Poor execution and lack of leadership; two hallmarks of the Obama administration; not all the President’s fault but surely a reflection of the attitudes and mind sets of the key people surrounding him.
Sooner or later you have to get beyond the compassionate sounding rhetoric and deal with the details and reality. This has yet to happen and many Americans are figuring it out. Campaigning takes you only so far. Now we will be left with a dysfunctional administration and Congress for the next two years … and you can’t simply blame Republicans.
I urge you to read the full New York Times piece.
But this harsh judgment probably isn’t explicitly ideological: The public isn’t necessarily turning neoconservative or pining for the days of Bush. Instead, it mostly reflects a results-based verdict on what seems like poor execution, in which the White House’s slow response to ISIS is of a piece with the Obamacare rollout and the V.A. scandal and various other second-term asleep-at-the-tiller moments. It’s a problem of leadership that reflects badly on liberalism but doesn’t necessarily vindicate conservatism.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
I know your ideological bias, Mr. Quinn, so it’s not surprising that you would post this article. Anyone with half a brain knows that the Republican strategy for six years has been to obstruct anything and everything that the Obama administration attempts to do for America, to criticize everything the man does from playing golf to combating ISIS and Ebola and to embarrass our nation in the eyes of the world by destroying our strong united front image. The Republicans went so far as to close down our government and cost our economy $24 Billion. Their strategy has always been to disrupt and immobilize our government, to blame the Obama administration for the resulting inaction and chaos and to campaign against it in 2014 and 2016. By intentionally paralyzing our government and greatly hampering our economic recovery to enhance their chances of winning elections, they have deceived the American voters. Moreover, 27 Republican dominated states have passed legislation to suppress the votes of likely Democrats with the support of the Conservative Supreme Court that Bush the Dumb gave us. Republican policies and ideologies are 50+ years out dated and their base of old white rich men is hugely outnumbered within our population. They only methods that they can now utilize to win elections are total obedience to the ruling right-wing oligarchy and all-out efforts of Democratic voter suppression.
Step back for a moment, Mr. Quinn, and think it through:
The southern “red states” have the highest levels of poverty, the lowest levels of employment, the poorest education standards, the lowest wages and greatest number of people without healthcare insurance. The Republican governors of these states rejected increased Medicare funding under the PPACA and enacted dozens of laws to suppress likely Democratic voters. The Democratic Party is the only party that will help these downtrodden white people, but they continually vote Republican because they are racists and, in their minds, the Democratic Party is the party of the “Nigras” and the Republican Party is the party of the survivors of “The War of Northern Aggression”. I have traveled extensively in “The South” and have a degree in Political Science and, like it or not, Mr. Quinn, that’s the way it is today
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Well, you have a point about the Southern states and their penchant to vote against their best interests (and you left out they also have the highest obesity rate in the US).
However, opposition to Obama and his policies goes way beyond racism. To the contrary, the only reason he is president is because of his race or at least half of it.
I have two problems; first disagreement with his ideology and second he is simply not qualified for the job, he is not a leader plain and simple and I am confident history will prove that true.
Liberals are known for helping and caring about people, conservatives not so much. But it seems to me there is more than one way to care.
The first is to create ways for them to be more comfortable in their status and the second is to drive them out of it toward something better. The Obama mindset is the former and in the process creates a population ever more dependent on government and promises from some politicians. Our goal should be to create an economy and society where SNAP, EITC, etc are needed less and less not be proud we have provided all that to more and more Americans. That is not success.
That same is true for health care. We focus on the premiums people pay, but even if they were “affordable” it’s only because they are subsidized and because out-of-pocket costs are increased and provider choice reduced. That is not success, that is camouflage.
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Ross ended the piece with “we’re about to see if not being the Obama party is enough for the Republicans”. Not being the party of George W Bush was certainly enough to give us the incompetent community organizer not once, but twice. Folks who paid attention in 2003 saw this coming a long time ago. The guy is just not fit to be President of the USA.
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