Patters

Do you think Obama is using the right strategy if he wants to get reelected?

Frankly, he's a bore. Maybe that's who Americans will vote for, but let's remember that our boring Presidents -- be it Carter, Ford, or Bush --did not fare well. I keep hoping we'll see an Obama who leads and fights and makes a passionate and fact-based case for liberalism, but instead he seems to be, as they say, no drama Obama.

- He didn't take a bold stand on Wisconsin.

- He's not speaking out forcefully about what's wrong with the Tea Party.

- He's not making a case for fixing our deficit by raising taxes on the wealthy.

- He's not arguing that budget cuts will lead to job losses.

- He's not taking a strong stand on transparency.

- He's not even taking a strong stand on Libya.

- He's not even taking a tough stand on oil companies as the price of gas and heating oil skyrockets.

- He's not even taking a bold stand on Wall Street, where bonuses are back to pre-recession levels.

- He doesn't really seem to be standing up for anyone, just trying not to make too many waves.

Whether you will support Obama or not, do you think he's adopting a smart political strategy?

PatsWSB47

Hey I know the real problem, I can read between the lines whitey

Seriously, without any serious threat from anyone in his party or republicans, he doesn't have to say much. That's cool if simply winning is the goal but that's not leadership.

chicowalker

I don't know if that is his strategy. He's only "no drama" if you're a dem.

But without the appearance of a strong candidate in the field against him, I think he'll only be defeated if he commits a major error or something critical goes against him (hostage crisis a la Carter, or the economy clearly tanks further). As it stands now, many people will have lines drawn in the sand for or against him, and the the Republicans don't have anybody to sway a lot of independents / undecideds.

He isn't standing for much, but neither are the Republicans, either. They're talking a lot about spending, but they haven't shown that they're going to dramatically pare back the scope of government either, which makes it easy to paint them as hypocrites with empty promises when he's wooing the folks in the middle. Couple that with the situation he inherited (needs to be handled carefully), and a lot of undecideds will stay with him in the face of a mediocre opponent.

Nikolai

Chico pretty much nailed it. About 80% of the voters are already decided, regardless of what happens. The other 20% are probably going to have a hard time deciding between the underwhelming Obama and whatever the Pubs trot out there. It'll be another "hold your nose" type of election, unfortunately.

As for whether or not he has a sound political strategy, I'm not so sure about that. Before the election, I thought he was going to be too pragmatic for Dems to really like him, because I was convinced he'd be willing to compromise. The problem is that he's so willing to compromise that he's failing to take on any real leadership, which was the reason he let his baby, the Health Care Bill, become the debacle it turned out to be.

I hate to echo the Pubbie line, but I think his lack of experience is doing him in. Had he waited ten to twenty more years, and acquired some more experience in a leadership position, he probably would have made a better leader, someone who knows how to execute. He looks overwhelmed to me.

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We get what we deserve.

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“On a day when they could have had impact players David Terrell or Koren Robinson..they took Georgia defensive tackle Richard Seymour, who had 1 sacks last season in the pass-happy SEC and is too tall to play tackle at 6-6 and too slow to play defensive end. This genius move was followed by trading out of a spot where they could have gotten the last decent receiver in Robert Ferguson and settled for tackle Matt Light, who will not help any time soon.”

Real World

It'll come down to the map, and what the then current attitude is in the country. Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, Colorado, etc. There were a lot of states that Obama carried that could easily not go his way, even with someone like Mitt Romney being the GOP nominee. If the election were this November for example, I think Obama would be in a tooth and nail fight for a lot of the purple to red states he won in 2008. As always, 2012 will come down to 5-9 states. Popular sentiment won't be as reflective of his chances as will the local sentiment in those states. Every incumbent should be the favorite to hold their position, so with that he should win reelection. With it being a state to state vote though, it will be interesting.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

sdaniels7114

Its pretty typical of Presidents to back off at this point in their 1st term if they're satisfied with the cards they've got for the next election. Breaking the wall on UHC, winding down Iraq and getting the nation past the worst of the recession and on its way to economic stability, not to mention the end of don't ask, don't tell are more than enough IMO.

The first 18 months per term is mostly all a President gets for making major change. After that its ribbon cutting and meeting championship sports teams in terms of governing. Campaigning, even after the second mid-term election, takes up all the rest of the time. Keep in mind that even though he doesn't run in any of the mid-terms the people he has to work with are and they're heavily affected by that.

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Harry Boy

He's flabbergasted, he has no idea what he's doing, when the world is about to end he panics and goes golfing, but God doesn't he have a beautiful smile.

Barack Hussien Obama is way out of his league but he looks like what the lefty's have always wanted.

Next President Zog Mumba Olaf Jones he's part chinese, japanses, greek and mexican, the loons will love him, his wife Blanche is an illegal alien and one of his kids married a Muslim.

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Harry Boy (Genius)

In The Absence Of Law And Order Society Will Surely Destroy Itself

IcyPatriot

Those of us who said he was not ready ... too inexperienced were labeled racists ...
time to bring that thread back and add more life to it.

Patters

I don't recall anyone calling you a racist for saying Obama was too inexperienced. But, he does have four years of experience at the presidential level, so I don't see the logic to your argument.

At any rate, his first term certainly showed he was too not inexperienced, since he got a lot done by any measure. My guess is that right now, he's trying to keep attention focused on Republicans and their divisions and not give them a target to unite around. It's a passive strategy, but so far it's working reasonably well. Congress is back to awful disapproval ratings, Boehner's problem with the Tea Party is getting a lot of attention, and several Republican governors are getting a lot of bad press and have declining approval ratings.

patsfan13

Well he looked at the polls nationally when he tried to step in on Obama and Walker shut him down with the deficit in Wash riff. It wasn't gonna help to step into debate.



The Tea Party wants to cut the deficits which is popular these days. They want to get rid of Obamacare which is supported by 62% of Americans, nothing to gain here.


Well raising taxes on anyone isn't too popular now the dems played this card in the midterms and we know how THAT turned out.



Another political loser that no one wants to hear. Especially when the stimulus was such a spectacular failure.



He doesn't want people to know what radical policies he has the bureaucracy working on and what types of 'czars' he has appointed.



He threw Murarak under the bus cause he was sorta kina pro american, Khaddafi OTOH is anti American and a friend of Rev Wright and Farrakhan, Obama's kind of guy he will let Khaddafi slaughter the rebels. As I predicted when this started.



His administration is putting policies designed to raise the prices of fuel to promote "green" energy. If he had been able to get cap and trade through prices would be much higher than what we are seeing now.

Remember raising fuel and electricity prices to combat MMGW?



Well they gave him big bucks last campaign you don't bite the hand you want to feed you in 2012. Crony capitalism and all.



His strong opposition/ support number is 44-21 with numbers like those and unpopular policies hiding and hiding your agenda is smart politics.

He needs to hope the birthers enable him to play the victim.

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."