. Things have not changed for me at all..

I may have saved a couple hundred bucks in taxes, and my bank can't overdraft me without my permission anymore but that's about it.

Things have probably stayed the same because I work in the entertainment industry and it's fairly recession proof. Also I rent and have no credit cards, no stocks, no investments and no 401k so I had very little to lose or gain. For once with the whole Wall Street thing it really paid to be poor and un-invested.

[MineralMan]

17. I get that. My wife and I are both writers, and have always

been self-employed. We're still in the same basic hole we've been in for three decades. We're pretty used to it, and we survive, but we're always hoping things will get better. We make it OK, but that's about it. What we need is a rich favorite uncle on his deathbed, but there's nothing like that in our future.

[walldude]

27. LOL.. yeah we could all use the rich uncle...

This is why I'm not flipping out over the election. In spite of all the hand wringing the world is not going to end if the Repugs retake a few seats or even win back Congress. We still have a Democratic President and enough votes to stall any crazy Republican legislation. Hell The Democrats could barely get anything done with majorities in all branches, what makes everyone think that if the Repugs take a few seats they are actually going to be able to do anything with them?

[NNN0LHI]

18. I have benefited a lot

Last warmonger administration was causing me to lose sleep over who they would bomb next. Been sleeping pretty well for a couple of years now. That is quite a benefit to me. I know President Obama has not extracted us from the two wars left to him, but I never thought he would either. Wish he had, but I never believed he would. I always thought that as long as people keep enlisting any president will keep sending them off to kill and be killed. This is why I was so much against invading Afghanistan and Iraq in the first place. Lot easier to get in than get out.

Don

[MineralMan]

20. "Lot easier to get in than get out."

Oh, yes! Lots easier. I'm sure we'll get out on President Obama's watch, but not overnight. That trick never works.

[DevonRex]

19. Other. I have benefited and I'm going to work harder to get more liberal reps in Congress.

[MineralMan]

22. Yep. In the long term, that's going to be the answer.

I hope we don't end up being set back too far next week.

[damntexdem]

21. I have benefitted. Not as much as anticipated, but benefitted.

The clearest way is continued health coverage for my son.

[blondeatlast]

25. Other; no direct benefits but as an Arizonan I can certainly appreciate the awful state we ALL

could be in under President McCain (pardon me while I throw up a little at the prospect).

That I'm not worse off than I could be is a benefit--but I'm a little frustrated with DADT and civil rights--since I don't directly benefit from either, it's easier for me to overlook those issues and see the big picture.

I don't begrudge people their legitimate frustrations on those issues, though, not at all.

[supernova]

26. "It Takes Longer.."

I will amend that to say "It Takes Longer to make systemic changes than you think it will." Economic troubles can work for or against change depending on the topic. For instance, if if the economy had been swimming along in the 30s, would we have passed SS? Lot of room for debate there, IMO.

We want to not just make cosmetic shifts in appearances to the way our government functions. We want to shift the whole paradigm. That takes a long time. Decades. Even the act of doing it.

The 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. That's a long way from the first Womens' Rights Convention at Senaca Falls, NY in 1848.

There was a Civil Rights Act of 1875 for African Americans that was passed then, but the SCOTUS declared unconstitutional at the time. Of course it finally passed in the form of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

We want to change perspectives and government modes of operating: Universal Healthcare, Free or nearly free college education, Chop down the size of the DOD and by extension the MIC. Equality for GLBTIQ and whoever else might be out there that isn't even on our radar right now.

We will get there, but it takes time. The hardest thing to acknowledge is that, sadly, some of us won't see the benefits of that change in our lifetimes. But our country and future citizens will be better off for what we did in the here and now.

edit: In addition, reading again what I just wrote, there have been a lot of smaller laws passed to beef up the landmark laws and amendments. I don't think there will ever be a time when you can say "Finished. We (liberals) won." We as a country are always a work in progress.

[MineralMan]

28. Thanks for a very thoughtful answer. I agree with you on pretty

much everything you wrote. I know I won't live to see all the changes I've been working for all my adult life. Some, however, are already in place. There's still a lot to do, though.

[supernova]

30. Agreed.

There is still a lot of work to do. :thumbsup:

It's one of the primary things that gets me out of bed and my blood pumping in the morning. :D There's a funny page on FB right now that we can "Like" called Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning the Devil says, "oh crap she's up!"

[xiamiam]

33. there is a crisis..people are losing their homes..there are solutions..he just wont do it

and that includes the bankruptcy bill which protected peoples homes and was in effect until 2005..when this coup began unfolding..that one move would have created stability..and the long term systemic changes would have been more appreciated

[pintobean]

32. Failure because of jobs

The house was on fire and they decided to cut the grass.

[depakid]

35. Commitment to real change per the poll question would have been seen at the administrative agencies

because they're not beholden to the daily whims of Congress in the exercise of the discretion delegated to them.

They are however beholden to, their policy leaders appointed by and capable of being held to account by the executive.

Some of the alphabet agencies (and their subagencies and managers) are more directly accountable than others depending on a number of factors.

That said, the executive wields an extremely strong influence over the direction of policy (and ethics) -Congress for various reasons does not.

[political_Dem]

36. What do you do with a country that treats Bush better in office than Mr. Obama?

Therein lies part of the answer.