Huckleberries Online

Arpie: Obama Doing A Good Job

Posted by DFO

Dec. 15, 2009 8:25 a.m. • 13 comments

Arpie: Count me as one that is still excited about our pres and the job he is doing. I am impressed by the way he takes on challenges head-on. An example is his speech in Norway talking about war while receiving the Peace Prize. Another example is inviting the gays to the White House to explain why he has not delivered on his pledge to end don’t ask don’t tell. He seems to have down the proper amount of pressure to give congress to keep things moving foreword.

Question: Do you consider President Obama decisive?

13 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Coffee on December 15 at 9:43 a.m.
No
BethB on December 15 at 10:16 a.m.
Absolutely. He’s very consistent and thinks all out ahead of time, so his decisions stand the test of time.
Cabbage Boy on December 15 at 10:32 a.m.
Divisive? Sure.

Decisive? Dunno, let me take a poll and get back to you.
hmoffsuite on December 15 at 10:49 a.m.
Of course he has proven himself to be incapable of making a timely decision. Even when he was in the Senate, he couldn’t make a decision a good deal of the time. (present) The only decision he has made in a timely fashion was Gitmo, and that proved to have been a bad decision, to have made at that time. I thought this was a joke question initially.
OutofStaterTater on December 15 at 11:13 a.m.
Decisive? No. Case in point? Afghanistan. He kicked the can down the road as far as possible, until the media began pointing out that he had barely acknowledged Gen. McChrystal’s requests to discuss the subject - a general that Obama himself appointed. In the meantime, he made sure to go golfing a few times, hit the campaign trail in New Jersey and Virginia, seemingly trying to find anything to distract himself from the fact that the situation in Afghanistan was deteriorating rapidly. Eventually, he made a decision and has defended it vigorously, as I would expect. But he sure took his sweet time making up his mind.

This wasn’t the only time he dithered, either. Iranian students were dying in the streets for days before Obama said anything that approached coherence, and even then, it was pretty timid.

Oh, and wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that he FINALLY convened his much-ballyhooed discussion on how to fix the economy? He campaigned on the recession over a year ago, but allowed himself to get distracted by the health care push, instead of fixing a more pressing problem - the lack of jobs.

I could go on.
sue on December 15 at 12:28 p.m.
Still a fan. He’s thoughtful, informed, intelligent, and determined. Give him some time, and we’ll see some long-needed changes in our country, that will be to the benefit of all.
spokelooneh on December 15 at 1:02 p.m.
Obama put 20,000 more troops into Afghanistan last Spring, and what happened? All hell broke loose this past Summer and the violence escalated.

Only made logical sense to examine policy and strategy, which is EXACTLY what General McChrystal had stated in his August report, the exact number of additional resources was not the main issue, drastically changing the way things were being done was supreme.
OutofStaterTater on December 15 at 1:26 p.m.
Yep…in AUGUST. Just as I pointed out. Four months ago. Not saying he should have immediately approved (or rejected) McChrystal’s recommendations, but lest we forget, this is a war we’re fighting here. Timeliness is of the essence.

Speaking of that war, I forgot to mention earlier the president’s ever-so-timely decision to close Gitmo. Again, he campaigned on closing it, then after he was sworn in, said “Wait a minute, let’s think about this a little more…” and now they’ve finally settled on a location to take the terrorists. If closing Gitmo was a decisive move, that decisiveness quickly gave way to doubt and reconsideration, which made his campaign promise look ill-considered.
Phaedrus on December 15 at 1:45 p.m.
Timeliness is of the essence.

And the previous administration allowed that war to drag on for 8 years without ever having a goal or a strategy; the current administration, in its first year, has already injected a huge number of additional troops and when the hoped for results failed to materialize, they wisely sought input from multiple sources to formulate a comprehensive strategy. Knee jerk reactions may be quicker, but rarely are they effective.
Phaedrus on December 15 at 1:47 p.m.
OST you definitely confuse decisive with instantaneous. Obama decided to close Gitmo, Obama said, we’ll do this, but we will take the time to do it correctly. The left complains that it is not quick enough, the right complains that it is too soon, or unnecessary, I’d say he’s doing it just about right.
hmoffsuite on December 15 at 2:05 p.m.
Phaedrus >> “Obama decided to close Gitmo, Obama said, we’ll do this, but we will take the time to do it correctly”

The problem, as I see it, is that Obama gave a self imposed deadline of one year to close Gitmo. I won’t argue the decision but he should not have assigned a time frame. He would have been better served to have said something like “we will get it done as soon as is possible” As it is, it sounds like he made a promise he couldn’t keep, which he did.
Stickman on December 15 at 5:57 p.m.
As for the question, No.
HonestGeorge on December 15 at 9:47 p.m.
Indecisive. At the rate he’s going he’ll be a lame-duck by April.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.