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Val123's avatar

Is Obama to the point in his administration where he can finally implement his own policies, instead of constantly cleaning up after Bush?

Asked by Val123 (12739points) December 2nd, 2009

The bailouts, for example, were not Obama’s idea. They were implemented and voted on during the Bush administration. Obama had no choice but to to follow up on what the government had already voted on, but then he was very quick to tell big businesses, “It’s not going to happen again. Run your businesses responsibly, or accept the consequences.”

In last night’s speech he said he’s putting 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan because that’s where we should have been all along. On the other hand, he’s pulling 150,000 OUT of Iraq.

The Al Qaeda is based in Afghanistan, and, in case you’ve forgotten, they bombed the trade towers. Have we forgotten the horror?

The Bush Admin. for whatever stupid reason, used that as an excuse to go after Iraq. Bush had 150,00 troops in Iraq, vs only 50,000 in Afghanistan.

What Obama said last night, was, “Although we’ve made some major changes for the good in Iraq, that is not what our original focus was. Therefore I’m pulling our troops out of Iraq, beginning now, and we’re going to refocus on our original mission, to put the Al Qaeda down once and for all! And we’ll do it in 18 months, then we’ll start pulling out of Afghanistan and they will be responsible for their own country. (As long as no one pulls any more shit on us…...”)

In other words, he’s getting the conflict back on track, plus he’s giving them a clear cut mission, and a clear cut time frame, which is something the Bush administration never did. Probably because Bush couldn’t even tell time, much less commit to a timeframe.

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22 Answers

Qingu's avatar

I think it’s going to be a long time before we’re done cleaning up after Bush’s mess.

Really, it’s normal for a president’s policies during his term to have long-lingering effects. In many ways we’re still dealing with Ronald Reagan’s messes.

Val123's avatar

@Qingu True. Heck, we’re still trying to clean up the Constitution! But I think Obama’s finally getting a chance to stand on his OWN platform the majority of the time, instead of having to slip a little in here and there, in between clean ups (except for Health Care reform, of course.)

Qingu's avatar

Yeah, I agree. Though I don’t think it’s fair to judge him on the economy yet. Or, more accurately, it’s complicated to judge him on the economy.

flameboi's avatar

the bigger the mess, the longer it takes to clean it up… ;(

RedPowerLady's avatar

I agree that the mess is very big and he is probably doing so much cleaning up behind the scenes that we just have no idea.

I would love to see him start implementing policies but I constantly have to remind myself, ‘it has only been a year’.

Val123's avatar

@RedPowerLady Yeah…so many people (stupid people) look at what we’ve gained so far and have nothing but criticism for him…they don’t realize he’s dealing with the aftermath Bush, not his own policies…except for last night. Finally he has a chance. He put his foot down on the war in the Middle East….

RedPowerLady's avatar

@Val123 Oh ya what did he say? I’m whispering because I should know..

Val123's avatar

Basically this (in the detail): http://www.fluther.com/disc/63169/is-obama-to-the-point-in-his-administration-where-he-can/

(I usually don’t watch Presidential stuff, but I tuned in just to see if he was going to say anything about health care reform (he didn’t) and just got caught up in him. People talk about what a great orator he is, as though it were a bad thing. He’s a great orator, and he speaks total common sense…..)

gemiwing's avatar

I think it’ll be his second term. There’s so many far-reaching tentacles of the Bush Era that it’s going to take a long long time to get to most of them. I think truly, every president is within the constrains of their predecessor in some way.

Sidenote- can we PLEASE get rid of trickle-down economics now? I think it’s had enough time.

RedPowerLady's avatar

@Val123 Thanx for the link. Too bad no health care update :(

Val123's avatar

@RedPowerLady I know…..I get so frustrated with the screaming idiots, most of whom are on Medicare, Medicaide or some other government run health insurance policy, screaming about how bad his reform plan is. The MAJORITY are for it….”

RedPowerLady's avatar

@Val123 Ya i’m frustrated with all the screaming going on as well. It’s not like we can’t “change back” if it doesn’t work. Ya it’d cost money but then again it could be worth it.

Val123's avatar

@RedPowerLady Yes. It would. It’s really a blot on America that we’re the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn’t provide it’s citizens with basic health care…

aprilsimnel's avatar

No. Lots of shit still left to shovel, unfortunately. Afghanistan being one of many piles.

Val123's avatar

@aprilsimnel True, but last night he started back to square one with Afghanistan and Sept 11. He’s doing exactly what he would have done had he been president then, and there won’t be any tripping off into side wars with other countries for no reason. So he’s handling it the way he wants to, not the way some previous administration boxed him in to handling it. However, yes, he still has Bush’s mess in Iraq to clean up.

Barcybarce's avatar

Can’t clean up 8 years in 1 year

Val123's avatar

@Barcybarce That’s right. He’s not done, by any means, but now he can start focusing on his own policies instead of almost exclusively on cleaning up the Bush mess, and nothing else.

Strauss's avatar

I am seeing parallels between Obama’s Afghanistan and Johnson’s Vietnam. Each one found the conflict he inherited to be a quagmire which required more troops before we could pull out.

Val123's avatar

@Yetanotheruser He addressed that apparent parallel, and pointed out some major differences. Don’t remember exactly what they were…..

mattbrowne's avatar

I think cleaning up the mess is still only 60% done. But Obama works in parallel. He devotes half of his time cleaning up and half of the time tackling new important topics.

Val123's avatar

@mattbrowne Agreed. But up until the speech, I think he was spending 90% of his time cleaning up after Bush, and the other 10% on health care. I think he now has the chance to focus more on his own agenda’s…...while still cleaning up after Bushy.

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