All of last years failures have made the President look very week. This will further embolden his political and our foreign enemies. All of his various foes, and many of them are vicious foes of our entire nation, will push and test him over the next couple of years because he has failed so many times in the last 365 days.
Domestically the President has only accomplished the spending of large amounts of tax payer monies, and with large Democratic majorities in both chambers of congress, it was not a difficult feat to accomplish. The stimulus bill has not produced a single job, it only saved state government jobs, which probably should be eliminated so state governments are forced to increase their productivity as the private sector has (these employees are paid very handsomely and have generous retirement packages, so we the public should demand that they pick up their productivity). Cap-And-Trade will fail. Obama-care will eventually fail. The banking bill is looking like it will fail, and he will fail to achieve anything close to deficit reduction. It looks like his successive failures will doom his desire to tackle immigration reform. These are the Presidents signature initiatives which are supported by large majorities in congress but all of them are failing. Failure begets failure and all the world is watching this massive train wreck of the Obama presidency.
Credit Card Reform is a failure, consumer credit has tightened since his taking over the Presidency. The expansion of government-paid-for-child-health-insurance could hardly be considered a major accomplishment, although a good policy, and the seating of justice Sonia Sotomayor is again, not a major accomplishment. It was a forgone conclusion. All of his major domestic goals have turned out to be failures and he has paid the price by losing three special elections in a row: the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia, Ted Kennedy's Massachusetts senate seat and his filibuster proof majority which he never effectually used to his political advantage, another failure to count and mention.
With no goals achieved, which is key and critical to replenishing a Presidents political capital, all of his domestic enemies and many of his political allies are swiping at him, delivering thousands and thousands of tiny cuts with each one being easy to explain away, but while the total sum ends up bleeding the President of all political power and possibly a second term. This type of political situation is difficult to fend off without a massive amount of good will from the people which he is currently losing because he has failed on his domestic agenda over and over again.
His foreign policy has been an utter failure and nightmare.
He has messed up the Iranian situation so totally that now Iran thinks they are in the drivers seat, and because of his total screw up, they could be right. His failed and stupid outreach to Iran has produced 3 missed Iranian deadlines. These 3 missed deadlines are perceived as 3 wins for Iran and 3 losses for the United States, showing the world only: failure after failure after failure. That is a real problem and has started to make me wonder if the President is stupid (which I doubt) or believes that America can not be the worlds leading super power any longer, which makes him incompetent (which I fear is true).
His failures in Iran have helped China feel they can treat him like a punk, and he throws our friends like the Dali Lama under the bus to placate the rising power, which only perpetuates Chinas view that our President is a weak man-child who wants to please every body, bowing to do it. If the President seriously thinks that China will never try to flex some muscle and maybe make Taiwan a real contest, he is unqualified to be President. China is at best only unhelpful on the major global security issues of the day: Iran and North Korea, and at worst complacent in helping these rogue nations challenge the United States because it is in China best economic interest. I do not blame China, all nation states act in their own self interest, and China cares little wether Iran has the bomb or if North Korea exports its technology to other rogue nations or terrorist groups. What they do care about is 8-10% growth per year and the resources it will take to sustain it.
Our enemies to our south are on the march and also believe our President is more European and effete than American and muscular because of his numerous failures with Iran, and his inability to lead at Copenhagen. Venezuela's, Ecuador’s, and Bolivia’s out reach to Iran is alarming and dangerous. Iran has caused considerable problems for Israel via its network of third party actors in foreign countries who launch missiles into the Israeli homeland. It is not a stretch to imagine that if Mexico stays ungovernable, or worse collapses into a narco-state, Iran would desire to place a battalion of well funded gorillas on our border, and they would have many nation state allies in our hemisphere who would be willing to help.
Our Presidents failure for sticking with our eastern European allies was rewarded with Hugo Chavez’s saber rattling against Columbia. His bellicose threats seem to be empty, but what if oil prices hit 150 bucks a barrel and our country hits the economic skids hard? Could our man-child President be forced by congress to stop spending so much abroad? Could anyone imagine a sinerio where the security subsidy we send to our Columbian allies is shrunk to near zero cause we have finally “won” the war against the FARC? I can envision the United States picking up and pulling out, leaving the Columbians to face down an ever emboldened and oil enriched Chavez who is currently spending lots on guns, bullets, plains and tanks. We showed weakness and failed in eastern Europe by leaving our allies, why should Columbia be any different especially if the American public’s mood sours from more economic hard times.
Everyone in the world is watching and keeping score, they always are. Our Presidents failures domestically and internationally have made our country less safe. If the President doesn't stop failing, he will let all of his various opposition groups and state actors run up what they think is a high score stacked against the United States. That is a sure fire way to create more hardship for out nation in the future and helps write history that is more painful, uglier, and contains more human misery than need be.