He watches in silence as U.S. corporations continue to outsource jobs to China and other overseas nations; he does not demand that Congress enact legislation to use tax credits and tax penalties to motivate or force corporations to stop outsourcing and return jobs to our shores. Again, he has bypassed a great opportunity to solve a major problem in America.
On the need for effective financial reform he failed again; he let the Congress dictate the key elements of the legislation designed to reform our seriously corrupted financial system. He watched from the sidelines as this legislation was watered down to sooth the special interests; he did not jump into the fray and use the power he wields to arrive at strong, effective reform.
The issue of "banks too big to fail" fell by the wayside, a most important element needed to prevent another economic meltdown. The legislation should have guaranteed that the U.S. taxpayer would never again have to bail out those deceitful, manipulative financial giants. When this provision failed to be included what did our president do? Once again, he backed down. He took the easy way out and he failed the American people yet again.
How about our endless foreign wars? When he came into office he could have been proactive and accelerated the plan to exit Iraq, and then set up a concrete plan to leave Afghanistan. Had he followed that course, he would have addressed the biggest problem facing America, the massive costs of war that are a major contributor to our economic crisis; he had the opportunity to completely reverse the grievous actions of Bush & Co. but, instead, he passively submitted to the dictates of the military establishment.
Millions of Americans do not like the weakness that they see in this president. He has allowed the GOP Congress to make a fool out of him as they stall everything on his agenda. He has allowed members of his own party, those such as Senators Ben Nelson, Max Baucus, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln and others to openly defy him and side with the GOP on critical issues.
What President Obama does not seem to understand, and I cannot fathom why he doesn't, is that the way that he is conducting his presidency is putting this nation in great peril for the future. America currently, with the wars and our continuing economic crisis, is in a weakened state and conditions are worsening. He does not give the impression that he has the courage and conviction to cope with these problems as we hoped he would.
Many of his decisions and actions aren't very popular with the majority of Americans. Of course, the Republicans hate him and everything he does and they are intent upon destroying his presidency. But, the danger to America lies in the fact that he is alienating those who worked so hard to elect him. By alienating his supporters he is, inadvertently, opening the door for the GOP to increase its own base, largely by attracting disenchanted independent voters.
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