I'm sure this thread is going to upset quite a few. That's a shame, but not my problem. I'm sure some will come out swinging and want to troll-rate me unto oblivion. That's a shame, but also not my problem. I'm also sure many will comment emotionally before reading through the diary in its entirety, without reading or watching the links. I was hoping that wouldn't happen, but it did.
I think for myself and do not post comments or diaries lightly. Ever.
President Obama isn't a god. He's not omniscient and he's not above making mistakes. That said, I'm not going to applaud every decision he makes. I vote and voted for him in fact, and I pay my taxes. At my age, I've earned the right to not agree with every decision the people I elect make. I've earned the right to challenge them when they make decisions I'm not in favor of and may affect me negatively, and the right to let them know why. Even with his title of President, he is still just a man. Nothing more, nothing less. I give him the respect he deserves for the weight and responsibility of the job he's chosen to take upon himself and was given. But I will not applaud him across the board. It keeps him honest and it keeps me honest.
I watched a thread posted earlier become a bloodlust free for all. Sad to watch. The title alone, I believe, caused a major part of the crash and burn because the diarist does have some legitimate concerns and, for the most part, the thread was written from the heart I believe.
In any case, I'm sorry that so many don't want to read that President Obama is capable of, has, and will, most likely continue to, make mistakes and poor decisions from time to time. Sorry, it goes with being human. And politics is dirty business; unfortunate, but it is what it f*cking is.
I'm disappointed in President Obama for not following through with the statement he made to reporters on July 3, 2008:
"I have said throughout this campaign that this war was ill-conceived, that it was a strategic blunder and that it needs to come to an end," Obama said. "I have also said I would be deliberate and careful about how we get out. That position has not changed. I am not searching for maneuvering room with respect to that position."
In remarks in February 2007, Obama said he backed a plan that would bring U.S. troops home by March 2008.
"America, it is time to start bringing our troops home," he said. "It's time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else's civil war.
"That's why I have a plan that will bring our combat troops home by March of 2008."
I'm past disappointed that President Obama is most certainly not following through with his promise at the SEIU Healthcare Forum in Las Vegas, March 24, 2007:
"My commitment is to make sure that we've got universal health care for all Americans by the end of my first term as president."
Sometime between March 2007, and May, 2007, something changed drastically:
'If you’re starting from scratch,’ he [Obama] says, ‘then a single-payer system’-a government-managed system like Canada’s, which disconnects health insurance from employment-’would probably make sense. But we’ve got all these legacy systems in place, and managing the transition, as well as adjusting the culture to a different system, would be difficult to pull off. So we may need a system that’s not so disruptive that people feel like suddenly what they’ve known for most of their lives is thrown by the wayside.’
See, I needed single payer.
I find it heartbreakingly disappointing that President Obama said that he opposed an individual mandate and isn't following through on it.
I find it more than disappointing that the healthcare negotiations weren't aired on C-Span, as he said they would be.
I'm heartbroken that President Obama said:
"The pharmaceutical industry wrote into the prescription drug plan that Medicare could not negotiate with the drug companies, and you know, what the chairman of the committee who pushed the law through, went to work for the pharmaceutical industry, making two million dollars a year. Imagine that. That's an example of the same old game playing in Washington."
. . . and then made a deal with Big Pharma behind closed doors, a deal that will net the pharmaceutical industry billions.
I've tried to explain it the best I'm able to some here why I see what the House passed as a Public Option is a useless waste to me. It normally gets dicey. People want to know exactly why this healthcare bill isn't helpful to me and why I'm not turning cartwheels. It gets into finances and where my financial status puts me in this whole confusing labrynth, and for as much as I love many here, my finances are not anyone's f*cking business but mine. Suffice it to say that I fall into the gray area with this bill. I'm what's going to fall through the cracks and that makes people uncomfortable. They seem me as an isolated incident. If our officials don't clean this bill up, in 2013, they're going to see just how many of us fall through the cracks and just how many of us die between now and then and after.
Those are the facts. And to those who don't like what they're reading here, please, find another thread.
Am I sorry that I voted for President Obama? No. Do I think he was and is the best choice, given the candidates we were offered, as President of the United States? Yes. Do I realize that he was handed an odious mess to clean up when his predecessor left office? Yes. Am I happy with every decision he's made since taking office? No.
And I make no apologies for my views. As I said in the beginning, he's a man, not a god. He's going to make mistakes. And time isn't a luxury many of us have, so when my President makes what I see to be a decision that affects me negatively, I feel I'm entitled to say just that and why.©