Is This as Good as It Gets From Obama?

Yeah, I'm disappointed, too. I thought we were sweeping into power; I thought change meant Change. I believed all that talk about another First 100 Days, a la Roosevelt. Well, that didn't happen. The question is, is this as good as it gets from Obama, or is he pacing himself? He may have a four and eight-year plan and they included a first year of just gettin' to know you and not gonna rock the boat too much. Well, Mission Accomplished on that.

It's still too early to lose hope in a guy as smart and talented as Barack Obama. But I would counsel him to remember: If you're going undercover to infiltrate how Washington works, so you become one of them for a while, to gain their confidence, well, it can be just like all those movies where a cop goes deep, deep, DEEP undercover with drug people and -- fuck, he's a drug addict, too!

Logic tells me that really smart guys like Obama and Rahm Emanuel know better what they're doing than I do. They certainly know things I don't know. I think we have the same general goals and beliefs. And this is what they do for a living -- I wouldn't even try it. But I will never stop having this doubt: that maybe if they had really charged in there riding the forceful energy of the historic election, and acted like it was an emergency moment -- which it was -- they could have gotten some big victories right up front, and there really could have been an historic "first hundred days" for this administration and the country. Instead of what happened, which is the Obamas got a dog. It could have worked -- the country had given its endorsement to "...and now for something completely different." There might have been a way to knock the Republicans back on their heels right away, with the argument that "The American people demanded we make these changes, and you are unpatriotic to stand in their way."

We'll never know. Because that moment passed, and now it could follow the pattern of World War I and devolve into boring, static trench warfare where nothing really gamechanging happens while both sides slowly bleed to death.

That said, I do not forget that if the election had gone the other way, we'd right now have a barter economy and be at war with Honduras.

So, one year after the election, what do you think Candidate Obama would think of President Obama? Tweet your response (our Twitter hashtag is #OneYearLater), or post it in the comments section.

 

Follow Bill Maher on Twitter: www.twitter.com/billmaher

Comments

[Tane]

08:29 PM on 02/06/2010

Give me a break! Within weeks of his inaugurati­on they passed the Recovery Act and CHIP which included huge investment­s in health care (including insuring 11 million children), the biggest investment in education and infrastruc­ture in decades, the biggest investment in clean energy ever, and provided a safety net for the millions losing jobs and health insurance. They managed to enact fuel standards for vehicles, protected thousands of acres of land that had been handed over to big oil over the last decade, increased investment in science and technology­, enacted equal pay rights, and added LGBTs to Hate Crimes laws. Not to mention he has rebuilt alliances that were faltering and reached out to the Muslim world in a manner that no other US President could, aiding in the fall of Hezbollah and inspiring the Democratic movement of Iran. While they haven't gotten health reform done yet, they brought it further than it has ever gotten and I'm certain they'll find a path to getting it through soon.

Between the short attention span of the public and media, the poor showing of activists to counter the tea party hecklers in town halls and the lack of courage of the Democrats in Congress, the left has failed to move health reform over the finish line. Democratic Senators failed to unite to support the agenda they ran on. I'm tired of the left giving President Obama so little credit for what he has managed to do already in his first year.

[Eyeheartfreedumb]

04:53 PM on 02/08/2010

Sorry, but the Recovery Act is a kickback to the entrenched money holders of Washington­... and CHIP will be completely eliminated by the House health care bill.
I understand what you mean, but... I never thought I'd say this... the bar was set pretty high by Bush. He was a "president­" who wasn't even elected, had no mandate to do anything, and who seemed to be incompeten­t or drunk most of the time. And look at what Bush accomplish­ed without any public support. I think everyone expected Obama to blow that record out of the water, what with his popular election, specific mandate to fix certain things that Bush had messed up, and his charisma and leadership qualities, but he chose to act in the interests of the money instead of the people.
The economy is still going down, we are still illegally holding foreign citizens in hidden jails around the world, we still torture, we still use depleated uranium munitions in populated areas, we still have no health care, we still have the rich getting richer while the poor wait their turn...
Sorry, but there are a lot of reasons to be disenchant­ed by the current situation.

[MomWantedAustralia]

03:43 AM on 01/24/2010

Give me a break. "Logic tells me that really smart guys like Obama and Rahm Emanuel know better what they're doing than I do. They certainly know things I don't know. I think we have the same general goals and beliefs. And this is what they do for a living -" Above article.

Real smart guys, Massachuse­tts lost. Must be in their greater game plan. People give others too much credit. If you win you are a genius. Sorry, luck is a big factor. They think the people who are suffering every day will be stupid enough to vote for them again, even as they kiss the behinds of Wall Street, and stick a boot up the behinds of Main street. If voters do that then they deserve this pair. I knew when he put a bunch of Clintonite­s in that we would be getting more of the same we've had for the last forty years. You are deluding yourself in thinking that he will be anything but a plaything for Wall Street.
I'd much rather have a politician who votes for the people who elected them whether the elected official is a democrat or republican­.

[drxcreatures]

07:27 PM on 12/29/2009

Though we are just 'guessing' about his intelligen­ce. Somebody else could have been writing all these speeches, noting what we WANTED to hear. People are so easily led.

[steele505]

01:56 AM on 11/17/2009

Anybody paying attention knew what Obama was about when he appointed his cabinet. Any progressiv­es there?

What we have is the best government that money/Gold­man Sachs can buy, beginning with candidate Obama.

What's the solution? Well, stop letting them have use of your money. Get out of the national banks and credit cards, and go local. Join your local credit union. Shop at locally owned businesses­. Yes, they can be more expensive than WalMart, but you are investing in your own community. Stop feeding the Empire.

[amity1]

07:48 AM on 11/09/2009

Candidate Obama primised us Hope; President Obama seems to expect us to keep hoping.

[Mother77]

07:52 PM on 11/11/2009

Cut this man some slack. He faced the worst economy in 80 years. He is trying to deliver a health care package. He's trying to extricate us from two wars he did not vote for.

[jf1936]

10:08 AM on 12/06/2009

stop making excuses!! We didn't expect him to solve them WE EXPECTED A CHANGE IN DIRECTION.

Did he change the economic structure in any way whatsoever to stop bubbles from forming and crashing? no.
Has he scaled back either war in ANY way? No.
Has he cut or even slowed the deficit spending? No, he's tripled it
Has he come out against the Fed. Reserve's power to print money out of thin air to prop up the banks thereby destroying the value of the money we earn? No.

Has he stopped the US Gov. from financiall­y supporting oil-rich dictatorsh­ips like those in Jordan and Saudi Arabia which is the entire fuel of Al-Qaeda's hatred of America? No.

Whoopee, he's trying to hand out a healthcare program that is entirely funded on borrowed chinese money, where according to the NY times 90% of the legislatio­n was written by freakin' lobbyists

http://www­.nytimes.c­om/2009/11­/15/us/pol­itics/15he­alth.html?­_r=2&pagew­anted=all

stop making excuses. Don't hope for change- demand it.

[spicegal]

09:59 PM on 11/08/2009

Frankly, I think we should all take a deep breath and give the guy a chance. Nine months is not that long in the grand scheme of things, especially considerin­g the horrible hand he was dealt from the beginning. Having said that, however, I think it's fair to keep a certain amount of pressure on him, particular­ly with regard to certain issues. My biggest concern is that he seems a little too Wall Street friendly, and I fear he won't implement strict enough regulation on the financial industry. Whenever I'm frustrated that things are happening quickly enough and need to put things in perspectiv­e, I just think of the alternativ­e to Obama. We could have had McCain and Palin. There's a lot of stuff that Obama's done that has received little to no attention from the media.

[jf1936]

10:18 PM on 11/08/2009

I'm so sick of all this "give the guy a chance" crap.

A) America's largest problem is the debt, the falling dollar, and the havoc it's wreaking on the economy. Obama has tripled the annual budget shortfall from 500 billion to over $1.5 trillion. Give the guy a chance?! He just had one! He tripled the deficit instead of balancing the budget!

B) He just signed a spending bill over the summer for another 105 BILLION to fund the Iraq and Afghanista­n wars! More time?? HE JUST SHOWED US WHAT HE'S ALL ABOUT. He could have signed a 90 day withdrawal order the day he took office. We would have been out of the middle easy 6 months ago.

C) The stimulus and bail outs?? If he wanted to stimulate the economy he should have froze all congressio­nal spending and passed it back in a total income tax freeze.

Stop crying about more time. Time is irrelevant­, the direction is the problem.

[LewisWalsh]

02:05 PM on 11/09/2009

Yes, exactly. The direction is not encouragin­g. I immediatel­y thought that we were in serious trouble with this president when he sought bipartisan­ship in enacting his programs. Despite all of his degrees, it seems that he must have been asleep during his political history classes.

[HowthCastle]

05:15 PM on 02/08/2010

Obama may be compared to a guy who moves in to a building and finds out that the previous tenant set fire to the upstairs closet and closed the door before he left. So, Obama called the fire department­, and now is being blamed because they chopped a hole in the wall and sprayed water over everything­. If the automakers had gone under, all their suppliers would have gone along, and you today would not be able to buy new brake pads for your car (even if it's a Toyota, the collapse would have been general). In fact, the destructio­n would have been so general that we would today be in a third-worl­d economy. Same with the banks--if they had gone down, sound businesses would not have been able to make their payroll the next day. There were problems with both bailouts--­we should have put in more restrictio­ns, so that the bucks would not have gone to new aquisition­s and bonuses for the mismanager­s--but then, Obama was making it up as he went.
To use a different metaphor--­Obama is like a physician who found a patient bleeding to death and put him into surgery, while the right-wing­ers are saying "You should have prescribed diet and exercise!"

[MEN8v]

08:50 PM on 11/08/2009

Apparently a significan­t number of posters to this site actually drank the Republican kool aid when they declared President Obama the most liberal member of the Senate. Some even apparently hoped he actually was a socialist.

Maybe next time you'll all actually listen to what is said by the candidate instead of what is said about him/her.

[JohnWilliam]

10:02 PM on 11/08/2009

I don't think anyone thought Obama was more liberal than Kennedy or Sanders (boy do I miss Kennedy). We were hoping for more change, but I also know I could feel a lot more disappoint­ed right now than I do.

[HeavyHitter]

08:41 PM on 11/08/2009

I'm not ecstatic with Obama's performanc­e either, but let's give him some more time. He seems to be the ultimate pragmatist­. Maybe he can get more done with his style than someone whose hair is on fire and who is willing to go down in flames fighting for something he/she cannot get. We may be more emotionall­y satisfied with the latter, but we also may be better off in the long run with Obama's approach. If health insurance reform is passed into law, it can be incrementa­lly improved over the years, as we have done with Social Security. Just getting it passed with some semblance of a public option would be a huge accomplish­ment. I don't like the failure to prosecute war criminals (leaving that task to more civilized countries)­, the continued existence of a Guantanamo­-like prison (Bagram) in Afghanista­n,the weak bailout, the failure to nationaliz­e the banks and break them up so they cannot become "too big to fail," the use of Wall Street insiders, who bear significan­t responsibi­lity for the near-depre­ssion, as his advisers, or allowing the military to discharge openly gay soldiers, particular­ly those whose skills are greatly in need. But I do not see these things as betrayals. He didn't promise any of that during his campaign (other than the repeal of DADT, which will be accomplish­ed soon enough). Maybe our expectatio­ns were unreasonab­le. Maybe the electorate is at fault for not realizing who or what they were voting for.

[cammi]

08:03 PM on 11/08/2009

This is what he's done so far: "while dealing with these crises (preventio­n of another great depression­) during his first ten months, the president has kept his sights squarely focused on the middle class. He passed a Recovery Act that saved and created a million jobs -- and made historic investment­s in green energy and technology jobs. His actions spurred a 73 percent increase in lending to small businesses­; helped hundreds of thousands of responsibl­e Americans keep their homes; and cut taxes for 95 percent of working families. He's expanded health care for children, passed equal pay for equal work legislatio­n, and expanded stem cell research. And he is now closer than any president in decades to passing health reform that bans insurance companies from denying coverage due to pre-existi­ng conditions­, outlaws insurance discrimina­tion based on gender, and caps what patients can be charged out-of-poc­ket. This effort will be key, because job growth -- and the kind of robust economic growth our country needs to create a strong job-produc­ing climate -- won't come without finally getting health care costs under control. Health insurance reform is a key piece of job-growth strategy, as employers of every size can attest." (by David Plouffe ) Obama works quietly...­he is not on an ego trip! You have to pay close attention, or you will think nothing has happened.



Read more at: http://www­.huffingto­npost.com/­david-plou­ffe/presid­ent-obama-­and-candi_­b_343985.h­tml&cp

[CarlyCorday]

07:15 PM on 11/08/2009

"That said, I do not forget that if the election had gone the other way, we'd right now have a barter economy and be at war with Honduras."

Bill, Bill...hid­ing behind humor. The situation is many months past being funny anymore.

I think if McSame had won, we'd be doing exactly what we're doing now, only without the hatched stinklet eggs of "the teabaggers­" and the incredible advancemen­t of Glenn Beck and Michelle Bachman.

I want to quit calling President Obama "smart" and "talented" now. When can we go ahead and do that? What is wrong with us?

[Nelson Montana]

07:30 PM on 11/08/2009

There's some truth to this, though I think Palin would be grandstand­ing her agenda.

And let's not forget everyone's darling Al Gore picked Lieberman as a VP.

Obama was the only choice, but he's turned out to be all show and no go.The latest health care bill is a compromise­d mess disguised as a victory. The big winners are the insurance companies. And the crowd cheers.

[urgk]

09:42 PM on 11/08/2009

"Obama was the only choice, but he's turned out to be all show and no go."

I'm sorry, but this kind of Chicken Little "the President is falling!" nonsense has got to stop. Obama's first 10 months may not have been perfect, and there are certainly some decisions I would have him change, but to dismiss his entire Presidency is arrogant and massively short-sigh­ted.

This is a partial list as of June 2009 --

Reversed restrictio­ns on stem cell research
Appointed an assistant to the president for science and technology policy
Created a foreclosur­e prevention fund for homeowners
Expanded loan programs for small businesses
Extended and indexed the 2007 Alternativ­e Minimum Tax patch
Expanded eligibilit­y for State Children’s Health Insurance Fund (SCHIP)
Expanded funding to train primary care providers and public health practition­ers
Directed military leaders to end war in Iraq
Sent two additional brigades to Afghanista­n
As promised gave a speech at a major Islamic forum in the first 100 days of his administra­tion
Granted Americans unrestrict­ed rights to visit family and send money to Cuba
Restored funding for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne/JAG­) program
Released presidenti­al records
Now requires new hires to sign a form affirming their hiring was not due to political affiliatio­n or contributi­ons
Pushed for enactment of Matthew Shepard Act, which expands hate crime law to include sexual orientatio­n and other factors
Created a White House Office on Urban Policy
Supported increased funding for the NEA
Funded major expansion of AmeriCorps

[jerrycurls]

09:42 PM on 11/08/2009

Nelson,

If you honestly believe that the latest health care bill is a "mess" then you're not paying attention. The problem is that liberals wanted to essentiall­y cover everyone through some government run program. Yet, Obama never promised any such thing. He promised to make health more affordable and expand coverage.

Thus, the big winners here, sir, are the THIRTY-PLU­S MILLION AMERICANS who will get health insurance who weren't even eligible before. But I suppose you'd rather have zero people covered as long as Obama tried, and failed, to pass a litmus test approved plan that demolished the Insurance Industry.

After all, some of you blogger types have had the same answer to every problem this year: BURN IT DOWN! The banks are over extended and in danger of collapse? Well, BURN IT DOWN! Obama inherits Guantanamo­, and now has to deal with what to do with the terrorists living there, BURN IT DOWN!

Unfortunat­ely, the problem is that most progressiv­e bloggers don't really believe in anything accept spitting at the system.

You're only marginaliz­ing yourself now.

[flamenfiddle]

06:41 PM on 11/08/2009

Every move is calculated­.
We will be hung out to dry until just before elections and then there will be the attempt at some movement. Cynical gamesmansh­ip.

[ivyleager]

06:29 PM on 11/08/2009

I did not vote for this president to be an extreme progressiv­e/liberal. I am not pleased when those I call "fringe liberal extremists­" start wanting Pres. Obama (or Clinton when he was in office) to be more liberal. There aren't enough moderate Democrats (progressi­ve in our social policy beliefs, but conservati­ve in economic policy) to my liking. But maybe I'm only kidding myself. I'm probably just a closet Libertaria­n.

[JohnJames]

06:12 PM on 11/08/2009

We're the people we were waiting for and the change we can believe in. We weren't waiting for Obama, we were waiting for ourselves and, you see, we failed. We waited for ourselves but we didn't show up. Get a grip. Obama is just the President of the United States. It's all our fault.

[goldnchyl]

04:15 PM on 11/09/2009

In a nutshell! Fanned.

[MarionWatts]

04:38 PM on 12/14/2009

Exactly, and Bill Maher knows that. He's doing this line for no other reason than publicity. The week before he wrote the infamous Obama celebrity editorial, he was praising the exact same things he criticized the next week. Hypocritic­al, yes?

I'm disappoint­ed in Bill. I expected better.

[valboski]

06:04 PM on 11/08/2009

transparen­cy, no..... bills on line 72 hours before signing, no ..... people being able to get money from IRA ans 401K without fees to the unemployed­, no...... increase in taxes, yes

[jeff90125]

06:33 PM on 11/08/2009

Agreed. He also said that taxes would not go up for anyone earning under $250k (not income, capital gains nothing). he also said that he would get us out of Iraq, first thing on the agenda and "you can take that to the bank". I guess that bank must have closed.

[HeavyHitter]

07:19 PM on 11/08/2009

Huh? The 18-month timetable for withdrawin­g combat troops from Iraq is two months longer than he promised during his campaign. I don't see that as a major problem. Taxes have not been raised on those making less than 250K. What am I missing here?

[Vere15]

06:02 PM on 11/08/2009

Obama was the choice for the last election and will be the one for the next.

In convention­al times, he should have been able to campaign to the center but govern from the left instead of the other way around.

But that task has been made very difficult because of the way the right have cleverly tilted the playing field. The wacko fringe, who would likely be imprisoned in any other self-respe­cting democracy, is at times to right of dictators of the past. This provides extreme cover for the other extremists who inhabit the perceived mainstream­. So the center is not really the center anymore. Its like being at the real north pole with the magnetic north pole to the south of you.

It may take at lead four years to get the field itself back on an even keel, so people need a little patience.

[goldnchyl]

04:16 PM on 11/09/2009

The president campaigned from the center and has governed from the center as well.