I am pretty ashamed because he seems pretty ‘un-ready’ for the job after the first year. He relies too much on folks who are too far from the center.

51% is not much of a majority. I am disappointed not in his platform, we can all have different opinions about such things. What I find shameful are his actions such as apologizing for America overseas, rudely berating the Supreme Court to their faces, refusing to understand the true nature of the anger of the public, and inept execution of his duties. His job is chief executive, yet he has done very poorly on that front.

I’m proud of him with regard to the pride that everyone should have in every president. He was lawfully elected and assumed the presidency of the greatest nation on earth.

Yes, one can, and should, be proud of the president even if they disapprove of the way he does the job.

I’m in a state of shock! Proud? Proud of what? He is the kiss of death. He supported the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial candidates and he lost. He went to Copenhagen to bring the Olympic games to Chicago and got shot down on the first ballot. He went back to Copenhagen to get an agreement on the environment issue and came home empty handed. Then he went to support a candidate in the most Liberal/Progressive state in the union and he lost again. His ‘Obamacare’ wet dream is just about dead. If 51% of Americans are proud, in the face of all of this, then I say ‘poor America’.

Joe Biden once said in a Democratic Primary debate, about then Senator Obama, that the Presidency is not a time for on the job training. Well, the McCain campaign showed this clip multiple times of Biden stating his opinion and the voters chose to ignore Obama’s lack of experience. Obama is only a few years removed from being a community organizer. In fact he did very little the few years he was in the US Senate, and this is being kind. He started running for President almost as soon as he hit the Senate floor. How did he accomplish this? He had smart people running his campaign and more importantly he could communicate in a way that lured people in. I couldn’t tell you how disappointed I was to hear voters say they were voting for Obama either because they wanted to make “history” (electing the first black President) or they just got caught up in the wave of momentum (like mind control). In most cases these voters could not “any” issues or policies of Obama. I call these people “mindless voters”. This really does represent a dangerous situation. There have been many times in history that inexperienced people have captivated the people and were swept into power as blindly as Obama was and things did not turn out very well (e.g. Hitler). Now, thanks God we live in the United States and have a strong enough in government structure to control our mistakes, unlike the 1930’s in Germany. The correction is called the “responsible voter”. The “mindless voter” loses his/her excitement and don’t vote next time or gets caught up in the new wave of change. The “responsible voter” comes to the rescue in the next election as evident by Virginia, New Jersey, and most importantly Massachusetts election results. Hilary Clinton also warned everyone that “experience matters”. Maybe that’s why she decided, after originally turning it down, to become Secretary of State. Would you want Obama making foreign policy decisions on his own after what he has shown us so far?

Kevin, Obama was not “lawfully elected”. In order to be “lawfully elected”, he would have to have met the constitutional requirement of being a “natural born” citizen of the United States. Obama is clearly not a “natural born” citizen, having spent outrageous amounts of money on legal expenses to hide his true identity and origins. Also, to be “lawfully elected”, he would have to have allowed all of Hillary Clinton’s delegates to vote at caucuses. Many were not allowed to, or were threatened or intimidated. Also, he would have to have gotten elected without the votes of illegal immigrants, and busloads of people being sent from one state to another to cast votes in swing states. Also, he would have to have gotten elected without the illegal contributions which his campaign gladly accepted from foreigners. These are the facts. Check them out.

@Arlene Wow. Instead of alleging, show the proof of these things you’ve said. Serve it up so we can all see it. Prove to all of us that Mr. Obama isn’t a natural born citizen. How many illegal aliens’ votes were counted to elect him? Give us a number. Which of Clinton’s delegates weren’t allowed to vote?

Seriously, get a grip.

Bah, I couldn’t be more ashamed of my president if we had reelected Bush. After all, what is Obama but Bush all over again, but multiplied? I thought perhaps there might be some hope electing a constitutional scholar, but he obviously has forgotten anything he ever knew about the Constitution once he got elected, for never is it mentioned anywhere in his regime. Instead he instituted program after program that clearly have no place in a constitutional republic. Notice that I said “republic,” not “democracy.” If Obama would at least make some NOISE about undoing the damage that the Bush administration has inflicted upon this country, then he might garner at least a smidgen of respect from folks like me, but he just continues to support every single disastrous policy of the Bush administration, while piling on more and more of his own on top of them. The Constitution constrains the Federal Government from interfering in such things as health care, and it was their interference that has gotten us into this mess to begin with. To think that magnifying their interference is the solution is simply madness. Furthermore, the nazi-ish Department of Homeland Security, along with the TSA are two of the most frightening and freedom-smashing things ever to have been instituted in this country. Is he seeking to dismantle these horrors and send these folks out to get real jobs? Has he brought our troops home from foreign lands? Not just Iraq and Afghanistan, but the more than 120 countries that have our bases on them that we must support? Oh, wait. He is just sending an addition 30,000 troops into battle. THAT’s a peaceful move. With him doing everything that he can possibly do to topple the financial structure in this land, he and his cronies in Congress are the most destructive force in the U.S. They are so in the pockets of their masters, the bankers, that the country is coming down around our ears while much of the population grins and says: “Oh, aren’t we enlightened! Look at us! We have a black president!” Bleah!

Warning! Warning! Outbreak of tin hats!

Woah, there folks! As for birth certificates, I thought that issue was dead and buried. As Kevin has already said, I would like to see what proof you all are offering. Part of my job involves working with this type of documentation, and I did not see anything in what Obama’s camp offered which looked phony. How many of you continuing with this line of attack really handle birth certificates and/or birth registries that often?

If we look at Mark H.’s comment that he is only a few years out from being a community organizer – then I think he must be a freaking genius to do as well as he has, using that as the operating premise. We may not agree with all he has done, but I can think of someone else who was running who may have done much worse with regard to the economy – which he admitted not to know much about.

Seriously, I respect the Office of the President. How many of you chastised the Liberals for being disrespectful of Bush?? Fess up. Now you are acting as a role model to your children to act out if you don’t like something. How does this set the standard for our next generation? Can’t get along in school? Got fired from a job for insubordination? Hmm. Where’d they learn that??

“In order to be “lawfully elected”, he would have to have met the constitutional requirement of being a “natural born” citizen of the United States.”

There are only two kinds of citizens, natural born and naturalized. If he wasn’t natural born then when did he take the oath of naturalization?

I am a conservative Republican; I oppose most of President Obama’s policies and would certainly have preferred a different result in the last election. I am proud, however, to have him as president in that he was lawfully and peacefully elected under our constitutional system, and in that his very election represents the openness of our cultural, political, and economic systems. I dislike this particular poll question, like the “right/wrong direction” question, because it illuminates nothing of significance without elaboration upon the answers.

Ditto, Don. The credit and pride goes to the American electorate for voting what they believed to be principle rather then race. Unfortunately, it is precisely the principle which is now missing. Race baiters will use any policy discord amongst the electorate to assert cloaked racism.
Your first question conveys a false choice. It is a closed question implying that there are only 2 answers. Okay, so here goes:
Am I proud to have Obama as President? No.
Am I proud to have a duly elected president? Yes
I hope I will be able to make the latter statement again in 2012, but not the former.
The second question involves subjective evaluations of a particular individual based on a personal belief system.
My answer is NO.

As you may guess, the McCain/Palin candidacy did not win me over. So Obama would not have been my first choice, but that is what there was. But I think we wish him to be treated with the same deference due any American president.

What we dished out for him was a mess of historic proportions. I do not know what manner of yardstick to use to measure his term so far. There are quite a few things I think he could do better – things I don’t agree with, and other things that he needs to become better doing – but ashamed, no I still think that is too strong a word. That should be reserved for the behavior of figures like John Edwards or Rod Blagojevich.

I am proud that the US elected a President who was a minority candidate, but a little concerned that we thought it more important to elect the minority instead of electing the best person for the job! I would have wanted Hillary Clinton more than Barack Obama, and I’m a conservative. However, now we see once more that votes and elections have consequences. We are now seeing a President who is not only NOT ready to lead, but whines when he does not receive positive feedback, chides everyone for “not understanding him”, the buck never stops at his desk, elects all sorts of extremists to help lead the government without any sort of responsibility to the Congress (the “Czars), tries to and succeeds at forming wedges between the parties, chides the Supreme Court publicly, and everyone else for that matter, talks to the public like the great professor who knows so much more than any of his pupils, and lies to the American public all the time. He seems to be in campaign mode all of the time.

I would like this President to succeed, but not at what he wants to succeed at. He has asked the people of the US to judge him on who he asks to join him in his cabinet as well as his “Czars”, and if we are to judge him on that basis, he is for the Communist form of socialism, including total takeover of ALL business and banking. He also wants to equalize the economies of all countries, and the US should feel guilty for being a global leader. He does not believe in American exceptionalism, personal responsibility or the freedom to fail and/or succeed. He believes our Constitution needs to be rewritten

Therefore, I do not want this President to succeed, for if he does, I would not be acting responsibly on behalf of my children or yours either.

So, I do not want him to succeed at

@Kevin Kevin: Every other candidate for President has shown absolute proof of being a citizen. Barack Obama has instead hired attorneys instead of showing any proof. If he has proof, then why doesn’t he just come forth with the proof and get it all over with. Instead, he hires our own DOJ attorneys at OUR expense – why? It just gives everyone else fuel to the fire. Just get it over with and show the legitimate birth certificate. If he has it…

@Mary H.
Mary, what I have seen is a legitimate birth record, as digitized, for our public viewing. It is like the birth record of many other U.S. citizens, and I do see my share of birth records each year, so for Pete’s sake, can this cease and desist?

I am very proud to have a bright, articulate Barack Obama as President. I am so tired of those Republicans who care more about electing Republicans than they care about the success of the United States. They oppose everything that Obama has proposed and care little for helping to pull us out of this recession, or providing health care to those in need, and they deny civil rights based on sexual orientation. John mcCain flip flopped on this issue. He said he would go with the wishes the top military brass; and now that they have come out opposed to the don’t ask, don’t tell policy, McCain changed his tune. It seems whatever Obama wants, Republicans oppose and throw up stupid roadblocks like the citizenship issue, or socialism, or whatever. And I am most distressed that people seem to buy into that nonsense. There are parts of our economy that are socialistic in nature. Social Security and Medicare are two. Yet, no one appears to want to throw those away. A little less hypocrisy please!

I’d love to see social security go away so I could quit paying into a system from which I’ll probably never get anything.

As for civil rights and the military… Irrespective of anyone’s opinion of homosexuality, there is no inherent right to serve in the military. There are numerous disqualifying characteristics that prevent people from enlisting or serving in certain specialties, including many personal behavioral characteristics. The issue is far more complex than “it’s unfair to homosexuals.”

How dare those doggone republicans not bow down to every idea that comes down from on high from the democrats? Who do they think they are standing for what they believe to be right?

Here’s to less hypocricy on both sides of the aisle.

Okay, here’s what I don’t get. Republicans need to decide whether to blast Democrats for being pro-union or for “ideas that come down from ‘on high’”. They are either evil because they are favoring the drubs who work with their hands [and might be secret communists] or they are evil because they are favoring elitists. This is like mixing up socialists and fascists. Pick one.

Sorry. I have to agree with Merri. Some of the issues we Republicans are stonewalling are things we have supported in the past!!

Kevin, I worked for SSA many years ago. Lots of people think they will never receive it and then they are surprised when they get hit by a truck while crossing the street, or blindsided by cancer. Suddenly, they are looking in the mailbox for their disability check. Title II is paid out of regular SSA. I hope you have a long and healthy life, both for your own sake and your kids, but disability can happen overnight. The SSA will be there for you.

Here’s to less “take no prisoners” politics.

Am I embarrassed by Richard Shelby?? You betcha.

@Jaime
I’ll continue to be against both — unions and ideas from on high.

Good point about Title II — I didn’t think about that provision. I was thinking about the retirement benefit.

Okay, now you got me back out of bed thinking about this stuff. Psychologically speaking, to refer to people or things as “on high” places them above the speaker. SO rather than demeaning the person or thing referred to, this manner of speaking inadvertently notes the speaker’s opinion of himself or herself relative to that person or thing.

Come on Kevin – you are better than that. You had to have had some smarts to accomplish what you have up to this point in your life. All of you – any time someone on TV starts up with that “on high” kind of talk – they are insinuating that you are “on low”. Don’t buy that bologna. It is insulting to your intelligence. Think about it. The political parties are to be found to the left or right, not up or down.