President Obama has had the misfortune of putting out fires ever since he took office - from the massive Ponzi scheme that nearly wrecked the economy to one war after the other. It has been a lot of hotbed issues and he has dealt with them as humanly possible. However as, many Americans think the man is a god, they expect so much more from him. Just look at his track record with an open mind and like Paul says give the man a flipping break people and say thank you to one of your best Presidents ever.

Paul Krugman on Why We Need to Give Obama a Break

June 16, 2014 |

In his most recent column [3], Paul Krugman wonders why liberals continue to express such colossal disappointment with Obama. Then he proceeds to answer his own question by saying that it must be because liberals are buying into the prevailing media narrative of the Obama administration as floundering and troubled, a narrative that has not quite caught up with reality. Krugman suggests that judging leaders by their media and approval ratings is all wrong. "You should judge leaders by their achievements, not their press, and in terms of policy substance Mr. Obama is having a seriously good year," he writes. "In fact, there’s a very good chance that 2014 will go down in the record books as one of those years when America took a major turn in the right direction."

Pretty bold statement, and a hopeful one. The reasons the esteemed economist gives? Health reform is looking like a big success story, despite its rough start. The doomsday predictions did not come true, and states that signed up for the Medicaid expansion have drastically lowered their numbers of uninsured residents. Another indication that Obamacare is a success? According to Krugman: "Notably, additional insurance companies [4] are entering the exchanges, which is both an indication that insurers believe things are going well and a reason to expect more competition and outreach next year."

And the second big area where Obama has taken decisive action? All together now: Climate policy. "The Obama administration’s new rules on power plants won’t be enough in themselves to save the planet, but they’re a real start," Krugman writes, "and are by far the most important environmental initiative since the Clean Air Act. I’d add that this is an issue on which Mr. Obama is showing some real passion."

These are the two major areas where Obama has shown significant leadership, but Krugman also gives some quarter to the President on financial reform. It is "weaker than it should" be, but still "real," Krugman says. "Just ask all those Wall Street types who, enraged by the new limits on their wheeling and dealing, have turned their backs on the Democrats.

The column is not a complete paean to the president. Krugman regrets the "missed opportunities" early on, which in his estimation included "inadequate stimulus [5] [and] the failure to offer significant relief to distressed homeowners [6]. Also, he wasted years in pursuit of a Grand Bargain on the budget that, aside from turning out to be impossible, would have moved America in the wrong direction."

But in the second term, Obama seems to be making good on his promise for change. So why, Krugman wonders, does the press keep bashing him?

Some might be blaming Obama for the extreme polarization between the two parties, hardly the president's fault, we'd have to agree. More Krugman:

A larger answer, I’d guess, is Simpson-Bowles syndrome — the belief that good things must come in bipartisan packages, and that fiscal probity is the overriding issue of our times. This syndrome persists among many self-proclaimed centrists even though it’s overwhelmingly clear to anyone who has been paying attention that (a) today’s Republicans simply will not compromise with a Democratic president, and (b) the alleged fiscal crisis was vastly overblown.
The result of the syndrome’s continuing grip is that Mr. Obama’s big achievements don’t register with much of the Washington establishment: he was supposed to save the budget, not the planet, and somehow he was supposed to bring Republicans along.

But who cares what centrists think? Health reform is a very big deal [7]; if you care about the future, action on climate is a lot more important than raising the retirement age. And if these achievements were made without Republican support, so what?

A simple case for giving credit where due.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/10/politics/mandela-obama-remarks/index.html

Johannesburg, South Africa (CNN) -- To Graça Machel and the Mandela family; to President Zuma and members of the government; to heads of state and government, past and present; distinguished guests -- it is a singular honor to be with you today, to celebrate a life unlike any other.

To the people of South Africa -- people of every race and walk of life -- the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us. His struggle was your struggle. His triumph was your triumph. Your dignity and hope found expression in his life, and your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy.

It is hard to eulogize any man -- to capture in words not just the facts and the dates that make a life, but the essential truth of a person -- their private joys and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities that illuminate someone's soul. How much harder to do so for a giant of history, who moved a nation toward justice, and in the process moved billions around the world.

Born during World War I, far from the corridors of power, a boy raised herding cattle and tutored by elders of his Thembu tribe -- Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/10/politics/mandela-obama-remarks/index.html

People take shelter under blankets and umbrellas during the memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on Tuesday, December 10. Thousands of South Africans and more than 90 heads of state gathered to honor the revered leader, who died Thursday, December 5. He was 95.

Nelson Mandela memorial service

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Like Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement -- a movement that at its start held little prospect of success. Like King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed, and the moral necessity of racial justice. He would endure a brutal imprisonment that began in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev, and reached the final days of the Cold War.

Emerging from prison, without force of arms, he would -- like Lincoln -- hold his country together when it threatened to break apart. Like America's founding fathers, he would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations -- a commitment to democracy and rule of law ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power.

Given the sweep of his life, and the adoration that he so rightly earned, it is tempting then to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon, smiling and serene, detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men.

But Madiba himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait. Instead, he insisted on sharing with us his doubts and fears; his miscalculations along with his victories. "I'm not a saint," he said, "unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying."

It was precisely because he could admit to imperfection, because he could be so full of good humor, even mischief, despite the heavy burdens he carrie, that we loved him so. He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood -- a son and husband, a father and a friend.

That is why we learned so much from him; that is why we can learn from him still. For nothing he achieved was inevitable. In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness; persistence and faith. He tells us what's possible not just in the pages of dusty history books, but in our own lives as well.

Mandela showed us the power of action; of taking risks on behalf of our ideals. Perhaps Madiba was right that he inherited, "a proud rebelliousness, a stubborn sense of fairness" from his father.

Certainly he shared with millions of black and colored South Africans the anger born of, "a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments ... a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people."

But like other early giants of the ANC -- the Sisulus and Tambos -- Madiba disciplined his anger; and channeled his desire to fight into organization, and platforms, and strategies for action, so men and women could stand up for their dignity. Moreover, he accepted the consequences of his actions, knowing that standing up to powerful interests and injustice carries a price.

"I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination," he said at his 1964 trial. "I've cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

Mandela taught us the power of action, but also ideas; the importance of reason and arguments; the need to study not only those you agree with, but those who you don't. He understood that ideas cannot be contained by prison walls, or extinguished by a sniper's bullet.

He turned his trial into an indictment of apartheid because of his eloquence and passion, but also his training as an advocate. He used decades in prison to sharpen his arguments, but also to spread his thirst for knowledge to others in the movement. And he learned the language and customs of his oppressor so that one day he might better convey to them how their own freedom depended upon his.

Mandela demonstrated that action and ideas are not enough; no matter how right, they must be chiseled into laws and institutions. He was practical, testing his beliefs against the hard surface of circumstance and history. On core principles he was unyielding, which is why he could rebuff offers of conditional release, reminding the apartheid regime that, "prisoners cannot enter into contracts."

But as he showed in painstaking negotiations to transfer power and draft new laws, he was not afraid to compromise for the sake of a larger goal. And because he was not only a leader of a movement, but a skillful politician, the constitution that emerged was worthy of this multiracial democracy; true to his vision of laws that protect minority as well as majority rights, and the precious freedoms of every South African.

Finally, Mandela understood the ties that bind the human spirit. There is a word in South Africa -- Ubuntu - that describes his greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us.

We can never know how much of this was innate in him, or how much of was shaped and burnished in a dark, solitary cell. But we remember the gestures, large and small - introducing his jailers as honored guests at his inauguration; taking the pitch in a springbok uniform; turning his family's heartbreak into a call to confront HIV/AIDS - that revealed the depth of his empathy and understanding.

He not only embodied Ubuntu; he taught millions to find that truth within themselves. It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailer as well; to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you; to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion, generosity and truth. He changed laws, but also hearts.

For the people of South Africa, for those he inspired around the globe, Madiba's passing is rightly a time of mourning, and a time to celebrate his heroic life. But I believe it should also prompt in each of us a time for self-reflection. With honesty, regardless of our station or circumstance, we must ask: how well have I applied his lessons in my own life?

It is a question I ask myself as a man and as a President. We know that like South Africa, the United States had to overcome centuries of racial subjugation. As was true here, it took the sacrifice of countless people -- known and unknown -- to see the dawn of a new day. Michelle and I are the beneficiaries of that struggle.

But in America and South Africa, and countries around the globe, we cannot allow our progress to cloud the fact that our work is not done. The struggles that follow the victory of formal equality and universal franchise may not be as filled with drama and moral clarity as those that came before, but they are no less important.

For around the world today, we still see children suffering from hunger, and disease; run-down schools, and few prospects for the future. Around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs; and are still persecuted for what they look like, or how they worship, or who they love.

Nelson Mandela reminds us that it always seems impossible until it is done
President Barack Obama

We, too, must act on behalf of justice. We, too, must act on behalf of peace. There are too many of us who happily embrace Madiba's legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality.

There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba's struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people. And there are too many of us who stand on the sidelines, comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices must be heard.

The questions we face today -- how to promote equality and justice; to uphold freedom and human rights; to end conflict and sectarian war -- do not have easy answers. But there were no easy answers in front of that child in Qunu.

Nelson Mandela reminds us that it always seems impossible until it is done. South Africa shows us that is true. South Africa shows us we can change. We can choose to live in a world defined not by our differences, but by our common hopes. We can choose a world defined not by conflict, but by peace and justice and opportunity.

We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again. But let me say to the young people of Africa, and young people around the world -- you can make his life's work your own. Over 30 years ago, while still a student, I learned of Mandela and the struggles in this land. It stirred something in me.

It woke me up to my responsibilities -- to others, and to myself -- and set me on an improbable journey that finds me here today. And while I will always fall short of Madiba's example, he makes me want to be better. He speaks to what is best inside us. After this great liberator is laid to rest; when we have returned to our cities and villages, and rejoined our daily routines, let us search then for his strength -- for his largeness of spirit -- somewhere inside ourselves.

And when the night grows dark, when injustice weighs heavy on our hearts, or our best laid plans seem beyond our reach -- think of Madiba, and the words that brought him comfort within the four walls of a cell:

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

What a great soul it was. We will miss him deeply. May God bless the memory of Nelson Mandela. May God bless the people of South Africa

Barack O Blog

Monday, June 16, 2014

Thank you Mr. Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman on Why We Need to Give Obama a Break

June 16, 2014 |

Monday, June 9, 2014

I AM THAT I AM

Sunday, June 8, 2014

First Lady Michelle Obama's Memorial Speech at Dr. Maya Angelou's Funeral

Monday, February 3, 2014

President Obama's

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Monday, June 16, 2014

Thank you Mr. Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman on Why We Need to Give Obama a Break

June 16, 2014 |

Monday, June 9, 2014

I AM THAT I AM

Sunday, June 8, 2014

First Lady Michelle Obama's Memorial Speech at Dr. Maya Angelou's Funeral

Monday, February 3, 2014

President Obama's

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