By Peter Baofu

Four years ago, in 2008, Barack Obama the Democratic Party presidential candidate promised many Americans that "he would change America,...put aside partisan differences, restore hope to those without jobs, begin the process of saving the planet from global warming, and make America proud again," as reported by The Economist on September 01, 2012. He even won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize prematurely for his promises (only after a few months in office). This is his "audacity of hope" in action, so to speak.

Today, four years later, he has not achieved any of them. In a recent poll, "more than 60% of voters believe their country to be on the wrong track. Mr Obama's approval ratings are well under 50%; almost two-thirds of voters are unimpressed (however harshly)" by his performance, as reported by The Economist on September 01, 2012.

Therefore, as the U.S. presidential election on November 06, 2012 is approaching, an important question to ask here is, Does Barack Obama deserves a second term (for four more years)? The answer is a resounding "no," for the following 11 reasons, which reveal what can be called his audacity of failure.  

(1) First, Obama did not turn the economy around, as he promised four years ago. On the contrary, as of today, "three million more Americans are out of work than four years ago"; worse, "the national debt is $5 trillion bigger" to pass $16 trillion (on Obama's watch), as reported by The Economist on September 01, 2012. In other words, Obama broke his promise "to cut the deficit in half" in his first term, and John Boehner therefore warned against the consequences of this growing national debt: "This debt is a drain on our economy and a crushing burden on our kids and grandkids, and it's yet another indication that the president's policies have made things worse," as reported by Olivier Knox on September 04, 2012. 

Even his former teacher at Harvard Law School, Professor Roberto Unger, who "taught President Barack Obama classes such as Jurisprudence and Reinventing Democracy" criticized his former student last month that "President Obama...has subordinated the broadening of economic and educational opportunity to the important but secondary issue of access to healthcare," as reported by Gregg Re for the Daily Caller on June 17, 2012.

(2) Second, Obama did not make American politics less partisan, as he promised four years ago. On the contrary, he has much polarized American politics, and an excellent example is his "health-care reform," such that "partisan gridlock is worse than ever," because he used a procedural trick to force his reform proposal through Congress without a single Republican vote and without the support of the majority of the American public at the time, so his "health-care reform...has become a prime source of rancor," as it remains so today, as reported by The Economist on September 01, 2012. In fact, the rise of the Tea Party in recent years has much to do with this, although there are other causes too. 

(3) Third, Obama did not fulfill his liberal cause, as he promised four years ago. On the contrary, his former teacher at Harvard Law School, Professor Roberto Unger, also recently said that "Obama...has failed to advance the progressive cause. He has spent trillions of dollars to rescue the moneyed interests and left workers and homeowners to their own devices," as reported by Gregg Re for the Daily Caller on June 17, 2012. So, Unger's conclusion is that "President Obama must be defeated in the coming election."  

(4) Fourth, Obama did not create a post-racial America that he promised four years ago. On the contrary, he repetitively showed a pro-black bias in his dealing with domestic racial relations. For example, in July 2009, shortly after the arrest of a black professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., "President Barack Obama, who regards himself as a black and a friend of Gates, called the arrest 'stupid,' even though he acknowledged of not knowing all the facts about the incident (and later had to call the arresting white police officer, Sgt. James Crowley, in order to quell the public uproar against his biased remark)," as already reported in an article "The Politics of Reverse-Racism in America" on July 30, 2009.

Then, in June 2012, Obama "protected" Attorney General Eric Holder, a black, "with a first-in-his-presidency claim of 'executive privilege,'" when Holder refused "to comply with House Oversight Committee subpoenas for documents involving the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives 'Fast and Furious' program of 2009-2010," and this is so, even after the House voted "to hold...Holder in contempt of Congress" on June 29, as reported by Debra Saunders for Real Clear Politics on June 24, 2012.

Later in July 2012, in another incident involving the shooting of a black teenager Trayvon Martin who was in conflict with a neighborhood security officer George Zimmerman, Obama reacted by saying: "If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon," but this, for the critics, was "a coded message to black people that Obama is on their side," as reported by Jesse Washington for The Associated Press on July 30, 2012.

And he continued to show his pro-black racial politics by "siding against white people through actions such as his Justice Department's decision to drop voter intimidation charges against New Black Panthers and in a program to turn out the black vote called 'African-Americans for Obama,'" as reported by Jesse Washington in the same article.

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/05-09-2012/122077-barack_obama_reelected-0/