What will Obama accomplish in his first year?

restoring respectability to the highest office in the land

 

I respectfully refuse to answer the question until Nov. 5th.

 

I would hope for the following:
* a coherent energy plan moving forward that garners bipartisan support. the goal of said plan (and McCain and the GOP agree already) is energy independence, specifically independence from the middle east. the sticking point could be research funding. It's a tiny part of the national budget, but Obama's platform is much more bullish on basic scientific funding. We'll see.
* a flurry of largely positive international diplomatic activity. Far from the "test" that idiot Biden predicted, I think our allies will be very interested to see what type of leadership Obama's administration may offer.
* a new bipartisan stimulus package of some sort, targeting the middle class

Overall, I think the health care reforms will completely bog down. I think arguments on tax changes will bog down also. I think he will underachieve in cutting inefficient government programs. If we had more GOP presence in the Congress, that would honestly help what I see to be his sincere interest in cutting fat. The standard Dems will block that type of work. I also think his will to affect education will go nowhere.

 

He'll do what all other senators do........

The real question, is what will President McCain do?

 

He will limit the pool opening hours at the Cactus Flats retirement community to 12-7 on weekdays. He will reform the hell out of that place.

 

He'll be doing good just to stay out of jail if Rezko keeps singing...

And maybe he'll get a divorce from Michelle after his bimbo eruption is finally made public...

 

Did you write that or did one of your campaign writers do it for you, because that was actually almost funny........

 

I largely agree with B-Bob - although I think his tax plan will get pushed through. It's too huge a part of his campaign.

For me, a return to real international diplomacy and sane energy plans is pretty high on my list.

If we can get some movement to limit/remove the patriot act - even better.

 

You're doing it wrong.

 

I'd really prefer discussing this after the election. Call me superstitious! Out of respect for Hayes, however, I'll toss some thoughts out there.

-Rewrite the Patriot Act to get rid of the worst of the trampling of the Constitution, with a "study group" of high profile politicos, bipartisan, looking into junking it and doing a complete makeover (hopefully with a new name).

-Begin the process of closing the prision at Gitmo.

-Do a "grand tour" of our major allies worldwide, along with another "high profile" review of our foreign policy (possible role for Powell), aimed at bringing the US closer to our traditional allies and increasing our respect and influence abroad.

-See that Congress passes election reform that helps states insure voting methods that can't be tampered with. States could get Federal money to buy computer voting machines that are "tamper proof" and have a paper trail. I didn't like the fact that there was NO paper record of my vote the other day.

-Start reforming healthcare, which will be a lot harder than many of his supporters think. It may take his first term to get a real "national healthcare sysytem" off the ground.

-He'll have a major confrontaion with the Democratic Congress (the leadership), over what, I'm not sure, but he'll pick the topic and make sure he wins. It'll help show his independence. Clinton did something similar, using the GOP in Congress. Obama just might do the same sort of thing. Barack won't want to be too closely tied to Pelosi and Reid.

-Get his middle class tax plan passed. That's a given.


That's enough for now.

 

a massive freakin deficit....he better really jack up my taxes to the govt if thinks he can pay for all this crap he is promising.

 

Hilarious. Now that he's gotten his early votes secured the Obama camp is already beginning to lower expectations. Classic bait and switch. You let him charm your pants off and now you'll hiding your privates behind the leftover "Obama For Change" signs.

October 31, 2008
Barack Obama lays plans to deaden expectation after election victory
Barack Obama


(Michal Czerwonka/EPA)

Barack Obama has already started playing down expectations in his speeches
Tim Reid in Washington

Barack Obama’s senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week’s election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harbouring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.

The sudden financial crisis and the prospect of a deep and painful recession have increased the urgency inside the Obama team to bring people down to earth, after a campaign in which his soaring rhetoric and promises of “hope” and “change” are now confronted with the reality of a stricken economy.

One senior adviser told The Times that the first few weeks of the transition, immediately after the election, were critical, “so there’s not a vast mood swing from exhilaration and euphoria to despair”.

The aide said that Mr Obama himself was the first to realise that expectations risked being inflated.

In an interview with a Colorado radio station, Mr Obama appeared to be engaged already in expectation lowering. Asked about his goals for the first hundred days, he said he would need more time to tackle such big and costly issues as health care reform, global warming and Iraq. “The first hundred days is going to be important, but it’s probably going to be the first thousand days that makes the difference,” he said. He has also been reminding crowds in recent days how “hard” it will be to achieve his goals, and that it will take time.

“I won’t stand here and pretend that any of this will be easy – especially now,” Mr Obama told a rally in Sarasota, Florida, yesterday, citing “the cost of this economic crisis, and the cost of the war in Iraq”. Mr Obama’s transition team is headed by John Podesta, a Washington veteran and a former chief-of-staff to Bill Clinton. He has spent months overseeing a virtual Democratic government-in-exile to plan a smooth transition should Mr Obama emerge victorious next week. The plans are so far advanced that an Obama Cabinet has been largely decided upon, with the expectation that most of his senior appointments could be announced shortly after election day.

Yet Mr Obama and his aides are under no illusions about the size of the challenges the Democrat will inherit if he enters the Oval Office. Tom Daschle, the party’s former leader in the US Senate and a strong contender for the post of White House chief-of-staff in an Obama administration, said last month that the winner next week would have only a 50 per cent chance of winning a second term in 2012.

Not only will the next president take office with the country sliding into a potentially long recession — and mired in debt — but the challenges abroad are immense. There is an unfinished war in Iraq, a worsening situation in Afghanistan and an unstable and nuclear-armed Pakistan to contend with. Iran appears intent on acquiring the bomb and there remains the ever-present threat from al-Qaeda and Islamic extremists.

If he wins, Mr Obama will inherit a Democratic-controlled Congress, and might even have the benefit of a 60-seat filibuster-proof “supermajority” in the Senate. Such a scenario would allow him to push through legislation largely unfettered by Republican opposition. Yet it also means that should the country still be mired in recession in three years’ time, voters — who have short memories — will probably blame him and the Democrats on Capitol Hill. Those stakes have led Mr Obama to conclude that while expectations need to be tempered, big things need to be achieved very early in his first term, when he will still have the political capital to achieve some of his most ambitious legislative goals.

Having promised “real” change, the pressure will be on him to deliver. In the Colorado interview, Mr Obama added: “The next president has got to come quickly out of the box.”

The early priorities being lined up if he takes power are a mixture of symbolism and substance. He plans to make a major address in a big Muslim country early in his first term. Having pledged on the campaign trail to close Guantanamo Bay, he is also determined to make early moves to rid America of the controversial prison. Yet what to do with the remaining inmates looms as an intractable problem, as many of their home governments refuse to allow them to return.

Mr Obama’s first legislative goals will be to follow through on his pledge to cut taxes for the middle class and raise them for the wealthiest Americans, and to push through a hugely expensive Bill to provide near-universal health insurance.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5051118.ece

 

Faos, you do realize that Bush, Cheney, and the former GOP Congress left whoever becomes President a mess that goes beyond incredible. No? Don't remember that? Most of America does. They'll show you on election day.

 

The next 8 years are going to be glorious!

 

Yes, every administration and (or coaching staff in sports) needs to fix some things when they take over. Reagan had to fix the mess (and did) that Carter left behind. Kubiak/Smith are trying to fix what Capers/Casserly did to the Texans.

I knew that would be the mantra after the Obama election. That'll be what he uses to sucker people in for another 4 years. Why then should he even promise he'll fix and "change" things if he can't deliver? The problem is so many people are counting on promises he can't possibly keep.

 

Copied and saved for futre use...over and over and over again.

 

what did bush have to fix

 

Every person running for elective office at that level makes promises they cannot keep. Do you really believe that McCain will keep every promise that he's making?

 

both peace and prosperity. tough double play.