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Obama - The Do Nothing President

 
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CowpokeBob



Joined: Feb 07, 2006
Posts: 1506

Location: South Carolina, USA

PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 8:56 pm    Post subject: Obama - The Do Nothing President

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/07/snl.politics.obama/index.html

Quote:
[It was a powerful combination -- and after 34 years, the combination of "SNL" and politics can still strike sparks among political observers.

The most recent example came this past weekend when Fred Armisen, as President Obama, chided "those on the right" for saying that he was "turning this great country into something that resembles the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany."

Not true, said Armisen as Obama.

"When you look at my record," he said, "it's very clear what I've done so far -- and that is nothing."

Quote:
In general, "SNL" mocked previous presidents' personal characteristics, such as Clinton's outsized appetites or George W. Bush's struggles with spoken English. With Obama -- who lacks the same kind of easily caricatured traits, Thompson says -- the show went after his record.


Well you know it's true when Saturday Night Live starts parodying it. But for those who still doubt there's also this from venerable Politi-Fact. All in good fun of course.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/oct/05/saturday-n...t-live-

Quote:
A Saturday Night Live skit over the weekend showed President Barack Obama admitting what he's accomplished so far: "jack" and "squat."

Quote:
Here at PolitiFact, however, we're tracking Obama's 515 promises with our Obameter, which rates them as Promise Kept, Promise Broken, Compromise, Stalled, In the Works and No Action.

Just for fun, we thought we'd go through Saturday Night Live's checklist and match it up with the promises we've rated on the Obameter.

"Close Guantanamo Bay - Not Done." We've rated Obama's promise No. 177 Close the Guantanamo Detention Center as Stalled. Congress has been reluctant to fund the closure and press reports have indicated progress is not proceeding as the White House had hoped. Still, Obama gave himself a year to get this done, and that's not until January 2010.

"Out of Iraq - Not Done." Actually, Obama did not promise to have troops out during his first year; he promised to remove them in approximately 16 months. We rated Obama's promise No. 125, Direct military leaders to end the war in Iraq, as Promise Kept and his promise No. 126, Begin removing combat troops from Iraq, as In the Works.

"Improve Afghanistan - Worse." The promise we've rated on Afghanistan is No. 134, Send two additional brigades to Afghanistan. We've rated this Promise Kept.

"Health Care Reform - Hell No." We rated Promise No. 433, Sign a "universal" health care bill, as In the Works. With health care legislation pending in Congress, many of Obama's campaign promises about health care reform are rated In the Works.

"Global Warming - Not Done." One of Obama's top promises on global warming is No. 456, Create cap and trade system with interim goals to reduce global warming. Congress is considering legislation on this, so we've rated it In the Works.

"Immigration Reform - Not Done." Promise No. 288, Provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, is rated No Action.

"Gays in the military - Not Done." We rated Promise No. 293, Call for repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, as Stalled.

"Limits on executive powers - Not Done." We rated promise No. 516, No signing statements to nullify instructions from Congress, as Compromise.

"Torture prosecutions - Not Done." Obama never promised to prosecute people who tortured terror suspects. He did make promise No. 175, End the use of torture, which we rated In the Works.

Obama has also broken some promises that Saturday Night Live did not mention. There's No. 240, Tougher rules against revolving door for lobbyists and former officials; No. 234, Allow five days of public comment before signing bills; and No. 24, End income tax for seniors making less than $50,000. See the full list of promises we've rated Promise Broken.

"So please stop saying this country is on the road to socialism," Armisen-Obama concluded. "If that were actually the case, I'd be making some real changes. Instead it took me four months to pick out a dog."

Actually, we found it took Obama five months to fulfill promise No. 502, Get his daughters a puppy.


Why stop there. I apologize for all the comments I've made about Obama doing anything since it's obvious he has been very busy at doing nothing. At least he does seem to be very good at spending large sums of the the taxpayer's money throwing extravagant and expensive parties and jet-setting around the country and the world on Air Force One.

What does all this prove? It's not what you actually get done but how well and clever you can articulate what you'll get done.
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BudDurland



Joined: Dec 05, 2002
Posts: 522



PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 5:48 am    Post subject:

Actually, he did do something -- endorsed spending bills so large that now America has to print dollar bills like monopoly money. This is one of the factors in why the dollar is trading so poorly against other currencies, and is indirectly why the price of oil is high -- the world's confidence in the greenback is faltering. I would not be surprised to see double digit inflation a couple years down the road.
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