Why are so many people "Dissatisfied" with the Performance of President Obama?

SPC Andrew Griffin - This topic has been addressed many times in RallyPoint and, every time, I respond in the same way. Obama is the most inept, immoral, corrupt, racist, and divisive President in the history of our country. People who do not see that have their heads up their butts.

In addition, people who say the level of disrespect for Obama is unprecedented have very short memories. The Democrats/liberals launched just as much against Bush as is being launched against Obama and his corrupt Administration.

Our country is much worse off in every way and in every area than it was when Obama took office.

If I were a Hollywood producer casting an actor as the first African American President of the United States, I would hire Barack Obama. He's a telegenic and eloquent. As the real thing, he has been a national disaster. How you can love the job he's done baffles me! His failures are legion. It's President Obama not George Bush that has taken a torch to the Middle East. The percentage of people not participating in the work force is the highest in decades. Wages are stagnate. The middle class is in decline. African Americans and other minorities are worse off than they were before he took office. After seven tears you can't blame all this on President Bush. We hired Barack Obama to fix things, he only made them worse. And finally, President Obama is a leading member of those on the left that see America as the problem not the solution. His goal has been to cut America down to size by reducing the military and abdicating American leadership around the world. I believe he will go down as one of the most ineffectual presidents in American history. I can understand the pride African Americans have in the first black president after the history of race in America. Nevertheless, African Americans need to wake up and realize that Democrats in general have exploited them and not improved their lot in life.

He over promised and under delivered. He was ill prepared for a difficult job.

SPC Griffin-I'll be frank; my primary disappointment in Mr. Obama relates to his apparent support for changes in our society I do not espouse based on my religious views. Taking that out of the equation however, I also see no great evidence of the improvements he is often credited with. His administration's most lauded achievement, the Affordable Healthcare Act, led directly to the loss of my favored insurance coverage in exchange for less effective coverage due to higher costs imposed on my employer. While this may have helped some (my sister seems to have gained temporary benefits she could not otherwise have), the personal accounts I've been told do not sound favorable. In terms of national defense, we are, following more than a decade of continued operations, watching Iraq burn and Afghanistan slide into corruption. ISIS is an unimaginable horror that "Hearts and Minds" (admittedly a "Bush-era" strategy) failed to prevent...the Obama administration has neither definitively moved to quell it, nor clarified a position of un-involvement. Finally, as a President with so much opportunity to unite us, Mr. Obama has presided over what may prove to be one of the most divisive periods of American history since before the Civil War. I believe you'd agree with me that a leader should speak "to" their people...not "above" them, and much of what the President has said seems to alienate, rather than re-assure. "Progress" is an ambiguous accolade if it isn't measured against what is being bull-dozed out of the way to make it possible. Perhaps what is needed in a nation as diverse and large as ours, is a leader who can inspire pride in what we've already done...as opposed to guilt for what we've failed to do.

I think you're onto something with this, but the feelings against him are still strong. He could be the second coming of Jesus and still folks won't be satisfied. I believe he has done a lot of good for this country but no one will admit it, but as soon as something goes wrong, they're quick to point and wag the finger as if it's his fault. I've also noticed how he's vilified for things that previous presidents have done with no real fallout, BUT because he's Obama, he's wrong. Obama can't be black... he's biracial (that means he's STILL Black BTW) . He's not American, he's Kenyan. He's not Christian, yet his former pastor (Christian) was an Marine and Navy Corpsman who was part of a team that took care of Pres. Johnson. Wrights radical views came at a price and was eventually let go by Obama, but because of his name, he's instantly a Muslim. The stock market hit new highs, and gas hit historic lows, but it wasn't because of anything he did; can't be. It's Obama we're talking about. He wanted more jobs, but they're not the types people want, so he didn't do that either. He made the DREAM act. But before him, every president had some kind of amnesty program for illegals, but this is definitely Obama's fault and no one else. No one wants to go after big business and agriculture being that they are the main users of illegal workers...not the federal government; definitely not Obama. ISIS is Obama's fault. He pulled us out of Iraq to soon.... no one wants to admit the host country wanted us out also and that negotiations on us leaving were started before he took office. Obama holds Israel's feet to the fire. Most politicians are too scared to say anything negative about Israel for being called anti-Semitic. Iran is Obama's fault. Never mind there were other countries who signed the deal; never mind that before Obama took office Iran went from 0 to 5000 centrifuges. Because Obama won't allow Congress to do what it's been doing for the last 20 years (a whole lot of nothing), and he makes executive orders to do things, people get butthurt. And he hasn't even issued the most ex orders in history. He repealed a dated and useless DADT. Has anyone asked the sexual orientation of anyone in a foxhole, or hasty fighting position in the last 100 years? For some reason I doubt you gave a sh*t. He's all for allowing women a larger part in the military; in areas where before only men could go. Has Obama messed up? Ohh hells yeah he has, but no more and no less than any other president. The VA is messed up because of Obama. Now the VA has been around longer than he's been alive, and it's been screwed up since then. And it's Obama's fault? Name one president that has had to deal with the instant ramifications of social media, rapid internet access, the ability for news agencies to push views out on the same technological scale Obama has. Obama is NOT a bad president. He's is a productive President to the best of his abilities, with the tools given. He works or sorta works with THE laziest and most worthless congress in the history of mankind, and takes hits for the crap they won't do. And that's democrat and republican. So for anyone to sit and say he's a bad president now is very shortsighted. Carter was seen as a "bad" president, but it was some of the things he did in office that lasted the test of time that made him good. Same with those after him, and same with Obama.

I would counter-argue that he has been shown a level of deliberate ignorance, passive denial and sycophantic kowtowing that makes even the most hardened stomach turn. Or, to put it more simply, this is what happens when amateurs try to play in the big leagues.

But that's not your question. Your question is, Why are so many dissatisfied with his performance, correct?

Here's the short answer: Because we're losing our status as a superpower.

- We aren't feared by our adversaries, particularly Russia and China. We aren't respected or trusted by our allies, particularly in Europe.
- We're teetering toward $20 TRILLION in debt before his administration leaves office and we have little to show for any of it. And the dollar isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
- Unemployment and underemployment remain persistent problems, despite rosy-colored economic forecasts.
- Petrol still costs about $3.00 per gallon.
- Racial relations have never been worse, at least not in my lifetime.
- The so-called level playing field where everyone's a winner has wrought a childish society that reels between temper tantrums and delusions of grandeur as narcissism and the high octane of social media fuels rampant egocentrism.
- Politics are now an exercise in self-destruction. The art of the compromise is dead, or at least very dormant in our political spectrum, particularly with Capitol Hill vis-a-vis the White House and vice versa.
- Neo-isolationism has wrought no dividends. There is no clear end to the quagmire in Southwest Asia and no limit to the bad scenarios evolving in Southeast Asia.
- The military is probably at it's lowest ebb as far as morale is concerned in a generation, perhaps two generations. One of the reasons for it is that it's being cut to a level not seen since the days between WWI and WWII and it's being led by politicians and bureaucrats who don't have the first clue what it's like to make sacrifices and endure hardship.

Do I need to go on?

At the moment, ideology trumps reason and hostility is considered a virtue. Also, we have enormous amounts of information at our fingertips but a lot of people lack the discernment and discipline to know when they're being lied to or do actual fact checking.

I'm not a huge fan because of certain policies, but I don't feel he gets the credit he deserves for others.

And since my momma taught me "if you ain't got anything nice to say then shut the hell up" I'll focus on the good.

Sending SEALS into Pakistan without permission to nail Bin Laden took brass balls that come in dump trucks. When you think of the political risks of sending armed troops into another country... it well could have been considered an act of war, yet he sacked up and did it.

I'm not a fan of the Affordable Healthcare, I think it's the wrong way to help people who desperately need it... and is unnecessarily expensive, BUT he did SOMETHING... at least now we can talk about "how can we actually make this work" instead of "will it ever happen".

As for the economic recovery... the highest point of the NYSE was on 3/5/2013, so I don't think we can say that he "drove the economy into the ground" truthfully. National debt is the highest it's ever been, but the ONLY president that that isn't true of is William Jefferson Clinton, when he balanced the budget in 1996.

If you actually listen to his speeches about gun control they make sense (tougher for felons and the mentally ill to get guns), but I think he was the wrong person to give them, and gun sales soared.

Now there's plenty of inexcusable mistakes... Benghazi, saying foolish things on a global stage, etc, but they aren't mistakes that haven't been made by previous administrations (anyone remember Reagan saying "we bomb Russia in 10 minutes"? Don't get me started on Bush 43...), and there's the whole "Blackhawk Down" and "Operation Eagle Claw", but as a whole I don't think he is the "worst ever" that my uber conservative friends make him out to be.

Oh, and as someone who isn't convinced that either party has America's best interest in mind... I don't think he gets hated and raked over the coals as bad as some people think either. Probably because he isn't as bad at "sticking his foot in his mouth" as some of the previous administrations.

You need to go back and read history, the sitting president has a long tradition of visceral being thrown in their faces.