The Los Angeles Times' Michael Muskal explains Obama's 2012 campaign:
Running for reelection is different than running for the first time because the incumbent has a record that voters can evaluate. Obama will cite healthcare insurance overhaul, his administration's response to the recession and his foreign policy, which includes winding down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Afghan War is winding down? Well, that would be news.
Forget about Obama having "a record that voters can evaluate." I'm moreconcerned about reporters' inability to evaluate the present.
About Peter Hart
Ugh. And I'm supposed to vote for this guy again? The only reason being that the Republicans are batshit crazy?
We need a primary challenger, or a parliament. This is getting old.
Well Jeff I must agree we need a change.For me that is Tea party(Im sure you have different beliefs)As far as"reporters inability to evaluate the present"-,the problem was, and is the same.They did not evaluate Obama at all in the first election run.I would say in fact that they attempted to shield him from being "evaluated".So we got a man with beliefs(wrongheaded)with no executive experience.No military experience,little legislative, and in effect almost never held a trackable job(try to track his legal billings).He worked 2 days at a fast food joint. Taught in a speaker capacity some classes of a dubious nature(My take). Community activist. And became a pro at running for office and writing his bio on the fly.Oh yeah wrote books about himself(at least we think he may of written them)Come on folks we got what we deserved.Four wasted years. Unfortunately you got Obama back for round two.Who knows who the Republicans will put up.
The length of Obama's legislative experience or the fact that he hadn't worked in an executive capacity wasn't any kind of secret the press withheld from the voters.
PS
Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983. He worked for a year as a financial analyst.
He then worked three years as a community organizer in Chicago before going to Harvard Law School.
Obama graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991. He ran Illinois Project Vote, a voter registration drive, for much of 1992, and then accepted a position with the Chicago firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland. The firm specialized in political and civil rights work and neighborhood economic development work. He also began teaching at the University of Chicago in 1993. He was elected to the Illinois state Senate in 1996 where he served for eight years.
During that time He was also a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. His schedule from the school shows him teaching two or three classes in the fall and winter terms â┚¬” usually Constitutional Law III: Equal Protection and Substantive Due Process; Voting Rights and the Democratic Process; and Current Issues in Racism and the Law. In the spring, he would attend the Illinois legislative sessions.
The bulk of Obama's professional experience is either in elected office or working for a nonprofit, a university or a civil rights law firm.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2008/mar/07/obamas-20-years-experience/
PPS
Of course the media evaluated him…Rev. Wright! Bill Ayers! His education in a Mandrassa?! The terrorist fist bumps! His reply to Joe the [not a] Plumber! His socialism! His Marxism! His being born in a foreign country called Hawaii! Etc, etc…..
How quickly they forget….
Speaking of resumes…. here's what financial genius Paul Ryan's looks like….
Ryan worked as a staffer for Senator Bob Kasten (R–Wis.) while attending Miami U. in Ohio and just after college. He hopscotched among political jobs in the mid-1990s, writing speeches for the late representative Jack Kemp (R–N.Y.) and directing legislation for Senator Sam Brownback (R–Kans.). He was elected to Congress at 28 in 1998. His private-sector experience includes a brief stint as a marketing consultant for Ryan Inc. Central (a site construction business owned by his cousins' family) and part-time jobs waiting tables and occasionally driving the Wienermobile during a summer gig at Oscar Mayer.
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0913/outfront-economy-taxes-obama-ryan-third-rail-economics.html
PS
He also requires his staff members to read a fantasy novel, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
Helen I could care less about Ryan.Agreed he is far underqualified to be making hard economic decisions.As is Bidon and Obama.I read your Obama resume….My god it sounds thin.Im still not sure if he has qualifications to run a mini mart.
Lets step back in time to George Bush Senior……. Youngest naval pilot in WW2. War hero. Graduated from a fine Ivy league school.Went into business and succeeded.Started in politics small and worked up. Senator. Board of director on fortune 500 companies.Embas to China.Head of the CIA.VP for 8 years.And a hell of a lot more.The Dems tried to make him out as an unqualified duffas.Can we please stop this dance.Compared to him Obama is a child.A boy man.A nothing.Let Bush Sr be the bar.Let all meet the challenge.And let people like Obama be wise enough to realize that being elected does not mean you can handle the job.Sadly it ,means he must!
"Helen I could care less about Ryan."
Uh, you've been defending his economic policies in other threads…..and your party put him out there as the face of their budget plans going forward.
And bringing up Bush 41 is an attempt to change the subject….your original point was that the media didn't "evaulate" Obama. I showed hi resume was no secret.
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Can you offer any proof to your claim that "The Dems tried to make him [GHW Bush] out as an unqualified duffas." They certainly didn't do that in 1988.
In 1980 the GOP thought Hollywood actor Ronnie Reagan was more qualified.
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But in the only election that matters, 2008, McCain might have been marginally more qualified, on paper, to be President than Obama, but his temperament, Senate history and poor judgment made him a bad choice.
PS
If Bush41 should be the bar for next year's Republican candidate, they won't have anyone to run.
Helen I vote Republican if I must,though I am not a Republican……Did not vote for Bush,and in fact seldom liked him or his policies.Hated McCain.I was quoting George Bush Sr from his book…..And as far as Obama i STILL cant find out tons of things 2 years in.Im working on an article though and i neeeeed his school grades.And since Im a duffus could you find that for me?I mean the education prez right.Simple enough right?
My point was look how far we have slipped.Look what we are willing to let in the door.
During my lifetime I've endured a number of bad, poorly qualified Presidents…Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush 41 and most spectacularly, Bush 43.
Not to mention Vice-Presidents like Agnew, Quayle, Bush and Cheney. As well as candidates like James Stockdale and Sarah somebodyorother.
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Obama graduated magna cum laude from the Harvard Law School in 1991.
Occidental College professor Roger Boesche once gave Obama a B for his writing on the subject of European political thought. [The president lobbied for an A, but was turned down]
I have also endured duds.The worst Carter…then Obama and plenty of political nightmares on both sides.. And Im weeelllllll acquainted with Harvard.Loved the school,as did many of my dear friends.It had its drawbacks certainly.But all in all…..And yes it is reported he did well there.And by all accounts he did,though with the pass fail system it is always hard to assess how much was school politics and how much is academics.It is a very caste system school.
Strangely though his grades in Occidental makes it impossible….may i repeat IMPOSSIBLE to enter Harvard.His time at Colombia is completely shrouded and the few accounts explains why he NEVER mentions it.Again making it impossible to enter Harvard.My guess is that is the reason why everything is sealed.
Bush..Gore…McCain…were average or lower students though at very good schools.My statement stands.We can do better.
Please do not believe that I believe only Ivy league graduates should run for office.Who made the statement that any man off the street could run this country better than Harvard pin heads?(F lee buckley?)Although I feel slighted….knowing Harvard i understand this quote.And some of the lowest ilk I have known reside in Washington in the halls of power.Spawn of places like Harvard.