Very few of the Pro-Obama commenters here at BWW seem to believe that President Obama is without flaws. Any thinking person would look at his record thus far and see room for improvement or decisions that--in an ideal world--we would rather he had made differently.
Often, the most laudatory comments strike me as a symptom of being goaded by a particularly hostile, anti-Obama comment and--like a mother Grizzly protecting an endangered cub--we come out strong.
I'm really not sure that we can blame an "exploding middle east" on the US President.
There is legitimate, wide-spread support among very smart economists of all political persuasions for this administration's deficit spending as a means to mitigate/reverse/solve the economic crisis with which we have been dealing since before Obama's first term. It is possible for a person to believe--in good faith--that a so-called 'austerity' response to the economy is a better solution--although we have seen 'austerity's disastrous results again and again in European economies. There is, however, nothing to be gained by referring to this administration's economic policy as "spending like a drunken sailor". It is inaccurate, hyperbolic and dis-respectful.
In many ways, the intractably partisan nature of the current political climate has reduced the Presidency nearly to a "cheerleader in chief"--he appears on TV and emotes about things symbolically--he expresses anger and resolve when terrorists strike, he expresses sorrow and sympathy when little children are massacred by lunatics who have been given free and unfettered access to guns by bloodthirsty NRA members. He smiles and looks happy when the US Olympic team wins a medal.
Whatever his flaws may be, whatever the failing of President Obama personally or his administration as a whole--whatever his shortcomings--even on the single issue of civil rights for the GLBT community--NOTHING can change the fact that yesterday, Barack Obama--emoting on the world-stage--drew a line through the civil rights struggle of women (Seneca Falls), African Americans (Selma) and the GLBT community (Stonewall). This was a profoundly moving, deeply meaningful experience for me, not least because he is an African American man, and has the ability, singlehandedly, to affect the tone of the rhetoric within the African American community. Many of the voices that speak for the Afican American community have been very resistant to the idea that the GLBT struggle for equality is in any way analagous to their own struggle for Civil Rights.
Yesterday, the first African-American President of the United States put the rhetorical force of his office--and everything that his election (and re-election) symbolized--behind the idea that the tide of History unequivocably supports the momentum of progress towards full equality as Citizens of this Great Republic for Gay Men and Lesbians. That is a huge, f***king deal. I think he will be a "shining beacon in History" (thanks, SNAFU).
If you asked me for money right now to pay to carve President Barack Hussein Obama's head in Mount Rushmore, I'd give every cent I could spare.
You think, what do you want?
You think, make a decision...
