Barack Obama is the best President we have had since Kennedy

By Kyle Offenbecher

 

Over the past 50 years we have some good presidents, some bad presidents, and some in between. None of them however, have had as positive an effect on America as President Obama. Since President Obama took office, our country has dramatically changed for the better. I’m not saying the Obama administration has been perfect, but I think there is a valid case for why President Obama has been the most successful president of at least the past half-century. Here’s why.

To put President Obama’s accomplishments in perspective it’s important to have some context. In the past fifty years we have had 9 presidents who had varying degrees of success. LBJ had major domestic achievements with Civil Rights and The Great Society, but his Vietnam policy was a disaster. His successor, Richard Nixon was a crook that disgraced the Presidency. Ford neither did anything great nor terrible. Carter had some success with the Camp David accords but failed to deal with America’s economic malaise. Reagan for all the attempts by modern republicans to canonize him was hardly a saint. The national debt ballooned, AIDS flourished, and inequality increased. Meanwhile a good amount of the Reagan administration became involved in a program to sell weapons to Iran and use the proceeds to fund drug-dealing terrorists in Nicaragua. Hardly a great legacy. The first George Bush accomplished little domestically, but was successful in defeating Saddam and helping bring about a peaceful transition to democracy in the eastern bloc. Both of these might be considered great successes if later events (and his own son’s actions) hadn’t made Iraq a nightmare and Russia hardly better than during the Soviet days. Bill Clinton did achieve considerable success in managing the economy but also left behind a failed health care plan, financial deregulation and don’t ask, don’t tell. The second George Bush, was of course the President who increased the deficit, thought the Iraq War was a great idea, and presided over the worst financial meltdown since the Depression. Oh, and demonized gay people to help get elected.
By comparison to his predecessors Obama holds up remarkably well. His stimulus plan stabilized an economy in free fall. Unemployment fell from 10 percent to less than 6 percent. New regulations were placed on the financial institutions that created the crisis. The auto industry was saved. Health care reform was implemented allowing millions of people access to quality affordable health care reform for the first time. Don’t ask, don’t tell was repealed and LGBT Americans gained federal discrimination protection. Our failed Cuban embargo is being drawn to a close. Millions of young undocumented immigrants are being protected from arbitrary deportation.In terms of defense policy, Obama inherited a world that was falling apart. While critics like to cite the Rise of ISIS and aggressive actions by Russian President Vladimir Putin, it is important to consider what hasn’t happened; a military disaster like Vietnam or Iraq. It is easy to overlook something that hasn’t happened, but with a less cautious leader we might have easily fallen into a quagmire. Back in the early days of the Syrian conflict, supposed wise men of the foreign policy world urged Obama to intervene against Assad. Knowing what we know now, it is likely that such actions would have been disastrous. Imagine American troops, stuck in the crossfire of ISIS on side and Hezbollah on the other, and you have an image of what Obama saved us from. Instead of the cowboy diplomacy of George W. Bush, we have taken a slow cautious approach in the fight against ISIS. Instead of unilateralism, Obama has built large coalitions and has improved relations with our European allies. It isn’t the most popular approach, but it’s the approach then in the long run has the best chance.

Unfortunately in the run up to the 2014 elections, many democrats decided to run as far away as possible from the President’s accomplishments and sell themselves as republican lite. It didn’t work. Not a single one of the Obama bashing democrats won. The few who did defend the President actually fared better, such as Senator Al Franken, who actually increased his vote share from 2008. If more candidates had listened to the few voices of wisdom, such as Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, then things might have different. Instead, the mainstream media bowed to the fox driven narrative of irrational fear and panic. Hopefully, in 2016 Democratic candidates will learn from the mistakes of 2014 and run on the President’s accomplishments. If they don’t they can expect the same results as 2014.

Terrible joke or professional comedian? Notice the resemblance

All four of these people are funny, but only two of them try to be.

Sarah Fulton presents our first in a series of strange lookalikes.

palin                            fey

Former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin                         Queen-a Fey, SNL

cruz   eddie

Senator Ted Cruz, R-TX                                        Cousin Eddie, Christmas Vacation

A 2016 Preview: Meeting the Candidates

by Ben Greenberg

Way back in January 2014, I began to create profiles for the Republican candidates likeliest to contend for their party’s nomination in 2016. At the time, I tried to assess each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. Yes, I know; that was just one year after the 2012 presidential election and almost a full three years before the next one. And yes, people like me should probably be institutionalized.

But now, two years later, with the 2014 midterm elections finally in the rearview mirror (thank goodness!) and with at least one Republican announcing their intention to form an exploratory committee every single day, it seems like the right time to revisit this conversation. It feels like every four years the presidential election cycle begins a bit earlier each time and 2016 is proving to be no exception.

With almost another two years still to go, nearly two dozen Republicans have already expressed interest in running. Already, more than a dozen candidates have SuperPACs raising money on their behalf. And by all accounts, an unprecedented number of Republicans will seek their party’s nomination in 2016 (there are number of reasons for this, which will hopefully come up at some point this semester). So—perhaps with the exception of a handful of degenerates like myself—keeping track of all these candidates will prove difficult for even the most politically interested of Americans. My hope is that posting these profiles will help make following the 2016 election cycle easier for those interested in doing so.

Hopefully these profiles will help distinguish the true contenders from the pretenders—not everyone who enters the race has a chance of becoming the Republican nominee in 2016—so I will also try to explain which factors make one candidate more formidable than another.

Over the next twelve weeks, the ten Republicans most likely to win the Republican nomination in 2016 will be profiled. Yes twelve weeks, not ten. In those first ten weeks, we will be focusing on a single candidate each week. Week eleven will be devoted to “the best of the rest.” It will highlight a few politicians who currently have little or no chance to win, but might still be worth paying attention to. Week twelve will take a step back to examine what has changed in those three months. Week twelve will also be an opportunity to make some predictions about what to expect going forward.

From time-to-time, the Democratic primary process may come up too, especially if it looks like a serious Democrat will challenge Hillary Clinton, but it will not be the focus of this series. One final note: I am not a political expert, I cannot predict the future, and my analysis is by no means definitive. I will do my best to inform and persuade, but ultimately I want to start a conversation, so I not only welcome your feedback (comments and questions, positive or negative, agree or disagree), I encourage it.

Now, some people will ask, “Why follow the Republican primary process at all?” It is a fair question and I’ll do my best to answer it in the only way I know how to—by mixing lame attempts at humor with some seriousness. Forgive me; I won’t make a habit out of this. Since David Letterman is retiring soon, I’m sure he won’t mind if I “borrow” this; here are the top ten reasons why you should care about the 2016 Republican primary!

  1. Makes for great conversation at parties. “Did you know Rick Santorum was in a fraternity too?!?!?!?!?!”
  2. You’ll get to revel in the stupidity. If you thought the “self-deportation”, “the 47 percent”, and the “legitimate rape” gaffes were bad enough (http://theweek.com/articles/469666/9-worst-political-gaffes-2012) just wait until you get to hear what this group of Republicans has to say.
  3. It will be entertaining! Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz. Need I say more?
  4. You’ll learn significantly more about Iowa and New Hampshire than you ever wanted to. Which will undoubtedly prove useful when you graduate from UD and become a farmer or a recluse and move to Iowa or New Hampshire (I hope no one reading this is from Iowa and New Hampshire!).
  5. Infighting is fun (especially when it’s the other party doing it!).This nomination process will not only feature the Republican establishment fighting their party’s right-wing—the “Tea Party” conservatives—for control of the Republican Party—it will also provide a unique opportunity to witness fiscal, social, constitutional, and neo conservatives fight amongst themselves.
  6. You’ll be able to fill out my amazing the Republican primary edition (no don’t worry I haven’t made any others…yet) of my superlative prediction list (see below).
  7. You’ll learn a lot. Let’s move on before I regret including this one.
  8. Being exposed to opposing viewpoints is a good thing. God another boring reason! I hope the next two are better!
  9. Who the Republicans choose might just impact your life. I know you’re thinking, “but Hillary Clinton is going to win in a landslide in 2016!” I hope you’re right but on the off chance one of these guys end up winning…
  10. To know them is to defeat them. Sometimes getting to know your opponents and their viewpoints on issues you care about can help to reinforce your own views. And you’ll be better equipped to defend your own beliefs if challenged.

 

I bet you didn’t think I could come up with ten reasons did you?

 

Let’s make sure this isn’t the last article ever written on our website (boy, wouldn’t that be sad!). Please let us know if you’d like to become a contributor to this website. You don’t have to be long-winded like me; there are no length requirements and you can write about nearly anything you want.

 

2016 Superlatives

 

  • Most likely to leave the race in disgrace award? AKA: The Herman Cain Award.
  • Most likely to be found selling reverse mortgages in 2018? AKA: The Fred Thompson/ Mr. Irrelevant Award.
  • Most likely to say something so terrible and mind-bogglingly stupid that it could cost them the election? AKA: The Mitt Romney Forty-Seven percent award.
  • Most likely to not even bother to campaign in Iowa (yes that was an actual campaign strategy; I don’t think I need to tell you how it worked out)? AKA: The Rudy Giuliani Award.
  • Most likely to move to Iowa in 2014 to get a head start? AKA: The Rick Santorum Award.
  • Most likely to see their entire campaign staff resign in protest (possibly when the candidate takes a vacation to Greece during primary season)? AKA: The Newt Gingrich Award.
  • Most likely to be a prohibitive favorite until they open their mouth? AKA: The Rick Perry “oops” award
  • Most likely to win the meaningless Iowa Straw Poll, get some media attention, and then receive less than one percent of the vote in the Iowa Caucus, drop out, nearly lose their House seat, and then retire from congress? AKA: The Michelle Bachman (or maybe the Sarah Palin award; I forget) award.
  • Most likely to enter the race and then run a campaign that does not last a month (Mitt Romney is the early clubhouse leader at three weeks)?

 

The Fading Relevance of the Delaware Republican Party

In this year’s elections, the Republican Party has seemingly avoided the nutty Todd Akin and Sharon Angle candidates that prevented the party from making gains in the House or Senate in 2012. Except in Delaware, where fringe candidates have become the mainstream for the local GOP.

Running against Congressman Carney this year is Rose Izzo. With a website seemingly stuck in the late 1990’s, it’s hard to tell exactly who she is or what she stands for. Fortunately, the would be congresswoman posted a survey response on her twitter account that pretty much says everything a sane voter should know. On the Ron Paul supporting Campaign for Liberty survey, Izzo reveals herself as the very model of extreme Paulite. Among the policies she has chosen to support are removing the United States from the United Nations, ending all foreign aid, opposing any debt limit increase, and removing all taxes on gold or silver coinage.

Running against Senator Coons, is 2012 rerun Kevin Wade. Wade decided to promote his candidacy this year by going on a “fact finding” trip to Israel during the Gaza Conflict. Apparently he thinks what Israel really needs is failed Senate candidates snooping around looking for free publicity. Wade also seeks to replace the ACA, with his “NeighborHealth,” which would have people get health care upon completion of service to their neighborhoods. Wade has no details yet, so we are left to guess whether Wade plans to give neighborhoods the power to have their own health exchanges, or if he thinks health insurance companies will gave away free health care to anyone who mows a few lawns. Finally, as one can expect from a tea party republican, Wade has some strange ideas on women’s reproductive rights. Namely, that “people” have God given rights from the moment of conception. So in a hypothetical Kevin Wade run America we can all expect fertilized eggs to have full rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Maybe we can even have fertilized eggs with the right to bear arms or the right to vote.