What did you expect from the Obama administration that has not yet been accomplished?

[OmahaBlueDog]

Also:

How high would you say your expectations were?

[Skink]

1. More vacation days

telecommuting from Hawaii. Movie roles. That sort of thing.

[OmahaBlueDog]

7. To your credit, you did not sat "a pony."

That would not have been reasonable.

[FreakinDJ]

2. End to Patriot Act, Prosecution of Wall St. Banksters, Help the Working Class

You know the normal stuff one would expect from some one who studied Constitutional Law, through the Grace of God escaped a dismal middle class life and was fortunate enough to study at some of the most prestigious institutions of learning in America

You know - "Like NOT selling out to Wall St Financiers"

[truebluegreen]

4. Bingo.

Not asking for perfection or ponies, but making an effort in support of the above agenda would have been good.

Looking-forward-not-back place-holding support for the status quo? Not so much.

[riderinthestorm]

3. Serious investigation of the Bush era lies (WMD in Iraq) and criminal acts

Prosecution of Cheney for outing Plame etc.

A real investigation into whether 9/11 was LIHOP or worse. What was really known before hand and what was not.

The closing of Gitmo.

Health CARE reform, not an enshrinement of the health INSURANCE industry into our lives for the next 25 years. The beginnings of state single payer plans that would ultimately lead to better comprehensive national health care.

Serious reform of student loan racketeering by the banks.

A big push for the re-installation of Glass Steagall type regulations after the financial debacle of 2008. Furthermore, perhaps some effort to penalize corporations who avoid paying federal taxes at all. Ever.

A promise, with teeth, that the Keystone XL pipeline will not be built

That's just off the top of my head.

[Blue_In_AK]

28. That's what I wanted,

but I certainly didn't expect any of that.

[onehandle]

5. We got exactly what I expected. A two year term, followed by six years of lame duck...

...due to GOPNRAhadist opposition.

Anyone who was expecting some liberal revolution was fooling themselves.

This is not a slam on Obama. He did the best he could do, while remaining Presidential.

[Fire Walk With Me]

6. Glad you asked. Here is a short list of grievances.

Any progress at all upon any of them (not words, but actions) would be great, but I'm so far past holding my breath waiting for "leaders" to act, I got to the point where I've assembled the list in the first place. Some is cut-and-pasted and obviously out-of-date, which is even more discouraging.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023389720

[chervilant]

8. An end to Guantanamo,

a rescue of our system of public education, a rescue of our post office, prosecution of the Bush Junta AND the Wall Street crooks, universal health care, an Alan Grayson approach to dealing with Republicans, an Elizabeth Warren approach to dealing with bankers, a Dennis Kucinich approach to getting corporate money out of politics, more of a focus on women's reproductive rights, and unequivocal support for the #Occupy activists...I don't have time to list everything. Mr. Obama seems like a nice person in an untenable position. I no longer expect "hope and change."

[OmahaBlueDog]

11. He missed a golden opportunity in 2009

I think, given the magnitude of the bailouts and the financial meltdown, that he could have easily gotten support for the FDIC busting up Citi, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan/Chase, and BoA into smaller banks.

[Squinch]

26. +1! Pretty much exactly.

[Logical]

9. I hoped that he would end the patriot act and end the spending on these wars immediately. I also...

hoped the tax cuts for the rich would be gone immediately. And go after the wall street crooks.

He was way too gullible thinking he could get the GOP to cooperate. I admired him trying, but once they rejected him he needed to start calling them out.

I believe a lot of the hype, I was gullible also.

[Orrex]

10. I expected to see more snarky criticism on left-leaning internet forums

I just can't get enough.

[riderinthestorm]

12. Oh! And end the "war on drugs" along with serious reform of our for-profit prisons nt

[Zorra]

13. I wanted a President who would make a serious systematic attempt at

reversing the privatization of our government by wealthy private interests, and all the ramifications of having a privatized government, but I really didn't expect Obama to make such an attempt.

I expected some social gains to be made, and some have.

I expected that we would lose more of our democratic and economic power to wealthy private interests, and we have.

My expectations were low; and what has come to fruition is basically what I expected. If the ACA does what it promises to do in 2014, the improvement in our health care system will exceed my expectations, and be a very significant change for the better for our country, so that's a big plus.

[oneshooter]

14. " The most transparent government in history"

[gvstn]

15. A thought he would try harder to lead not go the Harry Reid defeatest way.

I knew he was inexperienced and would get swallowed up by Washington D.C. but really thought he would try harder. Where are the bills that proposed a democratic agenda but were voted down? They never even wrote them up.

I just heard on one of the Sunday shows that the person speaking said, "Where is the liberal agenda in the news? We are always talking/reacting to the Republican agenda". She is right.

Obama should have closed Gitmo. Move those prisoners to one of our abandoned super-max prisons and taken the consequences, good or bad. That would have shown he was solid in his position on the rule of law in the United States. He can say we don't torture anymore but I know I will always question that as long as we have an extrajudicial holding ground. The fact that "enhanced interrogation techniques" is still widely used on the news stations proves that he did not restore our moral compass.

He should have pushed through strong financial reforms. If congress wouldn't vote on Elizabeth Warren then he should have hired her as at temp and had her write up a bill anyway. Then he should have fought long and hard for it. The public would be behind it. It would have been political suicide to vote against it back in 2009/10.

I really wish he had been bolder. Push things through and let people love/hate it but at least do it. Instead we talk about the Republican's War on Women, the Republican's War on Voter Rights, the Republican's War on Immigrants, the Republican's War on Medicare etc.

Yes, he has been the most disrespected President that I have ever witnessed but he shouldn't have spent so long trying to woo the other side with grace and charm. He should have strong-armed a few vulnerable congress people into voting with him on important changes. That should have been done the first year, after that everyone knew he was another Harry Reid
(aka Charlie Brown with football.)

[OmahaBlueDog]

36. I think he put all the political capital chips on the table to get the ACA

Obama should have closed Gitmo. Move those prisoners to one of our abandoned super-max prisons and taken the consequences, good or bad. That would have shown he was solid in his position on the rule of law in the United States. He can say we don't torture anymore but I know I will always question that as long as we have an extrajudicial holding ground. The fact that "enhanced interrogation techniques" is still widely used on the news stations proves that he did not restore our moral compass.

It will most likely happen in 2015. At that point, he will have no more offices to run for, and the congress will be the last one he has to deal with -- good or bad. There wouldn't be the time or votes to impeach.

Yes, he has been the most disrespected President that I have ever witnessed but he shouldn't have spent so long trying to woo the other side with grace and charm. He should have strong-armed a few vulnerable congress people into voting with him on important changes. That should have been done the first year, after that everyone knew he was another Harry Reid
(aka Charlie Brown with football.)

They were exceptionally disrespectful to Bill Clinton. Everyone seems to forget that. That said: I think Barack Obama thought that he could work with Republicans as a Senator, so he figured being President wouldn't be different. He miscalculated.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

16. Telling the truth.

Of course, that's just my opinion.

[raouldukelives]

17. My biggest hope going in was action on climate change.

It still is. My expecations were pretty low. They are getting lower by the day.

[LWolf]

18. My expectations were in the toilet.

I didn't expect a damned bit of actual progress from him. I paid attention.

The most I hoped for was that things would not get worse. Maybe that some of the damage would be rolled back; like getting rid of the Patriot Act, for example.

That was clearly a ridiculous hope.

One good thing did happen; I don't know that I can credit him for it, but I CAN say that his administration did not move to be obstructive after the Supreme Court struck down DOMA.

[LaydeeBug]

19. Wall Street Accountability, Close Gitmo, Health Care ****AND****

it's not really what he has done, but what he hasn't. I never thought I'd see a Democratic President put Social Security "on the table" on national television, but he did.

i never thought I'd see admin officials touting chained CPI as a given. I never thought I'd have to DEFEND democratic policies so much, because my President capitulates.

[Demo_Chris]

20. A member of our own team. Kinda disappointed about that. nt

[CrispyQ]

21. I had very little expectation of him, but I did think he would rescind the Bush tax cuts.

I was surprised on the complete turnabout on mandated insurance, too.


The rest, looking forward, Wall St. hack appointments, I expected. This new stuff with all the spying? I'm not surprised about it either. The Democratic party is not very democratic anymore.

[uponit7771]

22. The end to winger meme criticism, he could start with DU but has failed and shit

[Rex]

23. I have medium expectations and can we talk about Congress too!?

It takes all three branches to tango.

[OmahaBlueDog]

33. Oh no doubt!

I'm just posing the question of "what hasn't happened." If you want to know why things haven't happened, about 75% can be attributed to the post-2010 congressional landscape. If we want this administration to finish strong, the best thing we can do is reinstall a Democratic majority in the House and do whatever it takes to hold onto the Senate in 2014.

[smokey nj]

42. Democrats could have, and should have, changed the filibuster rules back in 2009, when

they controlled both houses of Congress.

[PADemD]

24. Close Guantanamo, single-payer universal healthcare, prosecute Wall Street and bankers

[OmahaBlueDog]

31. Single-Payer surprises me as an expectation, since he never ran on that

Single-payer was always Hillary's thing.

I truly think he wants to close Gitmo, but there's a huge case of NIMBY in terms of bringing them here, and if he releases them, any terrorist attack becomes his fault.

[Jamaal510]

25. I never expected much to begin with, to be honest.

Everyone I know has said (and even Obama himself said this repeatedly when first elected) that the amount of damage done to the country by his predecessor is so much that it would take more than one term to fix it, perhaps even more than one president. I already knew that change wouldn't come easily, especially considering how it's so polarized in both Houses that you're going to need strong majorities in them just to get things done. This is a big reason why GITMO is still open, and why criminals are still wreaking havoc on Wall Street.

Personally, I'm just amazed at everything this President has accomplished thus far. For instance, I never would've expected 41 consecutive months of job growth (with no help from Republicans BTW), or Food and Safety reform, among numerous other accomplishments. And just by him coming out in support of gay rights, that has helped a ton of people out of the closet and stir up a dialogue on the issue. He has already accomplished more in 4 1/2 years than Bush ll did in his entire presidency!

[Blue_In_AK]

27. Honestly,

I didn't expect a whole lot, and I haven't been disappointed.

I'm old...I haven't expected much from politicians in a long time.

[ZombieHorde]

29. I was really hoping all of our wars would be over by now.

I was really hoping for single-payer health care.

If I remember correctly, those were the two things I was most excited for.

[OmahaBlueDog]

32. I'd also hoped we'd be out of both wars by now.

Getting out of Iraq took longer than he thought it would, and I think they felt they couldn't wind down Afghanistan until Bin Laden was gone.
As I told a poster up-thread, I'm surprised you were expecting single-payer since he never ran on that that I recall. I remember him saying something along the lines of "getting every American affordable healthcare."

[ZombieHorde]

44. I think you're correct.

I believe he campaigned on a public option, which is the phrase I should have used in my post.

[Populist_Prole]

30. Void NAFTA

Cool it on more "free trade" agreements.

Fat chance of even a desire to do so, let alone the ability to make it happen.

[HereSince1628]

34. I expected some photos of him in his walking shoes

not being run down by a rodeo bull.

[Fumesucker]

39. Elephant tracks all across your back

I can see you had your fun

[nadinbrzezinski]

35. Oh where to start

but lets just say card check was pretty high on my list.

So was single payer healthcare

[Fumesucker]

37. I have yet to receive my Energy Efficient Environmentally Friendly Rainbow Pooping Unicorn

My friends all drive Porsches so I must make amends

[OmahaBlueDog]

41. I believe that's in the mail

You might want to go check. It should arrive any day now.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

38. Expectations: Wall Street/Banking reforms mainly. I had other hopes but...

...I figured sweeping financial reforms was a no-brainer.

[RobinA]

40. Nothing

I pegged him as a moderate Repub from day one.

I did kinda think he would close Guantanamo, though. Just to keep some leftie cred.

[Harmony Blue]

43. Close GITMO

that is the most obvious.

[OmahaBlueDog]

45. I remember the administration wanted to move the Gitmo inmates to a prison in Illinois

Congress and residents balked at the idea of having the terrorists on American soil. My guess is that it will close after the 2014 mid-terms. At that point, he can pretty much do what he wants.

[KG]

46. wasn't sure what to expect, but as soon as rahm was appointed CoS, i knew what was coming.