The hope peddler: Obama's exploitation

YOUR COMMENTS

The voices of UnionLeader.com readers: To join UnionLeader.com's discussion of the news, use the form below.

NOTE: If you have read this article before, you may not be seeing the newest comments. Press F5. Or click "Refresh" or "Reload" at the top of this page while holding down Ctrl. All approved postings will appear. (Another option for Firefox users is the Clear Cache add-on.)

"change we can beleive in?"

How dumb did you have to be to fall for that one.

The fact that there are so many out there, some on this very article singing the praises of Obama whilst spreading his lies and propaganda just goes to show you that you can't fix stupid.

I'm quite confident then when it's all said and done Barack Obama will have managed to make Jimmy Carter look like Abrham Lincoln.

1/20/13 The end of a very bad joke.
- Dana, Candia, NH

One left claim resurfaces again and again on this wall and in other media, and I'm always disappointed to see the claim remain unchallenged. The left continues to claim that Bush and Cheney made a mess of America, but leftists never attempt to prove the point. I want to be absolutely clear: Bush and Cheney did not make a mess of America by any measure that I can accept as fair or reasonable.

The economic crisis that unfolded at the end of their term had its origins in policies going back a long way, policies such as the refusal by the Clinton administration to perform any regulation of the derivatives market, policies such as the creation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have mandates perverting housing market incentives. To be fair, Bush jumped on a populist bandwagon driven by the left when he aimed to increase home ownership. He encouraged goverment to pervert the market incentives that determine who receives loans, and he bares some part of the blame for the housing bubble. (By the way, Bush's policies distorted market incentives, but didn't they distort incentives in a way that leftists seem to support?) To be entirely fair, the populist left, congress, and Democratic administrations before Bush bare a large part of the blame, too.

As for the wars and foreign policy, Bush failed only by the frankly unimportant measure of American popularity abroad. Can any American really care at bottom about how popular America is in Venezuela, Pakistan, or anywhere else? Is American popularity the ultimate measure of the success of our foreign policy? I prefer to measure the success of our foreign policy by our safety, and I think that Bush made us safer in the long run. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have a low human cost compared to previous wars like Vietnam, Korea, or the Second World War, and neither seems doomed to failure if we commit to fighting them. At the end of Bush's term, Iraq appeared to be a success, and Afghanistan simmered rather than boiled with problems. Maybe, we'll see clear evidence of his mistakes in the future---of course, only time can tell if his policy succeeded---but right now, his critics continue to judge his works prematurely and to engage in amateur speculation rather than substantive criticism.

I want to conclude that if amateur speculation and unfairly attributed blame pass for reasonable criticism of Bush, then no one should complain when critics level charges having the same foundation against Obama. Enough time has passed to disagree philosophically with Obama and speculate that he's hurting the country, and Obama has taken enough concrete steps such as the stimulus to label him a failure. Fair is fair.
- Joseph Kulisics, Beijing, China

Half of the Faux Noise viewers claim to be anything that they feel might make some other idiot listen to their useless babble. From one day to the next their own announcers can't remember which is a news show and which is just the Republicanic party line and talking points. The Boob Tube of my youth has settled down to one channe
- Will, Deerfield

The Obama administration has gone after both Rush Limbaugh and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- showing an inability to distinguish between the burning of heretics and the burning of bridges. It has courted insurance companies, then publicly demonized them for showing independence. Obama has tended to define all opposition, particularly on health care, as resulting from fear, cowardice and selfishness -- instead of admitting genuine disagreement. At a recent fundraiser, he mocked Republicans as robots who "do what they're told." He has engaged in consistent, classless, self-excusing criticism of his predecessor. Other presidents have been known for a war on totalitarianism or a war on terror. Obama is known for a war on Fox News.
- Hank, Ventura, California

Bryce--are you aware that, according to independent national polls, half of the viewers of the FOX Network are liberals and independents? They go to FOX because it's the only network they can rely on for an honest and thorough analysis of the issues. You also seem to overlook the fact that some of the contributors to FOX are liberals (e.g., Juan Williams, Alan Colmes, and Susan Estrich). However, I do hold out a glimmer of hope for some of the other networks whose correspondents are beginning to question the motives and behaviors of this administration. Predominant among them is Clinton's former spokesman, George Stephanopoulis. Even he is beginning to see the light.
- Susie, Horseshoe Bay, TX (NH native)

Obama - the second coming of Jimmy Carter. A complete fraud. A "beer summit" earns him a Nobel Prize, and that's his high water mark to date. God save the Republic from this socialist and his ilk.
- JF, Gloucester MA

How would you like to see some real honesty and facts for once. Almost every President is left with a mess from the former. Most dont spend the first year playing the blame game but actually get to work to make things better. Even Libs in the Press admit that the stimulus package was a handout to supproters and special interest groups.
As to who made the big mess there is plenty of blame to go around. Yes Bush did not regulate the Banks enough (actually more of a congress responsibility). Barny Frank and the Black caucus and other Dem leaders pushed Fanne-me and Freddy-mac to make millions of low prime morgages to people who should have stayed renters. Bush sent letters to congess warning of the possible concequences and regulators also warned that it could end in disaster. I saw a video of Barney Frank telling regulators that they were exagerating the potential problems (about three years ago). So now we are going to all get taxed into poorhouse so Obama can "LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD".
If you think all the new taxes are just going to be on the rich your more naive than Obama.
- JOHN G, DENVER COLORADO

Obama promised to be different. He IS. He is the most socialistic narcissisitic individual EVER in the WH. He will make Jimmy Carter look like a winner by the time he IS one and DONE!
- danceswithtrees, portola ca.

Listen up pups, this is about Hope. Bottom of the 9th, 2 outs, the count is 0and 2, and you're down by 3 runs. Your pitcher is at bat and you HOPE he gets a hit. It's an empty promise that MR. Obama's team gave the country and many young people fell for it. Don't fall for hope. It is a dangerous and nasty world out there. Only hard work, diligence, vigilance, and strength will help us survive.
- Joe I., Monroe, OR

It looks like some of the liberals that screwed Massachusetts up have moved up to NH. "Obama's doing a great job?" Sir, step away from the crack pipe. It's been apparent for sometime that he has no idea what he's doing. He hasn't stopped campaigning since he's been in office, which begs the questions, if he's campaigning, then who's running the country? Answer: the MoveOn.org types that his administration is peppered with. His only success to date has been to unify the Republicans.

We were told that a peace would descend upon the land after the Obamessiah's Ascension. All I've seen is a gun shootout at a local bar in OH, a fight over road rage that spilt over into the streets of NYC, terrorist recruitment is up, threats to this country are up, bombings in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are up, and Iran is laughing all the way to the Uranium store.

If you hear that Hope and Change are coming to a neighborhood near you, it's probably time to get out the Kevlar.

Is it 2010, yet?
- Chuck, DC

Obama will be cleaning up the Bush/Cheney mess for a long time. He is not perfect, but he was elected for four years, not nine months. Partisan bickering plays right into the hands of the career politicians and lobbyists and special interests. I have always supported our commander in chief, regardless of party. I never blindly agree with them or any politician simply because of party affiliation. I judge them by their track records. Obama does not have much of one yet. He has been forced to operate in crisis mode since assuming office, and I think he is doing ok, and will reserve judgement a bit, and support our commander in chief, except where there are fundamental differences in ideology, which all americans are of course entitled to. We all should be rooting for him at least, not hoping he fails. If he fails america pays the price. That may be acceptable collateral damage to extremists, it may be more important to some that he fail (for a varierty of reasons) but not me. Nothing he is proposing or working on is more harmful to america than war. Unless big business profits are more important to you than human lives.
- Mike, Concord

Susie, while I don't mean to hit below the belt, anytime someone makes a comment like you said on another post, that you thank goodness for Fox, Beck and Limbaugh, well that's just really disturbing and just kind of gross. I'd feel a lot worse about being accused of name calling if people like you and Spike who admonish others didn't do it yourself....pretty hypocritical. I really do think Obama is doing as well as he can with the din of idiocracy that keeps coming from the right; folks who refuse to see reality and will only listen to the tools like Limbaugh, Hannity, etc. that try and stoke anger out of nothing through people who either don't have anything better to do or are willing to buy any piece of junk like the editorial above and cling to it like gospel...just pathetic.
- Bryce Olsen, Nashua, NH

The Washington Times (neocon tripe) is not a credible source of unbiased information with respect to Obama, so this column is hot air.

But there is a story here. The GOP Koolaid addict right in fact hates Obama's tactics for the same reason I love them: he is going to have one HUGE war chest with which to decimate the opposition in 2012!

Remember, it's all about the money. Obama is going to have TONS I'd expect tv ads that are movie quality, and lots of them.
- Tom Labrie, Rochester

Wow you people will jump on any bandwagon. Obama simply did what every president since Washington has done, he threw a reception for those who helped get him elected, had dinner and meetings with some and said thank you. This is a perfectly normal turn of events many of these people are close friends he went to school with.

And you people wonder why we can’t have an adult conversation? You manufacture outrage over such silly things. Obama has kept his promise he has not accepted any lobbyist monies and is working on change but change does not happen overnight especially when things were so far out of whack when he began this journey.

Seriously grow up people we have real problems to solve.
- Jim, Raymond NH

President Obama has been doing a great job since he has taken office. His stimulus package has created over 16,000 new jobs in New Hampshire alone, it has provided a tax cut to 9,300 working NH citizens whom make under $250,000 a year. He has provided 9,000 New Hampshire children with health care coverage whom did not have it before. He has pursued health care reform. He has laid out a plan that would give healthy competition to big insurance companies who care more about making profits then they do providing good care.
- Douglas Marino, Newfields, NH

To Bryce Olsen Nashua,
Let me express my thoughts and opinion about your comments after reading them, and I think these words described them best. Duped, mindless Obama supporter, ignorant, sad, uninformed, left wing whacko, disingenuous, sadly mistaken. I could go on and on however I think you get the point. How anyone can say Obama is doing a great job is being intellectually dishonest to say the least.
- Roger, Manchester

Bryce of Nashua says, "You certainly never saw this level of fear/hatred mongering or lack of support for the president at the UL when Bush was in office." Are you kidding? Of course we did--and on a national scale, including here at the UL. It seems you're the one who's out of touch. Unlike you, however, I will refrain from insulting you simply because you embrace a different ideology.
- Susie, Horseshoe Bay, TX (NH native)

I always believe the exact opposite of anything that Barack Obama says. This way I know what to expect and am never surprised, dissapointed when he has not kept his word.
- Rob, Manchester

Apparently many of you did not understand the point of the article but just rush in to point out how great Obama is. Do you not understand that Obama ran on the fact that he was going to be better and different then the past. More open and honest but in fact has been just the same old same old.
It is a very sad state when we are willing to support a politician simply because he is on our "team" instead of holding them to the ideals they professed when running for office.
A lie is a lie whether Bush or Obama is telling it and right now Obama and his team are telling plenty of them!
- Jesse, Orford

Bryce, are you joking? You call out Deb, Spike and Susan for being partisan and out of touch with reality, yet with these four words alone "Obama is doing great" you proceed to show your blind loyalty to the chosen one.

Memo to Bryce, in 10 short months Obama has managed to make his approval ratings fall precipitously low by any standard. They are off the charts low for someone who's been in office less than one year.

The only people left who approve of the Obama administration are those looking for a handout.
- Ron, Manchester

Obama promised Hope, instead we have fear. Obama promised to change Washington politics, instead our Congress is more corrupt than ever before. Obama promised bi-partisanship yet as an Independent I've seen more partisanship from this administration than I've seen in at least 20 years. Obama promised us unity, Instead we are more divided than we have ever been in American History.
Seems to me that Obama made alot of empty promises
- Theresa, Manchester

byrce you my friend ought to be a comedian you had me rolling in the aisle reading your comment , but on a serious note he is more of a negative for this country i fear for our soldier,s oversea,s for this president give,s the military no support at all..
- kevin dumont, nashua

sid do you think barack obama is any more of a genuis this guy has to bring a teleprompter anywhere he goes. and speaking of profit who do you think is profiting as we speak on the so-called global warming oh i mean climate change could it be a certain former v.p named al gore, and i think this huge mess was started by the like,s of barney frank,s chris dodd and their ilk this was all planned they knew they had 90% of the media in their pocket so it was as easy as taking candy from a baby, the only difference now is this administration are taking from the working american,s and giving to the lazy american,s sid from texas you wouldn,t happen to be one of them would you..
- kevin dumont, nashua

You have to take anything Susie Nickerson posts (along with folks like Spike and Deb from Derry) with huge grains of salt. After all, Susie posted the other day thanking goodness for Beck, Limbaugh and Fox news. She's not exactly in touch with reality. That's pretty common with the partisan folks who post here daily; nothing better to do except complain, complain, complain. All this piece is is another attempt to hold Democrats to one standard and Republicans to a much, much lesser one with the UL. They've been doing it for year, so it's no surprise. You certainly never saw this level of fear/hatred mongering or lack of support for the president at the UL when Bush was in office.

While I don't agree and support everything he's done, Obama is doing great, considering this lack of reasoning and really pure ignorance that exists from Susie/Deb/Spike and others on a daily basis, along with the hate machine on the right that tries to stir up non-issues among the easily influenced. No worries, it's actually nice to support a president that is a positive influence on the country and the world and wants to fix things for the better of all our our citizens....
- Bryce Olsen, Nashua, NH

Slow news day, huh?

You know Obama is doing well when the Union Leader uses its editorial space to complain about a vague disconnect between his message of "hope" and the act of inviting the people who helped get him elected to the White House.
- Dan, Manchester

And how many non-donors have had access to the White house and the administration?

This op-ed (and the lame flap about Obama's golf game) are pure partisan cheap shots designed to undercut the President of the United States of America. Remember, turn about is fair play. Do unto others as you'd have done to you. All that stuff?? Is this how you'd want your favorite candidate to office treated by the press.
- Jim, Manchester

Obama promised us "change," and change he has, indeed, delivered. We should all be proud of the Chicago-style thuggery that is now alive and well in Washington, thanks to Obama. As Melvin of Keene points out, those of us who took the time to look beyond the talk in search of substance could easily see the truth--and the writing on the wall. Obama's politics have always been dirty and divisive. His ideology has always trended toward socialism, partisanship, and favoritism (i.e., unequal opportunities). So it's hardly any surprise that the partisanship has been exacerbated. Nor is it any surprise that the Democratic party is fast coming undone, beleaguered with dissension, internal bickering, and power-mongering. So much for "The Great Unifier." Maybe next time, people vote on a candidate's character and record, rather than rhetoric and star appeal.
- Susie, Horseshoe Bay, TX (NH native)

Another empty article with as much substance as an inert gas.
Since we've come to expect empty promises from politicians, I'll take hope-peddling over the fear mongering of Republicans every single day of the week. Did you notice we still have to listen to doom-like prophecies from Karl Rove and Dick Cheney?
- Herb C., Concord

To all you people bashing Obama shame on you. Look at the country, we are doing better now than we ever did with Bush. At least he is not having meetings with oil executives. This article is so one sided and biased. Who ever wrote this failed to mention exactly who he has invited to the white house and who he has been having VIP meetings with. This article sounds like a FOX news report, no substance and all propaganda. If the writer of this article felt so strongly for their position then they should have intelligently argued their stance by providing truth and not opinion. That is exactly what this article amounts to. Nothing more than a poorly conceived idea which fails to back up it's thesis with supporting information. I can't believe this article was even printed. Come on give me some hard facts, not just a fly by without mentioning anything important. This type of ignorant thinking is exactly what is wrong with America, does anyone know how to write anymore?
- Jim, Manchester

Paul and Shaun seem to conveniently forget that the Democrats held majorities in Congress during the GWBush presidency...
- Jane, Bow

The UL, among many other outlets, runs the risk of crying wolf here with all this speculation. Between questioning his "real" birthplace, his "real" religion, his "real" father, his "real" friends, his "real" thesis paper...et al, Obama Derangement Syndrome is already more prevalent than the previous guy. It's only been 9months since his election and nobody flinches anymore when he's called a Nazi-communist.
Seriously, whenever I see a picture of Obama with a Hitler mustache, I'm not as depressed as I once was. I've just accepted that 20% of my country has lost its mind and there's a whole network of outlets devoted to feed and reap the profits from the crazy.
At some point, there's got to be some burn-out here. You can only call the president so many names before people stop listening to you. In the meantime, we'll just have to be patient and endure the howls of socialism, reverse racism and that accepting donations = exploiting the hopes of the young and impressionable.

*** Editor's note: This newspaper has never questioned Obama's citizenship, faith, or parentage. ***
- Kenny M, Milford, NH

I find it fascinating that there has been no, repeat, no effort on the part of conservatives to accept any responsibility for the mess that the Bush/Cheney years left for Obama to clean up after. Instead, the fervent believers lambaste and crucify any Republican who seeks to work with the Democrats to find solutions to this and other messes left for others to clean up. I wonder if the Washington Times - and the UL - are conveniently forgetting that Republicans are refusing to govern and instead choose to snipe and whine from the sidelines. Do we even know if Obama has invited others for briefings but they have refused "on principle"?

I say spit out the sour grapes, lick your wounds, admit your candidate and party lost the electorate's favor and let's all get back to governing this country according to what works instead of according to strict dogma.
- Paul Courtney, Lebanon

How I miss the days of bull horn threats made at the world by an AWOL flight suite wearing Commander in Cheif proclaiming mission accomplished for a war started with the wrong enemy. Those were such brighter days compared to what we have now....HA!
- Sid, Plano TX (x NH rez)

It would take a full page article to go through all of the "promises" that he made during his campaign and has already broken. I fid it funny that regardless of what he does there are still people out there that will not admit that they were duped.
What ever happened to the health care debate being on CSPAN with all interested parties being at the table? Guess we should just ignore that one as well!
- Jesse, Orford

I think having two tax cheats working on reforming our tax laws pretty much says what we elected. If they were Republicans every major news paper would be publishing the call for their removal by Pelosi and friends and hang them before the trial even began.

The people of this nation need to wake up and none more so than our young who pretty much get one view in the classroom and no debate.
- Deb, Derry

The man needs to be dishonorably discharged from his duties...
- JRW, Manchester

Yawn... Another anonymous editorial bashing the president on trivial matters rather than focusing on the real issues. I'm not defending the guy and I didn't vote for him, but is this the type of content that you expect will save the newspaper industry? I can hear the same thing on Rush...
- Steve, Campton

"We need to end the game playing" - This quote from the narcissist who refuses to entertain any opinion which does not 100% coincide with his own, who allows special favors for certain groups and special interests, who thinks it's okay for Republicans to be locked out of committee meetings, who gives weekly canned speeches chocked full of lies ala Hitler, who has steered us onto a course of centralized government control at the expense of personal liberty, etc etc etc. Yeah, he's really doing a bang up job with the whole change thing.
- Mike, Temple

Drama llama. A year (or less than one) does not a presidency make. Give him more time to clean up after Bush. COuple other things going on in case you have not reap the papers.
- Shaun, Manchester

I wish the UL and others would just quit this criticism of Obama. He is a GREAT president who deserves his face on Mount Rushmore and is well-deserving of the Nobel Peace prize.

After all, he..... he..... he.....

He got a dog.
- Jim D, Hillsboro

The first sign Obama was going to be a partisan special interest President is when he chose Rahm Emanual to be his chief of staff.
- Chris, Merrimack

So he lied. Not exactly the first President to say one thing before the election, and act a different way after. Unfortunately he spends more time campaigning than governing, blaming the previous administration for what they did or didn't do while doing those things himself that have never worked previously but fit the left wing model of what should work in a perfect left wing world. I am pleased to hear many Obama voters admit they where fooled and are disappointed, I am bothered becasue it was clear if you listened that he was saying nothing of substance during his campaign. Sadly he is probably the perfect representation for a modern american president, all style, no substance. A very sad commentary on todays style before substance society.
- jeff, goffstown

That's the problem, UL, most of the Obama supporters are not ready yet to admit that he lied, and they were used.

In spite of all that is going on and all that he is trying to force on this country while "the people" are saying they don't want it, his supporters remain loyal and blind.

Those of us who checked him, his policies and his associations out before and during the election cycle saw this coming.
- Melvin, Keene