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Mortimer Zuckerman of U.S. News and World Report magazine expresses his disappointment at the Obama administration's performance. He points to a "competency crisis" of the Obama administration and the President. On the Simpson-Bowles Commission's recommendations and President Obama's complete silence on its proposals, Zuckerman like other observers expresses strong disappointment. He says that he and other early supporters are no longer excited by the novelty of his candidacy and his presidency. Obama's single minded focus on getting re-elected is disturbing for Zuckerman.

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Indifference on the Republican side, and a sense that not much is going to get done on the Democratic side, as President Obama pitches a $447 billion second stimulus plan in a speech to both houses of the U.S. Congress on September 8, 2011. Dana Milbank documents the attitudes and skepticism with which members of Congress received the proposals- a general sense that President Obama was too weak and ineffective to get things done and has lost credibility. John Taylor, senior economic advisor on the Republican side pointed out in a Wall Street Journal column a few days before the speech, that the jobs proposals Obama and economic advisor Alan Krueger were presenting were similiar to old plans that have not produced results. Taylor viewed them as placing too much reliance on government and not enough on the private sector to generate economic growth and jobs.

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Sanger and Broad offer an assessment of progress in controlling nuclear proliferation and improving security during the two terms of U.S. president Obama. Obama took particular interest in this field as Senator. Today countries such as Belgium, Pakistan, are considered sources of potential problems in nuclear security. Urban security for nuclear materials is a priority. Japan, China, Pakistan and India have not reduced their nuclear materials stockpiles in Asia, and Russia refused to participate in the Nuclear Summit in 2016, led by the U.S. Problems are urgent to secure nuclear materials from terrorists and require high priority from world leaders. Pakistan has moved towards smaller tactical nuclear weapons which creates additional problems of security.

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Protests in Hannover, Germany, as U.S. president Obama visits the Hannover Trade Fair. Protesters oppose the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Treaty promoted by president Obama. A recent Bertelsmann Stiftung research institute poll shows larger rejection of the treaty in Germany than a mid-Feb. poll by German broadcaster ZDF showing about half of Germans opposed. Interviews with a dozen protesters show suspicion about large corporate interests, and fears that the talks are secretive, a sense that the interests of ordinary people would be neglected. Elections in the U.S. in 2016 have shown a surge in sentiment opposing trade agreements.

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The failures of the two Bush presidents and Obama that are still with us in 2025 in the Middle East, in dragging out foreign wars, at the Border, and in letting outsourcing get out of hand with China, as the US struggles to rebuild the Nation and its communities, and a peaceful world.

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This article in the NYT after German chancellor Merkel's visit to the U.S. reminds readers that Merkel's relationship with Obama took some time to develop and that following Merkel's turning down of Obama's request to speak at the Brandenburg Gate in 2008 relations during a Merkel visit in 2009 were not as friendly. It says the relationships evolve over time. Even then the relationship between Merkel and Obama had ups and downs including the period when it was revealed that the Obama administration had tapped Merkel's phone and Obama failed to offer an apology, ending with a positive note in 2016 when the two met in Krun, Germany, with Obama as lameduck president. Experts from the German Council of Foreign Relations say that Trump adopted his usual double speak saying the right things about NATO and relations with Germany in the joint appearance, and later at a question and answer session saying Germany owed a lot of money to the U.S. for defense. Germany pays 1.2% of GDP for defense and promised to take this up to 2% by 2024. By now viewers may have adjusted to Trump's style to keep certain issues alive for negotiation stance, as a distraction, to keep his base's enthusiasm, or in some situations to vent out grievances such as with media coverage he receives. ...

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Some of the optimism in race relations after the election of Obama as U.S. president in 2008 fades after the Trayvon Martin verdict.

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U.S. president Obama made negotiating a Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement with the EU a priority for his second term. Further reduction of tariffs would increase trade by over $120 billion over 5 years from the current $1 trillion level, according to the U.S Chamber of Commerce.

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Two weeks after his election Donald Trump says the U.S. will not join the Trans Pacific Trade Agreement during his term in office. Barack Obama took seven years to negotiate the trade agreement which was opposed by trade unions, the auto industry and was unpopular in the midwestern U.S. because of the impact of trade in hollowing out the manufacturing sector. Here Frank Sieren of the DW.com points out that the agreement was not really about trade, as most of the gains of trade had already been realized according to experts. It was part of the "pivot to Asia" to maintain American dominance in the region, says Sieren. After China pulled together some Asian and European countries into its trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the U.S. pushed for TPP as a counterweight to the China sponsored trade zone. China says it will try to integrate the countries in TPP into the trade zone it has sponsored. President Trump has said that the U.S. is better off negotiating agreements with each country and not getting into multilateral trade agreements. He fought the election campaign on the basis of the opposition to TPP and trade agreements that unfairly hurt American workers. This could have provided the 110,000 margin of victory in the states suffering from the hollowing out in manufacturing such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania. A similar hollowing out in Ontario favored Justin Trudeau's Liberals against the Conservatives in Canada's election. ...

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This editorial in the Journal provides reflections on U.S. foreign policy in the Obama years and advice for U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney before the third presidential debate on foreign policy on Oct. 22, 2012. It says the U.S. has always done better from a position of economic strength and defense preparedness in addressing foreign policy issues. It also points to the failure of president Obama to support the freedom struggle of the peoples of the Middle East, and a withdrawal from Iraq without securing an agreement that failed to consolidate the gains of the long conflict and resources spent in that region.

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Mark Leibovich gives a detailed account of David Plouffe, one of President Obama's close political advisors, who has Obama's confidence on campaign and political issues. Leibovich says Mr. Obama has always been attracted to people who are loyal and act as fixers. He cites the film "The Godfather" as Obama's favorite movie, and Plouffe as the unyielding cop in a mob film "The Departed." Characteristics of Plouffe described by colleagues are extreme competitiveness, extremely unsentimental, extremely data driven. In a way the President's closest advisors offer clues to the nature of the President's style, approach to politics, and the conduct of the U.S. presidential office during this Presidency, as in others. Plouffe is described by colleagues as most in sync with Mr. Obama. And William Daley, the president's former chief of staff, says the Plouffe and Obama relationship is extremely private- using 6 very's to accent this. Issues relating to the shrinking middle class are coming to the fore in this election. A friend of Plouffe's, Steve Elmendorf, describes him by saying that he isn't sure whether Plouffe has any convictions about the middle class, its mostly a passion for winning and putting together the outfit to do this. For the bigger vision things Plouffe's colleague, David Axelrod, another campaign advisor has put together the themes and lofty phrases that President Obama has supported. The sense given by Mark Leibovich is of some wonderfully good packaging with a steely attitude. ...

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U.S. president Obama invited NYT's columnist Thomas Friedman to the White House for an interview on Saturday afternoon April 4, 2015. Here Friedman gives president Obama's response to his questions, and Obama's concerns about the heated rhetoric in the U.S. and Israel on the negotiations with Iran detracting and distracting from his key goals of protecting U.S. interests and Israel. On the Sunni states, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Obama points out that there are some tough conversations needed about changes inside their societies which pose a greater threat to the governments than Iran. Obama says he understands perfectly that Israel and the Jewish people after their experience of the last hundred years are determined to not let Iran develop a nuclear weapon, and their right to be concerned that the agreement could let Iran clandestinely develop one. Obama says the verification is extensive and covers any facility in Iran, any suspicion about secret facilities, yet it leaves the subsequent decisions if Iran created difficulties, to a international body over which the U.S., UK, France, have no control. This is a principal issue for critics of the negotiated agreement. No mention is made of why Iran simply discarded the option of sending the atomic material to Russia to be processed into nuclear rods for the Bushehr nuclear plant built by Russia only a few days before the final outline was developed. And why the U.S., with allies Germany, France, UK and Japan, did not offer the Iranians an economic aid package if needed in return for the billions Iranians invested for that atomic material, to ensure that the atomic materials are shipped out of the country- to create a nuclear agreement that would be credible to all parties. The economic aid would benefit Iran modernize its oil industry, including refining operations, meet basic import needs, and provide tangible proof to the Iranian people of our best intentions for the future, that president Obama strongly espouses in the interview. The interview does show the quandary president Obama faces in Iran for strong action, that is a result of failed policies with Iran since the Eisenhower administration's intervention 1953 during the Cold War that displaced the elected government of Mosaddegh in Iran and setup the Shah's regime in 1956, the support of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in the war against Iran, which Obama mentions in this intervew. In the light of the repeated failures of the U.S. policies a Democratic party leader faces increasing reservations for taking strong action against Iran's development of nuclear weapons capabilities, preferring to exhaust every diplomatic channel, and take risks in the hope that time will give the Iranian people an opportunity to to reintegrate in the global community and pursue the peaceful development of nuclear energy. This strain in president Obama's thinking is evident throughout the interview with Friedman. Other aspects of president Obama's policy in the Middle East shared in the interview are about supporting the Sunni states in some areas, and Iran in some areas, at the same time as the nuclear issue is "put in a box" and separated from the regional conflicts. Friedman presents this as the Obama doctrine, yet it appears to be coming after a series of improvisations in foreign policy following a failure to act in 2011-2013, when the "once in a lifetime" opportunities presented by the Arab Spring were not taken up by the Obama administration, leading to the region's current disintegration....

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A move by the Obama administration to reenergize its Hispanic base with action on immigration three months before the U.S. presidential election of 2012. A new policy issued as a directive by President Obama allows one million young illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. A 16 page guideline issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services states that applicants have to show they lived in the U.S. for five years and pay a $465 fee. The policy applies to people in the ages of 15 to 30, applicants must show they completed high school, or were honorably discharged from the U.S. military. The program will offer a two year renewable expemption from deportation and work permit to people coming to the U.S. as children. President Reagan was the last president who issued a directive of this type offering amnesty in 1986 to 3 million illegal immigrants. The Obama administration says this will help conserve enforcement resources are not spent on low priority cases of young people who came to the U.S. as children, as there are an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. The Dream Act legislation to legalize undocumented young people is stuck in Congress with no agreement on how to move forward. The states and cities where people mainly from Latin America and Asia would benefit are- California with 400,000 who could benefit, Texas with 225,000, and New York City with 55,000....

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Interview with Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Secretary of State, in Atlantic magazine, August 2014. In the interview Clinton is critical of U.S. president Obama's approach to foreign policy, and the "don't do stupid stuff" comment by Obama that is the psychology behind Obama's foreign policy of avoiding involvement in overseas conflicts- even when it was badly needed to preserve the U.S. role in the world. Hillary Clinton presented the Obama outlook on foreign policy as inward looking and cautious at every step, to the point of making America look pessimistic about the world and its role. This situation she described as not conducive to making any better decisions than the Bush-Cheney era approach of aggressively and even jingoistically pushing the country into foreign conflicts.

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Criticism of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the WSJ for some overreaching actions. Yet also the failure of politicians including previous presidents Bush and Obama, that lead to a situation where huge burdens are placed on law enforcement lacking resources and numbers for missions that have placed on their shoulders the accumulated problems of decades. DJT says president Biden was not one to support the scale of illegal migration in 2020-2024 and open borders that happened, and seemed both unaware of the real situation and losing control of the situation. DJT's repeated reference to Biden using the robo-pen also refers to delegation to Biden's Homeland Security head Alejandro Mayorkas, who immigrated from Cuba in 1960 as a child and grew up in Los Angeles, and both Biden and Mayorkas failing to take strong action as the gravity of the situation became apparent in 2022-2023. The record 2.2 million encounters at the Mexican border in fiscal 2022 were the highest in history under Mayorkas, the first Latin American to head US Immigration Service and Deputy head of Homeland Security appointed by Obama. ...

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Retired General James Mattis headed Central Command under the Obama administration. He is the new U.S. Defense Secretary. Mattis is critical but has said "there is no going back" on the Iran nuclear agreement. Mattis also has said any U.S. president regarding allies as "freeloaders" is nuts. This is different from Trump's campaign speeches, Yet the trait of Mattis in Afghanistan and Iraq duty is that of aggressively following the enemy, he has been called "Mad Dog,"  and the 66 year old officer brings deep battlefield experience, is highly regarded in the military ranks, and had friction with the Obama administration- traits for which he is well regarded by Trump.

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David Brooks of the NYT comments on the Hillary Clinton interview by Goldberg in the Atlantic magazine, where she criticized U.S. president Obama for a weak foreign policy and failure to act in Syria. Brooks says Obama's failure to act in the robust manner Clinton is advocating only leads Obama into situations where he is forced to act later as the situation deteriorates with more serious consequences for the U.S. By not acting in a timely manner the U.S. may be forced into greater involvement later, which makes Obama's "don't do stupid stuff" less of a sound idea than it appears. As Clinton points out not leading to better decisions in the same manner as the Bush-Cheney jingoistic policy making.

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Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates points out in this intervew with Holman Jenkins of the WSJ, that Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who worsened Shiite-Sunni relations, was the principal cause of the unraveling that happened in Iraq during the first term of U.S. president Obama. He says President Obama failed to do what was done by president Bush to persist and obtain Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq, to maintain a U.S. foce presence in Iraq. Presence of U.S. forces would have prevented the spread of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. U.S. force presence would have provided a more even handed treatment of Sunnis in the region, creating the conditions for peace by having Sunnis, Kurds and Shiites continue talks about the future of Iraq. Gates grew up in Kansas in the 1950's, attended the College of William and Mary for undergraduate studies, studied Russian and Soviet history in grad school at Indiana University and Georgetown University, before joining the CIA. Gates was selected by Brzezinski to work in the White House, worked under Brent Snowcroft, and as head of the CIA (1991-1993) during the elder Bush administration. He was Secretary of Defense from 2006-2011, under presidents George Bush and Barack Obama, succeeding Donald Rumsfeld. He was succeeded by Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel, and Ashton Carter. ...

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Leon Panetta, former U.S. Defense Secretary, answers questions from a CNN correspondent and GW professor at George Washington University in Washington D.C. He says President Obama dropped the ball when it came to taking on Congress over budget cuts and on tough issues in Iraq and Syria. Panetta says he told Obama that getting back into the ring was necessary to get things done.

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The WSJ's Peter Nicholas, Carol Lee and John McKinnon describe the events leading to the election of Obama to a second term as U.S. president. A significant move by the Obama campaign was to spend heavily in the early part of the campaign to show Romney as a predatory capitalist by focussing on his record a a private equity business executive who focussed on profits. More voters perceived Obama as caring about people like themselves. The voter turnout was also carefully executed especially for minority voters. For the first time since Mondale's loss to Reagan fewer white voters supported a presidential candidate- only 38% of the white vote went for president Obama compared to 60% for Romney. Obama's campaign focussed on protecting the middle class and working class from sharp spending cuts. Voters major issue was the economy, with unemployment at 7.9%. Yet voters largely did not hold Obama responsible for the economy and considered Wall Street and the previous George W. Bush administration responsible for the events leading to the 2008 financial crisis....

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As she runs for president in 2016, Hillary Clinton faces a difficult challenge- to give Democrats a third term in the White House. Presidents elected for a third term such as Truman who followed Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and president George H.W. Bush who followed Ronald Reagan, were helped by the popularity of the president from their party who preceded them. Reagan's popularity rating was 57%, in the month preceding the election of George H.W. Bush, according to Gallop poll. Truman continued the popular policies of FDR, and took a strong foreign policy direction with the help of a capable team led by Marshall and Acheson in responding to the Soviets in the Cold War, before the 1948 election. In that election Truman upset political pundit predictions. He also brought an extraordinary tenacity in the rail tour across the U.S. and on the campaign trail. Hillary Clinton faces the 2016 election with president Obama's popularity rating at 46%, with only 32% saying the country is on the right track, in the WSJ poll. This means Clinton will have to distance herself from Obama to some degree. Other issues include her age 67 years, and the sense that she is somehow from the past in U.S. politics, offset by the experience she now brings. Hillary's popularity rating show 44% having a positive image in a WSJ-NBC poll of March 2015, down from 56% when she gave up her position as Secretary of State in the Obama administration. Her main Republican challenger, Jeb Bush, has only a 23% favorable rating in the same WSJ/NBC poll. Hillary's strategy for 2015 is to avoid large gatherings and try to meet people in small groups in this election campaign, so that she can bring a personal touch and come alive as a candidate relating to the everyday aspirations of working people. Hillary's election will depend on whether she can mount the kind of campaign Truman fought and relate directly to ordinary voters....

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U.S. president Obama at the G-7 Summit in Korn in the Bavarian Alps. He talks about the Islamic State having replenished its fighters with a flow of foreign fighters to Iraq continuing unimpeded, and resulting in tactical successes in Anbar province for ISIS. He also firms up the G-7's stand against the Putin government's actions and intervention in Ukraine. This takes time from the other issues of climate change and trade that were part of the discussions. One aspect of the summit was close interaction in the unique setting of the Bavarian Alps between president Obama and German chancellor Merkel. This was shown in unique photo settings, designed to convey the partnership between Germany and the U.S., as the G-7 confront problems in the Middle East and Eastern Europe that require joint leadership.

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A three judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals votes 2 to 1 supporting a legal challenge by 26 states for having a high probability of success. The ruling requires that the executive order of Nov. 2014 by U.S. president Obama on immigration not be enforced till the Supreme Court rules on it. This means continued uncertainty for the millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. granted a path to legal staus under the Obama executive order. Opinion polls show the public opinion is divided on this issue.

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A US Supreme Court 6-3 ruling that president Biden calls one that "contradicts common sense and the Constitution, which should trouble us all." The 6 conservative Justices and 3 liberal Justices vote along party lines to strike down a century old New York law with restrictions on the use of concealed weapons or weapons carried openly. Appointments to the Supreme Court have only meant taking the party disagreements into the Court- Mr. Trump appointed 3 Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Brett who joined Thomas, Alito and Roberts, appointed by the 2 Bush presidents, for this decision. The three on the Democratic side Breyer appointed by Clinton, Sotomayor, Kagan appointed by Obama. Today the presidents who made these appointments Clinton, Obama, Bush and Trump are all seen in a different light with their thinking and ideas not drawing support from all corners of America for a common sense approach to the Constitution. Following the pandemic and the war in Europe there is a shift in thinking all over America and the world, and the old politics simply don't fit in with this. Biden calls this a decision that "contradicts both common sense and the Constitution."  A group of Senators from both major parties are coming up with a common sense approach in a gun control bill in the US Senate. ...

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A WSJ/NBC poll in Oct 2013 shows U.S. Congressional leaders Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid have some of the highest negative ratings ever. U.S. president Obama has high disapproval ratings. Close to 35% of men voters would go with a alternative candidate. This is the highest disaffection level in two decades. Voters prefer someone who is populist, pragmatic and non-ideological.