Why's it so difficult for some to accept Obama was a good president

[Whateverist]

@Whateverist --

It's not an effort on my part to be fair, nor an effort to draw an equivalency ... It's pointing out a basic fact in American politics. Praising the opposing party for its initiatives is a vanishingly rare phenomenon, so far as I can tell.

Yeah I see that now.

[Thal]

After reading these pages, the answer to the question in topic becomes rather clear:

Because people don't know what's good for them.

[Jesster]

@Whateverist --

It's not an effort on my part to be fair, nor an effort to draw an equivalency ... It's pointing out a basic fact in American politics. Praising the opposing party for its initiatives is a vanishingly rare phenomenon, so far as I can tell.

Can I pat myself on the back for a moment? What am I talking about? Of course I can. I excel at exactly that!

I do reach across party lines to praise the achievements of Republicans when they are actually doing great things. Richard J. Berry, the Republican mayor here in Albuquerque, is absolutely fantastic. I wouldn't replace him with anyone else.

Then again, New Mexico's Republican governor, Susana Martinez, is a worthless piece of trash. Oh well. At least some of them are still worth keeping, right?

[Crossless2.0]

I do reach across party lines to praise the achievements of Republicans when they are actually doing great things. Richard J. Berry, the Republican mayor here in Albuquerque, is absolutely fantastic. I wouldn't replace him with anyone else.

I also have reasonably good experiences with Republicans at the city/county level. I think when you get down to that level of government and the day-to-day nitty-gritty of dealing with concrete issues that affect your neighbors, ideology often goes out the window in favor of practical solutions that can work within a budget people can comprehend. It's really at the state and federal government levels that ideological grandstanding 'works' politically. I think that observation applies to both parties.

[Brian37]

And just so you know, I voted for Romney in 2012, but Obama was clearly the better choice. He's created 11 million jobs throughout his presidency and the economy is headed in the right direction. Not to mention gas is cheap as heck right now! I don't understand what's so hard in admitting he did a good job?

Well within your legal right to do that sure.

But if you can accept Obama as a better choice, you really should look at the balance of power since Reagan, the GOP has had the bulk of that power on average. Dems have only held the White House 16 of the 40 years and only TWO presidents left the nation better off than when they left. Clinton left us with a surplus on top of creating jobs. Obama, like you said created jobs.

Dems could have done much better though if it were not for the 36 years of GOP gerrymandering and continued deregulation and GOP obstruction.

But as far as gas, I really hate media harping on cost of gas, that means nothing long term. Certainly nobody likes paying more for anything, much less energy. But our planet is at stake and we need to drastically reduce burning fossil fuels for either buildings or cars for energy. Cheap now does not change the fact that pumping out CO2 at the rate we are is making our atmosphere more hyper active creating more intense contrasts of hot and cold, and more frequency of storms. Mitt unfortunately ran for the same climate change denying party Trump ran on, and is filling his cabinet now with anti science sickos. 

I'd bet if Reagan, who is most responsible for setting our exploding pay gap in motion, and lack of livable wages making it harder for even the middle class to get by, I'd bet if he were alive today, he would be horrified at what he set in motion. I think even with all bad shit he set in motion, I give him far more credit than the purely selfish GOP of today.

[Thumpalumpacus]

@Whateverist --

It's not an effort on my part to be fair, nor an effort to draw an equivalency ... It's pointing out a basic fact in American politics. Praising the opposing party for its initiatives is a vanishingly rare phenomenon, so far as I can tell.

Can I pat myself on the back for a moment? What am I talking about? Of course I can. I excel at exactly that!

I do reach across party lines to praise the achievements of Republicans when they are actually doing great things. Richard J. Berry, the Republican mayor here in Albuquerque, is absolutely fantastic. I wouldn't replace him with anyone else.

Then again, New Mexico's Republican governor, Susana Martinez, is a worthless piece of trash. Oh well. At least some of them are still worth keeping, right?

Oh, no doubt. I was speaking about the politicians themselves giving praise to their opponents when merited being rare.

[Crunchy]

Omg health insurance is NOT car insurance. Using car insurance is NOT going to help your case to me. You don't HAVE to have car insurance if you decide to not have a car. By buying a car you agree to have insurance. Health insurance you can't say no to. You can't say hey this isn't for me so I'm not going to use it. My husband had to pay because he didn't have insurance for half the year last year and that is bullshit.

And the whole it is making others pay for your shit is a bad reasoning in my book because that happens with a LOT of stuff, no reason to force people to have things that they don't want. You don't want electricity? Don't use it and you don't have to pay for it. Don't want a car/insurance/gas? Don't use it or pay for it. Have a house in the boonies with no electric or water and outright own the land, grow your own food, etc, then do it. No one should be forced to pay for something they don't want. Why is it any different with health care? Because the cost gets put on others? Not good enough for me to think the government gets any say in the matter. Again let me reiterate I DO think people should have insurance, I just don't think it is government mandated.

Your belief is not required for what I've said to be true.
I spent 30 years in the insurance industry and the logic and reasoning behind the necessity of mandatory insurance is the same in both auto and health insurance.

Many people believe that the reason every first world nation on earth (other than the USA) has universally mandated health insurance is for moral reasons alone. That is untrue. A very large factor is the cost. 
Do you think that the US having, by far, the most expensive health care in the world is an accident? It's not. It's a function of the system. Foolish ideologues have insisted that the markets would solve all problems and they continue to insist on this even as the US health system continues it's spiraling costs. Reality doesn't care about your feelings. Control the costs or they will bankrupt you.

[LadyForCamus]

Omg health insurance is NOT car insurance. Using car insurance is NOT going to help your case to me. You don't HAVE to have car insurance if you decide to not have a car. By buying a car you agree to have insurance. Health insurance you can't say no to. You can't say hey this isn't for me so I'm not going to use it. My husband had to pay because he didn't have insurance for half the year last year and that is bullshit.

And the whole it is making others pay for your shit is a bad reasoning in my book because that happens with a LOT of stuff, no reason to force people to have things that they don't want. You don't want electricity? Don't use it and you don't have to pay for it. Don't want a car/insurance/gas? Don't use it or pay for it. Have a house in the boonies with no electric or water and outright own the land, grow your own food, etc, then do it. No one should be forced to pay for something they don't want. Why is it any different with health care? Because the cost gets put on others? Not good enough for me to think the government gets any say in the matter. Again let me reiterate I DO think people should have insurance, I just don't think it is government mandated.

But the problem is, if not enough people are paying into the system then ins. companies don't make a profit, and they either drop out or are forced to hike up premiums and deductibles, which is exactly what is happening.  The young, healthy college kids that Obama and co. thought would be purchasing insurance in face of a fine said, "fuck it, I'll take the yearly fine."   I'm not sure what the fix is for this problem though.

[Brian37]

After reading these pages, the answer to the question in topic becomes rather clear:

Because people don't know what's good for them.

Yep, both with religion and politics, but moreso religion, all you have to do is dangle and impossible utopia in front of just enough, you have instant minions willing to follow you off a cliff.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Do the NRA loan out their script writers to the insurance companies?