# The Obama Downgrade, Alphabetically



## 7costanza (Aug 29, 2006)

Snapshots from President Obama's efforts to improve America's standing in the world, 923 days into his administration:
_A_ is for the Arab world, and our standing in it: This year, Zogby International found that 5% of Egyptians had a favorable view of the U.S. In 2008, when George W. Bush was president, it was 9%. 
_B_ is for the federal budget deficit, which is estimated to come in at around 11% of GDP in 2011, up from about 3% in 2008.
_C _is for China's military budget. For 2012, Beijing plans to increase spending on defense by 12.7%. The Obama administration, by contrast, proposed Pentagon cuts in April averaging out to $40 billion per year over the next decade, and Congress may soon cut a lot more. 
_D_ is for-what else-the federal debt, which grew to $14.3 trillion this month from $10.7 trillion at the end of 2008. D is also for the dollar, which has lost almost half its value against gold since Aug. 2008.
_E_ is for energy. The average retail price of a gallon of gas hovered near the $1.80 mark when Mr. Obama was inaugurated. It has since more than doubled. E is also for ethanol, the non-wonder fuel the U.S. continues to subsidize to the tune of $5 billion a year.
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_F _is for free trade. Bill Clinton signed Nafta in 1994, which facilitates $1.6 trillion in the trade of goods and services between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. George W. Bush midwifed more than a dozen FTAs, from Australia to Singapore to Morocco to Bahrain. Number of FTA's signed by the current president: zero.
_G_ is for Guantanamo, which remains open, and for Gadhafi, who remains in power, and for Greece, which offers a vision of America's future if we don't reform our entitlement state.
_H_ is for Hillary Clinton, who-I can't believe I'm writing this-would have made a better president than Mr. Obama.
_I_ is for Israel, a Middle Eastern country the president claims to support even as he routinely disses its prime minister, seeks to shrink its borders and-why not?-divide its capital. 
_J_ is for jobs. In November 2008, president-elect Obama promised he would create 2.5 million jobs by 2011. By October 2010 the economy had shed 3.3 million jobs.
_K_ is for Karzai, Hamid, Afghanistan's feckless leader. Still, the Obama administration probably did itself no favors by publicly dumping on the man, leading him to seek new best friends in Tehran.
_L _is for Laden, Osama bin. The president's greatest triumph, which will forever put him one notch-if only one notch-above Jimmy Carter.
_M_ is for Mexico, a country that manages 5.4% unemployment and 4.2% annual growth even as it fights a war against the drug cartels. 
_N_ is for NATO, once a pillar of Western security, which Mr. Obama is in the process of destroying through his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and his refusal to give NATO the push it needs to win in Libya.
_O_ is for ObamaCare, which goes far to explain _B_, _D_, _J_ as well as the Greek part of _G_. 
_P_ is for Pyongyang, whose ruler the administration is once again attempting to engage in the six-party talks. This is after the Kim regime welcomed Mr. Obama's plea for a nuclear-free world by testing a nuclear bomb, torpedoing a South Korean ship, shelling a South Korean village, and unveiling a state-of-the-art uranium enrichment facility.
_Q_ is for QE2, the most disastrous experiment in monetary policy since Fed Chairman William Miller's low-interest rate policy crashed the dollar in 1978.
_R_ is for the reset with Russia, the principal result of which is an arms-control treaty that brings us to parity in strategic nuclear weapons, leaves us behind in the tactical category, and ill-equips us for the challenge of a proliferating world.
_S_ is for shovel-ready. Enough said.
_T_ is for taxes, which Mr. Obama would like to see raised for "millionaires and billionaires"-curiously defined as people making $200K and up.
_U_ is for Iran's uranium enrichment. When Mr. Obama came to office promising to extend his hand to the mullahs, Iran had enriched 1,000 kilos of uranium. Today they have produced more than 4,000 kilos.
_V_ is for Venezuela, a country whose extensive subterranean links to Iran the administration has consistently downplayed.
_W_ is for the Dubya, whose presidency now looks like a model of spending restraint.
_X_ is for Liu Xiaobo, an example of what a deserving winner of the Nobel Peace Prize looks like. _X_ is also for Xanax, likely to be remembered as the drug of choice of the Obama years.
_Y_ is for Yes, We Can! Unfortunately, it's also for Yemen.
_Z_ is for zero, which is the likelihood that one of the current GOP hopefuls will defeat Mr. Obama in 2012.


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## CJIS (Mar 12, 2005)

This made me want to cry.


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