Monday, June 15, 2015

Obama and his Legacy - 2nd Term Blues

The New York Times: Reports on the failure of President Obama to get the Trans Pacific Partners trade deal through the House of Representatives, the article notes the following, " As it turned out, the biggest challenge to securing that legacy has been at home, and not overseas, as Mr. Obama’s fellow Democrats  ..." refused to support President Obama with their votes in the House. 

Lets Get Real:

This happens to ALL 2nd term Presidents, they find the power they once had on the Hill has gone,  the full House and part of the Senate are up for re-election, thus they have to get money in their campaigns, the Unions are against TPP as they see the deal as a job killer.   Thus President Obama will have tough time over the next year and half getting his agenda through Congress.    The Democratic nominee for President will have to careful, they need the support of the Oval Office but they do not want to be seen as a third term for Obama,  it is interesting that Hillary Clinton is using the campaign book for Obama this time, but HRC is no Obama, she is not that good on the campaign trail.      It can be argued that the HRC campaign is fighting the last campaign not the new one in 2016.    Of course there is the problem of Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan, the next President will have the same problem as Obama found in 2009, it can be postulated that the US will have thousands of troops in Iraq to deal with IS, the war in Syria will be on going, the disaster of Libya might haunt HRC as she supported the removal of Gaddafi, and then we have Afghanistan, the US will need to keep troops there for years, so the new President will not have a rosy time. 

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