After the first 100 days of the Obama administration, the Institute for Policy Studies introduced our Change Index to evaluate the policies and performance of the new president. Did the candidate who promised change deliver on his promises?
Back in April, we gave the administration a score of 7 out of 10. "In other words, President Obama has certainly raised the level of U.S. foreign and domestic policy," we wrote in our report "Thirsting for Change." "But honestly it wouldn't have taken much to improve on the legacy left by the previous administration. We're still a long way off from reaching the top and earning a wholehearted 'cheers' from our Change Index contributors."
Nine months later, the president has had more time to act on his agenda. And the result, as we detail in our new report Barely Making the Grade, has been mixed. He has spent a lot of time and energy to get a health care plan to Congress, but the final product is flawed in many ways. The stock market has regained much of its lost value, but the unemployment rate remains a staggering 10 percent and average Americans are still hurting. The president received his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, but was simultaneously increasing the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and ordering air strikes in Pakistan. After his first year in office, Obama emerged as the "have it both ways" president: hawk and dove, populist and pragmatist, principled and political.
Obama's balancing act is reflected in his approval rating, which crested at 65 percent in March and dropped to 50 percent by December. Like the public at large, we're looking at the glass of water that is the Obama administration and trying to decide whether it's half full or half empty. It's certainly half full when compared to what might have been if John McCain had won and continued, uninterrupted, the policies of his predecessor. The unemployment rate would likely be higher, health care reform further from implementation, and America involved in yet another major war in Iran or North Korea. But the glass is half empty when compared to what Obama the candidate promised and what other presidents, like Lyndon Johnson or even Jimmy Carter, accomplished in their first year, at least on the domestic front.
After the first year in office, Obama fell short of what he outlined as a candidate and what we had hoped for during the campaign. As a result, we lowered our mark from 7 to 6.5. In our Change Index, the middle figure of 5 represents no change from the Bush administration. So, there has been change, but it's been modest. The new team squeaked by with a C- and a note in the margin: needs improvement.
So much ink and air time is focused on 2009 and Obama. We just went thru a decade of Bush and the republicans in charge. What is Bush's grade for the decade that he governed. Where is the country after 8 yrs from 2001 thru 2008 after republicans' governance.
Most of this is to lynch Obama because he hasn't cleaned up the mess that Bush left us. Get real, we see thru your spin.
That's kind of like giving an hour long test, then taking the test 15 minutes into it, and "grading" it-even if they got all the questions they answered right, they would still FAIL the test, as they'd only have a 25%...it's a bit arbitrary, don't you think?
Furthermore, Congressional Quarterly score President Obama’s first year in office in terms of legislative accomplishments as the highest of all presidents in history since keeping objective data.
““But when you look at the votes of 2009 in which Obama made his preference clear, his success rate was unprecedented, according to John Cranford of Congressional Quarterly.
"His success was 96.7 percent on all the votes where we said he had a clear position in both the House and the Senate. That's an extraordinary number," Cranford says.
“The previous high scores were held by Lyndon Johnson in 1965, with 93 percent, and Dwight Eisenhower, who scored 89 percent in 1953. Cranford notes that George W. Bush's score hit the high 80s in 2001, the year of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. But Obama surpassed them all,” Cranford says.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122436116&ps=cprs”
Unfortunately too many people have forgotten the mess he inherited from the Bush/Cheney regime. He is doing a tremendous job of making America, once again, the beckon of light and hope to the down-trodden around the world.
We "Hope" to "Change" the problems in this country, someday.
http://www.nalc.org/AFL-CIO%20HC%20Comparison.pdf
"Income surcharge of 5.4% on
individual income over
$500,000 & families over $1 m
(raises $460 billion)"
Pelosi and the House Dems had wanted this tax increase on the billionaires. But Obama ditched that in faovr of higher taxes on blue collar working people.
Also let's leave out the long term stuff that really is still undecided.
And, I might add, who gives you the gaul to grade the President??????
I think the most important thing we can do now is to let him do his job, he is doing pretty well considering the MESS from BUSH. Let's see you, Feffer, come up with solutions to get out of the BUSHMESS.
He has adopted to many of Shrub's policies. We are not leaving Iraq. We are not closing Gitmo. We still utilize renditions & torture. The sole important domestic agenda addressed has been the stimulus. However, $100sB of needed & necessary infrastructure improvements were removed & replaced with pork to get the necessary votes. This has become a trademark of our ineffective & inept savior.
Health Care Reform, in its present proposed form is a windfall for Health Insurance & the Pharmaceutical Industry. The credit card law has provided the basis to truly screw American consumers. Not reforming Shrub's tax cuts has necessitated pushing back any health care reform until after the next presidential election in 12. He has escalated the longest & most unwinable war in our history instead of simply hunting & killing terrorists wherever they may be.
He has signaled continued weakness to both North Korea & Iran. Both of them continue to actively pursue the bomb & missiles to deliver them. He is not taxing obscene bonuses, but is in favor of taxing Americans fortunate enough to still have good health insurance plans. He is as cold hearted, mean spirited Rethug as Shrub ever was. He simply sounds more eloquent as he sticks the knife in our collective back.
His greatest feat will probably be not only rescuing the Rethug party from oblivion, but created the atmosphere which will return them to absolute control in 10 & 12. What a guy.
Maybe you should go to politifact.com or factcheck.org and peruse these sights. If you did, you would see that Obama has kept most of his promises. He restored our moral standing in the world that Shrub destroyed. Obama is preparing to leave Iraq and he will close Gitmo by the end of this year. I agree with your comment on Afghanistan, but Obama did not create that problem, either. Bush's tax cuts are being phased out by the end of 2010. It is about intent. Obama has done nothing to deliberately deceive the American public. Compare and contrast that to Bush lying us into an illegal and immoral war. I can feel the emotion in your post; now try and temper it with some objectivity.
The list goes on & on. Feel free to fact check it.