The Obama phenomenon, 1-year later

I am very pleased to see what Obama has accomplished so far. I think he has worked hard everyday for the American people and I can't wait to see what he does next. I think most people would complain he hasn't gotten enough done, but I think they fail to see all that is in motion as the wheels of government move forward.

thanks

Eric
West LA

I am so thankful that President Obama is in office. Can you imagine the state of the country if President Bush was in office now!

I'm much happier than I was with Bush, and probably would have been with McCain/Palin. I wish he could be more to the Left, but I knew he was a moderate---and that it was always in the cards that the first Black president would be so---when I voted for him.

But I hope he's not moderating out of any illusion that the Republicans will give him any credit for it. He's continued the bail-out policies of the latest Bush Administration, and proposed an extremely limited health insurance reform on the scale of what's needed (in my arrogant opinion), and yet he's still being painted by the Republicans as the child of Marx, Stalin, and Hitler...I just hope they eventually have to deal with a _real_ socialist.

do you know some of the people you are talking to are idiots; 'he likes his health care plan the way it is' dear oh dear!
Do they think President Obama is a magician and can do things overnight? We know the results of what happened over the past eight years and it takes time to clear up; are these people real?

I heard one caller complain that Pres. Obama had no classroom experience.

As I recall, he was a Law Professor for 12 years.

I've had my frustrations with Obama's administration, but I also think people expect too much of the president and too little of themselves. Anyone who has been in a management position and tasked with turning around a troubled organization knows you need at least a year to clean house. People who expect otherwise either haven't a clue of what's involved or have an agenda served by the perception that it's the leader's fault. We the people have contributed to this mess by our own civic and intellectual laziness over the last few administrations. Let's own up to that -- and be our own change.

My problem is Obama is that his leadership team is populated by the VERY SAME PEOPLE that got us in this financial mess. Larry Summers pushed all the "it's ok to let them get bigger and do exotic financial stuff, because these guys are pros" when he was with Clinton. Why is in charge of policy under Obama? Why is Obama letting all the "too big to fail" wall street types, who got us in trouble, now formulating the policies and laws?

From Politifact's tracking of Obama's campaign pledges here is their findings:

52 Promise Kept
14 Compromise
7 Promise Broken
14 Stalled
132 In the Works
295 Not yet rated

That is a lot of activity for the first year. He seems to be plugging right along, also seems to be doing what he says, which is very important to me (walk the talk), and the real results of his work are mostly to be realized. I think that much of his future success will be measured by his ability to influence his peers and to compromise within his own party.

I'm thrilled with the change in atmosphere that exists now that couldn't possibly have happened with McCain in the Oval.

I'm disappointed that President Obama has been more interested in getting all the children to play together (i.e., trying to be bipartisan) than in using his overwhelming mandante for real change.

To the guy saying "have patience, he's got 4 years, give him time" -- Wrong. He's got 2 years before he loses Congress if Democrats don't do something besides bail out Wall Street billionaires.

He's frittered away the first of those two years when he should have been kicking butt, and he's got one guaranteed year left. This country and this planet need bold leadership and a new direction -- badly and now.

I agee with the last caller Shawntele. The Republican vocal minority has too many selfish politically motivate reasons and too power to influence the debate over Obama's performance at the expense of what Obama is trying to do to help most Americans.

As a non-US citizen who has now been a US resident for half a decade, I would be incredibly proud to have such a collected, focused and worldy individual as my president. As for the few whiners on air complaining about lack of significant progress, I can only assume they have no idea about the way the US government works and how much it can slow progress. I'd like to add that it is important to consider the difference between little progress in 9 months with Obama vs 8 years of Bush downfall. Also, for the "independent candidate Bob" who was saying how dissapointed he was, admitting you didn't even cast a vote completely revokes your right to complain, buddy.

People forget it took Bush and company 8 years to destroy this country....and we expect Obama to fix it in less than a year. To top it all we have a Democratic Party that has lost its spine.. and an asinine Republican party that has proven it does not care a a damn about this country.. or the people. ALL they care about is their dogma.

Obama has a LOT to deal with.... and yes... we haven't seen much change domestically (a different story internationally) but give the man time.

After reading more of the comments posted in this forum I do have to amend and add my previous comment to some degree. I have to agree with some of the thoughtful commentators on here like Ed and Howard and the Non US citizen. I do fear the Obama may be too eager to employ some of the worst people from past administrations like Larry Summers when it comes to tackling the financial crisis. I also fear he may be too willing to appease some of the Republican conservatives and moderate Democrats when it comes to the health care crisis solution and our efforts to deal with the problems he inherited from Bush in Afghanistan and Pakistan at the expense of gaining real solutions to those problems.

todd: i believe they were saying the secretary of ed had no class room experince, just like the admiral that was lausd super and got the big buyout

the one thing that has affected me is Medicare has gotten more strict about the charting. I know they want to cut cost and avoid waste, but Obama said he wanted to stream line red tape and bureaucracy so nurses could spend more time doing patient treatment, but the opposite has happened.

This says something:

NPR-A former Marine captain and foreign service official, who became the first official to publicly resign in protest over the war in Afghanistan, says staying in the country is not in America's interest. Matthew Hoh says leaving Afghanistan would not turn the country into an al-Qaida safe haven again.