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Re:Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team by serf on Thursday November 10, 2016 @11:08PM (#12927667)
>> Legitimate question: what could Obama have done better?

I don't know, i'm no politician; i'm just waiting on the 2008 Obama campaign promise to close Guantanamo Bay (to clarify: I mean cease black operations at that site indefinitely -- I don't have any illusions that the U.S. will stop illegal black operations internationally.).

I don't know whether or not if it's an impossibility at this point to do so; but I also believe if it is impossible it probably shouldn't have been a campaign promise used to influence voters.

Re:Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team by gethoht on Friday November 11, 2016 @01:56AM (#12928578)
Let's hope you're so particular when it comes to Trump and his campaign promises. So far his "draining the swamp" means he's filled it with establishment sewage. http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/10/politics/donald-trump-transiti...
Re:Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team by Jtsummers on Thursday November 10, 2016 @11:17PM (#12927738)
He lacked sufficient Congressional support for a lot of that. And when he did release detainees? He was demonized by many (particularly from the right).
Re:Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team by pavlov on Friday November 11, 2016 @05:05AM (#12929332)
Closing Guantànamo Bay turned out to be much more difficult than Obama assumed. The full sordid story can be found here:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/01/why-obama-has-f...

Re:Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team by ryanbrunner on Friday November 11, 2016 @10:11AM (#12931275)
I agree with the overall message that Obama was way more establishment than he made himself seem in the campaign, but Guantanamo is a horrible example. He's consistently brought it up and fight for it, if it was an empty campaign promise he would have quietly never mentioned it again.

Impossibility can mean a couple of things - the logistical challenges of where Guantanamo prisoners should go, and the impossibility of getting it done in a Republican-controlled senate and house.

The first is in line with your point, although I think it's a reasonable assumption that Obama honestly underestimated the challenge. For the second, it's not reasonable to call it a broken promise if he made a good faith effort and was blocked by something out of his control (that he couldn't have necessarily predicted)