Quote (Black XistenZ @ Jan 10 2022 07:40pm)
That's fair, I guess. The point I wanted to make wasn't that Obama had it easy and dropped the ball all that much. Obama took over the country in a shambolic state, but with wide congressional margins. Biden took over the country in a far more solid state when we look at the fundamentals (excluding the economic impact of lockdowns, which aren't indicative of anything being wrong with the economy), but with far less congressional wiggle room.
Against this backdrop and within the context of the debate over a lack of presidential policy achievements, I had to disagree with your notion that Obama faced a lot of obstruction too and was dealt a similarly bad hand as Biden. When it comes specifically to passing big bold legislation or invoking fundamental change, Obama was in a better position than Biden. Particularly when we keep in mind the mandates they got. The 2008 election was basically the electorate saying "FUCK BUSHISM (and fuck Clintonite centrist policies too)" while 2020 was the electorate saying "yes, Trump has to go" while decidedly refusing to give Democrats the mandate/majorities for big bold change that they were seeking.
Side note: let's not kid ourselves, when Trump propelled the birther movement in 2011, he wasn't motivated by sluggish GDP growth. His true main criticism of Obama was not the "slowest recovery", it was "the audacity of hope upending the racial hierarchy".
Obama got in with a massive mandate for change and a country in shambles and still only managed to implement the Republican proposal from 10 years prior
and people wonder why liberals never turn out
This post was edited by NetflixAdaptationWidow on Jan 11 2022 12:53am