Barack Obama is a generic Democratic president

Chicago Tribune ^ | July 3, 2014 | By Jonathan Bernstein

[Oldeconomybuyer]

The Quinnipiac poll getting buzz this week may be worthless, but the general topic of evaluating Barack Obama is another opportunity to make an important point: almost everything about Obama's presidency can be explained by saying he’s a Democratic president. He’s an interesting man, but as president he’s become about as generic as possible.

By saying he’s a generic Democratic president, I’m not arguing that he’s performed perfectly; I’m saying that his performance is neither significantly above or below par.

Let's hear it, Obama critics or Obama supporters. Where have his particular skills, preferences or personality produced anything that sets him apart from the generic Democratic president?

[LibertyOh]

Marxist - and the recent polls showing his favorability ratings going down even among his biggest supporters show he is not a generic Democrat. Can only pray more Democrats wake up.

Carter was simply a lousy politician only elected in the backlash against Watergate and the pardoning of Nixon. He was ineffective and made America weak to the point it woke up and elected Reagan. Clinton was a wrong on most things but a good politician, and recognized when his policies were too far out of touch thus he gave up the unattainable and went back to the middle in some areas - welfare and NAFTA. Bad as they were, they did not overtly try to destroy this country.

[Uncle Miltie]

Name a foreign policy success.

[Fantasywriter]

Evidently the author hasn’t noticed Obama’s complete inability to work with others. He doesn’t even form liaisons within his own party, much less with any Republicans. He’s got a pen & a phone...and the golf course. He reportedly engages in marathon TV sessions, when it doesn’t interfere with late night parties. Vacations & AF1 joyriding about round it out.

The point being, he resorts to executive orders because they alone require no interaction with congress. There’s never been a POTUS so adverse to working with anybody else. His own party says he doesn’t engage with them. As long as he’s got Valerie Jerrett, he must feel congress is unnecessary. Who knows. Anyway, his isolatedness is certainly unique. It deserves more attention. It’s part and parcel with his larger issue of Malignant Narcissism.

[Old Yeller]

He’s generic dog squeeze. The kind you step in and then can never get rid of the damn smell.

[The Sons of Liberty]

The only thing that might be generic about the kenyan/indonesian commie usurper is that he is a POS!

[556x45]

Thats what the article said, he’s a generic dem.

[masadaman]

“is whitewash.” WHITEwash sounds awfully racis to me.

[x]

"Generic" meaning rock-bottom, no-frills, bog standard is a massive come-down after what Obama's fans were saying about him during the long 2008 campaign. I think the writer sweeps too much under the rug, though. He lets things that would have been held against Bush as failures pass by when they happen under Obama.

There does seem to be some semantics or sophistry at work in the article, though. If the author is saying that President Obama has performed without any special talents or graces or abilities, then the conclusion would be that he's been below average, not that he's doing pretty well, for, even if we were to accept the author's questionable judgment that Obama hasn't shown any disastrous flaws or failings, don't we expect more political sense and ability than the president has demonstrated?

I will say this, though: sooner or later we were going to have a Northern Democrat in the White House. Sooner or later we were going to elect someone from a big city, somebody whose background was more liberal or left-wing than Bill Clinton's, and someone who could claim to be African American. Such a person might be more qualified than Barack Obama -- almost certainly would be more competent -- but wouldn't differ terribly much on the issues. A quarter or a third or half the voters are in that camp and sooner or later one of them would make it to the top.

[JimSEA]

When seeing and smelling dog poo, you can always recognize it for what it is. The same goes with presidents. Besides Obama, the worst presidents during my adult lifetime have been: Carter (worst), LBJ, and Nixon. There is really no comparison of these low performers and Obama. He is in a category all his own. Abysmal isn’t even close. Perhaps if we had elected Goering during WWII?

[RipSawyer]

“The guy lost me at: He’s an interesting man.”
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Well, he is interesting although not much of a man in my view. Interesting in the same way that the spitting Cobra is an interesting snake. A fourteen foot alligator is an interesting reptile. The Black Widow is an interesting Arachnid etc.

[RipSawyer]

From the article, “Many liberal Democrats fault Obama for his moderation on financial issues”.

I don’t believe someone actually wrote that, they may as well condemn him for being too short to be president or too fat, either one would seem no more absurd than his moderation on financial issues.