Coming into office President Obama faced so many challenges, and I think a lot of his predecessors may not have weathered them as well. Kennedy and Clinton, for instance, had horrible first years. In addition to dealing with the normal presidential issues, Obama has also had to weather not being accepted by a lot of people who are still getting used to an African-American President. On average, he has fared pretty well given the situation.
He’s been charged with a lot of responsibilities that he’s tackling aggressively. He’s multitasking, and addressing issues that affect everybody. So I’m pleased with his mission, his diligence, and his carefulness in how he’s approached the whole task of being the Commander in Chief. I also think he has invigorated way more people to be engaged and informed, and to be participants in the political process.
I understand the problems in our economy didn’t happen overnight, and that it will take President Obama more than one year to correct. That said, I think he needs to focus more on unemployment because there are a lot of people out of work. Even people with jobs are afraid of losing them in this economy. So, even though I think he’s done a pretty good job so far, he’s doing too many things at once and should focus on unemployment.
I feel that President Barack Obama is doing the best he can because he was already put into a difficult situation created by President Bush. My approval rating for him today is the same as it was this time last year. He’s doing the best he can do, and all we can do is pray for him.
I think his performance is very good at this point, considering all the challenges that he’s faced domestically and globally. Because of how he’s managed all the problems and exuded leadership, he’s had tremendous success in the way that people perceive the United States globally. Moving forward, I believe he needs to show a more authoritative style to get some of his agenda items accomplished. He needs to worry less about bipartisanship and just push for what he wants.
I don’t think the President has done enough in terms of the change he says he’s about. I like what he did recently around proposing a fee on big banks that borrowed money from the government, but on the other hand, the unemployment rate for average Americans is still really high. He’s gradually moving forward, and that’s good, but the results so far have been kind of slim.
At this point he’s done more than I expected him to do as a politician. I thought his goal of nonpartisan politics, and uniting the Democratic and Republican parties so they can be more effective in Congress, was laughable. We’ve seen that hasn’t been the case, specifically with healthcare. I also have yet to see transparency in terms of the bank bailouts-I still don’t know where my money went. But overall I think he’s done an admirable job, and I give him about an 85 for the year.
I feel he’s gotten a lot more criticism in his first year than he deserved. People expected things to happen more quickly than they have, but it’s just been a year and you can’t get everything at once. Being a gay woman, I feel that, under his influence, a lot of the population has become more liberal-minded with regard to gay rights. I see a lot of good things happening, and I haven’t been disappointed at all.
I think he’s done an amazing job. For example, I appreciate how he extended unemployment benefits for people who are jobless, and I think a lot of people were able to take advantage of Cash for Clunkers. I also give him credit for saving some jobs that could have been lost, and for getting healthcare reform as far as it’s gotten-when Bush was in office no one even tried to get a handle on that. So I think he’s going in the right direction. It’s only been a year. I say we should give the man a chance
