Two lines that sum up Obama's Presidency

[margypops]

Throughout his presidency, Obama has rhetorically wanted to establish himself as a transformational leader who was willing to tackle the nation’s tough problems, but when push came to shove, he has dodged them. This has been especially true than when it comes to dealing with the nation’s debt burden.

This brings us to the two lines in Monday’s speech. He declared that, “We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit.” This is Barack Obama, bold leader speaking (with an extra twist of irony given that the signature legislative accomplishment of his first term was supposedly aimed at containing the growth of health care costs). Then, he said, “But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.” Translation: he isn’t going to do anything to seriously reform Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, and wants more economic stimulus spending, too. So, within a breath of calling for hard choices, he rejected the need for them. I can think of no more fitting summation of Obama’s presidency.

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/barack-obama/2013/01/21/two-lines-sum-obama- presidency       read more in the Washington Examiner

[brice1967]

I think promises should be like "goals".  The first thing about them though is that they have to be attainable.  All Presidents have done it.  This one is no different other than the fact that he is currently in office.

I believe that this President meant well with all of the "promises" of the past and he probably thought that some were achievable.  This past campaign, the promises were mostly stifled and a lot of the talk was about what "WE" needed to do.  (I appreciate the fact that promises were kept to a minimum.  That is realistic to me.)

[specialmom]

I agree with what you've said.  I do think that all these president people make promises that are hard to keep as they can't make things happen alone.  Promises are more like 'goals'.  :>)  

[brice1967]

I'm still not willing to blame Obama for all of the countries woes.  He simply did not create them.  However, I didn't listen to this speech but I did the previous inaugural speech and almost everything from the campaign trail.  

Lots of promises, but not so much follow through.  I understand that... it takes more than the President to make things happen.  At the same time, we probably shouldn't make promises we cannot keep.