Changes

The '''Obama Administration''' is the Executive Department portion of the U.S. government under liberal, [[Democratic Party|Democrat]]  President [[Barack Hussein Obama]]; it began on January 20, 2009 for a term of four years.  [[File:Obama-poll.jpg|thumb|330px|Excitement for Obama was very high before people understood his plans; enthusiasm has plunged as criticism becomes sharper and strong opponents grow more numerous than strong supporters]] President Obama had a bad summer of 2009, as his popularity slumped, his party weakened and opportunities for celebrating achievements happened. Contentious town-hall meetings criticized the injustice of his health care proposals, unemployment grew, the stimulus did not stimulate, Democrats bickered more than usual, grim forecasts of failure came from his generals in Afghanistan, dark suspicions circulated regarding his motives for speaking to schoolchildren; accused of socialism, he was branded in Congress as a liar. He was criticized first for not making his case, and then for overexposure, as he deliberately put into the shadows everyone in his cabinet.  Obama’s inexperience in domestic and foreign affairs worsened his troubles. Nothing worked right--he was embarrassed by winning the Nobel Peace Prize before any of his goals had been accomplished.

The '''Obama Administration''' is the Executive Department portion of the U.S. government under liberal, [[Democratic Party|Democrat]]  President [[Barack Hussein Obama]]; it began on January 20, 2009 for a term of four years.  [[File:Obama-poll.jpg|thumb|330px|Excitement for Obama was very high before people understood his plans; enthusiasm has plunged as criticism becomes sharper and strong opponents grow more numerous than strong supporters]] President Obama had a bad summer of 2009, as his popularity slumped, his party weakened and opportunities for celebrating achievements happened. Contentious town-hall meetings criticized the injustice of his health care proposals, unemployment grew, the stimulus did not stimulate, Democrats bickered more than usual, grim forecasts of failure came from his generals in Afghanistan. Accused of socialism, he was branded in Congress as a liar. He was criticized first for not making his case, and then for overexposure, as he deliberately put into the shadows everyone in his cabinet.  Obama’s inexperience in domestic and foreign affairs worsened his troubles. Nothing worked right--he was embarrassed by winning the Nobel Peace Prize before any of his goals had been accomplished.

He had little to show for his work at the Copenhagen climate conference in December.  Congress will soon pass a health care reform bill that remains expensive but has been stripped of critical features liberals demanded--there will be no "public option".

At the one-year mark in Jan. 2010, a majority (54%) of voters believe the nation is on the wrong track.  Included among that 54% are nearly all Republicans (91%), a majority of Independents (61%) and one-in-five Democrats (18%).  Only 13% of Americans say Obama has done better than they expected, including just 27% of Democrats, while 45% say his performance has been near to what was expected.<ref> See [http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.cfm?ID=1800 Zogby poll Jan. 20. 2010]</ref>

Expectations of a Republican revival, a wild pipe-dream in the spring, became more realistic as the party led in the gubernatorial election in Virginia, and the Democrats continued in disarray in New York, Texas and California. Conservatives discovered the secret of organizing mass public rallies, while Obama's famous 2008 grass roots network remains strangely silent. Optimistic conservatives predicted that it will soon be 1994 in America again.  Conservatives cheered--but liberals bemoaned--his strong commitment to the [[Afghanistan War]], where he has tripled the American combat forces.  They cheered as well his Nobel speech in Oslo, where to the dismay of pacifists he proclaimed a "just war" in Afghanistan, insisted on  America's duty to fight it, and explicitly repudiated the nonviolent alternative of [[Martin Luther King]].

Expectations of a Republican revival, a wild pipe-dream in the spring, became more realistic as the party won gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New  Jersey, and the Democrats continued in disarray in New York, Texas and California. Even more dramatic was the win by Republican [[Scott Brown]] of the Senate seat in Massachusetts, which became a referendum on Obama's policies.

 

Conservatives discovered the secret of organizing mass public rallies, while Obama's famous 2008 grass roots network remains strangely silent. Optimistic conservatives predicted that it will soon be 1994 in America again.  Conservatives cheered--but liberals bemoaned--his strong commitment to the [[Afghanistan War]], where he has tripled the American combat forces.  They cheered as well his Nobel speech in Oslo, where to the dismay of pacifists he proclaimed a "just war" in Afghanistan, insisted on  America's duty to fight it, and explicitly repudiated the nonviolent alternative of [[Martin Luther King]].

==Economic Policy==

==Economic Policy==