Debate: Will Obama recover from the absolute mess he has created as president of the US?
Side: Great President

3) Passed Wall Street ReformNeil Barofsky, a Democrat who oversaw TARP, gave Obama's Dodd-Frank Act an F rating.At the end of that article, Barofsky says: "repealing Dodd-Frank and not doing anything else to deal with the problem would be worse than what we have today," indicating that it is an accomplishment even if he thinks it did not go far enough.here's an article featuring the opinion of sixteen experts regarding what's been good and what's been bad with Obama's Wall Street Reform.I think the article you referenced is a fair anthology of opinions and in general shows that Dodd-Frank, while not perfect, has improved the situation.4) Iraqwe thought they were safe-harboring al QaedaDepends on who the "we" is. The administration was making this claim, so much of the public and Congress believed this to be the case, but the intelligence community did not support this claim. As I posted earlier, the Inspector General concluded that Douglas Feith's office disseminated alternative intelligence assessments that were inconsistent with the consensus of the Intelligence Community (ref) and the CIA director himself said we never established that link (ref)Is that good or am I missing something?One of the other major contentions was that Iraq had 'weapons of mass destruction' which also turned out to be false. Rumsfeld said "We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." - that should have been a clue.Iraq had allowed inspectors in and the inspectors findings had been "consistent with Iraq's declarations." They were being allowed to destroy old stockpiles, etc. Yet about one month after their report, without allowing the inspectors to finish or going back to the U.N., the inspectors were removed and Shock and Awe began.Some people even think that Bush declared war on Iraq to finish what his father left from the Gulf War.Or to kill Saddam for trying to assassinate George Bush Sr. in 1993, or because Afghanistan wasn't going well and there were no great targets there, etc. There were/are lots of alternative hypotheses floated.5) Afghanistanmore soldiers have died under Obama, than BushI know this is under the Afghanistan so hopefully people assume that this statement applies only to Afghanistan, but I feel it might be important to clear up any ambiguity - there have been more military fatalities in Afghanistan under Obama than Bush, but more than twice as many soldiers were killed under Bush when looking at Iraq and Afghanistan combined. As an additional note, deaths in Afghanistan fell this year by more than 60%.numbers from icasualties.orgWhen Obama ran, he told everyone that he would increase troops in Afghanistan so no one should be surprised that he did. So far he is still on track to end the combat operations there next year. The lead role has been transferred to Afghan forces, etc. But I will say that our role in Afghanistan is far from done.6) Osama bin ladenBush closing Alec Station was considered to be a good move at the time.Not by the guy who initially headed the unit:"Michael Scheuer, a former senior C.I.A. official who was the first head of the unit, said the move reflected a view within the agency that Mr. bin Laden was no longer the threat he once was.Mr. Scheuer said that view was mistaken." (from the same article)It allowed the CIA to better focus their efforts on finding Bin LadenIt doesn't say it allows them to "better" focus on Bin Laden, it says that the priority for Bin Laden remained high and that they can better focus on al Qaeda and terrorist trends in general.Did Bush say they weren't focused on finding Bin Laden? Yeah, but I think he was full of shit. We know for a fact that the CIA was searching aggressively for Bin Laden leading up to his death.I don't think anyone is asserting that the Bush administration fully stopped searching for Osama, only that it lessened focus on him as an individual and that going into Iraq pulled resources that could have otherwise been directed at Osama and al Qaeda.Obama gets the honor of having the defeat of Bin Laden occur under his presidency.cool.7) U.S. Auto IndustryI gave Obama credit for this one, so I don't think I need to go into any more detail.cool.8) Recapitalized BanksDoesn't this fall under the Dodd-Frank Act? How did it end up on the list twice?I am pretty sure they meant the Legacy Securities Public-Private Investment Program which happened before Dodd-Frank was enacted.http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB123780994825213465 http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/financial-stability/TARP-Programs/credit-market-programs/ppip/Pages/Program-Status.aspx 9) Don’t Ask, Don’t Tellit really should have been an easy choice for a president serving these last few years, especially a Democrat.Having some military leaders and personnel speak against it and some saying we shouldn't do such a big change while at war made it more difficult than it otherwise would/should have been.I can't really do anything but give him creditcool10) Moammar Gaddafididn't the UK, France and the rebels play a larger role in the defeat of Gaddafi? That doesn't make Obama's role obsolete, but it was a joint effort.Indeed it was a joint effort; no one said Obama tracked Gaddafi down in his spare time.From the initial post:"In March 2011, joined a coalition of European and Arab governments in military action, including air power and naval blockade, against Gaddafi regime to defend Libyan civilians and support rebel troops. Gaddafi’s forty-two-year rule ended when the dictator was overthrown and killed by rebels on October 20, 2011. No American lives were lost."Ah, whatever. I'll give it to him.cool