Criticize your choice for president

[SixNein]

Lets face it, we spend a lot of time criticizing the person we don't want to see elected; however, we don't spend much time criticizing the person we do want elected. So just for fun, post who you want to see be elected president and offer your criticisms of him. Please keep your criticism to YOUR CHOICE FOR PRESIDENT.

I'll start this show...

My choice for president is Obama.

My first criticism of Obama is that he continued and even expanded upon faith-based initiatives. In my opinion, religious institutions should not receive tax payer money because they are not accountable for the money, and it picks winners in religious society.

Next, I think Obama has used drone strikes too liberally, and he has set an unfortunate precedent in the world. You can read more here.

In Obama's health-care program, he did go far to find a solution to the problem of so many uninsured Americans. On the other hand, he didn't do much for taking care of the costs associated with health-care.

Obama has failed to fix our financial system. Many of the important regulations were watered down and in many case simply not implemented. For example, derivatives are still not required to be on an open market. Read more here.

He should have spent more time laying out a plan for the next 4 years.

He should have adopted at the very least a variation of the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission debt plan; instead, he allowed republicans to control the message, and he didn't take the issue seriously enough.

He didn't mention the great injustice that is occurring due to our prison industrial complex, and as far as I can tell, he hasn't attempted any action to deal with the problem.

The bush tax cuts should not have been extended for the very wealthy. They have a low multiplier, so the money would have been better spent on infrastructure or a contribution to government savings. (which is zip atm).

I have yet to see a creditable plan for dealing with the very high inequality in our nation.

The patent system is a complete mess, and he hasn't offered to touch it.

While he preaches about solar and wind energy, I see very little love given to energy storage systems or the creation of a more efficient energy infrastructure with current technology. Simple matter of fact is that we waste most of the energy we generate.

While he may preach about investment, investment = household savings + government savings. Consumers are spending too much and so is the government. I don't see any creditable plan to change this behavior.

We have yet to develop a sensible policy on broadband in America. Our internet infrastructure is total crap. Obama has made no creditable plan to change this.

His FCC appointment SUCKS. And Obama is silent.

Obama has done little to end widespread crony capitalism.

 

[daveb]

To add to what you posted.

He signed NDAA. Very bad.

He didn't fight hard enough to close Gitmo. He probably couldn't have run it past Congress, but it would have been a fight I would have loved to have seen.

Doubly so on the drone strikes.

He failed to see the entrenched partisanship in Congress until later during his term. Instead of leading the charge (the President as bully pulpit is one of the most powerful voices in politics) for what he believed, he left it to Congress, saying what he wanted, but letting Congress lead the charge, which made for more partisanship.

It took too long to speak to out against DADT and DOMA.

he wasn't vocal enough in defending the rights of minorities, especially those in the Muslim community.

I'm sure there are others I can't think of. If it wasn't for living in Ohio, I'd be for Jill Stein or Rocky Anderson.

 

[fargoth]

My first criticism of Obama is that he continued and even expanded upon faith-based initiatives. In my opinion, religious institutions should not receive tax payer money because they are not accountable for the money, and it picks winners in religious society.

Next, I think Obama has used drone strikes too liberally, and he has set an unfortunate precedent in the world. You can read more here.

In Obama's health-care program, he did go far to find a solution to the problem of so many uninsured Americans. On the other hand, he didn't do much for taking care of the costs associated with health-care.

Obama has failed to fix our financial system. Many of the important regulations were watered down and in many case simply not implemented. For example, derivatives are still not required to be on an open market. Read more here.

He should have spent more time laying out a plan for the next 4 years.

He should have adopted at the very least a variation of the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission debt plan; instead, he allowed republicans to control the message, and he didn't take the issue seriously enough.

He didn't mention the great injustice that is occurring due to our prison industrial complex, and as far as I can tell, he hasn't attempted any action to deal with the problem.

The bush tax cuts should not have been extended for the very wealthy. They have a low multiplier, so the money would have been better spent on infrastructure or a contribution to government savings. (which is zip atm).

I have yet to see a creditable plan for dealing with the very high inequality in our nation.

The patent system is a complete mess, and he hasn't offered to touch it.

While he preaches about solar and wind energy, I see very little love given to energy storage systems or the creation of a more efficient energy infrastructure with current technology. Simple matter of fact is that we waste most of the energy we generate.

While he may preach about investment, investment = household savings + government savings. Consumers are spending too much and so is the government. I don't see any creditable plan to change this behavior.

We have yet to develop a sensible policy on broadband in America. Our internet infrastructure is total crap. Obama has made no creditable plan to change this.

His FCC appointment SUCKS. And Obama is silent.

Obama has done little to end widespread crony capitalism.

All these reasons are why I get the feeling democrats and republicans are pretty much the same... sure, republicans may say stupid(er) things, and come off as racists and anti-women... but when they're in office - they do pretty much the same things...
There is no left in the american political system, and there are no two parties.
It is a (very big) one party system, the only difference being the ability to change the person in charge once in a while, no independent can win an election.
No party would increase taxes on the rich, increase regulations on corporations, fight silly patent and copyright rules etc.

 

[Pythagorean]

I feel like the Dems and Reps will always be part of the crony capitalism system. The parties are infused with corporations. It's a symbiotic relationship.

Other things that bother me about Dems (not just Obama) are that they really never cared about SOPA until the people made a big deal about it and you won't catch either of the candidates challenging stuff like Protect America or The Patriot Act.

 

[Ben Niehoff]

All good criticisms for Obama. Another one I have to add is his behavior during the debates. I think it was the 2nd or 3rd debate where he remarked to Romney "The 1980's called and wants its foreign policy back." It sounded very forced, as though he had been coached to crack jokes. I thought it was very inappropriate. This is supposed to be a presidential debate, not Jerry Springer.