Barack Obama is, overall, a worse President than George W. Bush

Since he has been on the site recently, it would be nice if he would say if he intends to return to the debate. For now I will suppose that he intends to return, so I will address has opening remarks. Con's remarks are quoted. 7. "Tea partiers do have the right to express their opinions; it's the first amendment, I understand. But does that give them the right to call up their congressman and curse them out? " Of course it gives them the right. It is rude and ill-advised, but it is well within First Amendment rights. However, Con's assertion that Tea Partiers characteristically do such things is false. In all the instances of violence at rallies since Obama took office, not one was instigated by a Tea Partier. Violence was all by SEIU thugs and other opponents of the peaceful Tea Party movement. The signs portraying Obama as Hitler were the work of LaRouchites, a leftist off-shoot of the Democrats. They put their website on some of the signs and sell the signs on their website. The charges that Tea Partiers used racist slurs against Congressman are supported by any evidence, despite there being hundred of cell phone videos at the rally and a $100,000 reward for an incriminating video. Obama is not responsible for the actions of his errant supporters, but it is unfair to blame opponents for a breakdown in civil behavior. Signs saying "Kill Bush" were common during the Bush Administration, but the liberal press didn't bother reporting them. 8. "Does that give them the right to go against the very democracy they claim they are trying to protect by literally whining about the officials' choices in Congress when THEY put them there to begin with? " It is absolutely the right of citizens to complain about elected officials. Opponents of George Bush had no obligation to quietly support everything he wanted. Prior supporters of Obama have a right to feel betrayed because he lied about transparency and bipartisanship. Some say that all politicians lie, but there all small lies and big lies. For example, Obama said he would close GITMO, but he has broken that promise an now there is little chance he will ever honor it. However, at the time Obama made the promise he did not understand what was involved. The issues are so complex, that is understandable, and perhaps partially excusable. However, nothing whatsoever stopped Obama from fulfilling his promises of transparency and bipartisanship. He simply lied to win the election, and that is lie too massive to excuse. 9. "Bush left Obama (and our children) with a great mess to clean up: two wars, one of which had nothing to do with 9/11 and another that has been completely overshadowed in the wake of the one that had nothing to do with Bin Laden, completely obliterated/annihilated/destroyed the federal surplus by the second year of his presidency" A recession began in the last year of the Clinton Administration, and it was brought on by he collapse of the dot com bubble, not Bush's fault. In 2000 the Senate was evenly split and Republicans had a very narrow margin in the House, so the surplus was "obliterated/annihilated/destroyed" largely through bipartisan effort. The Enron collapse, a sign of lax enforcement, was during the Clinton Administration; Enron execs were prosecuted under Bush. The major spending legislation in the early Bush years was the prescription drug extension to Medicare, which was bipartisan. Repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act that set up the recent financial disaster was accomplished under Clinton in 1999, but it was a true bipartisan effort. "The final bill resolving the differences was passed in the Senate 90ï¿½€"8 (one not voting) and in the House: 362ï¿½€"57 (15 not voting). " . http://en.wikipedia.org... By 2006 Democrats had solid control of Congress, so any legislation that set up financial disaster was from then on a product of Democrats. Most important was the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which was run throughout by Clinton-era Democrats. The Democrats in control set a policy of buying all the bad loans brought to the market, on the grounds that it helped low-income people achieve home ownership. On three separate occasion, starting in 2003, Bush went to Congress demanding reform of these disastrous policies, and on each occasion reform was blocked by Democrats. . http://americanelephant.wordpress.com... 10. I addressed the wars in R1 (4). Both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were initially authorized by Congress on partisan basis, and the Democratic-run Congress has continued to approve funding every year since 2006. The wars cost about $100 billion per year, which is peanuts compared to Obama's $1.5 trillion yearly deficit, projected by the Administration to be near $1 trillion eight years hence. 11. "mismanaged the greatest natural disaster in the United States in recent history (A. K. A. Hurricane Katrina)" Polls show 62% of the voters disapproved of Bush's management of Katrina, while 69% now disapprove of Obama's management of the BP oil spill. I commented further in R1. 12. "tainted all of our relationships with out allies" Obama believes that the key to good relations with allies is to ask the to do very little, pay in lots of money (as to bail out Greece), and continually apologize for the United States. Has this worked? He has achieved no sanctions against Iran or North Korea, who now know he will never do anything, and they act accordingly. He has destroyed relations with Israel, the only democracy in the region. By contrast, Iran, North Korea, and China make no effort whatsoever to apologize, contribute, or cooperate. Yet they are succeeding in their foreign policy goals while Obama fails. All of foreign policy starts with winning respect, and Obama has lost that. Bush had respect from our adversaries, who needed to worry about effective retaliation. No more. It is certainly possible that Obama will change course and redeem his Administration. I hope he does that and becomes a great president. As of now, he has been the worst president since Jimmy Carter and is in the running for being the worst president of all times. The resolution is affirmed.