I am really tired of people speaking about the President as if he's stupid

[Empowerer]

I have quite enough of folks - pundits, politicians and even some people right here on DU - talking about the President as if he's a naive idiot who doesn't "understand" politics, economics, gamesmanship, the world, etc.

You know what I'm talking about:

A few examples:

"The President doesn't understand what things will be like if we don't overthrow Gadhafi" - John McCain

"The President doesn’t understand how jobs are created or he doesn’t want to accept how jobs are created.” - Marco Rubio

"{President Obama's} inexperienced. He has a total inability to understand military matters." - Gore Vidal

"The problem is the President doesn’t understand that a growth agenda is not a government program." - Eric Cantor

Excuse me?

President Obama is not only a naturally brilliant and highly educated man, he also has demonstrated an ability to grasp, synthesize and address enormously complex and difficult topics. Yet far too many people continue to discuss him like he's a empty-headed fool who just stumbled into the room and doesn't have a clue what's going on - and needs to have it explained to him by people who don't have one-tenth of the intelligence, experience, and depth and breadth of information President Obama has.

It's certainly reasonable to disagree at times with his perspective and/or approach. But insisting that anything he does that we don't agree with is based upon the President's supposed ignorance - while WE are SO much smarter and better equipped, not only to make better decisions than he makes, but to lecture him about how dumb he is and then instruct him on how he SHOULD do his job- is breathtakingly arrogant.

I am sick and tired of this brilliant and dignified man being talked about and treated like he's a head-scratching pickaninny who doesn't have the sense he was born with - by folks who likely have never had to deal with anything close to what he must grapple with, have probably never run anything in their lives or had to make a decision any weightier than figuring out what color their campaign bumper sticker should be, if they should have white or red with their lobster or whether to do their blogging on a Mac or Windows platform, yet feel perfectly entitled to sneer down at the President of the United States.

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. I don't question his intelligence, his approach or his perspective. I question his principles. n/t

[KittyWampus]

7. Ideologues seldom get things done in the face of opposition unless they're the ones owning

the media.

[stuckinarut]

14. But in the face of such an opponent,

isn't one justified in standing stalwart for their moral principles, even if their party leaves them in the process?

Some of us are not so easily led, or eager to pick the lesser of two evils.

[Time for change]

91. There are very few of us who want Obama to be an idealogue

We just want him to make the lower 99% (on the wealth scale) of the American people a priority over the wealthy interests who fund his campaigns. Is that asking for too much?

[OwnedByFerrets]

29. +1

[Sheepshank]

79. Personal ideologies are problematic.....

in a dictatorship regime.

It appears that is exactly what so many here on DU would prefer to see from the presindent. One man, one decision. It makes me sick.

[lumberjack_jeff]

95. What are you talking about?

One of the principles I wish he'd embody is the principle that secret prisons, torture and war are bad, and that habeas corpus, transparency and disclosure are not.

Hardly the stuff of a dictatorship.

[Hawkowl]

105. Indeed

I wish he was stupid and clumsy, then he would have a much more difficult time betraying his own party.

[Deep13]

2. Sorry, but four years in the Senate, pretty much the whole time running for president...

...as his only Federal experience makes him an idiot when dealing with Congress. But that's not the worst part. He has no backbone. He still thinks this whole thing is a scholarly discussion among reasonable people and not a poker game with an enemy out to destroy him and us.

[Empowerer]

4. Fortunately, the "idiot" has YOU to tell him what he needs to know and do

For which I'm sure he is exceedingly grateful, given what I am sure is your vast and deep experience dealing with Congress and your superior knowledge of the threats we face . . .

Thank you for helping to make my point.

[immoderate]

13. It's poker, and either he doesn't know the game, or he's selling out the people who staked him.

--imm

[Empowerer]

15. So he's either stupid or he's corrupt?

Or maybe he just using the approach he's determined to be the best course of action under the circumstances based upon what he knows and understands - which, I daresay, is likely considerably more than you (or me or anyone else here) does.

[immoderate]

16. Best for whom?

He might know things I don't. That doesn't mean he's a better person.

On the other hand, he might be more interested in covering his ass than I might be in the same position. Who can say? :shrug:

--imm

[polmaven]

72. Best for the people who will be affected

most by adverse outcomes of holding firm for the sake of his ego, or for the sake of the far left's opinions. An example is the number of people who would have been greatly harmed by a decison to not compromise on the W tax cuts. He understood that the Republicans were not going to allow extensions if he did not compromise. Is that a hostage like situation? Yes. But sometimes hard decisions must be made. I, personally, think he made the right one.

[immoderate]

76. And I think he played his hand poorly.

You think it's about "far left's opinions?" and ego tripping?

How about policies that don't lead to the collapse of the republic? :shrug:

[Deep13]

88. So, stupid then. nt

[Fire1]

25. LOL!!! n/t

[Deep13]

87. I'm not a surgeon, but I can tell if he cut off the wrong leg.

I do not need to be a doctor to have an opinion of the job the doctor is doing treating me. You're changing the subject with an ad hominem attack. I wasn't elected to the presidency based on a promise of doing things differently. Obama was. Maybe that other poster is right. Maybe he's not incompetent, just corrupt. His public actions create the strong impression of a basic misunderstanding of human nature.

So since I am not the president, apparently I am unqualified to criticize him. Well, you're not the president either, so what is your basis for concluding he is doing well? Hell, how can anyone be critical of Bush when none of us have the experience in Federal office to offer qualified criticism. Sorry, but in a democracy, part of the leader's job is to make himself understood. I think Obama has done that, both intentionally and unintentionally, and my conclusion is based on it.

[KittyWampus]

9. He got Health Care Reform started. For that alone, he's shown excellence.

[Deep13]

89. Do you really want to hitch your wagon to that horse?

There was no health care reform. What we got is exceedingly modest insurance regulation, most of which will not be effective until after Obama loses the next election and Congress repeals it. The insurance reform act is more modest than what Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich proposed in the 1990s as an alternative to Clinton's efforts to establish a national health care system.

[Tx4obama]

30. Sorry to tell you but you are wrong.

Obama did not spend the majority of his time as U.S. Senator running for president.

And you really shouldn't dismiss his eight years as a state senator, much is learned whether your at the state or federal level.

[okieinpain]

45. if he had no backbone, he wouldn't propose things that he

knows is going to bring the hecklers. yet he goes against the grain every time to get the job done. yet you say he has no back bone, interesting.

[JAbuchan08]

70. You think it takes bravery to defy the hoi-paloi from behind the presidential podium? n/t

[Name removed]

80. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BeFree]

3. They project

They are, in comparison, the stupidos.

Rest assured Obama is not bothered by the stupidos calling him names.

As for the rest of us, if we don't take back the way our votes are counted, we ARE the stupidos.

[GoCubsGo]

5. It makes me sad to see Gore Vidal listed with those vermin.

I expect that kind of shit from the others, but it disappoints me to see Vidal spouting the right-wing "He's inexperienced" meme. He sounds like the damn trolls on HuffPoo. I'm sick of it, too.

[Empowerer]

6. That's why I quoted him . . .

This arrogant self-assured sense of intellectual and political superiority over the President is not limited to the right wing. This phenomenon is very prevalent right within our own ranks.

[Number23]

8. TELL IT, sista!!

I am sick and tired of this brilliant and dignified man being talked about and treated like he's a head-scratching pickaninny who doesn't have the sense he was born with - by folks who likely have never had to deal with anything close to what he must grapple with, have probably never run anything in their lives or had to make a decision any weightier than figuring out what color their campaign bumper sticker should be

I just got the SHIVERS reading that.

Here's my personal favorite:

"Why doesn't Obama understand that the Repubs are not his friends? Why does he keep communicating with/reaching out to them?"

Ummm... because he HAS to? Repubs/conservatives make up how much of this country? What... is he just supposed to pretend these folks don't exist? As much as I may wish he didn't have to acknowledge these folks, the fact of the matter is that HE HAS TO. And people who try to pretend that Obama should just ignore the 40+% of Americans who identify as conservative show how utterly stupid and naive THEY are, not the president.

[Ozymanithrax]

10. Actually, he has aids whose job is to know and deal with Congress...

One former aid is now mayor Chicago, a man who had years of hard assed experience in the House. Biden has years in the Senate and knows how it works.

Talking about him as if he is this lone brilliant messiah that must do everything is a bit inaccurate.

I have a problem with his leadership style.

I think a lot of people felt we were electing a liberal/progressive warrior who would be an anti-Bush. Obama doesn't do the Texas swagger. He gets groups of people together and tries to work out a deal between them that they will vote for. His positions are all negotiable.

[rury]

11. They resent a black man being more intelligent than they are

So they question his intelligence publicly in order to create doubts among the public about his intellect.
They are acting SUPERIOR to the degree that they feel INFERIOR!!

[Fire1]

22. That's apparent on this board, as well. n/t

[Bobbie Jo]

84. +1

[treestar]

59. +1000000

It causes me to :rofl: that Gore Vidal thinks he could do a better job.

that's the hallmark of the egomaniac. No matter how limited or non-existent their own success, they are sure they know it all. Just don't ask them why they aren't President. And that it would have been easier for them than a black man to accomplish.

[solara]

12. Hear! Hear!

:applause:

[EffieBlack]

17. Wow! Who'd unrec not liking the President being called stupid?

You really jabbed a nerve, little sister!

Nicely done, as usual. :-)

[Pisces]

39. Who indeed, too bad they don't allow you to see the author of the unrecs. Many on this board have

ulterior motives. Suppressing voter turnout is a high stakes game. Divide and conquer and basic strategy of war. Repukes view the politics as war have no doubt.

[Fire1]

18. You said it with much more tact than I ever could. K&R

[girl gone mad]

19. Either he does not understand economics, or he is choosing to allow unnecessary hardship...

to befall the American people, for reasons personal or political.

It's that simple, in my honest view.

Even bright people are capable of behaving foolishly and selfishly.

[EffieBlack]

40. So, he's either stupid or mean-spirited

Of course, he could just have a different view than you do about how best to do his job based upon the information, experience, knowledge, perspective and advice he has.

Oh, wait a minute - you don't agree with him and since you apparently know much better than he ever could how he should go about handling things, his failure to do what YOU think he should do means that he is either stupid or hateful, nothing else ...

[ClarkUSA]

20. Amen, sister!

:applause:

[Palmer Eldritch]

21. It's easier to mock the man than discuss his policies logically.

[tomp]

55. that's totally disingenuous.

many people here are providing strong arguments against his ideas and actions.

you wrongfully assert that they are illogical merely because they disagree with you and attack your beloved figurehead, while the nation slides helplessly down.

[Logical]

23. I don't think he is stupid, I think he is gullible as hell! He....

trusted the GOP way too much and also tries to compromise too much.

He is not the fighter I thought he would be. Too worried about what the GOP thinks of him.

[Empowerer]

38. "Too worried about what the GOP thinks of him."

And you know that he feels this way how?

[Bluenorthwest]

24. You know, Gore Vidal is an elder of great standing. He is 85

years old, one of our country's most learned political voices, a great writer, and a Democrat of the most sterling kind. One assumes those who are are extreme elders and extreme great thinkers see most 70 year olds as inexperienced. I doubt that the President would take offense at criticism from Vidal, especially as in Obama's case it has come with much praise as well. I personally think there is great merit to the idea that very accomplished people who are twice one's age might be, at the very least, one's peer, and by all rights should be given all the respect possible.
Here is Mr Vidal on Bushco. For a tad of perspective.:
"I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I'm a conspiracy analyst. Everything the Bushites touch is screwed up. They could never have pulled off 9/11, even if they wanted to. Even if they longed to. They could step aside, though, or just go out to lunch while these terrible things were happening to the nation. I believe that of them."

And here he is on the American people hearing Obama after years of Bush:
"What happened was that for the first time the American people, our people. We're listening on primetime to a president of the United States, duly elected, officially anyway, duly elected president who is speaking as one intelligent, well-educated man to his fellows. Well, they never heard anyone like that."
He has said, in fact, that he thinks Obama is in some ways 'too smart for America'.

The rest of the people on your list are hateful Republicans. To list a thoughtful and distinguished Democratic elder with them, with a tiny sound bite tailored, is really not the way my Momma taught me to treat those who have been commenting on Presidencies since the Coolidge administration, particularly not those on our own side.

[Fire1]

26. Really? n/t

[Empowerer]

32. "The rest of the people on your list are hateful Republicans"-except the DU poster whom I also

quoted . . .

Apparently, you missed my point that this attitude toward the President spans across different sectors - it is not limited to right wing Republicans. Mentioning Gore Vidal as an example of this is not a smear of the man - it's just stating a plain fact.

[Tarheel_Dem]

27. Ditto!

:kick:

[Bluenorthwest]

28. If you will, please, take a look at this clip from the Joy Behar

Show. Gore Vidal on Obama's intelligence and also on his desire to murder GW Bush. Take a look. Or read the article about the clip, or both. If you like Obama, and despise Bush, it is worth the time.
Peace
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2009/10/23/gore-vidal-obama-too-intelligent-america-vidal-adds-he-wanted-murder-bush

[Tx4obama]

31. K & R. n/t

:kick:

[TheKentuckian]

33. I don't think he is stupid. That's what scares me. The options after stupid don't inspire confidence

[CoffeeCat]

83. What a great point...

Obama is incredibly intelligent. Book smart, as well as wise. He's not stupid.

So where does that leave us? He's either being strongarmed by corporate interests
that are so powerful--that he is politically impotent. OR, he's on their side.

Seriously, we're screwed no matter what goes on behind the scenes--And because Obama
is a smart man he has an obligation to this citizens of this country to break the
back of the corporate corruption that is suffocating our democracy.

[CakeGrrl]

34. Thank you.

It's nothing more than condescension to try to belittle him.

That only reflects on the small character stature of the people who do it.

[Empowerer]

35. Unfortunately, I think it's more than that . . .

[digidigido]

36. It's not that he's stupid, he's not. But he did the worst thing

that you can do. He promised hope and change, and failed to deliver change. And he did not fight for change. he made politically expedient decisions.
THAT IS NOT CHANGE. The result is immense disappointment. He took the hope and excitement of a once in a generation chance for change and
pissed on it

[Empowerer]

37. I respect your perspective, but your point is not responsive to my OP

I wasn't writing about people who are disappointed in him or disagree with him. I'm specifically discussing those who treat the President as if he is stupid or clueless or unable to understand issues and approaches as well as they do.

[polmaven]

68. He made decisions that were

able to give us at least half a loaf rather than hno loaf at all. I, personally, would rather have the half loaf on several of thos things, than have nothing. If peoples quality of life is at stake, sometimes allowing a negative conclusion is more cruel than to compromise. The president knows this. I don't want him to be as selfish as W isd/was, insisting it is his way or no way.....Do you?

[Empowerer]

74. Exactly! These folks rightly criticize Republicans for their lockstep "my way or the highway"

attitude, then turn right around and trash the President for not behaving as they do.

It makes absolutely no sense.

[digidigido]

78. You say he made decisions that were able to give us 1/2 a loaf

I would argue that at that time, his first two years, when we had control of the house and the senate, we could have gotten 1/2 loaf no matter what.
The thing he did that was unforgivable, was to not fight. As Cuomo says, people vote for effective and not for ineffective. He took a vibrant movement
and killed the passion. He became just another say what I have to to get elected politician. I often feel we aren't getting 1/2 a loaf, we're barely getting
crumbs

[Name removed]

41. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Mimosa]

47. The 'administration' is a collective, not an individual

I seriously doubt any legitimate member of Democratic Underground believes the President is stupid, or even naive.

[EffieBlack]

50. Then you haven't been paying attention

Because, judging by the plethora of comments to that effect, indeed many here do.

[woolldog]

42. He's not stupid....

* just spineless when it comes to dealing with the Republicans

[EffieBlack]

43. He's not stupid, he's just too weak to do his job as well as you think he should

Gotcha . . .

[woolldog]

44. He's the capitulator-in-chief.

It is what it is.

[great white snark]

56. Your "opinion" is shared by what, a few disgruntled internet posters?

Weee! If you were attempting to tell that to his face you would pee yourself.

[saorsa]

69. Just keep repeating it to yourself,

it's all good, it's all good. As for a face to face meeting with the President, I am sure we 'few' million disgruntled internet posters could tell the man just what we think of him without wetting ourselves. But the President does not allow progressives any where near him.

[grahamhgreen]

46. True. He has to know he's working against most of the policies he was elected on.

It's 3-d chess, but he's working for the other side.

[babylonsister]

48. Thank you a million times...recommend! nt

[bowens43]

49. he's not an idiot

he knows that there is a significant percentage of Democrats who vote for him no matter how many promises he breaks, no matter how many times he works to advance the Republican agenda and no matter how many times he undercuts the Democrats in congress.

[EffieBlack]

51. So, e's not stupid-he's evil

Got it...

[saorsa]

67. + 1000!

Thank You

[muffin1]

52. I, like you, believe he is a very smart man.

That's why hubby and I voted for him. We got totally caught up in his soaring campaign speeches - you know - closing Gitmo, getting out of Iraq, fixing the infrastructure, getting rid of the Bush tax-cuts, caring more about Main Street than Wall Street, etc, etc.

Once elected, that all changed. He has sold us out, and the kindest thing I can say now is I'm not sure if this was his plan all along.

[Name removed]

53. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[great white snark]

54. And do you folks think his supporters are stupid? Smears and insults are criticisms? Bullshit.

Thank you for this post.

[eomer]

57. On the major issues that are drastically affecting us he has gone against the interests and wishes

of average Americans and pursued policies in favor of the corporations that are trying, successfully, to smash us down.

This is true on the issues of the financial looting by Wall Street, the looting by the Military/Security/Surveillance Industrial Complex, the unnecessary profiteering in the health care arena, the dismantling of our Constitutional rights and government transparency, and, most recently, the framing of the deficit and debt ceiling "crisis" in exactly the way the corporations want it framed in order to use it to further loot and smash us down.

On other than a few social issues that the corporations don't care about, he is acting against our interests and instead in the interests of the corporations that already have much too much wealth and power that they use against us.

I'm not sure why Obama does these things that go against my interests on the major issues that I care about. My best guess is that he has gotten where he's gotten by working for those corporate interests. That would make him corrupted, just like most of our elected representatives, by the money that has a death-lock on our political system. But whether I'm right that it is essentially corruption or whether there is some other explanation like death threats, blackmail, or even Obama just being sincerely mistaken, the bottom line is what he does, not why he does it.

[Mimosa]

60. ^ Eomer's post in no way demonises the President but expresses thoughtful disagreements

Our disagreements with Obama's policies and/or our expressions of disappointment with certain -not all- of his actions don't diminish him. I think the fan club types ought to try growing up.

I worked hard and contributed money to get Obama elected. But it's not my way to be making 'rah! rah!' posts.

[mistertrickster]

58. That's funny . . . just this morning I was thinking, "what if Obama is just kind of dumb?"

That would explain a lot, wouldn't it . . .

On edit--I shook his hand twice (once in 2004 and once in 2008), and he never gave me the impression he was anything less than brilliant . . . THEN.

But leading is not the same as giving a good speech.

[ProSense]

61. It's

an attempt to make one of the best President's ever appear ineffective.

[Long Shadow]

62. Obama, like nearly every other politician, has a legal background...

As a result, Obama, like nearly every other politician, does not have experience in the realm of any of the items on your list.

[Zoeisright]

63. Plus one million.

Some of the comments about the President on this board are simply appalling.

[Beacool]

64. No one questions his intelligence or schooling.

People question his judgment and lack of experience. In 2008 he was the least experienced presidential candidate in 99 years. When he chose to run for president he had been in the US Senate a mere 2 years. You knew that you had a candidate with a razor thin resume when his campaign kept mentioning ad nauseam that he had been a community organizer.

As for his knowledge of economic matters, my brother who sits in the European Union Economic Council in Brussels, tells me that the consensus over there among the other economists is that Obama doesn't know what he's doing. He contends that the 2009 stimulus was far too small to achieve its purposes.

:-(

[PragmaticLiberal]

66. Bea, everyone (including Obama) knew that the stimulus was too small.

Unfortunately, we couldn't get a larger one passed. :-(

[woolldog]

96. Your brother sounds awfully naive

if he believes that Obama is making economic decisions in a vacuum. Like all other Presidents, all his decisions have been following recommendations from his economic team. Most Presidents aren't economists after all, they're lawyers.

[Beacool]

99. Naive?

My brother has two PhDs in economics and knows his business. He is also far to the left of what we would call here "liberal". Naive is what many call Obama.

:eyes:

[woolldog]

103. Yes, naive

if he believes Obama is coming up with these economic policies himself. Of course he's not. He's largely following the recommendations of his economic advisers, who are just as, if not more, educated on macroeconomics as your brother. You know, the Council of Economic Advisers, the Treasury Secretary, etc. If he has a problem with the economic policies of the Obama administration and think's those policies are clueless, then he is really saying that those guys are clueless, because its not Obama coming up with these economic policies. No President does. They provide Presidents with recommendations, and the Presidents usually follow them, subject of course to political constraints of what can get through Congress, what will fly with the American people and so on...

[Ikonoklast]

98. But you would have gladly voted for Hillary.

Who had ZERO experience as an elected official.

ZERO.

Aaaaalrighty, then.

[Beacool]

100. Zero??????

What the heck are you talking about? She had already completed her first full term as a US Senator and had just been reelected to a second term, by a wide margin, when she announced her presidential candidacy.

Please get your facts straight......

:crazy:

[rug]

65. Frankly, that's his only defense.

[DancingFool]

71. "pickaninny" is not racist, how?

The rest of your post just sounds childish and whiney.

[polmaven]

75. Really!!!

That was my reaction to that word to. I cringed when I read that!

[JAbuchan08]

73. I don't think Obama is stupid, but more importantly I know IM not stupid

Some people are willing to shit can their own knowledge and experience as well as that of the most reputable authorities in order to prop up their own favorites.

I refer to it as "recieved wisdom" (I didn't invent the term) basically you defer to the "authorities" because you don't have the confidence in your own knowledge and intuition to seperate the wheat from the chaff.

Rejecting "recieved wisdom" is, counterintuitively, not about presuming one's self to be the highest authority, but in fact acknowledging that you don't know everything and therefore have to seek it out for yourself rather than "recieving" it from others.

Having said that I defer to the expertise of (most) climate scientists because the information they provide matches up with what I already know, and so I am more comfortable deferring to their athourity up until the point that it asserts something that I don't know and can't verify.

In other words, I may not have a Harvard degree, but I'm not going to accept bad economic policy proceeding from false assumptions from someone who does. I don't accept other people's wisdom unless their is some way to verify it.

[eridani]

77. Unfortunately, the president does understand those folks

The problem is that he agrees with them.

[Maven]

81. You're absolutely right. He's not stupid. He's complicit.

[CoffeeCat]

82. Obama is also a CONSTITUTIONAL SCHOLAR...

...and where in the hell did that get us?

The corporations still own our government and are more entrenched
in controlling our politicians--than EVER.

So yes, Obama may be smart, wise, nice and wow--even a Constitutional scholar!

None of that means anything unless you are willing to stand up and fight for
our democracy, break the corporate stronghold on DC and return this nation to "We the People"

[JoeyT]

85. I don't think he's stupid. I'm not going to give him that much benefit of the doubt.

I think he's complicit.

You know what's breathtakingly arrogant? Telling people not to hold an elected official responsible for his constant screwups, then demanding people vote for him again.

Also: Did you "sneer down at" Bush? Oh riiiiight. It's 'different' now.

[NC_Nurse]

86. I don't think he's stupid. I think he's fucking us over on purpose.

He's so smart, he has people thinking he's being FORCED to screw everyone but the rich and corporations. What a great ruse.

[Time for change]

90. The major complaint about Obama from the left is not his intelligence

It is the fact that he is much too influenced by the big moneyed interests in our coutnry to make the lower 99% of our population (on the wealth scale) a priority -- which has led him to break virtually every major campaign promise that he made.

[Tx4obama]

92. Obama has NOT broken every major campaign promise. Why are you making things up?

And for those that are interested here a big list that was just posted on DU of what Obama HAS done:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x706127

[Time for change]

93. The list of broken campaign promises in Sirota's article explain why

our economy, and the American people who have to live here, are in such bad shape. Name one item on the list you just provided that is of comparable importance to the issues that Sirota discusses in his article -- which by the way go a long way towards explaining why Obama will likely be our first president since Hoover to preside over negative job growth for a whole administration (unless of course he proves that statement wrong by achieving a substantial recovery by January 2013), which nobody is predicting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobs_created_during_U.S._presidential_terms#Job_creation_by_term

[Tx4obama]

97. The fact remains Obama has NOT broken the majority of his campaign promises.

137 - Promise Kept
40 - Compromise
43 - Promise Broken
69 - Stalled
217 - In the Works
2- Not yet rated

Seven pages of Obama's campaign promises KEPT: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/rulings/promise-kept/

p.s. Note: The promises in the 'promise broken' category does not mean that Obama broken all of them, some are due to the fault of Congress.
You can read the definition of 'promise broken' at the Politifact website.

[Time for change]

106. It's not the numbers that are important. What is most important is the nature of the individual

broken promises. You think that 43 broken promises in two years is impressive? What's more important is that the ones he's broken have gone a long way towards ruining our economy -- massive tax cuts for the rich that are causing our debt to skyrocket, letting the insurance industry remain in control of health care (without putting up a fight), and appeasing every demand of Wall Street. He has not kept any promises that were seriously objected to by the financial industry.

[Skittles]

94. he is not stupid, but he is not effective

[dionysus]

101. they do it in spades right here on DU.

[polichick]

102. To be fair, people here say it because they don't want to believe...

...he's actually doing what he wants to do, or hiring people he wants to hire - much better for him to be naive.

[EffieBlack]

104. Or because they either don't understand or don't want to acknowledge that, as with most things,

politics is not always a black/white-either/or proposition - especially at the level of the presidency.

The fact that so many in this thread insist that the President is either clueless or evil as if those are the only two possibilities for his decisions and actions demonstrates what is, in my view, an extremely cramped and rather bizarre view of politics and policy.

[Empowerer]

107. Exactly!

Politics, policy and society are very complex and more often than not, maneuvering through them requires an ability to see, understand and grapple with many shades of grey. Everything cannot be approached from a "black or white, period!" perspective, even if your own principles lie on one end of the spectrum or other.

Sadly, some of the attitudes expressed and approaches demanded by many here, are just as narrow-minded and obtuse and unreasonable as that of the people they despise.

[WiffenPoof]

108. I Have Never Questioned...

his intelligence...I might have commented on a lack of experience.

The only thing I question is his principles. I real nice guy...However, sometimes I feel we need more than a "real nice guy."

-P