It's Funny How The Past Suddenly Looks So Rosey Already

Now if you're a somewhat regular reader ofthiablog, you probably already know what itinkofthe current Obama Administration. If not, then let me summarize my opinion of President Obama adminsitration as we approach the two-year mark: failure.

Man got himself by a healthy majority of the voters. It wasn't a landslide,butitwas a more decisive victory than the one won by Bill Clinton back in 1992.in addition to winning th majority of voters and the electoral college, President Clinton cameo to office with a substantial majority in the House of Representatives and a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.

With all this support, you would think he would have been able to get his vision accomplished. What we got was a muddled and weak foreign policy. A president easily distractedly by local incidents that the could not resist stepping into (remember the so called "Beer Summit"?) who seemed to only want to lecture in ideals but refused to put out concrete plans for how he wanted to effectuate his ideas. The few laws he did manage to convince congressmen to put forth have either failed miserably, like the mortgage relief act, failed abominably, like the stimulus package that inflated the national debt to levels never seen before, or are on their way to failing (or have you not seen what has been happening with your healthcare premiums lately?)

Along the way, we've seen record numbers of foreclosures and unemployment at rates regularly exceeding 9%, almost 1 in 10 people out of work. Many of those who do have jobs, unless they are high wage earners, we are learning, are earning less and less.

Now, not all of this is President Obama's fault. The problem is, most of this is happening and continuing to happen on his watch. At first, the American people gave him a pass on some of the responsibility. However, that tie has long passed, and yet President Obama doesn't seem to realize that. He continues to encourage people to blame Bush for nearly every problem that has happened since he retook the oath of office.

And this has caused many people to look back longingly at those long distant days of 2005, when President Bush sat in office with his GOP dominated Congress and say to rest of us "Miss W yet?"

I totally understand this temptation. It makes sense. Under President Bush we felt like certain things were happening, for good or ill. We knew that he was going to protect us, even if it meant he was going to protect us from ourselves. We knew what he would do when it came to finding out information that he and his advisors thought were necessary to safe guard our by watch 24 to see what Jack Bauer would do to protect us.

Jokes aside, we knew could depend on him to send unambiguous messages about what he intended to do on foreign policy. Can you image a Bush Administration articulating its policy for Iraq thewY that the Obama administration has for Afghanistan? President bush would never bow to a foreign dictator or monarch, like President Obama insists on doing, but then again President Bush would eagerly take unilateral action which would put our allies in awkward situations. President Obama doesn't bother with that. He is content to leave them hanging, like Poland.

But really this is About e insanity of looking back and saying that everything under Bush was beet. It wAsn't. It's just things are getting so much worse under President Obama. We have a recovery, but because there are all these new mandates, its next to impossible for small and large businesses to be able to afford to hire anyone. Sure the recession is over, but this recovery, but if people aren't working, how is that going to make a difference.

But let's look at jobs And the ones we had under the Bush Administration. During President Bush' administration, we saw the middle class getting squeezed. He'll, let's be honest, pretty much everyone was getting squeezed with cost for everything going up during his tenure in office. Essentially under the Bush policies we saw a decade of stagnation occur. Our productivity keeps going up, but the wages remained flat. That's really not good when you consider that the price for everything keeps going up. But hey, jobs with no raises is still better than no jobs and foreclosures right?

And President Obama is not the only US president who has managed to mangle health care policy in this country. Can anyone remember Medicare part D? The GOP's attempt at solving drug costs for the elderly only that only serve to further entrench the entitlement system in this country without doing much to either improve it or to make the costs more manageable?

What this country absolutely does not need is another term for a Bush clone. And it certainly is barely remaining solvent under the current administration. This makes for a nasty situation when you combine with the fact that between 70 and 80 percent of the country disapproves of Congress.

Basically, if you're an incumbent, you are seriously distrusted. This is why so many people have become enamored with the Tea Party. They aren't tainted with the stain of failure that the current rope of Democrats and RepubLican who hold office share. Sure a couple of them are probably racist. Then again, the recently deceased Senator Byrd of West Virginia was a long time member of the KKK (he claimed he quit the organization). And some of them probably are kooks, but then have you ever listened to some of the stuff that has come out of Senator Boxer's mouth sometimes?

That's not the real danger. Voters tend to figure put who the dangerous racist/extremist types are. David Duke never made it to Congress. No, the real danger is when you get someone who runs for office who says all the nice right, popular things. Who presents himself or herself as alternative to the Beltway Bandits who have ruined this country and talk about values like Hope, Prosperity, and Honor. The problem is that when people have gone this long with ineffective leadership, they forget to remember the sufferance between someone who is serious improving this country and someone who views the Office of the President of the United States adjust another stepping stone accomplishment.

This country has had, and in my opinion has now, that kind of President. The worst of the lot was Buchanan just before the Civil War. But we have been fortunate to have had those be the exception rather than the rule.

In 2008,we were an angry country. Angry at the imperial presidency of the Bush Administration. Whether that particular description is right or wrong, that was e sentiment of the country. Somehow, we allowed ourselves to be fooled by a man who had a track record of avoiding making the hard decisions, of taking responsibility for those decisions, or for really ever being held accountable for his actions.

When we go to the polls this November, and in 2012, we need to remember this when it comes time to select what course we want this country to take. We've already had two presidents who have delivered a lost decade to this county. We cannot afford to lose another one.