CHESSNOID

I have been reading a lot of good articles in the New York Times.  I still feel there is some hopeful writers in the press hoping that President Obama delivers on some of his campaign promises.  It’s been 10 months since he has taken office and I think more people are starting to realize he is just another politician.  A very polished one at that.

Eventually, after the first impressions fades people waited enthusiastically for real change to follow.   I think after 30,60 and even 90 days people were still waiting for great things to happen.  After 120, 150 and 180 days, people started realizing that things were not the way they imagined.  I think at this point they would have been satisfied with just good things to happen.

The magic from 6 months earlier disappeared.  Even the regular comments I would get from Obama-bots on my blog started to subside as they could see it was more difficult to justify his inactions.

After 210, 240 and 270 days, I think the comedy world felt more at ease in pointing out the President’s shortcomings and figured out that criticizing his actions did not make them racists.    They simply stated the obvious that the promises Obama made were not promises kept.  Unfortunately, the main stream media has been to slow to report the realities in America.  They like to spin things are getting better with the negative reports, but the numbers don’t lie.  Both unemployment and foreclosures are continuing to rise.

So after 300 days, the New York Times published an article that covers some thoughts of the people who voted for him one year ago in Iowa.  I highlighted the excerpts below but you can read the whole article by clicking the title.    It is called:

In Iowa, Euphoria Gives Way to Second Thoughts on Obama

“I’m afraid I wasn’t realistic,” Ms. McAreavy, 76, a retired school nurse, said on a recent morning on the deck of her home here in east-central Iowa.

“I really thought there would be immediate change,” she said. “Sometimes the Republicans are just as bad as Democrats. But it’s politics as usual, and that’s what I voted against.”

In Iowa, Ms. McAreavy fears that the president’s health care plan will shortchange her Medicare benefits and mean infrequent mammogram examinations. She worries that his decision on Afghanistan will mean that her son, a member of the Iowa National Guard, will return to the battlefield. And she believes that too many of Mr. Obama’s actions are rooted in Democratic politics.

A social studies teacher who saw Mr. Obama on his maiden visit here wonders whether momentum from the election is gone forever. A retired electrical engineer who became a Democrat to support Mr. Obama believes that the president too often blames others for his troubles. And a teacher who voted for Mr. Obama because she was fed up with President George W. Bush does not trust this administration any more than the previous one.

Yet a laid-off factory worker who returned to school for a degree said Mr. Obama’s support for a new economy had changed his thinking. A public relations executive who changed parties to support Mr. Obama says he saved the nation from fiscal collapse. And a nurse who believes Mr. Obama could be a transformative president, because of health care and other issues, worries that the vitriol could endanger his life.

“I’m scared,” said Chris Bollhoefer, 49, who lost his job two years ago at Maytag in Newton. “The competition right now, with all the people who have lost jobs that are highly qualified, really puts you up against the wall trying to compete.”

Mr. Bollhoefer said he approved of the job Mr. Obama was doing. “It’s inspirational to me that he’s trying to do something different,” he said.

“I think he was more presidential when he was running for office than he is now,” said Paul Johnson, 58, a student legal services lawyer at Iowa State University. “He seems more subdued, which is probably a result of having to actually deal with the issues on his plate as opposed to just rallying the troops to vote for him.”

When Mr. Obama won the nomination, however, they eagerly supported him, and now they say they believe he is doing well, but they often wonder if he is assertive enough. “It’s overdue for him to actually take charge here,” said Ms. Johnson, 57, a social worker in the town of Nevada.

One thing that would sour them on Mr. Obama, they said, would be a steep escalation of the war in Afghanistan.

Candi Schmieder, 40, said she trusted the president. The election in Iowa County, where she lives, ended in a tie in November. Mr. Obama won by 14 votes after absentee ballots were tabulated. If a re-election were held today, she said, she feared that the outcome might be different.

“Given all the situations that he’s dealing with — the economy and the war — I think it’s going to take some work,” said Ms. Schmieder, who had never been involved in politics but said she had been drawn to Mr. Obama by his books.

John Sager, a retired electrical engineer, said he was so impressed by Mr. Obama last year at the United Auto Workers hall in Marshalltown that he allowed his name to be promoted on a list of Republicans supporting Mr. Obama before the Iowa caucuses.

“He gave a fairly decent presentation, but that’s what it turned out to be — a presentation,” said Mr. Sager, 77. “I don’t think he should keep hiding behind the fact that he inherited all these problems.”

Kathy Shaffer, 60, a retired school teacher, did not tell her husband, Larry, a staunch Republican, that she had she voted for Mr. Obama until recently. She said she had been frustrated by the Iraq war, fed up with the Bush administration and eager for a change.

Now, Ms. Shaffer said she regretted her vote, largely because she disapproved of how the government had intervened to help failing financial institutions and car companies. She also fears that Mr. Obama will send more troops to Afghanistan.

What is telling is that before the President was elected his opposition  on both the Democrat and Republican sides questioned his accomplishments. Those accomplishments could have been an indicator of his past performance of getting projects done. Most of his supporters and his administration could not name real accomplishments because he did not have them.  Still, it shows the majority of Americans ignored the obvious and created the situation we are now in today.  Quite honestly, it looks like the same people who voted for President Bush simply voted for President Obama.

He simply did not have the experience even though he spoke very well. Now that we are approaching the end of his first year as president, we can clearly see his inexperience as he demonstrates himself to be a Democratic version of George Bush.  Both were very popular Presidents when they took office and we know how President Bush left our country.