Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Barack Dubya Obama: Part II

Thanks to the Impolitic for first posting about this:

Obama Blocks Access to White House visitor log:

So much for "more transparency"!

So much for "[the white house] is the people's house," not the President's.

Ugh.

As BluePitBull is fond of saying, if the voters don't want something that the politician does, "too bad."

Voters overwhemingly voted Obama in office based on his promises of "more transparency" and "change we can believe in"...so far, we're getting more of the same. I posted on another broken promise back in April. You can read it here.

Here we go:

Despite President Barack Obama's pledge to introduce a new era of transparency to Washington, and despite two rulings by a federal judge that the records are public, the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com's request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the present. It also denied a narrower request by the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sought logs of visits by executives of coal companies.

From the Impolitic again:

This isn't change we can believe in. Hell, it's not even a change and all these little incidents are adding up. I'm beginning to wonder if Obama wants to be a one term president after all.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

He has no intention of being a one-term president at all. He has no intention of anything. He lives in the present and his inexperience and the television camera is beginning to show us the stuff he is made of.

James' Muse said...

I know he doesn't ACTUALLY want to be a one termer, Pit. But breaking major promises will get him there. Carter lost by quite a bit to Reagan for many of the same things.

Shaw Kenawe said...

James' Muse:

All presidents break some of the campaign promises.

GWB promised he would keep the ban on assault weapons; he didn't.
He said America should not be involved in nation building; he didn't stick to that premise when he invaded Iraq. There are other promises he didn't keep.

GHWBush said "Read my lips--no new taxes." And he raised taxes.

Ronald Reagan said the government wasn't the solution, but was the problem and the he used the government to give us one of the largest tax increases in the history of this country.

And Mr. Obama has disappointed me on a number of campaign promises he made. He's a pramatist and is handling those problems that are most pressing just now.

We'll be able to get a better handle of how his administration is doing by the end of the year.

I think it's still too early.

He is NOT George W. Bush by any stretch.

Shaw Kenawe said...

"pragmatist"

James' Muse said...

But this is different than not following through; Obama has done the exact opposite of what he promised. He is doing what we voted against on many promises, such as this one, as well as the Executive Privilege I mentioned previously.

Pamela Zydel said...

James: I give you a lot of credit for criticizing Obama even though you voted for him. I wish more people who voted for him would be willing to do that. Obama isn’t perfect, as none of us are, and he will and has made mistakes, as all Presidents have. As far as his broken promises, I agree with Shaw, all Presidents have done this, and I don’t think it’s going to end with Obama. However, why this is happening is the mystery. I didn’t vote for Obama, but I decided that since he won, I would give him a chance. But once he started breaking promises, I got really disgusted. I’m to the point now where I don’t think I can believe anything he says. I realize this is quite negative, but it’s how I feel and until he changes and starts being a man of his word, whether I agree with it or not, I don’t feel like I can trust him. I also agree with Pitbull that Obama wants more than one term. Actually, I think if Obama could get 3 or 4, he would.

Unknown said...

I still think obama = Wesley Mouch.

And it's one thing to break some campaign promises, but to break most to all?

Anonymous said...

More "Change" we can believe in?

James' Muse said...

Pam: The reason I'm critical is BECAUSE I voted for him. I think one of the biggest problems of the last presidency is that those that voted for Bush didn't hold him accountable enough. I don't want to do that with Obama. Voices that campaigned for him should now be among the loudest criticizing broken policy promises. He needs to know he doesn't have carte blance.

Sandy said...

Great post and comments! The country seems so polarized politically that cleaning up the status quo in D.C. could go a long way toward bringing everyone together.

Patrick M said...

James: Did it ever occur to you why many of us on the right kept mocking the "change you can believe in" slogan? It's because we saw it as an empty load of crap.

So far, Obama's behaved exactly as I (and many on the right) expected him to behave. It's what happens when you run on empty slogans and not much else. People misunderstand.

Shaw: Economically, Obama hasn't changed much from Bush, except in pace (and taking over industries).

And GHWB paid the price for breaking his no new taxes pledge. I'm hoping Obama does too.

but you are right, it's still early, no matter how scary things are.

James' Muse said...

Maybe by seeing that those who initially supported him are beginning to turn he will realize that we want him to follow through on the direction he promised. I don't care about little things, but on the macro-level: pledged to be more transparent. Fail. Pledged to help with gay rights. Fail. Said would end "don't ask, don't tell." Fail. It's getting old.

Anonymous said...

Obama hasn't really held up his end of the promises he made.

-His stimulus plan is rumored (by bi-partisan economists) to only sustain the economy for 3-4 months when all the money is disbursed, and then we'll be right back where we started.

-He is buying up every major piece of the economy (auto, banks, etc), also referred to as practices of a Socialist government.

-Obama's glaring weakness is how he handles the military. His promise to withdraw from Iraq is already being overshadowed by the conflict Afghanistan that has worsened over the past few months. The threat of AL-Q in Pakistan and Obama's love for the Muslims means we will have to go, risk our soldier's lives unnecessarily, and protect Pakistan, creating Iraq 2.0.

He said that was going to be the president to help redeem this country. Obama is just another Jimmy Carter: He wants everyone to hold hands and become friends. Someone forgot to tell Obama that Muslim countries will join the love circle by running into the middle with a bomb strapped to their chests screaming "Jihad"

Seriously, Obama's policies ARE FAILING. He admitted himself yesterday that the stimulus isn't working as well as he hoped. His economic advisors said ... worst case ... unemployment would hit 8%. It's 9.4% and increasing rapidly. Capital is fleeing the country. Anyone with money is afraid to invest in America, because he is injecting so much uncertainty into the economy with bailouts, union giveaways, disregard for bankruptcy laws, etc. And, now he wants government-run healthcare ... awesome, healthcare with results like our public/government schools, the post office, Amtrack, etc.

I know, I know, it's Bush' and Cheney's and Halliburton's fault. So, when is the Left going to stop blaming them? Maybe in 2050? We're going to see the true consequences of Left-Wing policies ... and it is not pretty.

Policies of the Left have never, ever, ever worked in the history of mankind!!!!

James' Muse said...

Eric's Eyes:
Well, you started out on topic. Then you devolved into name calling and vitrol.

Btw, China is left-wing. And they are working just fine. Not just as in justice, but hey, they are actually doing pretty well. They sure have us by the cajones financially. I'm not advocating turning us into a left-wing country, but you said none has ever worked in the history of mankind, and on that you're quite wrong.