What's Obama Done for You Lately?

Many on the left and right have been claiming that Obama has not done anything lately. In response some supporters have posted this long list, which I will copy below. Personally, I'm not sure that everyone's missing the point here. It's not the quantity of things an administration does, but the quality. So instead of asking, "What have you done for me lately?" people should be asking "What worthwhile things have you done for me lately?". But of course, things are always more complicated than that, as presidents are faced with unique environments in the economy, political atmosphere, and global perceptions. To judge on a litmus test of How Many Things I've Done, would be myopic indeed.

On another note, I'm hoping that a 3rd party emerges at some point in the next couple of decades. One that can run a large national campaign with broad support (i.e. Tea Party), but which stresses BOTH economic conservatism and social conservatism, in the sense of limited government in either domain, and is not viewed as a crank extremist (i.e. Ron Paul). For now we are stuck with the hypocritical duo of Democrats (liberal economics, less social government intervention) and Republicans (conservative economics and more government social

Image by Jayel Aheram via Flickr

intervention). D&R just won't cut it anymore, and I hope that Gen X can begin the slow process of change. Hopefully, this will one day lead to a 3rd Party. Hopefully what I'm describing is the Libertarian Party. What they believe in is as follows:

"We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose."

Here's the (shortened) list of what Obama's done lately:

(1/29/10)   Stopped restrictions on releasing visitor logs of White House (2/1/10)    Cut massively overbudget constellation program out of budget (2/12/10)   Reinstated congressional restriction to offset spending w/revenue (2/16/10)   Tax cuts and infrastructure improvement to combat recession (2/18/10)   Created commission to provide full plan on reducing debt (3/18/10)   Tax cuts for employees and employers (3/23/10)   Largest reform of health care since 1965 (3/30/10)   Removed need for student loans to be run through banks/marked up (3/31/10)   Announced increase in hybrid purchases for federal autos (4/6/10)    Approved targeted killing of Al-queda regardless of citizenship              (4/8/10)    Reduction of US and Russian nuclear arms by 1/3, focus on Iran (4/15/10)   Introduced plan to incentivize private space travel companies (5/14/10)   Froze congressional salaries through 2011 (5/25/10)   Sent 1,200 National Guard troops to Mexico border (6/9/10)    Started a fund to pay transportation of fallen soldier's families (7/2/10)    Increased security of biological agents and toxins stored in US (7/21/10)   Largest reform of background financial transactions since 1924 (7/22/10)   Extended basic unemployment benefits for 2.3 mil Americans (7/22/10)   Started investigations into stopping fraudulent federal payments (8/2/10)    Reduced racial divide in sentencing for crack and cocaine (8/4/10)    Posthumously restored rank of Vietnam scapegoat commander