If the President is unable to get anything through the Congress for the remainder of this term?

[kentuck]

Would he be considered a success or failure?

Has his legacy already been written with the ACA and the capture of bin Laden and saving the economy from another depression?

Or is the book still open?

[JoePhilly]

1. And gettting us out of Iraq and ending DADT ...

And improving our standing in the world.

And ending the war in Afghanistan is coming.

More will happen.

And even more will happen if we take action in 2014.

[kentuck]

2. So you think he is a success already?

No matter what happens in the next 3 years?

[JoePhilly]

3. No, he's a total disaster.

Probably.

After all ... stopping a 2nd great depression, getting ACA passed, ending DADT, ending Iraq, ending Afghanistan, killing OBL ... not nearly enough.

Its easy to imagine that he'll certainly he'll screw it up. not.

[madokie]

5. HIstory will be very kind to this President

and I'll agree with that.

[gateley]

4. He's accomplished a LOT, but the media (and history?) seem to focus on the losses and

mistakes.

[woo me with science]

6. It's quite a record:

Corporate and bank-cozy appointments, over and over again, including major appointments like:

A serial defender of corrupt bankers for the SEC; the architect of "Kill Lists" and supporter of torture, drone wars, and telecom immunity for the CIA; and a Monsanto VP who has lied and been involved in extremely disturbing claims regarding food safety for the FDA. An Attorney General who has not prosecuted a single large bank but wages war against medical marijuana users and *for* strip searches and warrantless surveillance of Americans. And let's not forget Tim Geithner.

Bailouts and settlements for corrupt banks (with personal pressure from Obama to attorneys general to approve them),
Refusal by Obama's DOJ to prosecute even huge, egregious examples of bank fraud (i.e, HSBC)
signing NDAA to allow indefinite detention,
"Kill lists" and claiming of the right to assassinate even American citizens without trial
Expansion of wars into several new countries
A renewed public advocacy for the concept of preemptive war
Drone campaigns in multiple countries with whom we are not at war
Proliferation of military drones in our skies
Federal targeting of Occupy for surveillance and militarized response to peaceful protesters
Fighting all the way to the Supreme Court for warrantless surveillance
Fighting all the way to the Supreme Court for strip searches for any arrestee
Supporting and signing Internet-censoring and privacy-violating measures like ACTA
Support for corporate groping and naked scanning of Americans seeking to travel
A new, massive spy center for warrantless access to Americans' phone calls, emails, and internet use
Support of legislation to legalize massive surveillance of Americans
Militarized police departments, through federal grants
Marijuana users and medical marijuana clinics under assault,
Skyrocketing of the budget for prisons.
Failing to veto a bipartisan vote in Congress to gut more financial regulations.
Passionate speeches and press conferences promoting austerity for Americans
Bush tax cuts extended for billionaires, them much of it made permanent
Support for the payroll tax holiday, tying SS to the general fund
Support for the vicious chained CPI cut in Social Security and benefits for the disabled
Social security, Medicare, and Medicaid offered up as bargaining chips in budget negotiations, with No mention of cutting corporate welfare or the military budget
Advocacy of multiple new free trade agreements, including The Trans-Pacific, otherwise known as "NAFTA on steroids."
Support of drilling, pipelines, and selling off portions of the Gulf of Mexico
Corporate education policy including high stakes corporate testing and closures of public schools
Entrenchment of exorbitant for-profit health insurance companies into healthcare, through mandate
Legal assault on union rights of hundreds of thousands of federal workers
New policies of targeting children and first responders in drone campaigns,
New policies of awarding medals for remote drone attacks,
Appointment of private prison executives to head the US Marshal's office
Massive escalation of federal contracts for private prisons under US Marshall's office


Seems we have a corporate money problem...

[kentuck]

7. So, is the glass half full or half empty?

__~%

[woo me with science]

11. I guess...

it depends on whether it's a 99% paper cup, or a 1% crystal champagne flute.

[kentuck]

14. :-)__~~%

[byeya]

21. No better than Jimmy Carter and I bet he won't be doing what Carter has done with his

retirement.
He had more of a chance than Carter did and he's blowing it, imo. Very disappointing.

[brush]

32. Nobody has has the repug obstruction like Pres. Obama

And he still got a lot done. And speaking of Carter, he and the country were betrayed by Reagan and his operatives going behind his back and striking a deal with the Iranians to not release the hostages until after the election.

You can look it up. Such an act can be called nothing but treason, but they got away with.

[kentuck]

33. That was also the time the media made a sharp right turn...

...in response to the "liberal media" charges after Watergate...

After Vietnam, Watergate, and the severe recession under Gerald Ford, America was looking for an honest man. They chose Jimmy Carter.

For what it is worth...

[woo me with science]

34. See post 17.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022741645#post17

[brush]

41. He's the President of the United States, and all that means and has meant for decades, either party

Last edited Wed Apr 24, 2013, 03:48 PM - Edit history (2)

Consider this, as much as we like to think the President has the power to accomplish all that he wants by edit (not to mention all the GOP obstructionism) just remember we don’t exactly live in the United States of Altruistic Utopia. Let’s get real and understand who we are and how we are viewed in the world. We live in the United States of America, perhaps the most rapacious and imperialistic country to have arisen in history. Since 1893 when we first flexed our imperialistic muscles with a Navy gunboat and overthrew the monarchy in Hawaii at the behest of ex-pat American sugar growers who wanted free reign to operate their plantations, and on through our Cuban double cross at the end of the Spanish American War, add the Philipines, Nicaragua, Haiti, Guatemala, Panama, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Chile, Iran (helping the British to overthrow a democratically elected leader, intent on nationalizing it’s oil industry, in order to install the compliant Shah), Viet Nam, Grenada, and finally Iraq, we have extended the outrageous conceit of “Manifest Destiny” to a global scale to invade at will, occupy or foment coups in foreign lands in order to gain control of their natural resources for huge profits for our corporations like Dole, United Fruit, Standard Oil, Anaconda Mining, etc. These foreign interventions have been cloaked in the mantle of national security and furtherance of Democracy of course to sell them to ordinary Americans needed for the military. And many of us have bought it for over a century, some of us, not so much. And many in other countries hate the United States because of all of this. There is no doubt to that.


He is a product of our political system and, frankly, because of that, has some corporate dem in him but he leans more towards justice but understands, and we all should understand, that there are long established power centers in the United States of America (and all that stands for) that control many levers of power and many times won't be denied, and to think that one man can change our foreign policy direction, which has operated, quite frankly, basically the same under either party for decades, in four years is unrealistic and naïve. I of course am not privy to foreign policy goings-on but I would think that sometime soon after a new, first-term president is inaugurated a briefing takes place where corporate and military leaders make it clear to the newbie that U.S. interests (that reads “corporate” interests) will remain the direction that our foreign policy takes and any attempts to change it could be dangerous (i.e. JFK). He/she would most likely be told that he/she has some (just some, mind you) latitude in domestic policy like civil rights, healthcare, social issues, etc. but to steer clear of wholesale policy changes (war is very profitable for corporations after all).

With the laundry list that post 17 details, consider this: He is the first president that has invested in and will continue to champion green issues and perhaps move us away from having to pursue our invasive foreign policy direction towards, and let’s be clear, non-white countries, as we will develop our own domestic alternative energy sources. Other presidents to come could follow his lead, especially if repugs continue on their path to being a regional party no longer able to elect a national ticket (that is unless they undergo wholesale changes to attract minorities, which is highly unlikely).

[woo me with science]

42. Thank you for making my point for me:

Last edited Wed Apr 24, 2013, 11:29 PM - Edit history (3)

When I post a lengthy list showing the aggressively corporate direction of this administration in every major policy area important to the one percent, you or others invariably respond with insistence that the problem lies with Republican obstructionism.

However, when I point out the cold fact that little on that list has anything to do with Republican obstructionism, but rather comes aggressively from our own party, you respond by lecturing me on my own initial point: that this President is operating within a system that is tightly controlled by deeply entrenched corporate power in our government. You inform me of this as though it had not been my point all along. You inform me of this as though it were not a grave problem requiring our outrage and attention, but rather an excuse for the status quo.

I am glad we can agree that the primary problem here is not mere Republican obstructionism, as the list clearly shows. I am glad we can agree that the vast majority of the egregious policies on this list have been aggressively championed by the administration itself. We should also be able to agree that this current situation is untenable. People are being driven into poverty and desperation. We are losing our civil liberties. We are losing our country. And if we let this malignant march go on much longer, it will be irreversible.

There is no evidence that this corporate trajectory is being reversed. Quite the opposite. Let's be realistic here: What are the *major* policies we see on the horizon? Not any major green initiatives, as you hopefully suggest. No, a realistic reading of the news and current political climate tells us that we are very likely to see approval of the Keystone Pipeline, along with signing of the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement.

There are new betrayals every single day, large and small. Just this week, it was reduction of EPA standards for radiation, a new legal battle against the union rights of hundreds of thousands of federal workers, transfer of FDA poultry inspection to self-regulation, the news that billions of our tax dollars will be going to Europe to upgrade nuclear bombs, the revelation that the President's budget ramps up our nuclear arsenal and decreases funding to reduce nuclear proliferation... It goes on and on and on. Every week. Every day. An entire new group of corporate cronies was just appointed to major cabinet positions. Your hope for seachange, or even overall incremental movement in a different direction, is not supported by evidence.

You are attempting an Alice in Wonderland argument: When confronted with this Democratic administration's overwhelmingly, aggressively corporate direction during *four full years* in office, you attempt to excuse it by citing the enormous pressures of the corporate structures and powers of influence. Yet at the same time, you want to argue that the future under the very same tightly controlled corporate-purchased system will be different.

Our country is being looted from within, and millions are being pushed into poverty and despair, because of complicity among Democrats, Republicans, and the one percent.

Yes, our own Democratic Party is deep in the stranglehold of corporate interests, and the longer we permit this to continue, the more the system will be restructured in a way that will prevent our fighting back. Far from being an excuse for being patient and hoping that things will be better in a few years, this malignant situation we find ourselves in is the REASON it is so important that we unify as the 99 percent now to demand, to pressure, for real change, no matter how overwhelming that task may seem to be. Clearly, change is not coming from within this purchased system on its own.

[byeya]

35. I agree with what you say: [1] The Reagan team was guilty of treason, clearly so;[2] There has never

been such an organized opposition to a President like these RepubliKKKans.

But, Mr Obama has not changed tactics to confront the R's. Where are his speeches from the White House day after day? Why isn't he in KY calling out the Senate Majority leader? Where's concrete actions to show he cares more about the average person than his Wall Street dinner and golf partners?

[stillcool]

9. a little bitter?

[SidDithers]

18. A lot...nt

Sid

[byeya]

22. I would have added his D- environmental record

[woo me with science]

38. You're right.

It's a very incomplete list, but environment is particularly thin. I have a lot of recent links that need to be added in environment *and* other areas, including relaxing public health guidelines for radiological incidents and the plan to spend billions to upgrade nuclear bombs in Europe.

[Phlem]

37. I'm still waiting

on the jobs or at least the reduction of outsourcing. When do the jobs start happening?

-p

[Proud Liberal Dem]

8. He had a pretty successful first term

anything else will be "gravy" IMHO. And we have one more opportunity to give him a Congress that he can actually work with to get some other things done.

[kentuck]

10. Truth.

How do we get the voters to the polls?

Maybe we need to take Independents and Republicans with us? So long as we can persuade them to do something for their country and vote for the person, rather than their Party?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

16. We need to pin the tail of obstructionism straight on the Elephant

It's not the Democrats that are holding things back and/or keeping things from functioning. The current crop of Republicans in Congress are (literally) making Congress dysfunctional and unable to adequately govern. They're keeping nominees to lawfully authorized agencies in limbo (i.e. CFPB), they're not filling vacant court seats, so justice is being denied for people with cases before those courts even though the President is nominating qualified and non-objectionable (to the majority of Senators) persons, etc. The question that we need to ask the public is this, do you want a functional federal government that carries out its constitutional duties and serves the public or do we want one where we have endless battles over the budget and debt ceiling, credit downgrades because it can't get its act together, sequesters, constant filibusters keeping Congress from even debating legislation, etc? I would think that somebody at the DNC could craft a message like this that could appeal to independents and maybe even some Republicans, some of whom are still sane and believe in having a functional government.

[woo me with science]

17. Most of what is on this list

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022741645#post6

Corporate and bank-cozy appointments, over and over again, including major appointments like:

A serial defender of corrupt bankers for the SEC; the architect of "Kill Lists" and supporter of torture, drone wars, and telecom immunity for the CIA; and a Monsanto VP who has lied and been involved in extremely disturbing claims regarding food safety for the FDA. An Attorney General who has not prosecuted a single large bank but wages war against medical marijuana users and *for* strip searches and warrantless surveillance of Americans. And let's not forget Tim Geithner.

Bailouts and settlements for corrupt banks (with personal pressure from Obama to attorneys general to approve them),
Refusal by Obama's DOJ to prosecute even huge, egregious examples of bank fraud (i.e, HSBC)
signing NDAA to allow indefinite detention,
"Kill lists" and claiming of the right to assassinate even American citizens without trial
Expansion of wars into several new countries
A renewed public advocacy for the concept of preemptive war
Drone campaigns in multiple countries with whom we are not at war
Proliferation of military drones in our skies
Federal targeting of Occupy for surveillance and militarized response to peaceful protesters
Fighting all the way to the Supreme Court for warrantless surveillance
Fighting all the way to the Supreme Court for strip searches for any arrestee
Supporting and signing Internet-censoring and privacy-violating measures like ACTA
Support for corporate groping and naked scanning of Americans seeking to travel
A new, massive spy center for warrantless access to Americans' phone calls, emails, and internet use
Support of legislation to legalize massive surveillance of Americans
Militarized police departments, through federal grants
Marijuana users and medical marijuana clinics under assault,
Skyrocketing of the budget for prisons.
Failing to veto a bipartisan vote in Congress to gut more financial regulations.
Passionate speeches and press conferences promoting austerity for Americans
Bush tax cuts extended for billionaires, them much of it made permanent
Support for the payroll tax holiday, tying SS to the general fund
Support for the vicious chained CPI cut in Social Security and benefits for the disabled
Social security, Medicare, and Medicaid offered up as bargaining chips in budget negotiations, with No mention of cutting corporate welfare or the military budget
Advocacy of multiple new free trade agreements, including The Trans-Pacific, otherwise known as "NAFTA on steroids."
Support of drilling, pipelines, and selling off portions of the Gulf of Mexico
Corporate education policy including high stakes corporate testing and closures of public schools
Entrenchment of exorbitant for-profit health insurance companies into healthcare, through mandate
Legal assault on union rights of hundreds of thousands of federal workers
New policies of targeting children and first responders in drone campaigns,
New policies of awarding medals for remote drone attacks,
Appointment of private prison executives to head the US Marshal's office
Massive escalation of federal contracts for private prisons under US Marshall's office

had absolutely nothing to do with Republican obstructionism. We have a gravely serious problem of corporate money purchasing elections and driving policy in both parties. Until we can be honest about the real problem here, we will solve nothing.

[WillyT]

30. That's the Way I See It As Well, Woo... A Corporatist/Authoritarian Wet Dream...

Great list BTW.

[woo me with science]

39. It's woefully incomplete still,

but it at least underscores the seriousness and pervasiveness of the problem: the overwhelmingly corporate direction of major policy in virtually every area important to the one percent.

Thanks, Willy.

[brush]

40. He's the President of the United States, and all that means and has meant for decades, either party

Last edited Wed Apr 24, 2013, 03:48 PM - Edit history (2)

Consider this, as much as we like to think the President has the power to accomplish all that he wants by edit (not to mention all the GOP obstructionism) just remember we don’t exactly live in the United States of Altruistic Utopia. Let’s get real and understand who we are and how we are viewed in the world. We live in the United States of America, perhaps the most rapacious and imperialistic country to have arisen in history. Since 1893 when we first flexed our imperialistic muscles with a Navy gunboat and overthrew the monarchy in Hawaii at the behest of ex-pat American sugar growers who wanted free reign to operate their plantations, and on through our Cuban double cross at the end of the Spanish American War, add the Philipines, Nicaragua, Haiti, Guatemala, Panama, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Chile, Iran (helping the British to overthrow a democratically elected leader, intent on nationalizing it’s oil industry, in order to install the compliant Shah), Viet Nam, Grenada, and finally Iraq, we have extended the outrageous conceit of “Manifest Destiny” to a global scale to invade at will, occupy or foment coups in foreign lands in order to gain control of their natural resources for huge profits for our corporations like Dole, United Fruit, Standard Oil, Anaconda Mining, etc. These foreign interventions have been cloaked in the mantle of national security and furtherance of Democracy of course to sell them to ordinary Americans needed for the military. And many of us have bought it for over a century, some of us, not so much. And many in other countries hate the United States because of all of this. There is no doubt to that.

He is a product of our political system and, frankly, because of that, has some corporate dem in him but he leans more towards justice but he understand, and we all should understand, that there are long established power centers in the United States of America (and all that stands for) that control much and many times won't be denied, and to think that one man can change our foreign and domestic policy direction, which has operated, quite frankly, basically the same under either party for decades, in four years is unrealistic and naïve. I of course am not privy to foreign policy goings-on but I would think that sometime soon after a new, first-term president is inaugurated a briefing takes place where corporate and military leaders make it clear to the newbie that U.S. interests (that reads “corporate” interests) will remain the direction that our foreign policy takes and any attempts to change it could be dangerous (i.e. JFK). He/she would most likely be told that he/she has some (just some, mind you) latitude in domestic policy like civil rights, healthcare, social issues, etc. but to steer clear of wholesale policy changes (war is very profitable for corporations after all).

With the laundry list that you detail, consider this: He is the first president that has invested in and will continue to champion green issues and perhaps move us away from having to pursue our invasive foreign policy direction towards, and let’s be clear, non-white countries, as we will develop our own domestic alternative energy sources. Other presidents to come could follow his lead, especially if repugs continue on their path to being a regional party no longer able to elect a national ticket (that is unless they undergo wholesale changes to attract minorities, which is highly unlikely).

[woo me with science]

43. You repeated your post here, so I will repeat my reply here:

Last edited Wed Apr 24, 2013, 11:30 PM - Edit history (3)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2748934

Thank you for making my point for me.

When I post a lengthy list showing the aggressively corporate direction of this administration in every major policy area important to the one percent, you or others invariably respond with insistence that the problem lies with Republican obstructionism.

However, when I point out the cold fact that little on that list has anything to do with Republican obstructionism, but rather comes aggressively from our own party, you respond by lecturing me on my own initial point: that this President is operating within a system that is tightly controlled by deeply entrenched corporate power in our government. You inform me of this as though it had not been my point all along. You inform me of this though it were not a grave problem requiring our outrage and attention, but rather an excuse for the status quo.

I am glad we can agree that the primary problem here is not mere Republican obstructionism, as the list clearly shows. I am glad we can agree that the vast majority of the egregious policies on this list have been aggressively championed by the administration itself. We should also be able to agree that this current situation is untenable. People are being driven into poverty and desperation. We are losing our civil liberties. We are losing our country. And if we let this malignant march go on much longer, it will be irreversible.

There is no evidence that this corporate trajectory is being reversed. Quite the opposite. Let's be realistic here: What are the *major* policies we see on the horizon? Not any major green initiatives, as you hopefully suggest. No, a realistic reading of the news and current political climate tells us that we are very likely to see approval of the Keystone Pipeline, along with signing of the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement.

There are new betrayals every single day, large and small. Just this week, it was reduction of EPA standards for radiation, a new legal battle against the union rights of hundreds of thousands of federal workers, transfer of FDA poultry inspection to self-regulation, the news that billions of our tax dollars will be going to Europe to upgrade nuclear bombs, the revelation that the President's budget ramps up our nuclear arsenal and decreases funding to reduce nuclear proliferation... It goes on and on and on. Every week. Every day. An entire new group of corporate cronies was just appointed to major cabinet positions. Your hope for seachange, or even overall incremental movement in a different direction, is not supported by evidence.

You are attempting an Alice in Wonderland argument: When confronted with this Democratic administration's overwhelmingly, aggressively corporate direction during *four full years* in office, you attempt to excuse it by citing the enormous pressures of the corporate structures and powers of influence. Yet at the same time, you want to argue that the future under the very same tightly controlled corporate-purchased system will be different.

Our country is being looted from within, and millions are being pushed into poverty and despair, because of complicity among Democrats, Republicans, and the one percent.

Yes, our own Democratic Party is deep in the stranglehold of corporate interests, and the longer we permit this to continue, the more the system will be restructured in a way that will prevent our fighting back. Far from being an excuse for being patient and hoping that things will be better in a few years, this malignant situation we find ourselves in is the REASON it is so important that we unify as the 99 percent now to demand, to pressure, for real change, no matter how overwhelming that task may seem to be. Clearly, change is not coming from within this purchased system on its own.

[brush]

44. I'm not about being patient

My point is that the policies of our government, and that includes both parties over the last hundred years, has been an aggressive, rapacious one of imperialism that has turned much of the world against us. I'm stating that openly and understand that the US has caused much misery, pain and destruction around the planet, and in our own country. I also understand that your huge rant about all the things that are wrong could have been written when W Bush, Bill Clinton, Daddy Bush, Reagan, et al were in office. It's what the U.S. stands for and what the U.S. does. The policies, the arrogance, the entitlement attitude that the world's wealth belongs to us (white entitlement really against non-whites here and abroad) exists and continues because corporations and the wealthy want it to exist and continue to yield wealth to them.

To rant and rave that one president should have corrected all these things in four years is kind of sophomoric, kind of like expecting to turn an ocean liner around on a dime with a steering wheel from a toy truck. We're the biggest behemoth on the planet by far, racing down hill to upheaval, and that upheaval, whether it's revolution, another civil war over guns and abortion, or the economic destruction of the country, is the only thing that can stop it. Bush came from the "entitled" wealth and certainly saw nothing wrong with continuing on with our unilateral imperialism.

This president did not but both are, like I said in my post, products of our system and of course, greatly influenced by the system. I believe President Obama leans more towards justice but his policy decisions or lack of decisions are quite often trumped or dictated by those even more powerful than him (the failure after Sandy Hook to achieve any kind of sensible gun policy for example). And that's not Boehner or McConnell, Try the Kochs and Adelsons and their ilk who own the politicians, the MSM and the lobbyists, along with most of the nation's wealth. Rant and rave all you want but we're all along for the ride and it's going to be a bumpy one with a sudden stop.

Remember how sudden it was when South Vietnam fell, when the iron curtain and the Soviet Union fell, and the Arab Spring governments? It'll happen like that here too, but it won't be so sudden. It's been building all along.

[kentuck]

19. Isn't that the job of the press...

..and the national media? Where is the press? Perhaps it is us only?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

20. There are some in the press and punditry that is starting to come around

not enough, and not fast enough however

[graham4anything]

28. We need to neutralize the 20% extremists, and go America80-extremists20.

that means making the 15% rightwing extreme and the 5% left wing extreme unite.

And the 60% of the republican party remaining we need to send a lifejacket to join us.
Those Americans don't like the draconian leaders on the right anymore than we do.

They can be saved.

And we get 80-20.

Barack Obama fans are the silent majority.

[kentuck]

31. Damn!

Do they pay you?

[Junkpet]

12. If the President isn't able to get anything passed in the next year...

...then I sincerely hope the midterms prove to be devastating to the GOP. That was the call the people made in 2012, I'd hope we'd stand behind it. That said, if nothing else passes and he's a lameduck from here on out, he's already accomplished more good than any Republican President since...well, idk, but before Nixon.

[Orsino]

13. You mean if we aren't able to pressure Congress into passing anything good?

Yeah, we'd probably blame most it on the president.

[Blue Idaho]

15. One thing is certain

The Congresses that have opposed his every move and in doing so damaged America's Credit rating, wrecked the economy, and attacked the poor, the old and the very young simply to stand in his way will have to live with that mean spirited legacy forever.

[spanone]

23. the new meme...it's all his fault

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. Just another 3rd Way timeserver trying to keep the establishment and politics as usual intact.

At that, he's been "successful".

[Cleita]

25. Lame duck Presidents are not expected to accomplish a whole lot.

Why is this President being held to a different standard? I believe most of his achievements happened in his first term. History will judge how noteworthy they were.

[graham4anything]

26. The best President (#4 of all time) since LBJ. With his agenda to continue another 8 w/Hillary

[datasuspect]

27. it looks like we're going back into a "TERRA!!!!!11111" (tm) cycle again

so, Obama? who?

[Rex]

29. He would have a full book just for the first term alone.

The book will always be open until his last term ends.

Rextrodamus speculates;

He will be the most criticized POTUS in U.S. history, while ironically the GWB administration (should be the most criticized) will always get a 'safe passover' from the torture, warmongering and other obvious laws they broke and violated under his two terms in office.

For national security reasons no doubt.

[tularetom]

36. I think if he left office today he would be considered successful

His record is mostly positive.

However, if he succeeds in his efforts to cut Social Security before the end of his term, most of the good he has done will be mostly forgotten and he'll be remembered as the guy who forced Grandma to eat cat food.