Obama and his broad platform of promises - Analysis at 9 months

Thanks for your analysis Babel.  I was never taken in by the wave of popularism that was an aura created around Obama.  I think leadership is about making decisions and not a popularity contest.  Unfortunatey I still see the U.S. President in the campaign mode.

No man is an island and boils down to the advisers he surrounds himself with.  I tend to agree that he must be given a chance and perhaps some patience is required. 

Obama signed an Executive Order on Day one of his Presidency to close GITMO, a promise he has difficulty to keep as perhaps a plan should have been in place prior to making this announcement. 

I think if the President had tackled on problem at a time and set priorities, communicated to the American people with expected timelines it would have been better received.

I will reserve judgment as he has still three years left in his first term.  My advice, for what it.s worth, would be to slow down, take a deep breath, and regroup.

While health care reform is important, Obama must turn his attention to the increasing unemployment and the war in Afghanistan.

I think he boxed himself in.

I agree.  Let.s see if he will communicate his priorities and get out of the campaign mode.  It.s time to show some decisiveness and an actual plan, especially for Afghanistan.

Not certain if Obama has read up on FDR or not. He certainly seems to have take more than a few plays from FDR's playbook.  The times seem similar enough, the leftward lurch is a blast from the past, and he had a public that was for the most part eager and hopeful, when he took office.

His auto maker deals, the TARP money, and his bumbling with health care, however, are hardy from the FDR book of big daddy governance.

It seems that he would have been much better served to have used the unthinkable amounts of money spent, by putting it into the hands of the little people.  He chose to give it to the banks.....a choice that could well haunt him for 3 more years.  The little people are the ones still hurting. The banks? Read the news.

Instead of making friends, he is making enemies, creating large doubts about his ability to rule, and eroding confidence.

He also forced himself into a corner by betting the farm on his early spending, cutting his financial wiggle room dramatically, perhaps fatally.

He has waffled on Afghanistan, to the point where even the little people see it.

He no longer appears as the savior, but a mere mortal, with feet of clay perhaps.

Very good comments here by Hugh and ACP without the vitriole!   A very good example for all to think about.

I do second abertacowpoke's assessment and agree with HA's philosophical approach on this subject. In July last I wrote in an essay: The US government has been recklessly borrowing and spending for too long. But President Obama has accelerated this recklessness to breathtaking levels. The U.S. is rapidly approaching its crisis point a catastrophic collapse will be the only way out.

Get ready for Obama’s Great Depression, who is following the playbook of the man responsible for the Great Depression of 1930s, Herbert Hoover.

President Obama like Hoover launched the biggest stimulus programs and tax increases that the U.S. had ever seen. Those policies doomed the US economy. Now, it plays out again with the result that millions of middle-class people are about to suffer. - It is sad that Obama didn't sufficiently looked into the potentials and capabilities of his men that surrounds him today. The very best and most capable one, Paul Volcker was elected and soon afterwards moved out of his team of advisers. Apparently the negative incapable ones do have the majority at his inner circle? If so, don't expect stunning results during his current term. The impression is that his inexperience played the biggest role in committing himself into too much too soon.

9 months is close to the time for a preliminary assessment of Obama. He is spending twice the money the government takes in and that is a disaster.

Health care is still being worked on and nothing in the two wars has changed,

Obama is trying to do a lot and much of it will never be done.

I hope he becomes the best president ever but I would be happy if the country improves during his term in office.