08-25-2013, 01:15 PM
In terms of media and public support, Obama's second terms looks a whole lot different than his first terms, from what I'm seeing.
Even the celebrity pseudo-politicians are distancing themselves. Matt Damon says that "Obama broke up with him" because of his disagreement with policy decisions. Heartbreaking story that made the international pages for a couple of days!
Personally, when it comes to foreign policy, I agree that there have been some miscalculations by the Obama administration, but there are always miscalculations when it comes to intervening in other countries/cultures for the purpose of strategic positioning in a region to "protect our own interests". IMO, it has to be done to some extent, to what extent is the real question.
I have no problem with the fact that the US isn't jamming itself down Egypt's throat for overthrowing Morsi, despite increasing fatalities on both sides and some civilian deaths (as sad as it is).
Also, no objection to refraining from sending troops into Syria or trying to take Assad out when each side is pointing at the other in terms of chemical weapons, war crimes, and terrorist infiltration.
Russia and Putin? What are you gonna do? Putin's a caricature of the tough guy - concerned almost entirely with one-upping and his public image.
China? I support the Obama administration's efforts towards opening up markets and improving trade/strategic relations with the largest consumer base in the world.
Drone attacks on terrorist bases in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East? No objection here.
On and on it goes with some areas of interest in almost every region of the world. I know some vehemently disagree with my opinions on these topics and respect that; they are just my opinions.
My bigger issue with the Obama administration is domestic policy.
However, the NSA accessing citizens' communications with the stated objective of detecting terrorist activity/plans proactively doesn't bother me. Snowden isn't a hero in my book, nor is anything that that he revealed surprising to me.
When/if it starts looking like the NSA is scouring citizens' communications and using that intel to go after non-terrorist criminal activity, I'll have a problem with it as a form of illegal search. No one needs to define "liberty" for me or try to convince me that I'm foolish for not viewing the NSA policy as a violation of my civil liberties -I get both sides and know where and why I'm standing where I am.
The economy is my biggest beef with Obama. So many promises related to the economy have not been met - they've been covered in other threads, so I won't list them all out again. The joblessness numbers are still scary, which means the people relying on government/tax-payer dollars remains way too high. Major US cities are going belly up, etc, etc...
To be fair, not all of the country's economic woes can be blamed on the federal government or the President. But, many of them are a result of policy trickle down, to a certain degree. I just don't think pre-election commitments have been kept or re-assessed and communicated to the public; that worries me more than most anything else, in terms of politics.
All JMO.
Even the celebrity pseudo-politicians are distancing themselves. Matt Damon says that "Obama broke up with him" because of his disagreement with policy decisions. Heartbreaking story that made the international pages for a couple of days!
Personally, when it comes to foreign policy, I agree that there have been some miscalculations by the Obama administration, but there are always miscalculations when it comes to intervening in other countries/cultures for the purpose of strategic positioning in a region to "protect our own interests". IMO, it has to be done to some extent, to what extent is the real question.
I have no problem with the fact that the US isn't jamming itself down Egypt's throat for overthrowing Morsi, despite increasing fatalities on both sides and some civilian deaths (as sad as it is).
Also, no objection to refraining from sending troops into Syria or trying to take Assad out when each side is pointing at the other in terms of chemical weapons, war crimes, and terrorist infiltration.
Russia and Putin? What are you gonna do? Putin's a caricature of the tough guy - concerned almost entirely with one-upping and his public image.
China? I support the Obama administration's efforts towards opening up markets and improving trade/strategic relations with the largest consumer base in the world.
Drone attacks on terrorist bases in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East? No objection here.
On and on it goes with some areas of interest in almost every region of the world. I know some vehemently disagree with my opinions on these topics and respect that; they are just my opinions.
My bigger issue with the Obama administration is domestic policy.
However, the NSA accessing citizens' communications with the stated objective of detecting terrorist activity/plans proactively doesn't bother me. Snowden isn't a hero in my book, nor is anything that that he revealed surprising to me.
When/if it starts looking like the NSA is scouring citizens' communications and using that intel to go after non-terrorist criminal activity, I'll have a problem with it as a form of illegal search. No one needs to define "liberty" for me or try to convince me that I'm foolish for not viewing the NSA policy as a violation of my civil liberties -I get both sides and know where and why I'm standing where I am.
The economy is my biggest beef with Obama. So many promises related to the economy have not been met - they've been covered in other threads, so I won't list them all out again. The joblessness numbers are still scary, which means the people relying on government/tax-payer dollars remains way too high. Major US cities are going belly up, etc, etc...
To be fair, not all of the country's economic woes can be blamed on the federal government or the President. But, many of them are a result of policy trickle down, to a certain degree. I just don't think pre-election commitments have been kept or re-assessed and communicated to the public; that worries me more than most anything else, in terms of politics.
All JMO.