I would be remiss this week, if I did not devote a portion of the blog to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12th, 2010. Next week, I plan to post a question to you regarding United States assistance to countries affected by natural disasters. Until then, if you would like to donate to the relief effort, you can do so by clicking on the following link: http://www.redcross.org/
This week marked the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration. As I look back on that moment, it seems a lot has changed. I remember the night of the election and the hope that so many seemed to feel. I remember how as I watched his speech in Chicago, it ceased to be about politics for me and became more about living history.
When President Obama took office, he was faced with crisis of epic proportions on both the foreign and domestic front. Within his first year, the President laid out a plan for withdrawing troops from Iraq, while simultaneously increasing troops in Afghanistan. He passed a historic economic stimulus package, and saw our economy slowly start to recover, while unemployment rates remained high. He proposed sweeping healthcare reform legislation, which Congress is still struggling to pass.
As I reflect on President Obama’s first year in office, I am both grateful and disappointed. I am grateful the economy is starting to recover and that so many felt the effects of the stimulus. I am grateful that more “green” programs are available and funding for renewable resources has increased. I am grateful that our image around the world is starting to become more positive. However, the year has also come with disappointments. I am disappointed that unemployment is still so high and healthcare reform has yet to pass. I am disappointed and saddened that lives are still being lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of all, I am disappointed that all the hope we seemed to feel just one year ago, has slipped away and that politics have gone back to the usual. So my question to you this week is “How would you rate President Obama’s first year in office? What have liked or disliked about his policies?” Answers are due no later than Thursday, January 28th, 2010. Make sure you sign your name and designate your class.
I think that President Obama has done a good job with the circumstances that he was given when he came into office. There were alot of things that he had or has to clean up from the previous president. The troops in Iraq that were promised to be leaving with the arrival of President Obama coming into office has not really worked. But it is kind of hard to do that when they are still fighting over there and need our help. BUt over all i think obama has done a very good job.
ReplyDeletePresident Obama, i believe, has done a good job with what he was given with. I think those who are quick to judge him about all what has taken place this year, is forgetting about the 8 year mess that we are still struggling to put back together, if possible. Granted things the Obama has done so far, isnt exactly what i voted for, im still not going to give a failing grade per say. I honestly believe with the whole bipartisinship that he is trying to achieve is what is messing all of the policies up that he set out to establish.
ReplyDeleteI would say due to circumstances, President Obama has done a pretty good job in office. I hope that our country continues to become better and recover from the many struggles it has faced in the past years. The fact is we have faced so many trials that one year just cannot fix. All of us have issues that we feel are more important but the President cannot fix them all at the same time. Perhaps all the hope and the need for change was hyped up during his election and now we see the reality of just how much time and effort it will take to make those changes happen.
ReplyDelete~Kyndall, Friday night
I can't really give an opinion on how well Obama has done this whole year, because I'm unsure of what he has/hasn't accomplished. It seems that the war is still moving forward rather than trying to pull back, but he's done a good job stepping into the position that Bush put us in. There seems to be a bit more push of Green energy and ideas. Also I heard something about a Carbon Tax, which I'm not down with that idea....just seems like another excuse to tax us. The only bad thing about trying to implement a green energy source to replace our current is that poorer third world countries might be even worst off, since they wouldn't be able to adopt the new green energy system and wouldn't have the old system to continue building communities.....sorry I went off topic.
ReplyDelete-Grant Monson Friday Night
When we were leading up to the presidential elections I was in my High School government class where every day I was updated on everything having to do with every politician running for the election. Based on what I had learn I had both decided to sign up for voter registration and even requested off work to take the time to go to my polling place to vote for President Obama. He had a lot of great ideas and filled many Americans with hope. Since then, unfortunately I have not kept up with politics and therefore and not entirely sure of everything Obama has and has not done. I am aware of his plan and action on increasing and decreasing troops overseas and am aware of his plans to change health care (yet not in action).
ReplyDeleteI honestly feel like what he has done so far is the best he could have done following the Bush administration. There's still a lot of room to catch up and wounds that need to be healed before Obama can make any true changes. I think he's done the best he can and that this next year should go even better.
Nicole Welty - Friday night
I believe that the work Obama has done will be appreciated after he has left office. Once people realize the strides he has made just by trying to implement these ideas, they will give him a high grade. He provided a plan for Iraq and Afghanistan. While these plans might not please everyone, what was the plan before? I think people need to give Obama a chance to actually accomplish some goals, which might be harder now with a Republican in Ted Kennedy's seat. I remain optimistic in Obama's abilities and hope the country can rekindle their hope for our country.
ReplyDeleteSarah Cason Friday Night
In response to our blog, my thoughts are this:
ReplyDeleteI believe that over the past eight years our country has completly fallen appart and with unemployment at an all time high and so many people loosing so many things that they worked so hard for, our poor economic state is soley the fault of our last president. Knowing this I knew that whoever was elected (thank God not a republican)would have a very difficult time turning things around. I never believed that everything would be fixed over night, because it took eight years to reach the uncertainty and doubtful feeling that is felt across our nation today. In lue of this, I believe Obama is making a sincere effort to turn this country around. I believe he must push the heathcare issue through before the "new" republicans have a chance to crush it. If he does this I believe that more Americans will have more faith in him and his efforts. One thing I know for sure; it is in the best interest of this nation to support our President now and hope for change. If we hope for is failure, then this country is at stake. If he fails, we fail. So why wouldn't you hope for his sucess?
Carolyn Carden Friday Night
I think that the President needs to tell Congress to get busy with health care and not worry about them selfs. Politicians are worried about there own political issues, than worring about the American people. Im still waiting on the change in Washington. It seems to me everthing is still the same! When the Republicans where in office the dems didnt want to help in change. Now the Dems are in office and the Republicans are sitting on there hands. People in Washington need to wake up and see the world is changing faster every moment. Washington needs to keep up. All the old dogs in Washington needs to retire and let new young people step in and work with the President. The old ones are living in the past, not the future. President Obama is doing a great job! He needs everybody else to join the fight to keep America the most powerful place on earth.
ReplyDeleteAs far as what he walked into he has done the best he could. With that being said he did follow, by some accounts, quite possibly one of the worst Presidents in U.S. history. So it’s hard to screw up that much in your 1st year. He’s done some good with social change like abortion, and stem cell research. However telling us he’s pulling out of Iraq just to turn around and put them over in Afghanistan really isn’t “bringing our troops home”. Also average every day Americans are still hurting because of the economy and lack of available jobs. We were promised more jobs yet we haven’t seen them. So, I don’t really know how I feel at this point. I have mixed emotions and I feel it may be too soon to judge. I’ll say he’s doing ok for now, only time will tell.
ReplyDeleteFor those of us that hate on G.W. Bush and praise President Obama, just look at some comparisons.
Bush with his liberal bailouts vs Obama with his unsustainable stimulus. Bush is a so-called warmonger and Obama is increasing our military by 10%. Bush expanding government and Obama adding further expansion and greater debt. And both of their VPs are, shall we say, less than stellar.
I have not particulary payed alot of attention to his presidency. Everyone in the begining was estatic about getting about a black president, but it seemed as though I was the only one who did not share their enthusiasm. President Obama to me is just that, another president he indeed has promised to do so much, but in the same token so have every other president, just so they would find favor in the eyes of the people. I'm still skeptical on Obamas true motives and whether or not he will follow through on this eledged health care plan. By the way this is Howard from friday night class
ReplyDeleteI think Obama did ok for his first year. He did a few good things, but then again bad. The way I see it, it's just like any other president. He had great plans but not even half of them happened. I feel like my family has been hit hard with the changes. My mom lost her job and hasen't been able to get a new one. I lost 2 cousins in iraq and still have many family members there. We are a heavily based military family so it sucks to see troops still going back to war. I just think that hes accomplished just as many "good" things as any other president has in their first year. I dont think hes any better or worse than the rest.
ReplyDeleteThis is Jessie Buechler--friday night
I think that Obama did pretty well for his first year. What people have to relize is that things don't happen over night. Althought it has been a year, our country was at its worst when he took over. So I think that things will heel over time. I do however think he could have done more about the unemployment rate cause it has gon up and steady rising!! I also feel like he needs to not put so much attention on whats going on in Afghanistan, get some of our troops home, and work harder on the more important things in our nation.
ReplyDeleteRadine S. Saturday Morning
I believe that, given the circumstances, Obama has done a good job at starting a long process of trying to fix the 8 year disaster that had occurred. Yes, he did promise a lot, but I believe he still has the makings to be something great! He has some time still and after this rut that the U.S. has undergone, he is doing a good job in my book in making amends.
ReplyDelete-Kati Melcho, Friday evening
Ambition and idealism really limited Obama's effectiveness- trying to tackle the afghanistan/iran/iraq/etc conflict while also tackling waning foreign relations and policies and trying to reform healthcare, all of this... When he was campaigning there were a lot of promises made; even though they weren't really broken and there's still time to enact those proposed policies, well... Things aren't looking too good right now. It's funny, in a way, how whenever America has had a bit of a financial issue, a war brings them out of it, sort of. I wonder when Americans will have to start rationing- that'd solve a lot of issues, too... I'm babbling, this question really didn't strike my interest- Presidents come and go, they're not really the be all end all solution to much of anything.
ReplyDelete//Demian Stevens GE201 Saturday AM
I feel President Obama's first year was as expected with what he was given when he took office. I feel he truly does have the American people's intrests first and foremost. I think he should also, every once and a while watch the video of his acceptance speech and what he promised so he doesn't fall short of his word.
ReplyDeletePersonally I am not sure what all of Obama's promises that he has kept and or not kept. So I really cant judge the man for having a good year or not. I dont think that Rome was built in a day so give the man some time to live up to his promises.
ReplyDeleteI do think that there needs to be a huge change on how we need to improve this economy with the unemployment rate. Sure it is nice that people are getting money, but what we need to have is a "job". A place where we can boost up the economy by making our surroundings nicer looking, fixing up the wrong that has been done ( IE earthquake, floods, ect. ect.), a continual amount of income. Not just a lot of money where we could go and spend it all at once.
~ Dave Brown Saturday Morning.
I think president obama has been doing a good job tryna make things better for us. It just hasnt been enough time to say weather or not he has failed or kept his word one year is not enough to make things as good as we want them to be i do agree that alot has to be done about the high un-umployement because that one major issue that needs to be solved as soon as possible but I cant say that I am dissapointed just yet because I rather give him time then to judge him yet.
ReplyDeleteNicauy Guerrero
Is Barack Obama really who he says he is? Or rather, is he what the country really needed in the first place? As Americans, we were force-fed with so much Dubya kool-aid that we were ready to put blind faith in a president whose values and policies turned the current status quo on its head. The largest stimulus in our nation's history was catapulted through congress without proper review or debate, and we still continue to see a rise in unemployment. Job creation statistics as they currently stand are innacurate estimates. Also, there has reportedly been $6.4 billion in stimulus funding that has went to "Phantom districts", or in other words, down the drain. Obama's infatuation with transparency has been little more than lipservice, as administration public relations have shown to be similar to our prior leader. Barack has promised to end income taxes for seniors who earn less than $50,000/yr, as well as a $3,000 tax credit for small business owner who create job growth. They're still waiting. How much better is the economy really? I'm sure somebody could throw the book at me but it feels the same where I'm at. I was just watching CNN to realize that we're in the process of passing an $800+ billion bill to create a network of trains along both of our coasts. For a nation with $12 trillion worth of debt, is that what we need? Yeah, it sounds cool, but how far must we go before we cannot go any further? It's like B.O.'s wife let the president have the credit card for the weekend. When Barack took office, it was emotional, it was monumental, it was amazing; to understand that we evolved from a nation of slave owners to a somewhat understanding people. But now is not the time for emotion. America is in a crisis. Let's be rational.
ReplyDeletealso, I like what Rico said
ReplyDeleteI think Obama has covered a pretty good amount of issues in his first year. "Wounds heal only with time and everything wont be done as soon as we want it to be. Things will eventually get fixed, but its going to take some time to cover everything. There is still alot to be done, but he's gota save some for the presidents to come lol.
ReplyDeleteWe also havent gotten the chance to see how affective the changes, already made, have been. So like I said we just have to be patient and not exspect so much so fast, especially if some of us aren't helping these things move any faster.
Michelle Sykes,Saturday morning
Rachel Friday Night
ReplyDeleteTo be completely honest I have no idea what presedent Obama said he was going to work on or what any of his policies are. I don't believe I have enough knowledge on what he has and has not done to rate him. However I do agree that there doesn't seem to be alot being done to solve the health care issue and bringing our solders home!
President Obama has only embarrassed the United States ever since he came into office. As soon as he started going to other nations and apologizing for what the US has done I stopped caring about him as a president. Saying that we will destroy and shut down our nuclear missile sites so that people will "consider" disarming theirs is a joke. pulling out of Iraq is just another step toward showing other nations that the US is falling apart. I understand that its a terrible thing to have soldiers away from home but we are not seeing the big picture. Why are they over there? What have they died for? Those are questions that people dont think of when they are protesting war. Everyone wanted the people that caused 9/11 to be destroyed and brought to justice. But once they saw the way we were doing that they put their tail between their legs and ran. Those terrorists have NO rules and we are going to have MANY more civilians killed and attacks on our homeland because people want to be "HUMANE".
ReplyDeleteSo what im trying to say is Obama is trying to make the US something we are NOT and NEVER will be.
I think president Obama has done a fantastic job, all things considered. It frustrates me beyond belief when people try to say that Obama is a huge disappointment and nothing has changed since he's been into office. He was handed an overwhelming amount of problems that NO ONE would be able to fix 100% in only a year. I don't think people realize how much is resting on our president's shoulders. If he could make our country perfect in a year, he would be a miracle worker, and we would yet again amend the constitution to allow him to be president for the rest of his life! However, that is clearly impossible. The website politifact.com has a running count concerning the promises that president Obama made when he was running for office. The count is currently at 91 promises kept, 33 compromises, 275 in the works, and only 15 promises broken. Those are pretty amazing statistics if you ask me. We also have to take into account that in regards to some subjects (such as healthcare) Obama is trying his best, but it's not all up to him. There are so many people that are complaining that he hasn't done what he said he would, and those are the same people standing in the way of the work he is trying to accomplish.
ReplyDeleteCarina Street
Friday Night Class
Anna Wilson Friday Night
ReplyDeleteI agree with things that you discussed in bringing this conversation abroad. I was very excited when Obama first went into office and now I do feel like it's any other politician. I was hoping that this war was going to end, but am finding that it is just dragging on and getting worse in some features. I do not like that he has added more troops overseas when he had originally promised to end the war. So, I am still being patient and waiting for him to bring the war to an end. I personally also feel that the health care reform would be good in some aspects, but not in some other. Therefore, I am not bothered by the fact that this has not been passed yet. Something as extreme as that needs the proper time to be written to make sure that it will work as planned and needed. I hope that Obama continues to work his magic to accomplish his promises.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
ReplyDeleteObama Drama...
What do I think of President Obama...mrrr. I don't like him and if I wanted to vote during the elections I wouldn't have voted for him. I feel that he had promised so much during the elections on these issues and it has turned around in a negative way. Obama led on so much hype during the elections I feel that he is just another media starved celebrity along with his wife! My view on Iraq and Afghanistan are I just want peace. The most important disappointment in the past year is the unemployment. I myself do not have a job and it was by choice to focus on my schooling. Every time I go to school I hear of another person loosing their job or getting laid off. The last time I spoke on the phone to my mom she had stated that my dads company keeps cutting back his hours at work, because of how slow the economy is. I'm the oldest of four girls plus mom and dad that's a lot of budget that we lost. My mother works in the health care industry and had stated that in about a year Obama's plans are to make everyone without health-care pay a health-care tax. Now I don't actually keep up with what Obama says is fact or false. I know a lot of people can't even pay for health-care now what makes him think they will be able to pay a tax on it, then consider the fact of people that are unemployed. I won't even begin to get my mom started on the subject of Obama and health-care. She will go on this subject for hours. To be honest I don't read a lot about what goes on with politics and Obama, because I don't agree with him and that's the truth.
Taylor Northam
1-29-10
1:29
I think Obama is doing a great job. I like the fact he is not money hungry and wanting to find way to help people. I love the fact he is doing some changes that is out of the USA's convert zone. So many people are so afraid of change that it scares people and I think that why Obama get a bad rap.
ReplyDeleteAaron Ford, Saturday morning
ReplyDeleteI think that presidents get too much credit for success, and too much blame for failure. The President can't just walk into the White House, sign a couple of documents with his golden pen and magically put people back to work. I think he is trying his hardest to do the best job he can, but it isn't easy.
Presidents are judged heavily by their public speaking skills, how well they can talk. We see him on TV, but we don't see him behind the scenes, when he's busy at work all day.
While I certainly don't question Obama's dedication to fixing the country, I think that more qualified people could be found for the job, like McCain.
I voted for McCain not because I disagreed some of President Obama's policies, although that was part of it; I honestly didn't think that had enough experience to be able to enact the policies he wanted. I honestly believe that President Obama wants to help America grow and change, but I believe that he was elected too early in his political career for him to understand how to go about doing the thing that he would like.
ReplyDeleteI am aware that no President has ever been able to fulfill all their promises made during the election, however I think an administration that had more experience would be more successful regardless of which party it was. Even though I strongly dislike Hillary Clinton's political views I think that due to her amount of experience compared to President Obama's she would have been more successful in moving our nation forward.
On a side note: Am I the only one that is getting frustrated with how little respect the office of the President is given? Regardless if you like him or not, President Barack Obama has earned his title and should be referred to accordingly. He's the President of The United States of America. How can other countries respect the U.S.A. if we ourselves don't respect our Leaders?)
Michael Moore
Saturday Morning
I think that it has been a unusual year. There were a lot of promises made a year ago. and some didnt seem to happen. I have friends over in Afghanistan and I think we would all like to see everyone just come back home. but the reality is on us and we know that we can not just pull troops out and in the sending of more sounds horrible but we also cant just leave the troops over there to fend for them selves. I dont agree with war or some of the things that have gone on in the war.I think Obama trys to do things the right way. even tho some choices are hard. And also this just my opinion i dont watch the new a lot :)
ReplyDeletethe post above this one
ReplyDeleteZazzetti
Saturday morning class
As far as rating Obama I have to say that I would rather not rate him just because I have mixed feelings about how he has affected us and what he is still doing that is affecting our economy. However, this is for a grade so my rating is going to be in between and I will say five. And how I feel about his policies, meh. I feel that one of the problems unemployment is so high is because of how low our economy has gone. But the blame isn't just on Obama. Since the economy had shot down hill so bad there aren't enough jobs available. How is it someone's fault that they have to file fr unemployment just because there are no positions available at any restaurant or retail store. That's just the mail two I have seen. I see restaurant business going down just because we need to save money so who wants to go out to eat... I'm not sure if Obama is taking care of this or just letting it float by until he leaves office but all I have to say is he made a change alright. But was it a good change or a bad change?!
ReplyDelete