Obama, Cracked, WTF?

[unixronin]

Cracked has a good article (hat tip to fruitylips here) on that WTF Has Obama Done So Far site that's getting linkspammed practically everywhere, and it makes several good points. The article's main point is that a successful President — or any successful politician — wouldn't need a cheerleading/apology site like this to try to convince people that he was doing a good job, because it would be obvious.

It also points out, as I've previously observed elsewhere, that if you actually look at the "Obama accomplishments" listed on that site and think about what they are, a large majority of them aren't really things that Obama "did".  They're things that the Democrat-controlled Congress did, and Obama, a Democratic President, did not veto.  (Meanwhile, the site is oddly silent about the issues that have enraged voters taking to the streets and even to the Washington Mall¹.)

If the best thing you can find to say about the President you're supporting is that he did not veto his own party's bills, you're really damning him with faint praise.

[1]  And, unlike those demonstrating in support of Obama and Pelosi, actually cleaning up after themselves, instead of leaving the Mall littered from end to end with trash and abandoned signs.

Comments

[beckyzoole]

I think that Obama's style is not to be partisan, not to boast a whole lot about what he's done. A successful man, in my opinion, probably does need a "cheerleader" because most people look for the show and fluff and ignore the solid behind-the-scenes work.

I prefer a President who does NOT pull flamboyant stunts like landing on an aircraft carrier to declare "Mission accomplished" -- but the country as a whole seems to like grandstanding.

The problem, of course, is that a President is expected to be a figure-head, a cheerleader, a (temporary) monarch and machinating prime minister both rolled into one. Obama proved on the campaign trail that he can be a powerful orator and rallying figure, exactly what we in the modern media age want from a President -- but then, once he got into office, he turned into a policy wonk. He stopped selling himself.

The Democratic party is spineless and circling. Obama has been herding them into accomplishing quite a lot of his agenda. I don't think they would have done that without him. (Nancy Pelosi is useless in that regard.) He has also -- quietly and without fanfare -- nudged Administrative offices and departments in the direction he wants them to go.

But he needs to get back into TR's pulpit and energize the voters, otherwise all too many people will dismiss him as unsuccessful.