Obama, You’re Disappointing Me a Bit

By Daniel Miessler on March 27th, 2009: Tagged as Obama | Politics

Ok, so I’m not well-versed enough to make an intelligent call on the budget issue. There are smart people on both sides who’ve spent decades studying the economy, and they still disagree. So I’ll leave that alone.

But there are a few issues that I flatly dislike Obama’s stance on:

  1. The Drug War: His flippant dismissal of an honest question about legalization of cannabis was more than disappointing–it was insulting. His choice is the Bush method, evidently: throw more guns at it.
  2. Fines for File Sharing: He sided with the RIAA on this one–$150K per song, I understand.
  3. Where’s the transparency into bills he promised?
  4. Since when is 35-50K troops a pull-out? [Iraq]
  5. Nearly every expert agrees that Afghanistan is an impossible task. Why continue on that path?

Look, I get the fact that he can’t just teleport to progress; it’s a gradual process. And I understand that if he were to come out and legalize cannabis overnight he’d probably loose too much political capital. But don’t turn your back on logic. And don’t dismiss the multitudes of people who have honest, intelligent opinions and are responding to YOUR request to hear them.

Doing so looks to people like me like you’re selling out. Don’t do that. Don’t sell out. ::

  • dapxin

    washington was always going to be different + new…

  • http://maxolasersquad.com/ Maxolasersquad

    I think he is trying to throw his political capital behind the issues he believes are more important. Turning around the war on drugs in ambitious. Getting out of Iraq in 18 months is ambitious. Solving our healthcare crisis is ambitious. Etc., etc. If he where to tackle them all he wouldn't accomplish anything. If he plays he sets his sights on just a few ambitious goals, plays his cards right, claim status quo on other issues, and spends his political capital right he may be able to accomplish things few politicians would be able to accomplish.
    At least, I'm hoping that is his plan.

  • scott

    or…as many of us already know…he's an empty suit. It took him less then 10 days before he began breaking his campaign promises (specifically the one about having all bills available for view by the public over the web before he signs them) and now he's leveraging the future of the country (just as Wall Street leveraged many of our retirement funds) on a bet that he can spend his way out of a depression. If he would have read his history books…he'd find out that this has NEVER worked in the history of civilization.

  • Eric B.

    What'd you expect? 52% of the voting population fell for a classic Chicago-style hustle.

  • http://brooksgarrett.com brooksgarrett

    The most change we have seen in Washington is in Obama.

    I think honestly he is indeed an empty suit with no clue what he is doing. These “Town Halls” and other feel good P.R. activities make the average Joe feel plugged in, yet Obama's responses prove that these activities are at the end of the day just publicity stunts.

    I just hope the Country can survive four years and we get another elections where we get to choose the lesser of two evils and ride this coaster again.

  • http://dmiessler.com/ Daniel Miessler

    I'm hoping he's just overwhelmed and that he'll right himself later this year. You have to admit that he's dealing with a LOT right now.

  • scott

    Yeah…well if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen. It's not like any of the stuff he's dealing with is a surprise. All these issues (other then the self imposed AIG bonuses) were known to be issues during his campaign. I for one think he got a bad deal on the AIG bonuses…some of those people worked on a $1 salary schedule for the past year. I believe they should have gotten something but not the whole sum. Anyhow, this is the problem with a two party system and the reason we need more choices. People feel they are wasting their vote if they don't vote for a Republican or a Democrat. We need to get past that before we can stop the partisan politics, elect some people to represent the public and not the party and get things done. Anyone that really thought he was going to change anything other then the regular pendulum swing back to the left was a fool.

  • cooperati

    there's only so many possibilities you can expect out of this guy.

    narrowed down, you have three:

    1. he'll make things worse.

    2. he'll make things better.

    3. he won't make a difference.

    considering his policies thus far, and how they widely differ from his campaign promises of “CHANGE”, it's only realistic to expect him to maintain this course of action.

    from what he's done so far, as you've observed, it does not bode well. in fact, the best we can expect from how he's performed (even in this limited period of time) is that he won't make a difference.(    )

    -=T=-

    ps, at least he's mixed in some schizophrenic positivity in his “Doomsayer's” rhetoric. that is some change, if only in his own public expression.

  • dale

    Not exactly a surprise here. His motto of “change” was BS but so many bought into the hype. He's an ambitious politician who lied his way to the top spot and now we'll all suffer his bad decisions. Of course there will be benefit from the good ones as well but so far his stimulus bill was poor as was signing the budget as-is.

  • icepyro

    Well you could always accept 'The Obama Deception' bit, but I don't entirely. I don't know why, but I am betting it has been made clear that if he upheld his campaign promises and actually brought about change on that level, he would be the next JFK in more ways than one and not even wait two years.
    No proof, yes it's a conspiracy theory thing, but for some reason that is what my intuition keeps telling me.

  • icepyro

    Well you could always accept 'The Obama Deception' bit, but I don't entirely. I don't know why, but I am betting it has been made clear that if he upheld his campaign promises and actually brought about change on that level, he would be the next JFK in more ways than one and not even wait two years.
    No proof, yes it's a conspiracy theory thing, but for some reason that is what my intuition keeps telling me.


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