Report Card

It is coming up on Trump's first hundred days and so we need to look at what has gone well and a few stinkers. Here is one man's opinion:

Supreme Court Appointment.                       A+

Dealing with International Crises.                 B

International Diplomacy                               C+

Immigration Executive Order                        C-

Cabinet Picks                                                  B+    

ICE Enforcement                                          A+

Obabacare Repeal and Replace                     F
                                 
Press Relations                                                D

Regulation Reform                                        Inc.

Budget Priorities                                              A

Tax Reform                                                    Inc.

Mexican Wall                                                  C+

Energy Independence                                      A

Infrastructure                                                 Inc.

White House Unity                                          D

Overall.                                                             B-

While Our President Slept

The contrast is dramatic. Donald Trump's ability to multitask effectively is quite impressive. His focus and energy are daunting. In comparison, our current much-younger president is lackadaisical by his nature and ideological by his actions ... but I suspect history will judge him even more harshly because of this Trump juxtaposition. Most of the kinetics in the Obummer administration came not from our Teleprompter-in-chief (apparently, his primary function) but instead from his bloated go-get-em staff. He can often sound and look sincere when reading his staff's well-crafted rhetoric. But his indifference to the full spectrum of his presidential duties is often obvious by his body language or lack of action ... and is brought even more into focus by comparison to our new president elect.

Obummer was too often an inattentive president. There is little argument that he would mainly focus on five things: getting back at those whom he saw as oppressors of blacks, open borders, global warming, setting Muslims a place at the table ... and his golf game. Everything else; the economy, entitlement reform, the loss of our middle class, rebuilding our infrastructure, defeating terrorism, strengthening our national defense, reducing government waste, tax reform, regulation reform, etc. seemed to be distractions to him. I don't think he even gave a hoot about health-care reform or free trade These were treated merely as check boxes for his expected legacy. I think if you were to ask him to explain the ups and downs of Obamacare or TPP in detail without his Teleprompter, he would stutter and flounder.

zzzzzzz!

Recap

Every so often, to keep my head from exploding, I like to recount the damage that Obummer has done to America ... to remember his numerous failures both accidental and intentional. But this time the Diplomad has somewhat done this job for me and I am grateful ... see: Diplomad Blog. In this argument against the closing of Gitmo, the Diplomad has ticked off these many other disasters of the Obummer administration ... as quoted below:

His past achievements include, of course, unprecedented debt and unemployment; disastrous Obamacare; relentless promotion of gay marriage; "ending" wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; "democratization" of Libya; recognition of the vile and putrid Castro dictatorship; surrender to Iran's ayatollahs; gutting our military; destruction of what remained of our immigration system and laws; exacerbating racial tensions to a level not seen in decades--and, of course, winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Those, of course, are just some of the more successful ones. He also sought to bring down the second amendment through his murderous "Fast and Furious" operation; install the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt; and sell-out Israel. 

To these I would add his many crony-capital give-aways particularly in the green industry, his numerous serious scandals throughout his cabinet -- the IRS, the EPA, the Veterans Administration, etc., his acceding to Russian and Chinese expansionism, his feeble response to the ISIS threat, his "surge" in Afghanistan which accomplished nothing except more American deaths, his inability to significantly improve America's infrastructure despite huge spending outlays, his alienation of numerous American allies in the Mid East, Europe and the Far East, I'm out of breath ...

But then listed above are just Obummer's sins of commission. Neglected there are his many sins of omission ... such as:

- his failure to revamp our tax system to encourage faster economic growth

- his failure to simplify and reduce the many burdensome regulations that are stifling American industry ... particularly small companies

- his failure even to prosecute, let alone convict, any financial industry executives for the criminal speculation that caused our 2008 economic collapsed

- his failure to reform our entitlement systems which is rapidly spelling the doom for our country

- etc., etc.

In summary, Obummer's seven years have not produced many hits to offset these numerous misses. I believe he will be listed in history books as one of our five worst presidents.

Tail Wags the Dog

The "extremists" seemed to have won ... the tail is waging the dog ... at least for the nonce.  The freshman Republicans in the House of Representatives (87 out of 435) ... mostly Tea Party Coalition members have carried the day in the recent dog fight about cutting government spending in exchange for raising our debt ceiling.  This was despite the fact that they represent a small minority in just one half of Congress.  The Senate and the Executive branch are controlled by Democrats.  This is a compelling development.  For once this band of brothers and sisters stuck together and to their guns and insisted on doing what they promised to do when they were elected last November.

And this was also despite the vicious attacks on them from the main-steam media, from many cable-TV talking heads, from almost all Democrat pols, and even from a few RINO Republicans (John McCain called them "hobbits").  To me, how they kept from folding under this onslaught indicates a level of patriotism and statesmanship that is rare in today's political theater.  And, hopefully, this passion will carry over to 2012 when this nation's electorate replicates these voting preferences in the elections for the Senate and the Presidency.  I'm not saying that only Tea Party members should be those elected next year.  What I would prefer is that there be enough moderate Republicans elected that the Tea Party might not over-reach (like the Democrats clearly did in 2009).  However, I do hope that tax reform (that broadens the U.S. tax base), entitlement reform (that insures the future solvency of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security), spending cuts (that better balance the size of the federal government with our economic metrics), and regulation reform (that clears the tracks ahead for U.S. businesses) ... all come out of the fresh-faced government we hopefully elect in 2012.  Do these things well and rigorous U.S. job growth will be resurrected

Yes, this Boehner/Reid bill is not perfect and we have learned that this administration has a way of subverting the intent of the Republican legislators (witness what happened in April of this year when $38 billion in spending cuts in the 2011 budget, in reality, morphed into only $352 million ... see 2011 Budget Bill).  I would have also preferred that this debt-limit bill incorporated movement toward a balanced-budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  (I am perplexed as to what the Democrat objections to this amendment can be ... perhaps the electorate will ask them this same question a year from this fall?)  Anyhow, it now looks like the Tea Party is on a roll and those who have underrated the power and popularity this grass-roots movement might re-examine their polling results and future campaign strategies.  Just calling them names won't make them go away.

Afterward: Joe Biden just called the Tea Party "terrorists".  Have at 'em Joe!  You make my point.