Barack Obama: The Weakest President In History?

Only two short years ago, the view from Europe and the UK was that the election of obama would change everything. Recall, that some even wanted to proclaim him "president of the world", and such. Check out this collection published reactions to obama's election from around the world.

CNN Source

But that's all changed now - and not in a good way - for the obama presidency. More and more people around the world are starting to wonder if "the lights are on, but nobody's home" at the White House.

So, we have the OP headline from a newspaper in the UK, asking if it hasn't turned out instead that obama is the weakest president in U.S. history?

source

INEFFECTUAL, invisible, unable to honour pledges and now blamed for letting Gaddafi off the hook. Why Obama’s gone from ‘Yes we can’ to ‘Er, maybe we shouldn’t’...

Let us cast our minds back to those remarkable days in November 2008 when the son of a Kenyan goatherd was elected to the White House. It was a bright new dawn – even brighter than the coming of the Kennedys and their new Camelot. JFK may be considered as being from an ethnic and religious minority – Irish and Catholic – but he was still very rich and very white. Barack Obama, by contrast, was a true breakthrough president. The world would change because obviously America had changed.

Obama’s campaign slogan was mesmerisingly simple and brimming with self-belief: “Yes we can.” His presidency, however, is turning out to be more about “no we won’t.” Even more worryingly, it seems to be very much about: “Maybe we can… do what, exactly?“ The world feels like a dangerous place when leaders are seen to lack certitude but the only thing President Obama seems decisive about is his indecision. What should the US do about Libya? What should the US do about the Middle East in general? What about the country’s crippling debts? What is the US going to do about Afghanistan, about Iran?

What is President Obama doing about anything? The most alarming answer – your guess is as good as mine – is also, frankly, the most accurate one. What the President is not doing is being clear, resolute and pro-active, which is surely a big part of his job description. This is what he has to say about the popular uprising in Libya: “Gaddafi must go.” At least, that was his position on March 3.

Many others have been trying to say the same thing, but none as eloquently as this.

I honestly think he wanted to change things but the powers that be, I believe threatened his life.


You ever notice how passionate he was on the campaign trail and less than a few weeks in office, his whole demeanor changed?

Almost as if someone gave him an ultimatum


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reply to post by Q2IN2Y


That's an awfully convenient excuse for foot-dragging, ineffectual policy, ineffectual leadership on the economy, and dealing with world wide events.

If it were Bush people would be talking about how useless and evil he is. I find this kind of double standard ridiculous.

Reply to post by Q2IN2Y

The more likely reason is he's a corrupt politician just like the rest of them. I find it almost funny that anybody actually thought he would do some good.


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S&F

I thought I would never see the day when I would defend Hillary Clinton but the Woman has had quite the full plate in the past couple of years and has had to deal with Obama's weakness on top of it all.

North Korea seems likes a distant memory when you consider Obama's recent Middle East antics.

It sounds as if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has had enough. Her new strong tone on North Korea is a welcome, albeit overdue, shift.

The Obama administration’s North Korea policy for the past 18 months has consisted of public relations ploys of pretending to get tough on the rogue state and a propensity to repackage the hard work of the Bush team and call it something new and improved.

Hillary's announcement that the Obama administration will enforce the existing sanctions on nuclear-related materials and luxury goods going in and out of North Korea is yet another example. While many members of the mainstream media have fallen for the Obama team’s marketing efforts, veteran North Korea experts and U.N. observers aren’t fooled.

Still, Clinton’s new forceful language signaled that even she believes the current policy isn’t working and more must be done. She, seemingly alone among the Obama administration foreign policy team, is aware that success in North Korea requires more than just talking.

What Secretary Clinton really said is that the Obama administration will finally start enforcing the demands placed on North Korea during the Bush administration.

www.newsmax.com...

Not sure how accurate this story is. However, I can't deny the plausibility when you consider what Hillary has had to deal with in the past

Fed up with a president “who can’t make his mind up” as Libyan rebels are on the brink of defeat, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is looking to the exits.

At the tail end of her mission to bolster the Libyan opposition, which has suffered days of losses to Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s forces, Clinton announced that she’s done with Obama after 2012 — even if he wins again.

“Obviously, she’s not happy with dealing with a president who can’t decide if today is Tuesday or Wednesday, who can’t make his mind up,” a Clinton insider told The Daily. “She’s exhausted, tired.”

www.thedaily.com...

The man has weakened this nation on all fronts to a level that I thought I would never see in my life.

Weak maybe if you look at what the public want done but thats not the full picture of this story

[Obama was/is one of the greatest scams the people of the U.S. fell for and some are still falling for.
he is a car salesman , everything he said before he was potus was a lie.

he said he would go by he oath to follow the constitution but all he has done is signed orders to make the constitution less and less .

he promoted himself as the one to fix the damage if he became POTUS that bush did but all he has done is add to the damage.

as far as constitution damage POTUS have done , its obama/bush are the top of the list .

weak in the MSM/public veiw but in the legal tearing up of the constitution very scray.

Reply to post by projectvxn

Relax first off. I'm not making an excusem I'm making an observation.

I've never seen any president in my lifetime speak so passionately and within a week or two change.

And I'm not referring to his policies, I'm talking about his whole character in general.

On camera and away from politics

He has the face of someone who is walking on egg shells


Once again, please note and understand that this is an nuetral observation


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Originally posted by Q2IN2Y
I honestly think he wanted to change things but the powers that be, I believe threatened his life.


You ever notice how passionate he was on the campaign trail and less than a few weeks in office, his whole demeanor changed?

Almost as if someone gave him an ultimatum

 

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Perhaps.

But then you also can look back at obama's record as far back as the Illionois Senate, where he just voted "present" a number of times.

In hindsight, it shows obama may always have been plagued with indecision, it just matters a whole lot more now.

I think he may have changed - as you have observed - once he found out what the job of president really entails - and that is making tough decisions because "the buck really does stop there".

reply to post by Q2IN2Y


His whole character in general is of a corrupt Chicago politico who says one thing to woo the crowds into giving him the power of their vote and does entirely another while in office.

His whole presidency has been one of indecision, lack of understanding, hiring political cronies instead of qualified people and when none of that worked out demonizing the opposition through proxies.

Obama is the most corrupt POS I've ever seen in my entire life. And this is coming from someone who, as the OP can attest, used to fervently defend him and his positions.

Originally posted by warbird03
Reply to post by Q2IN2Y

 

The more likely reason is he's a corrupt politician just like the rest of them. I find it almost funny that anybody actually thought he would do some good.

 

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edit on 18-3-2011 by warbird03 because: (no reason given)

I dont think it is possible for any POTUS in the future to do any good for the people , they will change to stay alive or for power/money or if there is one that is truly strong enough to try he wont make it past two years in office even if he could get to officewith the way things are set up now on how someone becomes POTUS.

Is it REALLY his fault? He's been reading his own press clippings for the last 4 years.
He reminds me of a freshman starting high school.

ALL grown up leaving the middle school as a ninth or 10nth grader.. Get to the high school or world platform and...and BAM! You know nothing Junior. Nadda..Zipp.

Add your mother-in -law and wife telling you what to do by the HOUR..and you have a full fleged wuss
.articles.cnn.com...:LIVING

Don't know if he is the worst. Probably the worst in my lifetime for sure.

And don't think I'm rooting for a Republican to take his place next election.
So far, I see nothing there either.
OR Teabagger....
OR Democrat.

YIKES!

I read the title as "Barack Obama: The WEEKEND President... in history"

reply to post by centurion1211


Dear Centurion1211,

Thank you for the post however your source is the Express? Seriously? Anyway you are right in that Obama does have a weaker demeanour about him. This was actually discussed on the BBC 10 O'Clock news last night who commented that their belief is that, due to past issues with the UN and the US breaching international law to invade Iraq, Obama is now reticent to use the US military might as has been the norm in the past: A global police force.

I for one would be nothing less than exstatic to see the US military force NOT used as a global police force. Being democratic has it's positives and negatives, but we must abide by one system and not allow our desire to "rule" the world in the manner we have been accustomed to in the West to overrule base laws which have already been put in place. It's a tightrope.. and a horrendous one, but if we were as a Western group of Nations to make the kind of decisions which have been made in the past on a daily basis, we would be nothing more than fascists, masked as good will doers.

Anyway i've gone slightly off topic. I think Obama is doing what he thinks is best for the perception of the country he is president of. The US (much like the UK mind you) are not viewed very well by other nations on this planet.

Regards,
T

reply to post by torqpoc


Why the hell should it matter what other nations think?

He's not the president of the world he's president of the United States of America.
He should be worried about what the people think of him.

reply to post by centurion1211


I doubt in history and he is being judged with potential heavy data on shoulders that he may want to share but has been forbidden.

Honestly, I think that after Obama got elected, he got run over by the enormous complexity of the job...the domestic agenda, the political backstabbing, the diverse lobbyist agendas, the very fluid and unpredictable international situation (and America's place...the place of the American President in the world).

He ran on an idealistic platform. I doubt it, but maybe he believed it himself...that all people, all nations, in all situations can just love each other and talk through our problems...and it will be a better world.

In other words, he is a brilliant academic, a stunningly effective campaigner...and also a fool/dunce in the real world, full-contact sport that is governing the world's only superpower.

Only superpower for now anyway...another six years of this kind of "leadership", and the U.S. is going to get passed by in almost every category.

reply to post by projectvxn


Dear Projectvxn,
You raise an interesting point.. if, and only if, the US were the only nation on the planet. Sadly it isn't.

Not being rude here, you are right in a way, but you're also seriously blinkered in another. We all have to play in the same sandbox.

Edit - Oh and to add. Since there is the UN, that also causes issues with perception. Add to that global trade, economies etc.. you get my point.

Regards,
T

This is the new paradigm - the carrot on the string that we chase. We will happily put up with problems today because we can blame the POTUS, and look forward to the next election for remedy, rather than pursuing it today.

IMO Obama has neither been bad nor good. He's lukewarm at a time when we need a strong leader. This is enough to make him seem insufferable and totally incompetent.

A few years ago I literally said the words "I don't care who wins, I'm just happy that Bush is headed out the door". I now see the mistake in my logic. In 2 or 6 years I think many others will also come to the realization that we're being played. We don't try to fix what we've got, or to work with it. Our disposable mentalities just lead us to seek to push the "reset" button.

Unfortunately real life isn't about resetting or respawning - yet they've made us all buy into this notion.

~Heff

reply to post by torqpoc


Don't care about the UN.

Don't care about what the rest of the world thinks.

We have problems, domestically, that need addressing that the president hasn't bothered with. It's like he's totally insulated himself from the very dire issues that face the nation. Threats from within and without, he's taken a back seat to his own presidency.

He is answerable to WE the People. Not to ridiculous notions of foreign perception.

As usual i agree with you op, but my arguement is more that Obama has sold himself out wholeheartedly to special interests groups who put him into power. Thus, deeming himself absoluety worthless, as it would be a conflict of interest in any direction that he would choose to go. In a nutshell: absolute agency capture of the oval office