I think his intentions were good. And then he got in the hot seat and realized the system was bigger than him

I think I may agree with you, Steve.

What a difference in his speaking, then and now. He was so sure of himself and so determined (good campaigner). Now he is hesitant and not self-assured. I suspect and hope he realizes his own hypocrisy.

It may be that all the data sifting done while he has been in office actually turned up some useful, possibly critical, information, leading him to backtrack on the whole constitution thing. He may now actually believe that shredding the constitution is better than letting that info slip through the fingers of those charged with our security.

I hope he is not naïve enough to somehow believe there won't be egregious abuses along with the good stuff.

Eeesh, what a world.

If we were dealing only with this one issue, Steve and Lora, I would be inclined to agree with you.

But the truth is that you can take any of a broad array of issues (both foreign and domestic) and find a vast gap, a chasm, no less, between the soaring campaign rhetoric of Candidate Obama uttered during both the 2008 and 2012 campaigns and the policies Obama has actually advanced as President.

The most recent entailed his 2012 campaign vow not to touch Social Security followed promptly by his advocating a chained CPI for Social Security.

As I stated to David Lasagna on a previous thread:

Again, it is regrettable to see such a smart human being be sooooooooooo compromised. Our countrie's state of affairs with the next intelligence (globally) leaping that shall be exposed by us the PEOPLE (masses to be manipulated donka know) that will not be left out of the discussion. HAHAHA MOTU ASSHOLES!

Soaring rhetoric is grand, reality is a far different animal. I think it's probably very difficult to make changes to the system, much easier for the system to change the individual. He likely never even saw it coming...

So Steve, are you saying that when Obama followed his 2012 campaign promise not to touch Social Security with his 2013 proposal for a chained CPI that he "likely never even saw it coming"?

WTF?

I'm talking about the contrast between the 2007 footage and the current footage. The video. Nowhere did I mention social security or CPI...

Well, Obama is certainly intelligent, and must, like ALL politicians, tell untruths at times, to put it kindly.

I think that he is basically a good guy as politicians go, who also happens to know which side his bread is buttered on.

I think what he didn't see coming, was how often he would feel obliged to backtrack and/or tell untruths, you know, for the greater good (his and ours).

And the strain shows up in his more tentative, hesitant speech.