What grade would you give Obama for his first two years?

[quinnox]

Simple poll question.

[xchrom]

1. a solid D. nt

[Richard Steele]

2. F

[Laf.La.Dem.]

3. B!!

Must say yesterday's DADT vote did help!!

[LonePirate]

4. Obama receives a D. Reid receives a C. Pelosi receives an A+.

[nashville_brook]

27. read my mind.

[jaxx]

5. A

President Obama has brought this country back from the brink and signed major legislation into law during his first two years in office. He has done what is needed, with abuse heaped on him from both sides, but he went ahead and was right. Stay tuned....more to come.

[elleng]

8. Ditto.

Thanks, jaxx.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

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

[jaxx]

15. The facts say that isn't correct.

This country is reviving economically, jobs are slowly coming back (which are the last thing to revive in a big recession). War crimes? Look again at what has been done to stop them. You bet he's a Democrat, and the one who is where he needs to be....leading this country forward.

[TheWraith]

19. Well said. I'm tired of people giving Obama shit for the Senate's failures.

Even with an UNPRECEDENTED level of opposition--as in never before seen by anyone--we still passed healthcare reform, financial reform, Lily Ledbetter, DADT, and a hundred other things.

[KansasVoter]

26. Really? I don't remember Obama saying "Yes I Can, if the GOP cooperates."

[MagickMuffin]

34. Obama NEVER said Yes I can, He said YES WE CAN....

as in ALL of us, you included. Which why don't you tell how you've been helpful besides posting on DU?!?!?

[KansasVoter]

36. I maxed out donations to Obama in 2008 and knocked on doors and made phone calls......

And I gave $1000 more to other candidates.

And Obama never mentioned he would fail if the GOP didn't cooperate.

We all knew the GOP would be assholes, I guess Obama didn't think they would.

[MagickMuffin]

40. So, you haven't done much since then

There is still more WE ALL can do, there are still ways to affect change. It didn't stop with Obama's election. I also don't think he is a failure, he has made progress and will continue to do so.

And yes, Obama does seem to think he can work with the GOP and the bluedogs within his own party. He can't hold the Congresses hands while they vote. Just as I can't force my voters to show up at the polls. But we have to keep trying. Just as Oabama continues trying to help fix our broken country.

He isn't getting much support from a large percentage of either party. But he continues to make a difference.

[KansasVoter]

42. My expectations were very high because of his campaign.....

And I was stupid to believe it. His "Changing Washington" has not even done anything. It is as bad or worse as when he took office.
I'll vote for Obama in 2012, and would never vote for a GOP candidate no matter what. But I am not jumping on with money and time again. "Fool me once...." mode!

[MagickMuffin]

47. I have been curious as what kind of concessions he made with the Clinton's

I have a feeling in order for Hillary to withdraw her name at the Convention a deal was made, where the Clinton's would pick his cabinet. I still believe Obama had / has good intentions. He has just encountered to many obstacles.

[TheWraith]

60. Washington is the same as when Obama took office?

Really? Why don't you go around asking the Bush appointees about that? Or the working people who now have lower taxes, better healthcare, and the right to sue for pay discrimination?

[Lord Magus]

48. You seem to not be grasping that you elected a president.

Not a dictator.

[uppityperson]

58. When did Obama say "yes I can"? Seriously, I don't remember this.

I remember "yes we can" but not "yes I can" so would appreciate being pointed to where he said that. thank you.

[KansasVoter]

24. LOL

[JuniperLea]

68. He did all that...

With haters on both sides constantly hurling crap at him, and he never once told them to fuck off. That alone is a miracle.

The list of amazing accomplishments continues.

I don't expect many kudos here, however.

[Lost-in-FL]

6. I am going for C.

Cause despite being somehow disapointed as his dealings with the republicans, being president its simply not an easy job.

Pelosi gets an A+ but Reid gets a D- from me.

[DallasNE]

14. I'm With You On Pelosi And Reid

But I would give Obama a B+. While Obama got health care passed (something Clinton failed to do) he clearly needed to be more hands on as it dragged out way too long trying to get a couple of Republican votes (which obviously never happened).

[rucky]

7. Graded on a curve, he gets a B

Showed steady improvement under difficult circumstances. Blew the midterm exam, but still room to recover.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. A to offset the Ds

[LWolf]

43. Interesting grading system. nt

[Eyerish]

10. D for disappointing

[onethatcares]

11. definitely a better talker than acter.

I was kinda hoping on Hope and Change we could believe in. What I got was a smarter *.

[MagickMuffin]

35. YOU are the Change WE have been waiting for, not Obama

Man you people must have NEVER LISTENED to his total campaign speeches.

[JuniperLea]

70. That would be "actOr"

And the WE part is all ours... WE are the hope, and WE have to be part of the change. As long as you put all the work on another, you'll continue to look lazy. Oh, and DU has spell check, so we don't look stupid.

[TheKentuckian]

12. D up from an F

[The_Commonist]

16. B-

A little above average.

[B Calm]

17. Until he does something to protect US manufacturing jobs like

doing away with NAFTA, the so called republican free trade crap, and installing fair trade tariffs on all the products coming into this country, he will get an F!

[Lord Magus]

46. You're demonstrating a significant lack of understanding of American government.

Specifically, you overestimate the power of the president.

[B Calm]

53. You're underestimating the power of a great communicating president to

influence our congress and the American voters.

[Lord Magus]

56. Influence voters, maybe.

But there's a significant block of Congress (they call themselves the House and Senate Republican Conferences) that don't give a damn what the American people as a whole want. They only care about whether they'll anger their corporate masters, and on social issues their wingnut primary voters. And there's enough of them to block most things from happening.

[B Calm]

65. Voters vote for those house republicans and senators. Right wingers

like to remind me all the time how NAFTA was passed by a democratic president. Of course I remind them that NAFTA was a republican idea and passed into law by the majority of republicans in congress at that time, but it's still despised by both republican voters and democratic voters. Obama could make it a big issue once again and explain to the people how we need to protect American manufacturing jobs. The voters would take notice how the politicians they voted for stood on this issue.

[theglammistress]

18. I voted "C" - just average

[RegieRocker]

20. Same

It's not been all bad but I expected a whole lot more good from all of them when we had the chance.

[krabigirl]

21. F.

[Rex]

22. Wow ten times as many Ds as As.

I give him a C+, because I never expected him to be anything but a corporate yes man from the beginning.

[HopeHoops]

23. "Plays well with other children. Very articulate. Needs work on self-confidence."

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

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[fortyfeetunder]

28. Challenge to those grading D or F

tell me what could he have accomplished to rate higher, considering the circumstances?

[Catherina]

30. Stopped the wars. Not escalated a war in Pakistan, Not started a secret war in Yemen

That's just for starters.

Until Obama stops using my tax dollars to kill kids around the world, he'll get nothing higher than an F.

[t0dd]

31. Not said to the pharmaceutical industry at the start of the health reform debate

"OK, drug reimportation and Medicare direct drug price negotiating" are off the table. Not mocked people that actually wanted to reform the system with a public option (which he also traded away). Not worked against efforts to have the Bush administration prosecuted for torture. Not escalated war in Afghanistan. Not reminding us each time states legalize same-sex marriage that he still prefers civil unions. There are an innumerable amount of things this administration has done that any self-respecting liberal should be furious about.

[onethatcares]

32. he could have taken advantage of the popular vote that he won

along with everything else. He could have taken to the airwaves and the press, spoken loud and long (gaud knows he can speak)about how the rich are screwing the middle and lower class and that he needed all of us to make the change happen. But, he didn't. He could have taken the bully pulpit and told the nation that we need a public option in healthcare and this is why, he could have said, "we will pull out of Afganistan on June 7,2009 and done it, he could have shut down gitmo by exec. order, he could have issued an executive order stating that tax credits will be issued to companies that keep jobs in country or create a certain amount of new jobs in country, BUT HE DIDN'T DO ANY OF THE ABOVE.

Seriously, although I support equal rights for everyone in this country, they don't pay the bills or keep our homes in our names.

I'm afraid that he was a shill.

[KansasVoter]

37. No different than those choosing "A"

[TheKentuckian]

38. I'm not counting notches on a bedpost. Wanna an easy A? Catch the flick it was good.

Honestly, I got caught up in the emotion of the afterglow of passing DADT because the handling of Financial Regulation and coddling the bankers to our plausible destruction should be F material all alone.

Working deals with the insurance cartel, pharma, and the hospitals to absolutely hobble any health care reform effort is F material.

Declaring the authority to murder American citizen without even a charge, much less a trial is F----------------------- territory.

Continuing Bush's unconstitutional Army of the Executive is F- stuff.

Protecting BushCo from prosecution after both publicly admitted (bragged) about their crimes against humanity is F worthy.

Ramping up the stupid war in AfPak is F--- grade idiocy.

Replacing soldiers with mercenaries in Iraq and calling the war over is deserving of a phatass F.

Allowing the stimulus to become a non-targeted grab bag of half initiatives is D grade stuff.

The tax "deal" is a fucking turkey. Big F+. The + for getting the U/I bone in there.

The biggest thing Obama has going for him is the gawdawful crappiness of most American Presidents. A high F gets you in the top half.

[LWolf]

50. Okay.

He could have appointed an actual educator, instead of a privatizer, union-buster, and corporate stooge to be Secretary of Education, and his education agenda could have centered on supporting the system, instead of supporting privatization and union-busting.

He could have appointed left-of-center Democrats and others to his cabinet, instead of neo-liberals, and governed from a left-of-center, rather than neo-liberal, position.

He could have promoted a universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care plan, instead of an insurance plan that leaves many of us paying higher premiums and getting less care.

He could have ended the war on terror and focused on domestic policies and infrastructure.

He could never have appointed the cat-food commission to take down Social Security.

He could have pushed better economic policies.

He could have worked to repeal the Patriot Act and NAFTA/CAFTA.

I could go on. And on. And on.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

73. Some of mine -

Close GITMO for real.
Reimportation of drugs and the public option.
A real jobs program.
Stop the damned spying on American citizens.
Stop the other continuing civil rights violations.
Back the democratically elected Honduras President (not just lip service.)
More vigourous pushback against and investigation of the Crash and the criminals who got us there.
Real banking reform.
A better foreclosure program.

He had a lot of control of much of that, but he (wrongly) chose to go another direction.

[jotsy]

29. Answered this question at length last December.

Here's how it broke down then.

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7222174&mesg_id=7223845>

I don't think it's in my best interests to update these marks, cuz pizza is not my idea of a good Sunday brunch. Especially not since I might have partied just a liiiiittle too hard last night. Suffice it to say, I'd assess his performance since not as favorably.

[Hawkowl]

33. One term Obama

If these are the results he gets on a partisan site like DU, he is fucking screwed in 2012. Unemployment will remain near 10% and he will be shellacked like a boxer's speed bag.

[Name removed]

45. Deleted message

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

[Hawkowl]

51. Numbers are numbers

Even if it is infested with trolls, trolls get to vote. It simply means that the trolls are more motivated in attacking than partisans are interested in defending. When in comes to election day in 2012, a lot of people aligned with the Democrats will be staying at home. Just. Like. 2010.

Obama is fucking screwed unless he can motivate PEOPLE to the polls.

[TexasObserver]

39. The vote = 1/6 each for A, B, C and F. 1/3 for D.

[Recursion]

41. Are we inflating or not?

I would say a "BU B" or a "BC A"; a little less than a standard deviation above the mean.

[LWolf]

44. F. nt

[totodeinhere]

49. THe passage of DADT allowed me to move my grade up to a "C." n/t

[CTyankee]

52. mezzo mezzo. I peg him at a B, but maybe that's my post DADT win glow.

Some good, some not so good....

[Harry Monroe]

54. A solid "C+"

He brought us back from the brink. That is to be commended. But, he fails totally when he caves in to Republican demands and makes himself look weak and spineless. It all averages out to just average.

[Marr]

55. D, but only because of the generous grading curve provided by GW Bush.

[BlueIris]

57. F.

Structural, strategic and moral failure.

[Skittles]

59. I'll say C

but only because I have to recognize the enormous hole bush left him

[Luciferous]

61. D because he's better than Bush, but not by much.

[TBF]

62. Depends on who you're for. If you're rich you're giving him an "A" - the rest

don't have much to cheer for. I rounded up to a "D" for DADT.

[Xicano]

63. F

n/t

[stevenleser]

64. 51% are C or better. I graded A n/t

[LWolf]

67. 49% are D or worse.

65% are C or worse.

[jonnyblitz]

66. F minus. nt

[JoePhilly]

69. B+ ... particularly given what he's up against.

[niceypoo]

71. D

The 'spine' issue knocked it down from a B

[apocalypsehow]

72. A solid A. n/t.

[GreenTea]

74. Didn't recieve a passing grade from me.... D+