How has Obama disappointed? let me count the ways ...
Motivated by a posting of George Clooney's quote that he's "disillusioned by the people who are disillusioned by Obama" and that "Democrats eat their own. Democrats find singular issues and go, ‘Well, I didn’t get everything I wanted.’ ", I've jotted down some of my main concerns and disappointment with the Obama presidency just to underscore that, for many of us, it's not a shortcoming on a "singular issue". (quick tangent, the Clooney quote reflects something deeply wrong with American politics, i.e., the assumption that we should value party loyalty above all else). I wasn't expecting a lot of the Obama presidency in the first place, although I was briefly hopeful and optimistic when things began. Since then, some of his major flaws and disappointments:
*x-posted with a few edits to blogspot
- approved indefinite detention for all, including American citizens, despite the Constitutional overreach, and failed to provide an alternative to the Military Commissions Act as he'd promised.
- failed to close Guantanamo
- cynical failure to increase the debt ceiling last year, thereby giving the GOP the power to threaten government shutdown and push through more draconian cuts while toeing the line on tax increase
- a health care bill that implemented a conservative ideal, lacked a public option and came out for public consideration after first consulting big pharma and the health care insurance industry
- kills US citizens without due process.
- contrary to promises made during his campaign, has regularly invoked state secrets to evade justice and terminate lawsuits. (or here or here)
- terminated warantless wiretapping lawsuits.
- failed to investigate Bush administration abuses and appeared to push the Justice department to not do so.
- violated obligation to consult with or inform Congress in participating militarily in the invasion in Libya
- has failed to make any sort of progress or adequate effort on dealing with the housing and foreclosure crisis. Further, he'd promised to implement cramdown provision, i.e., allow judges to reduce principal, but that hasn't happened.
- had promised to repeal Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy and restore phaseout of exemptions and personalized deductions for the wealthy, still not done.
- failed to make progress on cap and trade legislation and has been largely a huge disappointment in terms of environmental protection
- failed to pursue any sort of significant prosecution for the devastating and avoidable 2007-09 financial crisis.
*x-posted with a few edits to blogspot