my two cents worth, literally

About a week before the democrats lost Ted Kennedy's seat in a democratic stronghold, the national committee sent me a survey, which naturally included a plea for a large check to help President Obama continue the good work.

I don't know if my thinking, as I filled out the survey, was anything like the the thinking of a typical voter in Mass., but I do know we shared some level of dissatisfaction, not that voting for the no-new-taxes-on-big-business republican would remotely help our current situation.

I answered all the questions, rating Obama's performance on a scale from outstanding to poor. Mostly I rated him fair, poor on a couple of points, such as the ongoing wars. I think I gave him one good rating, and that was probably a question about the environment.

Overall, if I could translate my answers into a grade, it would have been a C-. I gave the national committee my two cents worth, and I even covered the two cents, placing two pennies in the envelope instead of the large check they asked for.

Yes, Obama inherited a mess, but that's the point of my dissatisfaction. Bush gave tax breaks to the wealthy and the big corporations, then started two wars of choice (neither country actually attacked us, and Iraq didn't even have weapons of mass destruction) and in the process ran the country into massive debt, while allowing Wall street to run amok until we almost landed in another great depression.

The whole point of voting for Obama was to change all that, to do an about face, a hard 180. Instead, he ramps up these wars of choice, leaving us in an open-ended commitment, while still not raising the money to pay for them.

Although Obama is talking tough to the financial sector now, it's a bit late. Before the bailout, these people were on the ropes and were manageable. He should have told them they had to accept new regulations, with the idea that only then can we talk bailout. He handed out taxpayer money to these folks with no strings attached, throwing us further in debt.

In the middle of the expense and the chaos of the financial meltdown and the wars, he tried to reform health care. Bad timing, which is being reflected in the poor chances of any meaningful reform actually taking place. And the public option? What public option?

Sure people are turning away from the President's policies. Unemployment is high, and people are losing their jobs. At the same time billions are being poured into the middle east and into the pockets of bankers. It feels like I voted for a republican.