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Was Obama destined to fail before he even took office?

DeeJayH

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it has been my contention that the left, in particular the media, that Obama was raised to such a high status that NO ONE COULD LIVE UP TO THE EXPECTATIONS put upon him.

I will not try to hide the fact taht I oppose pretty much everything Obama stands for. But that has nothing to do with my point. IMHO No human on planet earth could have lived up to the expectations that the left had for Obama.

this has nothing to do with Obama having no real world experience
this has nothign to do with Obama having overly idealistic values
this has nothing to do with Obama being yada yada yada
Nobody would have survived the hype, atleast that is my opinion

what say you
 
it has been my contention that the left, in particular the media, that Obama was raised to such a high status that NO ONE COULD LIVE UP TO THE EXPECTATIONS put upon him.

I will not try to hide the fact taht I oppose pretty much everything Obama stands for. But that has nothing to do with my point. IMHO No human on planet earth could have lived up to the expectations that the left had for Obama.

this has nothing to do with Obama having no real world experience
this has nothign to do with Obama having overly idealistic values
this has nothing to do with Obama being yada yada yada
Nobody would have survived the hype, atleast that is my opinion

what say you

I don't think any President can ever live up to everyone's expectations. Obama is no exception.
 
every president has had his devout supporters. But to my short uninformed mind NO president has been heralded with such high Lourdes and expectations. IMHO Obama, even if he was a perfect president, had nowhere but down to go. They set teh bar/expectations WAY TOO high, to his detriment.
 
every president has had his devout supporters. But to my short uninformed mind NO president has been heralded with such high Lourdes and expectations. IMHO Obama, even if he was a perfect president, had nowhere but down to go. They set teh bar/expectations WAY TOO high, to his detriment.

Yea maybe, but maybe that is just the cycle. It seems that every President comes in with their "honeymoon" and then goes nowhere but down (with some exceptions, like Bush's approval went through the roof after 9/11, but that does not really count in a comparison)
 
Yea maybe, but maybe that is just the cycle. It seems that every President comes in with their "honeymoon" and then goes nowhere but down (with some exceptions, like Bush's approval went through the roof after 9/11, but that does not really count in a comparison)

cycles have predictable trends. From what i saw an entire Cult of Personality was created around The One
that is the difference
 
I will partly agree that I think President Obama had more to live up to than previous presidents. But not just because he was the first black president, but also because how he energized the youth into wanting to vote, the fact how he ran his campaign, and the fact people were sick of President Bush. So, I don't think he failed before he took office, rather that people thought he would fix everything in his first year. But I do agree that he was no way going to live up to the expectations that some had for him.
 
There were leftists who thought Obama was the Messiah and there were rightists who thought he was the AntiChrist. There leftists who thought he would dramatically worsen the state of the country and rightists who thought he would destroy the country. There were leftists who thought Obama would just be a good president and there were rightist who thought he would just be a bad president. There were leftists who thought Obama would do nothing great but would be the lesser of two evils and there were rightists who though Obama would do nothing great for the country but would be the greater of two evils.

What has been raised to a high status is the conservative opinion that all leftists had high expectations for Obama. Most people realize he is human and realize that his presidency will largely be dictated things outside his control.

Let me correct your misconception. People didn't elect Obama because they thought he was God, they elected him because he wasn't Bush. The only question you have to ask now is if Obama has done any worse a job than Bush ever did, and you will see why most people aren't crying about dashed expectations. The bar was set pretty ridiculously low, not ridiculously high.
 
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it has been my contention that the left, in particular the media, that Obama was raised to such a high status that NO ONE COULD LIVE UP TO THE EXPECTATIONS put upon him.

I will not try to hide the fact taht I oppose pretty much everything Obama stands for. But that has nothing to do with my point. IMHO No human on planet earth could have lived up to the expectations that the left had for Obama.

Well, just because a President isn't able to make good on all of his campaign promises does not mean he is a failure. There's a difference between "Failing as a President," and "Living up to the expectations of a President."

Because while Obama may not live up to the expectations of the Left, neither is he worthy of the demonization he has recieved from the Right.

Obama is doing what he can to improve the lives of the people of the United States. He's trying to do that in a period of global military conflict during a worldwide economic recession with a Congress where despite having a majority from his own party, his own party has a conservative caucus, and a Supreme Court that leans quite far to the Right in an era where pundits who talk politics for profit has more influence over the people than the statesmen who actually have to make policy. He does not have an easy task ahead of him.

So is Obama going to live up to expectations? No. But that's goes for both sides. And just because someone doesn't reach their expectations means they are a failure. Considering the challenges of the office in these times, I think Obama is doing pretty okay, and I think he's doing a better job than the alternative would.
 
every president has had his devout supporters. But to my short uninformed mind NO president has been heralded with such high Lourdes and expectations. IMHO Obama, even if he was a perfect president, had nowhere but down to go. They set teh bar/expectations WAY TOO high, to his detriment.

The problem is, that President Obama isn't even living up to our modest expectations. Unemployment is still out of control. The wars are still costing us trillions. Congress is still spending irresponsibly. All the things we hated about the Bush Administration has worsened over the last year and a half - and the Obama Administration seems disengaged from the issues facing the American People and is blindly pushing a typical liberal agenda. The Democrats aren't going to be punished in November for being too liberal - they are going to be punished for failing to prioritize. They should have focused on the recession, instead of focusing on their own idealism.
 
The problem is, that President Obama isn't even living up to our modest expectations. Unemployment is still out of control. The wars are still costing us trillions. Congress is still spending irresponsibly. All the things we hated about the Bush Administration has worsened over the last year and a half - and the Obama Administration seems disengaged from the issues facing the American People and is blindly pushing a typical liberal agenda. The Democrats aren't going to be punished in November for being too liberal - they are going to be punished for failing to prioritize. They should have focused on the recession, instead of focusing on their own idealism.

Actually, I think Obama is very well aware of the issues facing the American People. Congress, on the other hand, is the government body that is the most out of touch. If you ask me, all that our Congressmen and Senators are doing right now is passing whichever legislation that their campaign donors demand.
 
I say that Obamas failings are DIRECTLY due to the lack of leadership and practical experience. HE was voted in based on very NON presidential factors and it shows every time he has to 'be' presidential. His qualifications and behaviors are akin to a high school student body president...not the leader of the US.
 
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I say that Obamas failings aqre DIRECTLY due to the lack of leadership and practical experience. HE was voted in based on very NON presidential factors and it shows every time he has to 'be' presidential. His qualifications and behaviors are akin to a high school student body president...not the leader of the US.

Then next time the GOP should have better picks for the American People to choose from.
 
Then next time the GOP should have better picks for the American People to choose from.

Good lord son...Ive said that I dont know how many times. ALL parties SHOULD have better choices. We have had nothing but woodenheads for a long long time.

However, THIS THREAD is about whether or not Obama is destined to fail. He is only destined to fail because he has no concept of leadership. Hell a manager at a Taco Bell has more experience with schedules, balancing books, and managing people than this guy did. He was a 'community organizer' (how are his 'communities' faring?) and a political appointee at a college, then he was an absentee state representative (hanging out in a state sponsored limo smoking crack makes you wonder who cast all those 'present' votes for him cuz he damn sure wasnt 'leading') and then spent 2 WHOLE YEARS running for presid...I mean...being a senator...

of course...he was an 'intelligent and well spoken black man'...for a change...

Yea...he was a rock soliud choice. no way THAT doesnt blow up in your face.
 
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Actually, I think Obama is very well aware of the issues facing the American People. Congress, on the other hand, is the government body that is the most out of touch. If you ask me, all that our Congressmen and Senators are doing right now is passing whichever legislation that their campaign donors demand.

Amen...Congress blows. How does Pelosi look into the cameras with a straight face...blame BUSH for the oil disaster...when SHE has been the head of the Dem controlled house since 2006, and Harry Reid has been in controil of the dem controlled senate since 2006...and whats the congressional approval rating? 11%? Brilliant.
 
so in a word NO. Obama will not live up to the expectations. And yet I am the scumbag for pointing it out. Carry on
 
so in a word NO. Obama will not live up to the expectations. And yet I am the scumbag for pointing it out. Carry on

Nobody's called you a scumbag in this thread for pointing it out. And, as I said before, just because Obama doesn't live up to expectations doesn't mean he is a bad President. Carry on.
 
Amen...Congress blows. How does Pelosi look into the cameras with a straight face...blame BUSH for the oil disaster...when SHE has been the head of the Dem controlled house since 2006, and Harry Reid has been in controil of the dem controlled senate since 2006...and whats the congressional approval rating? 11%? Brilliant.

Pelosi can look into any Camera and with a straight face say anything she wants to say (and she frequently does just that).
The reason she is permitted to get away with her various pronouncements is because she is speaking to a BROAD audience.
And the BROAD audience is the American Electorate who as a body have the intellectual capacity of a snail and the political acumen of a cotton ball.
So now you know why she gets away with what she does.
What you and many others need to do is educate these cretins.
 
Obama would have to fail first, to be judged a failure.

Considering he got Health Care Reform passed and Wall Street Reform passed and will now be reforming the oil industry as well as repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell, it seems obvious, to the non-blind, that he is anything but a failure.

However, the Party of No will continue to whine about his success and exaggerate non issues.
:cheers:
 
good to see you are just as out of your mind as when I departed at the beginning of the year.
don't ever change baby
you keep swimming in and drinking down the blue kool-aid

Hope your world does not collapse as even the press are starting to turn on him
oh yeah, why doesn't he have press conferences? is it just because it would cut into his golf/basketball time?
 
The guy has never run anything. Anything!

He's failing because he doesn't have any more experience than you or me. He's completely lost. He has nothing to draw from except for the radical ideologies he's learned from his radical friends. Those don't fly in the real world.
 
He easily lived up to my expectations, but they were waaaay down there.
 
The guy has never run anything. Anything!

He's failing because he doesn't have any more experience than you or me. He's completely lost. He has nothing to draw from except for the radical ideologies he's learned from his radical friends. Those don't fly in the real world.

Neither did the reactionary ideologies Bush and the GOP led us down before Obama.
 
Why is it those that want to try to paint Obama as a "Failure" are pretty much the same ones that apologized for GWB and contend that history will judge him as being a "Great and Inspired World Leader"?

The reality is, things are improving, slowly, but they are improving. I guess if taking an economy heading for a depression and pulling us out is a failure....that's pretty good spin.
 
Why is it those that want to try to paint Obama as a "Failure" are pretty much the same ones that apologized for GWB and contend that history will judge him as being a "Great and Inspired World Leader"?

The reality is, things are improving, slowly, but they are improving. I guess if taking an economy heading for a depression and pulling us out is a failure....that's pretty good spin.

I don't see the improvement - I see another crash coming. But, I also don't agree that it's especially the media's doing that Obama's expectations were over the top. I think the rhetoric and number of promises made by the campaign was coupled with Obama's charisma, youth and yes, race... to make a very potent concoction that got him elected. He was and is wholly unqualified and continues to show his lack of leadership, lack of understanding and lack of connection with the American people. His education was not and is not enough to save him - so it was his own doing, not necessarily the media's --- though I will agree that once he was elected the media continues to protect him and spin for him with few exceptions. That may be over soon.
 
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