It has been nearly 11 months, and in that time, you have failed to turn everything in this country around. How can I support someone who cannot do in 11 months what George Bush failed to do in 8 years--end the war in Afghanistan?
It took Franklin Delano Roosevelt approximately 10 years to end the Great Depression, and your failure to end the worst economic crisis since the great depression in the 11 months you have held the office of president strikes me as an abysmal failure.
Theodore Roosevelt first campaigned on establishing National Health Insurance in 1912 and Franklin Roosevelt was unable to get it included in the New Deal; in 8 years, Bill Clinton could not get it passed. That you have not managed to pass a national health insurance plan in your 11 months in office is illustrative of your inability to fulfill your campaign promises.
In June 1963, President John F. Kennedy proposed the Civil Rights Act; it was signed into law by Lyndon Johnson in July 1964. It only took them 13 months, so I don't see why you can't get comprehensive healthcare reform accomplished in 11 months.
True, the Civil Rights legislation had key components stripped out of it, but these were subsequently accomplished. It only took Johnson another 13 months to pass the Voting Rights Act and only 3 additional years to pass the Fair Housing Act of 1968, provisions he had hoped would be included in the 1964 bill that he signed.
And what about that pesky Equal Rights Amendment? It is pretty simple, really:
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
It was first introduced to Congress in 1923, and it only took 49 years before Congress passed it; of course, it expired before it was ratified by all 50 states, but your failure to get this accomplished in your 11 months in office makes me seriously reconsider whether I can vote for you in the next election.
And if you are so incompetent that you cannot even get equal rights for women in 11 months, something conservatives are more supportive of than gay rights, then I don't believe you will even manage to overturn DADT and DOMA in your first year in office, and therefore, I simply cannot support you.
While Vice President Al Gore signed the Kyoto Protocol on behalf of the United States in 1998, President Clinton never had it ratified in the Senate during his remaining years in office. The fact that, unlike Clinton, you have not yet accomplished anything as monumental as signing an environmental protocol that you have no intention of enforcing in the United States, is again, nothing more than a sign of your unworthiness to lead this country. True, Bush never ratified it in his 8 years, but he never promised to be a leader on the environment anyway.
These are but a few examples of your many failures. President Obama, you have failed to accomplish in 11 months what other leaders took their entire 4 or 8 years in office to fail to accomplish.
When we elected you, it was with the idea that you were a supernatural being who could operate outside the confines of our democracy and unilaterally change laws and make decisions without bothering to involve Congress. Your failure to act as a dictator and dismiss our Constitution and make all your campaign promises happen within your first months in office proves that you are not fit for the job.
I am sure a progressive with a much more radical agenda will have an easier time getting elected in 2012. In 2012, we should support whatever guy who is not you who says he will do exactly what you promised to do in 2008 and more, because I have no doubt THAT guy, whoever he may be, will be able to bring to fruition all his campaign promises within 11 months of taking office.
Yes, Mr. President, you are losing our faith. We wanted miracles, you gave us effort. We wanted unilateral decisions, you continued to give us democracy. We wanted a race to the finish, but you are the tortoise, with this slow and careful plodding toward your goal lines.
If you had fulfilled all your promises within the first 11 months of your term, you could have taken it easy those last 3 years and done nothing. But no, you have to take your sweet time.
Next time around, I am voting for a guy who plans to serve only 1 year of his 4 year term but plans to get EVERYTHING done in that 1 year. That is the only kind of presidential candidate I can trust.