Imagine how many people could have been put to work if he'd approved the pipelines Trump approved on day 2 in office. Imagine how many people would have been put to work if the "shovel ready" jobs he preached about were actually shovel ready. Imagine how many lives could have been saved and towns saved from riots/burning if he'd done the right thing for race relations, instead of setting them back 50 years by misstepping at virtually every turn. Imagine how differently the republican congress might have acted later had he not shoved Obamacare down their throats right out of the gate, with the snide comments like "I won" and "elections have consequences" when he had a supermajority. Imagine how different the world would look now if he'd actually drawn a line in the sand and MEANT it. Imagine how the other half of America might have felt about him if he hadn't denigrated them right off the bat with his "clinging to their guns and religion" comment (something Hillary didn't learn from either with her "basket of deplorables" gaffe). Imagine what he might have accomplished had he not acquiesced the first two years of his first term to Pelosi and Read, setting the stage for the most divisive 6 years in our history. Imagine what he might have accomplished had he not taken vacations at the absolute worst possible times.mrklean wrote:He had a congress that refused to work with him on most of his ideas. Remember his jobs bill that the GOP shot down. Image how many people could have been put to work under that bill? But we will never know.GannonFan wrote:He's very much like John Quincy Adams - smart guy, great credentials, good looking and personable, good ideas, yet also lacking in the ability to use those attributes fully in the political spectrum, unable to put much in place, either through his own failings or the resistance of the other party in Washington, and unfortunately way too associated with an entrenched, self-serving and self-perpetuating political elite in Washington. And oddly, both were replaced by what could be considered the two most populist Presidents we've ever had in first Jackson and now Trump. I think 93 said it before and I agree, Obama will be one of the most disappointing Presidents we've had because he had so much potential and delivered (both by his fault and by others) on so little of it. Incoming expectations for him were probably always unreasonable.
Obama, most of the time, seemed almost tone deaf to the things going on around him, oblivious to how his actions would be viewed by Americans and the rest of the world. Either that, or he really just didn't give two shits how his actions would be viewed. Either way, he ended his term as a huge disappointment, and probably seriously set back the Donk party (unless they learn from their mistakes, which it doesn't seem is happening). Obama created the vacuum that allowed someone like Trump to flourish. Obama and his minions created the hate, dissention, dissatisfaction and disgust that caused a snake-oil salesman like Trump to be able to stir up the mouthbreathers and take over D.C.
He had a chance to be historic. Instead, he'll go down as historically bad.
