Failing Obama? Too soon for a report card.
Diane raises a good point here about how there's a difference between a conservative wanting Obama to fail to institute his agenda and a conservative wanting America as a whole to fail. I buy that.
But what I struggle with is that Diane implies she's not sure that there was anything wrong with the Bush administration, speaking vaguely of "its mistakes, whatever those may have been." Diane then says that, by comparison, "our new President, he does not look so great."
I don't think that's a fair comparison. Conservatives have been saying that we can't judge Bush's legacy fairly for another generation, after we view its full impact. Yet they say Obama has been a colossal failure in, oh, about six weeks. Hmm. Aren't you willing to give Obama a whole generation before you judge him?
If he ends up getting the government to run health care the way it runs the post office, I'll happily hand him my support. Who do we want running health care -- AIG? General Motors?
The reason health care is an expensive mess, in this country, has a WHOLE lot to do with recent history---trial lawyers (you know, like John Edwards) blasting the system with frivolous, outrageous lawsuits that drove up doctor/hospital insurance costs which they happily passed along to us and our insurance companies. In any event, "our" health care should not be "run" by ANYONE at the federal level. The federal government should stay the heck out of it completely. Rob--the post office is in financial trouble all the time. You do not want a bureaucrat making your health care decisions. Bad, bad, bad, bad idea.
Oops forgot to mention. Your thoughts about the Bush legacy vs. the Obama legacy cut both ways. All the whining about Rush saying he wanted Obama to fail. I don't think you need me to Google all the Dems/Lefties who made even more outrageous statements about hoping/praying for failure/assassination/overthrow during the Bush years, now do you? :)
And the reason I can say Obama already does not look that great is because he hasn't take long at all to show that he is going to do exactly what we all figured he would do--attempt to oversee the largest wholesale transfer of power TO the federal government, ever in American history. We will not need eight years to judge the stupidity of this move.
And whatever was wrong with the Bush administration---the mess that developed in the economy, in the last year, was largely the result of the Clinton-pushed subprime mortgage mess. Remember, it was he and his cronies who pressured the banks to provide loans to all those people who shouldn't have purchased homes. The ones who now are squatting in them with the help of ACORN. Yup, political correctness can be a b***h. :)
I agree there's some inconsistency there re how Dems wanted Bush to fail. But you'll also recall that the Dems and the nation as a whole stood behind the president, after the crisis of 9/11 convinced us all to work together. Dems suspended their doubts about lots of things in order to give Bush a chance. When they felt let down or betrayed or misled, you saw a lot of anger come out.
I don't think the GOP or conservatives have come anywhere close to offering the cooperation in the economic crisis that Dems offered after 9/11. Do you?