Final Review: End Of An Error, Part 4 - The Many Failures of The Obama Administration: Tabulating The Damage

As the Obama Presidency starts to wind down we thought it would be a good idea to do a final review of the Obama era. We took an initial swing at that topic back in October, 2016 with a series of seven posts starting on October 9, 2016 with the following post:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-1-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Not unexpectedly, the review across those seven posts captured the myriad of failures of this Presidency. Diplomatically, economically, fiscally, militarily, legally, Constitutionally, integrity-wise,and in many other ways, in my opinion, this has been the worst Presidency of my lifetime. If you are a liberal, please read the posts, all of which are extensively sourced, before going off the deep end without thinking. This Presidency has stunk.

We started out this week by using some fine reporting and research by Reason magazine to point out how hypocritical Obama has been relative to abusing military power and how his actions have helped create a so-called “Imperial Presidency” which 1) abuses the rule of law and Constitution and 2) is now being run for better or worse by Donald Trump.

Over the next few days we will looking at other folks' opinions on how well Obama did as President It will not likely to be pretty, as the previous seven posts referenced above have already proven.

1) Jeff Jacoby, writing for the Boston Globe on January 8, 2016, put together an article on Obama's failures called, “At Home and Abroad, Obama's Trail Of Disasters.” The full article can be accessed at: 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2017/01/08/home-and-abroad-obama-trail-disasters/YOaU1KuAT3hSHaGHkmGCeN/story.html?s_campaign=bostonglobe%3Asocialflow%3Atwitter

Highlights of his disaster findings from the Obama Presidency include the following disappointments:

• Two years into his term in 2010, voters handed Democrats, Obama's party, the biggest midterm Congressional election losses in 72 years.
• Although Obama was reelected in 2012, he got almost 4 million fewer votes than in 2008, the only President in history to see lesser margins in both the popular and electoral vote.
• In the next midterms elections in 2014, Obama’s Democrats lost more ground in Congress after Obama claimed that: “[My] policies are on the ballot — every single one of them.” 
• Since Obama was sworn into office in January 2009, about 1,100 Democrats across the country at all levels of government have been defeated, Republicans control both houses of Congress, Republicans hold 38 governor seats, and Republicans control 68 of the country's state legislative chambers.
• Although historically the deeper a recession, the stronger the recovery that follows, but the Obama economic recovery was the worst in seven decades.
• Annual GDP growth since the recession ended has averaged a feeble 2.1%, the puniest economic performance of any President since World War II. 
• His economic stimulus cost more than all previous Federal economic stimulus programs combined but it failed miserably to spur robust economic growth.
• During his “recovery,” more Americans fell below the poverty line while the number of Americans receiving food assistance soared despite the recovery.
• According to Pew Research, the percentage of adults aged 18 to 34 are living with their parents is at the highest levels since the Great Depression.
• The national debt almost doubled to $20 TRILLION under Obama.
• In 2008, as Obama was coming into his Presidency, 63% of Americans considered themselves middle class but that number has fallen to 51% seven years later.
• Obama made three basic Obama Care promises over and over: that the law would extend health insurance to the 47 million uninsured, that it would significantly reduce health insurance costs, and that Americans who had health plans or doctors they liked could keep them...he failed to keep any of the three.
• And those that do have Obama Care insurance policies are experiencing skyrocketing premium, deductible and co-pay increases, often making the following statement oh so true: The good news is that you now have health insurance coverage, the bad news is that your health insurance coverage is too expensive to use.
• Obama Care insurers are pulling out of the program because of bad financials, ObamaCare co-ops are mostly already dead or walking dead, and and competition for Obama Care policies in many parts of the country are non-existent or very small.
• By prematurely pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, against the advice of most of his military and civilian advisors, to make a political campaign claim, he created a power vacuum in the Middle East that made a horrible situation even worse.
• His diplomatic screwups regarding Syria, including his infamous and non-existent “red line” threat, gave Russia a diplomatic and military opening, leading to the ever increasing carnage of civilians in that country, a massive international refugee problem, and the rise of ISIS, the most ruthless and well financed terror organization ever.
• According to Mr. Jacoby: “Determined to conciliate America’s adversaries, the president indulged dictatorial regimes in Iran, Russia, and Cuba. They in turn exploited his passivity with multiple treacheries — seizing Crimea and destroying Aleppo (Russia), abducting American hostages for ransom and illicitly testing long-range missiles (Iran), and cracking down mercilessly on democratic dissidents (Cuba). The consequences have been stark: a Middle East awash in blood and bombs, US troops re-embroiled in Iraq and Afghanistan, aggressive dictators ascendant, human rights and democracy in retreat, rivers of refugees destabilizing nations across three continents, the rise of neo-fascism in Europe, and the erosion of US credibility to its lowest level since the Carter years.”
• As a Presidential candidate, Obama promised to bridge the divisions across the country but according to Gallup polling, he turned out to be the most polarizing and divisive President ever.
• As a community leader, he never understood the nuances of leadership and compromise and inclusion, it was his way or the highway and the public humiliation and belittling of those that dared to disagree with him.
• Even left leaning, liberal loving Politico agreed with this assessment during the 2012 Presidential election: “Obama and his top campaign aides have engaged far more frequently in character attacks and personal insults than the Romney campaign.” 
• After two terms of the Obama administration, 60% of Americans polled do not feel that the country is on the right track.

How to sum up all of these failures? Mr. Jacoby does it nicely: “Obama’s accession in 2008 as the nation’s first elected black president was an achievement that even Republicans and conservatives could cheer. It marked a moment of hope and transformation; it genuinely did change America for the better. It was also the high point of Obama’s presidency. What followed, alas, was eight long years of disenchantment and incompetence. Our world today is more dangerous, our country more divided, our national mood more toxic.”

2) The previous topic took up a lot of space so just one more summary of Obama’s Presidency for today. The following link goes to an MRCTV web page where a Ms. Brittany Hughes goes through a lot of the material we discussed above and previously this week but puts some cold logic and compassion to the wreckage that is this Presidency. More reviews tomorrow.

http://www.mrctv.org/blog/reality-check-goodbye-obama-and-good-riddance?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT0RZMFpXVXdNemszWTJReiIsInQiOiJNajc3T3FURTg0MFVZQlNkNm5hNUxBWkZTNGF1UEczNWdPZkN1ZEpwdEp0a1BiVXJyTHZuRzk2dEUzNjJMVU1WaTNjUGJ4bXh3RitXMmtqUHJhYWM0RHVzT09zckRjcUZcLzNSWlY4cGx4dDZBQTN0NmJvbmtlOFlIV3YrdnNIZUcifQ%3D%3D

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