Obama has failed to keep promises
/ The State News
Eric Thieleman
The political season has seemed continuous since the last election cycle as both parties have appeared to continue campaigning and have left the governing to nobody.
After his victory in the 2008 election, President Barack Obama has yet to accomplish anything substantial. Besides continuing the George Bush-like socialization of American companies, and refocusing on the bogus global warming farce, Obama committed more troops to the unnecessary occupation of Afghanistan and failed miserably to cheat the American citizens into socialized health care. I will give the president his due on two things, however: ending the attempt to build an American nation in Iraq and ending the torture to which I am indifferent. Now, the president is watching his short-lived Democratic mandate fizzle away and he is eager to come out clean.
The president campaigned on “change” and “hope,” buzzwords that we have come to learn means “same old … ” and “status quo.” I think you know where I am going. The president has failed to make any real progress on the promises he made. I applaud the end to the war in Iraq. However, I question his motives for ending it. Did he end the war because the United States should not have been involved in the affairs of another country and instead needs to focus on our direct interests, or did he end the war because he needed to stimulate his base of radical anti-war supporters? Some might say I am splitting hairs and we should be glad it is over, but I doubt he would have the restraint to keep us out of the affairs of other countries. If a nation who may not have had an “evil dictator” were to require our intervention and aid but instead had a weak government that was exposed by a natural disaster — Haiti, perhaps — Obama would go out of his way to ensure they were cared for. Some might think that is a good thing, and that is not what I am arguing here. Simply put, we should take care of ourselves before anybody else, and we still are hurting.
The president has a way of capturing people with his oratory, and that is a very valuable skill to have. However, to those of us who are educated and look beyond the change in tone and the historic references that mesmerize the common person like a baby watching a sock puppet, we can see his empty rhetoric. He has betrayed the American people. The president promised in his campaign that the discussion of the health care bill would be televised on C-SPAN so Americans would know what the bill was about. Instead, the Senate and House have pushed the bill through behind closed doors and under the table, attempting to hide it from the people. However, when that was stopped, they tried to break rules that have existed for hundreds of years to push the bill through before anything was found out about it.
Then, the American people stood up and put it to a stop. The landslide win by Republican Bob McDonnell for governor of Virginia and the substantial win by Republican Chris Christie as governor of the reliably Democrat-controlled New Jersey showed not just a chink in the president’s armor but a massive gap. It all cumulated with the upset win for the Senate seat of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy by Republican Scott Brown. The president has lost the anti-Bush independents and has only fed the changing Republican base. Although I am not going to claim the Republicans suddenly have the answers, because I believe they are too caught up in the fact that they are the underdogs rising back to the top, it shows the president no longer has this “mandate” to do what he wishes.
In the State of the Union address, the president attempted to make excuses for Democratic failures and seem centrist with his “spending freeze.” He also tried to bridge divides with House Republicans by answering questions at a GOP gathering. These efforts, some might say, are a step in the right direction.
However, far left liberals are very upset with these efforts. The final question becomes how does being “bipartisan” help make our economy better, or create jobs? The president’s new budget proposal totals more than $3.5 trillion and will be more than the previous year’s budget, all while promising spending freezes. This simply will not work and the people know it. This attempt to get back on good terms with the American people and away from appearing like the partisan pusher of socialized health care already has failed and he has lost his majority.
Eric Thieleman is a State News guest columnist and political science and history senior. Reach him at thielem4@msu.edu.
02/02/10 @ 12:10am
I remember one time I read something that was dumber than this is. It was nice, for a while, to think that I’d found the stupidest thing in the world and could never be shocked by anything ever again.
Now Eric Thieleman has ruined this happy state for me, but sometimes I look back on those halcyon days and heave a sigh of regret for the tranquility I once knew.
But seriously, State News should be able to do better than Capt. Douchenugget here.
02/02/10 @ 1:49am
Hey, what’s up, obama lover. It’s funny how the same people that hated bush are now raging at anyone who says negative things about obama.
You rage-prone leftists are tooooo predictable.
Anyway, your messiah will have the national debt above the level of our entire GDP soon. I suppose that makes him great. Well, great in the sense that we will remember him for decades because of the financial disaster he is getting us in to.
You idiots elected the worst president we’ve had in decades, and the funniest part about that is this: You will continue to lie to yourselves, call him great, and blame it all on GW! Lol!!!!
02/02/10 @ 2:36am
Eric Thieleman, proof that Provost Wilcox should consider cutting the Political Science Dept. to save funds.
02/02/10 @ 9:39am
You’re telling me a politician lied/mislead about their intentions and promises?!?
By gosh I am shocked
02/02/10 @ 10:28am
Please people, don’t extrapolate Thieleman onto the rest of the Political Science Department. We’re number 18 in the nation, ahead of some pretty prestigious schools.
Also, this is the most convoluted, ambiguous, run-on filled column I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. Regardless of my political views I simply cannot agree with any point made in the article because of the manner in which it is presented.
517-432-3610
02/02/10 @ 11:06am
I don’t “rage at anyone who say negative things about obama”. It’s just that Mr. Theielman is a fool and I’ve done suffering him.
I enjoy talking to people who disagree with me and who can frame intelligent arguments, because this helps me to understand different sides of an issue. Unfortunately, this article (and your comment) are barely intelligible, much less intelligent.
Mr. Theielman writes a great many things that are quite stupid, but perhaps the most ugly statement is that he’s indifferent to torture.
None of us have the luxury of being indifferent to torture. We are responsible for our government, so we must hold it accountable when it does something heinous. We should not be willing to live in a society where the end justifies the means.
I really don’t understand how someone can be so stupid as to believe that torturing is ever a good idea. The information obtained in this way is unreliable, when we do it we’re stooping to the level of the people we’re fighting, and it’s wrong.
As a free people, we owe it to ourselves to not punish people cruelly for crimes of which they’ve not been convicted. The right to a trial by one’s peers has been enshrined in Anglo-American law since Bad King John was forced to sign the Magna Charta in 1215. No matter who the defendant is, or what he’s charged with, we owe it to ourselves to make sure he’s treated with due process.
This is an ideal that Americans have given their lives to defend. This is part of the price we pay for living in a free society. The people who founded this country were willing to give up some security for freedom, so am I.
Mr. Theielman’s article is disgusting. People like him, not President Obama, or Democrats, or the bulk of the Republican party, are why we’re in the mess we are today. His ignorant, angry bigotry contributes no solutions to our problems and only makes bigger divisions.
He should be ashamed of himself.
02/02/10 @ 11:53am
Eric Thieleman, ENG101 is calling. They would like you to remediate and work on your grammar skills.
02/02/10 @ 1:18pm
It should surprise no one to learn that Eric Thieleman took over the MSU Chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom when Kyle Bristow left.
02/02/10 @ 3:32pm
I had a hard time getting through your column. It was so bloated with generic political invective I could have sworn that it was pieced together from crumpled up pieces of paper and cum-rags from Glenn Beck’s wastebasket.
For the record, Obama has:
Stopped the Great Recession from becoming and Apocalyptic Depression
Saved the auto industry (which is now making green cars and turning a profit)
Reversed the ban on stem cell research.
Invested in green energy jobs and ordered new government buildings to be zero emission.
Reformed and expanded federal student aide, saving families $9 Billion.
Funded American cities that struggle against gang violence to fight against it.
Ended federal prosecution of Medical Marijuana users.
Preserved two million acres of wilderness that were threatened by loggers, miners and polluters.
Passed a stimulus bill that helped build and restore highways and railroads, which was much needed here in Michigan.
Cut taxes for the middle class and small businesses,
Moved health care further along than any President.
Saved Americans from Pirates near Somalia.
Talks to Americans like they are intelligent adults.
Engaged the world in a more thoughtful and effective diplomacy.
Made his administration the most accessible and open in history.
What do you have against making sure that for-profit insurance is also for-people insurance? Obama wants to keep insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and make sure that access to healthcare is affordable for all.
But, your ilk doesn’t mind that in the world’s richest country that people have to make the choice between staying alive and going into bankruptcy. That doesn’t happen in France, Germany, Sweden, or the U.K. Are those Socialist countries to you? Have you been to any of them?
Do you know that Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, and London have significant financial centers and have mixed market economies? What do you think the quality of life is for people in those nations? Are they eating gruel and drinking from puddles, or do they have a quality of life that matches or exceeds that of people in the United States?
“Change” and “Hope” continue. Obama’s approval ratings are a virtual mirror to what Reagan endured politically early in his Presidency. The difference is, that THIS President is charismatic AND has a brain.
President Obama has tried to work with a radical and partisan minority that has been fueled by ignorant white trash that feels marginalized by having an educated, intelligent, and yes, black President. People who misspell “Socialism” and “Fascism” on their protest signs.
Despite this, he is the only President to go live on television and take questions from hostile and partisan adversaries in an effort to get something done. Obama will work with people who are willing to work with him, and finally he is calling out people like you for engaging in willful distortion and intentional disinformation. I suppose I shouldn’t accuse you of malice. You just might be among the people who aren’t educated or intelligent enough to know the difference. In which case, you have my pity along with my contempt.
As for “saving our own”, you’re sick. You don’t even want the poor in this country to have access to health insurance, you don’t want them to have a more affordable education, and you don’t want them to get a helping hand when they struggle, so how can you say you want to take care of people here? Why can’t we do both? Wouldn’t it be disgusting if China, Canada, and European nations are helping to give relief to a suffering people in our own back yard? Many of these same nations gave the U.S. relief during Hurricane Katrina. What do you have against many nations coming together to save lives?
As for off-year election defeats, check Gallup.com. Yup, most of the States are still blue. Obama will win in 2012. Let’s put money on it now.
I am sure your parents and bro-friends are really proud that you wrote this, and that you put yourself in a self-reinforcing bubble that tells you are good thinker and writer. But, Mr. Thieleman, please break free of your delusion and stop embarrassing yourself.
Because it is par for the course, the magnitude of moronicness of this piece may go unnoticed in the State News. However, I don’t think you should be confused: a thinking audience is incapable of enjoying what you have regurgitated on to the page.
02/02/10 @ 3:42pm
obama sucks.
the guy’s a total man child with poor character.
he’s harming the US.
02/02/10 @ 5:10pm
I love Obama so much. I want to be wrapped up in his strong arms while we kiss in front of the fireplace on a bear skin rug.
I LOVE OBAMA
02/02/10 @ 11:00pm
February 2 at 10:54pm
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Yesterday, President Obama announced a plan to reduce forces in Iraq down from a current 142,000 troops to 50,000 until 2012 and possibly keep troops there after if needed and requested by the Iraqi government.
The main stream news media is making a big deal of this, as if it were some milestone.
What they don’t want people to know or realize, this is the plan that the Bush Administartion and Iraq had negotiated and signed last year ! All US forces were to be out of Iraq by 2011, unless the US was requested to leave troops at the request of the Iraqi government.
So while Obama takes all the credit, this is really President Bush’s plan that is being initiated.
As a matter of fact, President Obama and America have former President Bush and the brave men and women of the US Military to thank for the highly successful “surge” in troops he and Gen. David Petraeus put in place, making withdrawal possible.
In his comments Friday, Obama noted the progress made.
“Thanks in great measure to your service,” he said, “the situation in Iraq has improved. Violence has been reduced substantially from the horrific sectarian killing of 2006 and 2007.
“Al-Qaida in Iraq has been dealt a serious blow by our troops and Iraq’s Security Forces, and through our partnership with Sunni Arabs,” Obama continued. “The capacity of Iraq’s Security Forces has improved, and Iraq’s leaders have taken steps toward political accommodation.”
He further lauded January’s elections showing Iraqis have begun “pursuing their aspirations through peaceful political process.”
Iraq has been a big success, which explains why you never hear about it in the mainstream news media anymore. Suicide bombings and attacks on troops have become relatively rare, and now that Bush is out of office, there’s little political profit remaining for the left in bashing America’s Iraq theatre camapign in the war on terror.
Whether or not you agree with Bush, he brought a kind of democracy to Iraq that can be found nowhere else in that area. His plan rocked al-Qaida back on its heels, to the point where its survival is in doubt. Iraq is a model.
In short, Obama’s policy is Bush’s policy. The fact that our brave men and women in the military can now come home proudly is a tribute to former President Bush’s steadfastness even in the face of insurmountable criticism.
posted by Jay Are @ 2:14:00 AM
1 Comments
02/03/10 @ 1:30am
Thieleman was the last chairman of the now defunct Young Americans for Freedom, the first ever student hate group in the United States (http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/hate.jsp#s=MI). Why oh why is he writing in the State News. I know the SN has gone downhill in my time here, but this is pretty pathetic.
02/03/10 @ 11:13am
Lee, what’s even more interesting is that while the YAF is a national student organization that has existed since 1960ish, the MSU chapter is the only chapter named a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Personally, I think that unless the national organization repudiates the disgusting antics of the MSU chapter, they’re culpable for the mean things done under their standard, so the entire little organization should be recognized for the nasty little fascists that they are.
02/03/10 @ 12:02pm
O ne
B ig
A ss
M istake
A merica
This university like most others has been way too Liberal for way too long. Political views of average americans are becoming more conservative and ironically we can thank the liberals.
02/03/10 @ 2:28pm
Southern Poverty Law Center is a liberal joke of a law firm. Their opinion holds no weight. Who actually honors their opinion?
02/03/10 @ 2:54pm
The SPLC’s long list of successfully prosecuted cases against hate groups such as the KKK should convince any objective person that they not only do valuable work, but that they do it quite well.
You can see what I mean on their wikipedia article. If suing the Klan makes you a liberal perhaps you should rethink what it means to be a conservative.
02/04/10 @ 9:21pm
Raging liberal Democrat Sen. Byrd was (and probably still is at heart) a member of the KKK. He was an officer in fact.
He’s still a member of the US senate.
So…the only Klan member in Congress is a liberal and a Democrat. Figures.
02/04/10 @ 11:47pm
Byrd has apologized for being in the Klan. He’s said it was a mistake. That doesn’t make it better and I don’t think he’s a good person, but there’s absolutely no evidence to suggest he’s still in the Klan.
Anyway, Storm Thurmond (R-SC) never apologized for voting against Civil Rights and even switched parties from Democrat to Republican when Johnson’s (who was a Democrat, for those of you following along at home) Civil Rights legislation was voted on.
You don’t want to claim that Republicans have a better Civil Rights record than Democrats. They don’t.
Look up the Southern Strategy sometime and stop being an idiot.
02/05/10 @ 11:12am
The SPLC regularly sues border-area landowners who “violate” the “rights” of illegal aliens. Aliens who sneak into our country and steal or damage private property have a friend in the SPLC.
02/06/10 @ 4:02pm
In the case to which you’re referring, Bob, a group called Ranch Rescue held a group of illegal immigrants at gun point while allowing rottweilers to maul them.
The ignorant rednecks who did this were sued by the SPLC and lost, which is pretty much what they deserved. If they were interested in upholding the law, rather then in being bullies, they would have called the police. Instead they terrorized some helpless people.
Why did you put rights in quotes? Do you think that brown people stop having them when they come to America?
That might have been the case 50 years ago but it’s not today. You can keep trying to turn back the clock, but fortunately the majority of Americans are not as mean as you are, and won’t let you.
02/08/10 @ 12:56pm
Well, we can go back and forth about the SPLC all day. I think it’s sad that presumably intelligent and moral college students wouldn’t rally behind their mission, if not always agreeing with how they do it.
That said, while Eric might have been the last chairman of MSU YAF (ARE they defunct?), he did stand by our buddy Kyle Bristow while that young fellow said a number of very hideous things.
Unfortunately, they got smart and turned their blog into a members only deal. But if you look over at Yaf Watch, you can see the repostings and screen captures of some of their “greatest hits.”
On the other hand, Eric no longer identifies himself as a member of that group. Maybe he’s seen the light and is trying to get away from them?
(needles Eric for an answer on that one)
02/08/10 @ 1:08pm
So in summation, the only Klan member in Congress is a liberal Democrat. I mean come on. How is this guy still in office?
02/11/10 @ 10:36am
For the record, while true that LBJ was behind the Civil Rights Act, a higher number of Republicans voted for it than Democrats.
So nice try.
And for the guy who listed all of Obama’s accomplishments, I can sum that up:
Cost us money
Cost us money
Cost us money
Where did that money come from?
Cost us money
Raised the Debt
Cost us money.
Higher debt means higher inflation which is a hidden tax on everybody.
“Inflation is taxation without legislation.” – Milton Friedman
02/14/10 @ 3:54pm
Its been just over a year since he was inaugurated. You cant use 2008 as the benchmark for achieving his promises because he didnt gain authority as president till 2009.
He was also given a pretty tough basket off eggs to solve. How about relaxing just a little, let him continue to work instead of deeming him a failure one quarter of the way through his term.
Its like grading your paper when you are 1/4 done with it.