He didn't say "Yes, I Can"..

He said "Yes,we can."

He wasn't going to do everything. WE all had to do some part of it, too!

I'm just getting infuriated at the circus that's springing up all around the 2012 Presidential campaign. Everyone's talking about the economy and what Obama hasn't done about this. I find the short term memory some Americans have shocking.

First of all, people were unemployed before 2009 when Obama took office. The Bush administration is the one who agreed to the bank bailouts, and Obama got stuck holding it. Am I really only part of the 34% that remembers that? What about the global scale - did we forget Osama Bin Laden already and participation in Libya with international allies, not just US forces. I still think Cowboy Bush would've landed forces Iran and North Korea by now.

To me, with my basic undergraduate knowledge of micro/macroeconomics, this is all cyclical. There was a false sense of wealth in the real estate bubble and it was going to go down (hence the term, "bubble"). It'll go up again and get to steady state, but it'll be much slower rise. You can get the conditions right, but you can't kick it any faster to go within 6 months or 1 year. It needs to go through its natural course for recovery. As for the jobs, they are out there and it's slower climb, but they are growing over the last 6 years.It'd be one thing if we were losing more jobs, but there are jobs out there.

The Republican jokers are all focusing on the economy and Obama's lack of action. They're playing to their audience. Frankly, all of the candidates the Republican Party are churning out makes my stomach turn. Everyone loved Herman Cain's economic plan, but could you have seen him at a G20 Summit with Angela Merkel? Rick Perry and Rick Santorum believe America is made of southern white, heterosexual Christians. I don't understand the talk of family values by Republicans and Tea Bag Party. Sarah Palin's "family values" show it's acceptable for teen premarital sex and pregnancies. This is a lot different than most immigrant households where boys aren't allowed to call the house, let alone sneak into our beds. (I'm just saying immigrant because I had friends from Bangladesh to Cambodia to China to Ecuador with equally strong restrictions)  I was quite shocked by Santorum's quote: "God has given us this great country to allow his people to be free." Wow. Divine Providence is going to rule the government. Jesus, take the wheel.

The last part that irritates me is the constant mantra of "less government involvement." Yes, fine, that makes sense though I'm not sure how dissolving Department of Education or Energy or EPA is going to help anyone. I thinking of our corporate reorganizations that happen and what the impact is (or lack of impact). We're just one corporation, so I always imagine that government agencies would be 10x more fun. 

Anyway, less government would be fine, but how is it acceptable that government should define what marriage and kind of family we should have (the Duggars will be the norm?).

Enough of that.

One of the sites I subscribe to on Facebook is Politifact. I like getting frequent updates on sound bites that they have researched. It's ridiculous that politicians are spewing half truths and the public is gobbling them up.

With all this said, I still believe in Obama. I'm disappointed in friends who were in love with Obama and have suddenly turned face. I still believe he's the most logical and refined person out there to represent the country. Unfortunately, he's in an odd position much like something that happened at my company.

A new manager came on earlier last year with a lot of energy and inspiration. We were excited because she promised change and we thought she could deliver. We all connected with ideas, we'd work as a team and move ourselves into a brighter direction. Unfortunately, we forgot about the Establishment. There are already organizational structures, defined profit margins and budgets and senior leaders who overlooked or overruled our recommendations. Eventually, the new manager was moved into a different role and another manager stepped forward. However, the Establishment is still there, which has been the only constant over the last 10 years there.

In case my comparison above wasn't obvious, Obama is like my manager. The Establishment is the rest of Congress. The Tea Party set afire to parts of this country and Republicans majority was elected into Congress. As much as Obama wants to make those strides, he's getting shot down (much like my manager). When Obama was running, I feared for this. I was a Hillary Clinton fan because I felt she had experience in the inside world of Washington. She tried to present a health plan early on and was shot down. She's been there, done that. I wasn't sure how Obama was going to fare in this. You have to work in the Establishment. A lot of the Obama fans don't feel like he's delivering either, but he's not going to go to one extreme or another. That's why we liked him - he was balanced. He's not perfect. I'd be knocking in my boots if I was to be perfect and make everyone around me content every day at work.

The structure of the US is not all about the President moving the country forward. It's everyone - Congress passing laws without playing games, people making choices for themselves in their own lives, small and large companies making smarter decisions for business growth and decreasing the gap between the 99% and the 1%.

I still believe in the message of "Hope" and its warrantee doesn't run out at the end of 2012.