Top Three Specific Accomplishments That Qualify Obama To Be President

The only number on your list that named specific accomplishments was #1 and that was “elected by his party.”

 

This thread is not about what Obama says he will do or what you think he will do. Once again, the question is “What do you think are Obama’s top three specific accomplishments that qualify him to be President?”

 

(There are also some factual errors residing in your post regarding McCain’s tax plan and statements he made about the war, however I do not want this thread to get off point, as I know liberals here have already tried to do so.)

Well it took about 45 posts, but finally we have ONE decent answer.

 

One quick note: I believe intellectually Obama is a smart man.  However book smarts will only get you so far.  Say you had two men interviewing for an upper management job with a fortune 500 company.  One man was at the top of his class in college, but had extremely limited experience and the other man, while not as book smart as the first, had 8-10 times more experience.  The man with the limited experience might get the job, but most business people would agree that experience trumps book smarts every time.  Although obviously having both is ideal.

 

OK. One down.  Two to go.  Once again the question is “What do you think are Obama’s top three specific accomplishments that qualify him to be President?”

 

Feel free to work in groups.

 

1)His education, culminating with a degree from Harvard.  I have a friend, very smart and driven but poor by Harvard's standards.  Even he had to drop out.  I don't know Obama financial background, but I don't think he comes from deep family pockets given his upbringing.  So he's intellectually driven and has personally seen to and emphasized his education.  I respect that.  If you're looking for evidence of this then read his two autobiographies.  This country could use someone with some intellectual curiosity after George Bush.

2)His community accomplishments, which his wife has participated in through her legal work.  Both of them have placed some emphasis in their lives on giving a helping hand to the downtrodden of the U.S. of A.  I know that many of you might not consider volunteer work to be especially important, but George Bush himself has placed a high priority on the volunteers of America (something I do very little of, by the way), especially Christian and other religious organizations.  Helping people and caring for one another is what the U.S. of A needs more of, according to the current republican president.  Obama has given his money and, more importantly, his time to such things, which is commendable.

3) He appears to have a functional family, which is the best you can hope for these days.

There you go.  Probably not the type of answer many were expecting.  That's because I don't really know jack shit about his life in politics.  People are not their jobs.  I just know that he wanted a career in politics, hopefully for the right reasons, and succeeded in obtaining one, hopefully to fulfill those reasons.

On a side note, which is really what I set out to write, there were a couple of posts earlier in the forum tirading on about the poor and handouts.  As a liberal without much money who has always worked, since about 12 years old, and someone lucky enough to have a college degree (getting ready to go back to school at the ripe old age of 41, moving to California and leaving Colorado.  But I digress), I've never had a problem with some of my taxes going to the kind of social welfare programs we're all aware of, and probably a few we're not.  But recently I'm wondering if my beliefs will change.  We get more conservative as we get older, so that my be a part of it.  But what has me going here is that I live next door to a crack addict with post-poleo.  He can't, or doesn't, work and lives off of assistence, making side money from selling his prescriptions (which, I've discovered, goes on quite a lot).  He's an ok guy, with an interesting history, like many people, though poor people's history is considered less often.  So, since moving back into a house I own, just outside Boulder, Colorado - which is upper middle class, we've talked and gotten to know each other  One day he says, "it doesn't cost very much to live."  What he meant by that statement was that, because his rent is subsidized down to being $100.00 a month, and he receives about $300.00 a month in food stamps; and since his gas and electric are subsidized in the winter, he can live very easily off of his $600.00 a month check he recives from the state.  He also makes $600.00 - $700.00 a month selling his scripts of Vicadan (sp?) - a pain killer.  So as he makes that statement to me,  somemone who works full time, has carried 2 or 3 jobs at once before, and am currently struggling quite a bit - trying to move, sell my house, go back to school, not quite sure how I'm going to afford it all, etc., I start thinking to myself that he's forgotten who is paying for him to have a roof over his head and food in his stomach, and that I'm helping to pay for that with my taxes.  We're all paying for the ones without, so it always costs less in the long run to get people's ability up and self-supporting.  I'm no longer sure we can just keep dumping money into these social programs after getting to know my neighbor, who, like I said, has an interesing history like so many do.  As Steve Martin says during his old act when some prop balloons keep breaking, "This is getting expensive."

  

So Anent thinks Obama’s top three specific accomplishments that qualify him to be President are:

 

1.  He is an Ivy Leaguer

 

2.  He is a community organizer

 

3. Obama, his wife, his 6 year old daughter, and his 9 year old daughter appear to be a functional family.

 

I’m sold.

 

OK straightshooter, you got your answer. Now let's hear the 3 specific accomplishments that qualify McCain to be a good President going forward with the way things are now. In other words, what has he done specifically (that is relevant to the duties of the Prez) that you think qualifies him to turn the country around from Bush's failed policies (economically - unless you think a ton of debt & high unemployment is a good thing) & in regards to foreign affairs where most folks on both sides of the aisle agree that going into Iraq was a huge mistake. Thx -

Also, since most agree the economy is in terrible shape after the Bush/Cheney years, tell us what plans McCain has to turn it around at least in the right direction and how it differs from the Bush policies? Lookin forward to your response -

Straightshooter, you don't think of education, at any level, yet alone Harvard, as an accomplishment?

You don't think raising a family is an accomplishment?

You don't think serving the community is an accomplishment?


I guess you're looking for these kind of answers:

1)Sponsoring 4 ethics reform bills (passing the Legislative and Transparency Accountability act).

2)Being elected Illinois state senator and authoring as many bills as Senator Clinton in half the time.

3)Changing the laws of police interrogation in Illinois, requiring they be recorded to monitor police misconduct and racial profiling.

4)Becoming the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review.  Pretty sad it took that long.

5)His work in 1992 on Project Vote!, a rather thankless task compared to the kind of money he could have pursued.

6)Winning the Democratic primary against Hillary Clinton


Look, neither party is about the kind of "change" they both pretend to promote.  The democrats are the default party if you will.  They've been around forever.  The republicans are right behind them, selling out their conservative platform for a popularity contest.  Neither party has ever been about real change!  Change has always come from the people protesting, creating a movement, whatever, to force the government to take action.  I believe that governments are static forces while change comes from the people.  And, despite all the pomp and circumstance, voting in the national general election is one of the least effective ways to change anything.  Local politics is where things are done.

Whaddya say StraightShooter, any answers to my questions above? Or is it just up to Obama supporters to answer you as if he somehow needs to be defended? Give it to us straight & forget all your negatives about Obama & Mr.USA's past heroics - what is it that's going to make McCain a good president going forward with all the problems we face, many of them created and/or made far worse during the Bush/Cheney years? And how does his policies differ from GW's in a meaningful way? C'mon, I know you're bright & have it in ya -

I’m going to have to do some research in order to check anent’s claims (unlike liberals I like to know as many facts as I can before I run my mouth).  And I would much rather watch NFL football and start capping college football week 3 than researching Barrack Hussein “can’t communicate without a teleprompter” Obama.  So you are just going to have to wait.

Obama had student loans and it took him a decade and money from his book deals to pay off both his and his wife's student loans.
Link

Former classmates say Mr. Obama chose not to mention his race in his application to Harvard Law School to avoid benefiting from affirmative action, an assertion that his campaign declined to confirm or deny.

Link

Obama graduated high school 1979
Attended Occidental College, 1980-1982
Attended Columbia University, 1982-1983, graduating with a B.A. degree in Political Science
1983-1985 Worked for Business International Corporation, then at New York Public Interest Research Group
June 1985-May 1988 Director of Developing Communities Project, Chicago. This was a church-based based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland on Chicago's far South Side. During his three years as the DCP's director, its staff grew from 1 to 13 and its annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000.He also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute.

He entered Harvard Law School in 1988

In 1989 Obama was selected as an Editor of the Harvard Law Review based on his grades and a writing competition.

In 1990 Obama was elected President of the Law Review, editor-in-chief and supervising the law review's staff of 80 editors.

Obama graduated with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna juice laude from Harvard in 1991

A summer Associate at the Chicago law firms of Sidley & Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.

In 1991 was Awarded Fellowship at the University of Chicago Law School

Published autobiography - Dreams from My Father in mid-1995.<21>

From April to October 1992 Obama directed Illinois Project Vote, a voter registration drive with a staff of 10 and 700 volunteers that achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state

Crain's Chicago Business names Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be.

Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, as a Lecturer for four years (1992–1996), and as a Senior Lecturer for eight years (1996–2004).

In 1993 Obama joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 12-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development. An Associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then Counsel from 1996 to 2004.

Obama was a Founding Member of the Board of Directors of Public Allies in 1992, non-profit organization dedicated to youth leadership development

Obama served on the Board of Directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, a philanthropic organization devoted to poverty relief and the promotion of social mobility, founded in 1941 which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund Obama's DCP, from 1993–2002

Obama served on the Board of Directors of The Joyce Foundation from 1994–2002, a charitable foundation based in Chicago with Assets of $986,172,775.00.

Obama served on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995–2002, as founding President and Chairman of the Board of Directors from 1995–1999. A public-private partnership founded in 1995 with a focus to improve school performance.

Obama served on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.

Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996

Obama reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, and again in 2002

Unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000

Obama announced his Campaign for the U.S. Senate in January 2003

In January 2003, Obama became Chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee
In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote, the largest victory margin for a statewide race in Illinois history.<
Obama was sworn in as US senator from Illinois on January 4, 2005

Obama held Assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works and Veterans' Affairs through December 2006.

In January 2007, Obama took additional Assignments with Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Obama became Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on European Affairs.

2008 - Obama is currently the Junior United States Senator from Illinois.

SS

StraightShooter - what, nothing?

GOP - extremely weak on issues, but damn strong on unfair & chicken-shit attacks on Obama

Damn strong (ok Les) on unfair and chicken-shit attacks on Obama?  Like what?  Wright? Ayers? Experience? Flip-flopping?  Facts?