It's no big secret that I supported Hillary Clinton in the 2008 bid for Democratic presidential candidate. I thought that her experience in the White House, as well as having her husband's knowledge to draw upon (Bill Clinton was the last president to leave us with a surplus, a staggering surplus at that, which Bush burned through and got America nearly a trillion dollars in debt in his first term) would make for an incredibly capable president. I believed that her no-nonsense attitude would also be beneficial, as her track record included far less BDSM-style submission that Democrats misconstrue as compromise.
However, Obama won the nomination and then the presidency, and I supported him as I view anyone with apparently good intentions as being vastly better than the exploitative vultures in the Republican party who would have all money and resources funneled directly to the rich. Unfortunately, his administration has been one of waffling and surrender to the point where I'm surprised the birthers don't think he's from France instead of Kenya.
Guantanamo, Afghanistan, gay marriage; all of these major issues the president has either simply let lie or, in the case of Afghanistan, actively aggravate the situation by pushing more troops into an area where US presence is a prime cause for terrorist sentiment.
Above all else, however, it is this abomination of Obamacare that will forever blight the president in my eyes. It is his "No Child Left Behind," a presidential mandate that will doubtlessly begin to tear apart those least fortunate. The original proposition reviled by Conservatives as Obamacare was an ingenious concept and a transitory phase to universal healthcare like every other first-world democracy has: it would have the United States government implement its own health insurance plan that citizens could sign onto if they lacked the funds to get healthcare from the private insurers. Obviously, the idea that big business might lose income from the unemployed - those rendered jobless by the Bush housing market collapse and subsequent stock market implosion - switching to a public option sent Republicans into a panic and Congress, now controlled by Republicans because Americans were too goddamn stupid to realize that two years isn't enough time to fix eight years' worth of bullshit, shot down the bill like nobody's business.
Fast-forward two years, to this landmark Supreme Court decision over the newest incarnation of Obamacare, the one that Mitt Romney is vowing to slay even though forcing the public to buy from private insurers or else was his fucking idea back in Massachusetts. This Obamacare is a travesty, an order for all Americans to purchase health insurance or be fined, yet it has no impetus for insurers to lower their prices for those below the poverty line. This is exactly like No Child Left Behind, wherein the least able schools are further penalized because they can't educate their students well enough with what meager funds they have, so Conservatives' solution is to cut their funding further. Only, unlike NCLB, there is no real way to cheat the system and fake test scores to get out of paying for insurance or paying a fine.
I believe that this act will go down in history as one of the worst governmental mandates in history, only helping the rich to get richer while the poor lose what little money they have. I can bet it won't be too long before some rich bastard is offering deals to the poor like a feudal lord, where they can live on his thousand-acre estate in return for endlessly working for him.
However, in this latest presidential election I will still be voting for Obama over Romney. I'd rather have a spineless, idiotic wimp in power than someone actively working for the bad guys and promoting prejudiced, even genocidal, sentiments.
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