Obama’s “Mistakes” - Too Damn Many

By TRB

There is a bit of a lie to this headline because, unlike Bush, Obama is in possession of a normal sized fully functioning brain, and therefore could not make the number of "mistakes," I will outline in this article. In fact, this represents less than half of the poor decisions he has made in his first three years as the man who doesn't know how to be president. And a lot of these he made on purpose.

I made a mistake when I voted for him. "Change" could be heard everywhere; he was going to provide it, this city man with the soft voice who used to be a community organizer and so must know something about what's fair and what's not and how sometimes good people are up against the wall and deserve another shot. Looked like we found a president.

He was one of the people. He was sharper than a whip. He could talk the paint off a paint can. And women were transported all the way back to JFK when describing his natural charm, the way he walked, the way his presence filled a room, hell an arena. The way he supported women's rights (until recently when he made huge cuts in a poor mother and child food program.) This man was not your average presidential candidate who is born with the silver spoon and the silver cup. His folks had nothing but love when he arrived into this world, and a multi-racial marriage that was far ahead of its time. He spent most of his time with his family and it rubbed off. Young Barack Obama knew that racism was pure ignorance, nothing more.

And he moved so easily among whites, Why shouldn't he, his grand mother was white? He knew white culture. He knew African American culture. But he committed himself to helping the poor of the inner city no matter their race. They were all the same to him. He became a community organizer in one of Chicago's poorest districts where every day of life is another accomplishment. You were not robbed. You were not shot. Your heat was not turned off due to credit troubles. Your car was not repossessed.

All that and you had a cool neighborhood organizer who was good at his job, smoked a bit though, a habit he wanted to get rid of. It was not the kind of habit one would want if one were a U.S. Senator, and behind him there were people with a lot of money who were convinced they could put him in that Senate seat. And they did. And before you could say, "got a smoke?' he was President of the United States. And just about everything would go down hill from there.

President Barack Obama wrapped his presidential candidacy in "change." After eight years of the idiotic and quite possibly criminal Bush and Cheney team, Obama's candidacy seemed like such an obvious choice. But something must have happened to him on the way to the White House from Chicago, because if you match his campaign rhetoric against his acts as president, he has literally contradicted nearly everything he claimed to stand for.

The following is list of policy changes Obama said would be made, or hinted strongly would be made as soon as he was elected, and whether he kept those promises or lived up to the expectations of the voters who actually put him in office:

The Patriot Act: This was enacted by the Bush Administration after 9/11. Two features of this act are a direct attack on individual constitutional rights. One makes it possible for government to search your home while you are not there. Leave. And never report they have searched your home. Another, called "rendition" gives police and judges special powers to send a U.S. citizen out of the U.S. to be interrogated in Middle Eastern nations who can torture legally. Also under this act the government can actually make any U.S. citizen disappear from the face of the earth and not even have to make statements about it. Gone forever.

Obama said he would get rid of this criminal "law." He hasn't. But claims it isn't used. Then why have it on the books?

No tax increases for the wealthy. An increase might have helped us out of the financial crises we are now in, and during the presidential campaign Obama promised he would not extend this tax cut for the rich.

He extended it soon after he was elected.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was believed that when a man with Obama's keen mind took a good look at these tragic absurdities, he would end both wars immediately. He didn't.

Barack Obama's refusal to use his Attorney General to investigate the possible war crimes committed by George Bush and Dick Cheney. By refusing to do so, he has become an accomplice. His job is to uphold the Constitution. It is now certain that Bush and Cheney illegally invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq and murdered thousand of its inhabitants. Obama will not even bother to investigate it.

Barack Obama's refusal to investigate and punish the executives in the banks and on Wall Street. The financial institutions created many investment "instruments" designed to steal money from pension funds in every state, 401Ks and other investments and savings. The American people lost up to a trillion dollars in this largest theft in history. Instead of investigating, Obama actually gave the institutions who were stealing the money even more trillions in taxpayer funds. One must understand that his campaign was largely financed by these groups he would have to investigate, and apparently he doesn't have the guts to go up against them

Obama's presidency has actually been a series of refusals to take action. For example, look at how long he allowed the Mubarak mess to play out in Egypt. Fortunately, the Egyptian people were able to get rid of this monster dictator on their own, because Obama held his cards close to the chest right up until the tide turned.

Remember the enthusiastic Obama during his campaign speeches? Where was the fire in his rhetoric last month when the Republican governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, and the infamous billionaire Koch Brothers decided to kill unions? There is a thing called the "bully pulpit." Most presidents have used it, some very effectively. But not Barack Omama. Again he takes the cowardly way out, says very little about this union-busting action and risks destroying the long-time traditional relationship between Democrats and the unions. Maybe now unions will form a Third Party. Democrats can thank Obama for that if it happens.

The refusal to use the bully pulpit to try and push through regulations that would stop the banks from stealing from their own customers in any number of ways. He won't do it because the banks own him and he fears them.

The refusal to order his Attorney General, Eric Holder, to investigate the banks and Wall Street for their theft of possibly a trillion dollars, the largest theft on record in American history. He knows who stole the money and under what conditions. The AGs' office has enough of the original paperwork to put all of Wall Street's thieves in prison, but they have not prosecuted a single one. Meanwhile Obama had given these criminals even more trillions and chaged it to the U.S. citizen.

He is truly the banker's President.

He has even hired a large contingent of bankers from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to help run his White House. These are the same two institutions that need to be investigated immediately for their role in the destruction of the the U.S. economy

Obama has not created jobs through public works infrastructure repair to any extent that it would make a difference in the unemployment rate. Further, he has not created a "new industry" of alternative energy as he said he would during his election.

With the ongoing foreclosure crisis, where millions are being thrown out of their houses, Obama put forth and funded a program to allow lower mortgages to families at risk of losing their homes. Then he turned the entire program over to private bankers to run.They quickly discovered a way to steal even more money and still throw families out of their houses.

We won't even get into the public insurance give-away that he has promised private insurance corporations. And no drugs from Canada. He always promised we'd have them before he was elected. And no single-payer provision. Another of his empty promises.

Even when I see Obama, I get this strange feeling that he is not really in charge of anything in this corporate nation. Maybe he is a figurehead, maybe it is that he has thrown his lot in with the banks and the banks now run America. Or maybe this is just all symptomatic of what MSNBC newsman Dylan Ratigan calls "The unholy alliance between business and government.

Barack Obama with his 10 years of expanding deficits,

Barack Obama, who jumps up on a chair and cringes every time someone suggests that maybe he should investigate the crimes Bush and Cheney left in plain sight when he took command.

Barack Obama, the sadness he has caused all progressives who he openly lied to.

Barack Obama - not the solution - the problem