Bert’s Response
When you look at the hill the President was given to climb when he was elected to office, it would be easy for me to say no the President is not moving the country in the right direction. However, looking at politics as a whole, he fell into an impossible task; One that time could only heal. No President before him, with the exception of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, has ever had to attempt to do what President Obama has had to do. The sad thing is that we as an American people refuse to move closer together to help find a solution to our current economic and social issues. Instead of defining ourselves as Americans, we prefer to be known predominantly as Democrats or Republicans. Democrats with all the power have refused to see the importance in looking across the isle and realizing that Republicans do have some good ideas. Likewise, Republicans have gotten so fixated on regaining control in Washington that they too refuse to look at good democratic ideas as viable. They find it too easy to say no. The far left and the far right is not where real governing happens. It’s in the middle. We are losing all of our moderate republicans and democrats.
My biggest issue with the President is that he is trying to make everyone happy. Bill Cosby once said “you can’t make all of the people happy all of the time.” He was right. I want the President to make a decision and stick with it. Do I agree with all of the President’s decisions? No, I do not. Do I think that he is doing everything wrong? No, I do not.
This is a very tough, but relevant question? However I cannot answer this question with a yes or no because as a realist I understand that it is not all about the President. There are three branches to our Political system in America. I lay the blame on this country not yet going in the right direction on both the Executive and Legislative branches of our government. Yes we do elect our President, but let us not forget that we also elect our congress who has to agree with the President before any real change can happen. That real change won’t happen as long as the far left and the far right keep making all the noise, while the real work in the middle gets ignored.
I am looking forward to the balance being somewhat restored in Washington. I am a firm believer in checks and balances. Full disclosure is warranted. I am not a republican. I have voted for republican candidates on the local level before. I just think the President will have a much easier time moving to the center because he has no other choice with the House of Representatives now being controlled by the Republicans. I feel the Democratic controlled House and Senate were holding the President hostage to the far left ideas. In our newly elected scenario, if things still fall apart all the blame can’t fall on one party.
In short, do I think the President is moving the country in the right direction? Not yet, but hopefully soon. America is a big ship to turn around. Change does not happen overnight. Regardless of your political affiliation, there has to be some agreement on this.
Anthony’s Response
As we enter 2011 and end 2010, President Obama has attempted to direct this country in the right direction but has been faced with many obstacles. He has had to deal with disrespect in the White House. Bills that he would have liked to have seen passed were blocked by republicans and some democrats. He also had to deal with the Iraq war, where he promised to bring the troops home but instead had to take them from Iraq and place them in other places to fight.
With regards to the Iraq war we have lost so many lives over a lie from President Bush. President Obama has kept his promise by ending the Iraq war and closing downGuantanamo Bay prison. The promises that he made, and kept, have taken longer than what we all expected. However he did keep them. However, after all these promises our troops are still spread around the world fighting. When will they come home? When will those young lives be taken out of harms way? We also have to remember that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars did not start with President Obama, but they are his problems now. He needs to find a way to bring these men and women home safely.
Also, with his Health Care Plan he tried to help ALL in the USA. What should the President have done for those millions of people who lost there jobs and health care coverage? He bailed out the banks. WHY not bail out the people? He has to do something because unemployment is at its highest point in this country. In the beginning of his term he received a check book that was overdrawn. He was also left with one of the largest deficits since the great depression. The last time I checked President Obama was not a magician that he could waive his hand and make all that went wrong during the 8-years Bush was in office will be un-done. The economy is moving in a positive manner, but it can be better.
To wrap it all up, I have to give the president a C+ in his direction of this country. He has had so much to over come. We voted Him in to office, but during the last election failed to vote in the help he needed to pass some of the changes he wanted to make. So now he has to play let’s make a deal with the republicans to get some of his items passed. A lot of Americans were upset with him signing the extension of the Bush tax cuts. He had to sign it so that millions of out of work Americans could continue to get a check every month. I pray not only for the President, but for those who we VOTED in office and are running our country. If we fight against each other all the time, what will get done? NOTHING.
Rhonda’s Response
“Sometimes when people are under stress, they hate to think, and it's the time when they most need to think.”
(Former President Bill Clinton)
As a young American with conservative views, I believe that President Barack Obama entered his term as the President of the United States of America wanting to change overnight decades of issues that have plagued our nation. His “Change” platform created hope in many Americans but the platform was fueled by verbal promises that did not have hard facts or resources to ensure these promises could be executed. We as Americans must always understand that America is the great country it is because we are composed of a melting pot of people. Yes, our country has and still experiences prejudices and hardships towards minorities, but thanks to leaders such as, Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, Former Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, and others; many minorities have equal rights that were not afforded in the past. The American vote has turned into a routine process where we vote, watch the elections, and don’t hold the elected officials accountable for the day to day decisions that will shape and mold our country. Because many of us have not held our elected officials responsible for their decisions, the harmful decisions they make sometimes do not impact us as citizens until later (like today). Now our country is plagued at trying to find solutions to rectify many bad decisions that have created a dark whole for our nation (i.e the Financial Debt and Economic Crisis). Once a whole this large has been created, the citizens look to the president to lead us to new solutions and rectifications. But we also are hoping and depending on our leader to use facts and resources to ensure that the solutions provided will render possible results that can be calculated.
I say all of this to say that although President Barack Obama is a great orator and gives hope through his speeches, I feel that his programs do not have enough facts and resources to predict an outcome that will help to uproot America from the dark holes past decisions have created in order to lead us towards the greater nation we were centuries prior. A great leader understands how to work with others and compromise in order to make decisions. And if we as the American people feel that those individuals that we elected to make these decisions are not speaking for the majority but their own agenda; it is our duty as American citizens to speak up and work to remove them from office. If we as American citizens do not start holding our elected officials accountable for their decisions, then we will find our great nation turn into a nation that will be dependent on others for economic, innovative, and natural resources that we no longer have the means to produce for ourselves. We need to have leaders who gather a team of people that will not be yes people to those they serve, but do their job proficiently enough that if it requires them to question decisions; they will.
All in all, is the President (Barack Obama) moving this country into the right direction, right now I don’t see a positive move towards a hopeful future but I hope that time will prove me wrong and we start to see remnants of greatness forthcoming for the United States of America.
