Not for a second.

Please, please, please learn to phrase a poll question. You might as well have asked "Do you trust President Obama to do what you think should be done in Afghanistan?". Leave out the ambiguous stuff ("the right thing" wasn't defined) and ask about specifics.

Yes, I trust President Obama wiith everything he is doing as President of the US.
However, sadly, he has a long way to go to win the trust of many Americans because of our long history of racism and bigotry, and the unfinished mess left by the corrupt previous administration.

WTF Express ???
Let's see. There was enough trust to elect him, but maybe not for this specific task. Really.

Why don't you ask your readers to define what "the right thing on Afghanistan" is, what the end state will look like, and how they would measure success.

If one doesn't know what "the right thing is", then how would you expect them to "trust" someone else to do that?

Since the problem can not be solved with rhetoric, the President will be in yet another jam. Predictably, his solution will be to politically define 'right thing' by strictly limiting it to things he can control. That is not much, but it will sound great. On with the show!

He cannot do the right thing, he has to apease the left. So that means we will be stuck there forever because he cannot place more troops in.
So if he doesnt increase troops we stay there forever, if he does his supporters are angry at him.

The "right thing"? According to whom? Biden? McChrystal? Gates? Pelosi? Operation Pink? Sorry, but this question is far too obtuse to be answered seriously.

More than I trusted his predecessor, that's for sure.

This reminds me of all those “Do you hate Bush” questions the Express would ask. You know whatever the question is the people who support Obama will vote yes and the people who do not support Obama will vote no.

No, I trust Obama to do whatever the democratic party wants him to do. Whether it is good for the troops or national security will not be his concern. He will cowtow to his party, like most American politicians.

@ Anonymous 7:11 AM

Glad to hear that you are helping end racism and bigotry by stereotyping people yourself. Isn't that also racism and bigotry?

A lot of people have discussed his policies, while very few talk about his race. yet anytime someone complaisn about Obama, there is always someone ready to call that person a racist. Why is that? Perhaps it is the people calling peole "racist" that are mirroring their own morals, values, and ideals on the people that disagree with the President.

I hate to tell you, unless the person has their head in a hole, no one will ever agree with everything ANY president says or does. Most people actually can agree that the presdient makes good and bad calls. No racism or bigotry there.

I trust him. I don't trust the miiltary-industrial complex, though.

I trust him. I don't trust the miiltary-industrial complex, though.

Is this a trick question? There's a huge hint in large type about 3 inches above the poll question: "Afghanistan Pullout Ruled Out". The obvious answer is NO.

@Anonymous. When you play the race card as frivilously as Ben Bernanke prints money, you render it worthless.

@ Anonymous, 7:11 AM

After rereading your posting, I decided to add a little more.

I agre with you that there is a lot of racism and bigotry in the US. There is a lot of racism and bigotry in other countries as well. It is partially human nature. However we can make the choice to rise above it.

Rasism and bigotry is not a one way street perpetuated solely by whites. There are black racist, hispanic rasist,, and so forth, all within the US (as well as other portions of the world).

I often tell my son not to sink to the level of the people that call him names and pick on him. Whining, complaining, and calling names back does not do anything but continue the cycle. He must be better than the people that call him things and know that inside.

20 years ago I had a teacher that told me too many person who are discriminated against do nothing to change the situation but "scream" they are being held back. He thinks too many are afraid too stop because then they would have to put forth the effort to show they are better. When those groups strive to do better they do. I remind my son of that constantly. Even though he tends to be discriminated against a t times, he is an A/B student and plays sports. I beleive he will have a better place in the world because he is putting forth the effort and ignoring those who say petty things about him just to feel better abotu themselves.

Obama has no military experience and apparently is more interested in listening to his political advisors than his generals - that's not a recipe for making good decisions about Afghanistan.

I trust that he'll try, but the previous administration's decision to treat this conflict as a sideshow for the last several years has left us in sorry straits.

@ rednomore -
So you don’t trust an intangible concept that you can’t even spell? Good call, dude. Last I checked, the military, even the generals and admirals, answered to civilian authority. Why would you think that service personnel have a need to conspire? – their paycheck is guaranteed, whether they have equipment or not, and whether they use it or not, and whether they are successful or not. Often, the military says they do NOT want a new ship or plane. Yet, your Congress critters say it WILL be in the budget, since the factory is in their district. See http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=43721&dcn=e_tma and http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09326sp.pdf . Your MIC monster is often found in the Senate and House. Last questions: what political party has held the majority of those chambers for the past few fiscal years? They may have inherited some previously-approved budgets that had to be implemented, but haven't they been in total control enough (read as: at least two fiscal years) to cancel programs, redraw priorities, and implement their own budget?

@ rednomore

Hmm. The President AKA the Commander in Chief controls the "military industrial complex" as you call it. So, if you do not trust the military he controls, how can you trust him? Most soldiers are not chomping at the bit to go kill or be killed.

Perhaps you should have less faith in Congress as a whole since they are merely concerned with their own pay raises and party lines, not the ultimate good of the country.

The President will make a desicion based on what he beleives is right. There will be people that agree with him and people that do not.

Regardless, the Express Poll writers did not specify what "the right thing on Afghanistan" is in their opnion. Thus the question is pointless. You and I may agree on what the "right thing" is and we may not. There are as many interpretations of the "right thing" as there are people.

It's so sad to watch the people who championed the abandonment of Afghanistan seven years ago question policy deliberations. Obama must now contend with almost a decade without progress in Afghanistan and a much more complex situation. He will make the right decision, but it's about more than troop strength. Let's be thankful we have a president who's willing to actually think about a problem and weigh solutions.

I trust him to make a sound desicion based on the facts he has at hand and in the face of mounting pressure from multiple sides with different agendas.

Regardless of what President Obama decides to do in Afghanistan (stay, put in more troops, or withdraw), only time will tell if it is "right thing "or not. Our opinions are moot.

We went to Afghanistan because Al Quaeda and the Taliban used it as a safe haven to train, plan, and launch an attack on US soil (it does not matter whether the American public supported that or not because it has been done). Could they do that from somewhere else? perhaps. Could they do it again from Afghanistan? Perhaps. Ther President has to make a choice with the facts at hand, right or wrong only time will verify that.

[Why am I being impersonated in the comments section? I don't post here nearly enough to merit that kind of following. But I'm flattered.]
Kevin@6:31 is right about flawed nature of the question. Every one of us is answering a different question today, because we all have different conceptions about actions that constitute the "right thing."
I trust President Obama's intentions far more than those of his predecessor, and I trust that he is making careful, informed decisions based on those good intentions. He may end up not doing what I think to be the "right thing" (an end to the war) but I do trust him.

No. Obama is Bush III, and the Raving Right in the USA have an eternal blood lust.

Even the Pentagon's favorite think tank, the Rand Corp, recently stated:
"The evidence since 1968 indicates that most terrorist groups have ended because (1) they joined the political process (43 percent) or (2) local police and intelligence agencies arrested or killed key members (40 percent). Military force has rarely been the primary reason for the end of terrorist groups, and few groups within this time frame have achieved victory." (http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG741-1/)

The bottom line is: Diplomacy and police action works. The military are helpless. Bring the troops home now.

I ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY trust President Obama to do the right thing on Afghanistan.

President Obama inherited this war from the illegal, immoral, and totally corrupt Bush/Cheney regime of thugs and cronies. THEY launched this war not for America's best interests, but so that their cronies (Haliburton, Blackwater) could enjoy HUGE PROFITS from it.

Bush/Cheney completely neglected our brave women and men that THEY had sent into harm's way. Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rummy had NO strategy and NO exit plan. They wanted War for War's Sake. They were war-mongers and war criminals (and for that, they should be triedm convicted, and jailed!)

In November, 2008, the people of the United States came to their senses and elected Barack Obama to lead us to a NEW ERA of PEACE, prosperity, gender equality, justice, and love.

And President Obama has NOT disappointed us. He has led us away from those eight long dreary years of national nightmare. We are not yet to the New Era, but we ARE on the right path.

I TRUST our brave, hopeful, beloved President to do the right thing in Afghanistan.

I know he will.

There is no right move...that's what's becoming very clear. If we leave, the Taliban and Al-Quida will re-establish themselves and the past 9 years will have been a waste. If we stay, we're in the middle of an endless shooting gallery...this is the homeland whose history is all about constant waring tribes. If they weren't fighting us, they'd be fighting someone else, or eachother. Our big mistake was to cut the cord on Musharaf in Pakistan. This move only increased the militants spilling into Afghanistan.

Being that he seems to have ruled out doing the right thing (pulling out of that 9 year mess, and the entire region we have no business in), of course not!

He always takes the worst possible choice, it seems. Will it cause our economy and nation to collapse faster? Approved! "Change" would require an actual change in the Bush pattern of national disasters.

Perhaps the questions should read:

Do you trust President Obama to do about Afghanistan what you personnaly think is the right thing to do about Afghanistan?

That way it will fit all the opinions because many of you aren't clarifying what you think he will do (other than Zora who beleives Obama will creat a world Utopia).

No. And only because he has had no previous experience with the military to speak of.

More than Bush that squandered our money and the mission in Afghanistan on the botched war in Iraq.

Do any of you know how to read?

Today's question is really not at all about what you think the President will or will not do. The question (intentionally, in my view) does not ask whether you agree with what the President will ultimately do.

Instead, the question is about whether you trust the President or not.

All these comments about the "flawed nature" of the question do not take into account the apparent fact that the staff of the Express intentionally wrote the question to get an idea of how much trust the readers of Express have in the President.

I expect that we will hear of a more rapid withdrawal of troops from Iraq, an infusion of 15k troops to train Afghan special forces and General McCrystal to retire next year. I don't know if this is the "right thing", but time will tell.

Yes! I trust him and his generals more so than the last guy "in charge".

@ I can read

I cannot trust a president that takes withdrawal (the only sane/moral/economic solution) off the table.

Frankly, I trust no-one in the WH, Congress or the SC. They are all in the pockets of for-profit corporations, and care little for individual citizens. Capitalism is a train wreck, despite George Washington's appeals otherwise.

Capitalism is like a raging river in that it has the potential to provide many beneficial things for man and beast, or much destruction to many.

If the river floods or dries up, there is the potential for devastation. We must therefore determine how to manage the raging river to our benefit.

From 1776 until 1932 the US capitalist economy was a raging river that caused a majority of US citizens more harm than good. Then the New Deal managed the capitalist economy for the good of a majority of Americans for 50 years. Thirty years of financial industry decriminalization (euphemistically called deregulation) subsequently turned the US capitalist economy back into an out of control raging river that benefits 2% of the population at the expense of the 98%.

Restore regulation now.

Why not just say convicted and jailed? Why bother with a trial? You seem to have made up your mind as to what the outcome should be, so no need for theater to give the false impression that people have a right to a trial or anything, right?

By the way--what has BO actually done so far to create this new era? Because it looks an awful lot like Bush's era. Just wondering, because I can't think of anything. Something tells me that he could sit in his office watching cartoons all day and you'd still have the same opinion...........

@I Can Read(11:57)

The question is flawed because it assumes that you know what the "right thing" is, and then asks if you think Obama will do that. "Will Obama do what I want" is not a productive or informative survey question - it is an invitation to brawl.

Will Obama do what I consider to be the "right thing"? Probably not. But I trust that he knows better than I what the "right thing" to do is, I trust that his motivations are just, and I trust that he bases his decisions on reason and on all the information laid before him - NOT by revenge / emotion / his gut / greed / war profiteering / flawed, conflicting or cherry-picked information / messages from God (take your pick from the Bush wheelhouse).

Here's the real news. Obama is asleep at the wheel while the replacement of the dollar as the world reserve currency is in progress (the only thing maintaining our remaining prosperity):

"Chinese financial sources believe President Barack Obama is too busy fixing the US economy to concentrate on the extraordinary implications of the transition from the dollar in nine years' time."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/the-demise-of-the-dollar-1798175.html

Poor Obama... he just may go down in history as the guy who was in control when it all fell apart...

"From 1776 until 1932 the US capitalist economy was a raging river that caused a majority of US citizens more harm than good. Then the New Deal managed the capitalist economy for the good of a majority of Americans for 50 years."

You've got it almost exactly backwards. Since the new deal we haven't HAD capitalism, we've had nothing but state control of a barely-free market.

@ I Can Read

Thank you so much for your helpful post! Until I read your comments, I had no idea what the Express team was after! I get it now! Please see my amended reply below:

"Yes, I trust the president 100% to do...uhm...err...well, something in Afghanistan."

And now my suggestion for Wednesday's poll question: "If the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus entered a foot race, what would be the square root of blue?"

@ I can read -
Really? So maybe you paid attention in elementary school. I suspect you may have come up short in your statistics class or methods courses (that is: both quantitative and qualitative), and I will not even discuss rhetoric here. But alas, faults that these responders found with today’s the question are valid.

If the Express simply want to poll trust in the president (your comment about whether to trust or not to trust), then why the superfluous verbiage? The Express predicated that trust on something undefined here.

Further, let me ask this question, using old news: "Do you (as of today) still trust President Obama to do the right thing on bringing the Olympics to Chicago?" - doesn't matter the point is moot. Don't tell me that you don't trust the President to (get the Olympics to Chicago).

Oh Boy Crazy Zora is back

Everyone has an opinion of what the right thing is and they probably don't match. This is a bad question.

This is me, the real AMCSoldier that works for Army Material Command and lives in Chantilly.

V is almost as nuts a Zora

@ the REAL AMCsoldier, 12:44 p.m. --

So, to sum up ---

You trust Obama.

You did not trust Bush.

Did I leave anything out?

(I trust you voted "yes")

To all,
1st - I agree with V on everything but her first line.
2nd - What is the "right thing" mean in the question? Don't answer as I am sure there will be too many replies.

To AMCSoldier,
Ignore the fake and they will disappear. I saw this once before with Zora and either Diogenes or George Washington. An empty mind that cannot come up with their own name.

Not at all. He is a coward and pandering to the left plain and simple. Sometimes peace does not work and a president must be strong and make the difficult decisions. Why is it taking him so long to listen to those WITH MILITARY EXPERIENCE? This is a prime example of why it should be a prerequisite to serve in the military BEFORE you are allow to command it.

No, the right thing to do is to listen to his generals and give them the resources they require, in this case more troops, otherwise more of our troops will die senselessly. Where are those that criticized the last administration for the same thing? I guess it is ok now for our troops to die for no reason since a Democrat is now in the White House.

@ LOL

WELL SAID

@I Can Read, 1:35
I tried to answer the question as you explained it. You said, "[t]he question is about whether you trust the President or not." Yes, I do trust the President. Do I trust him to do "the right thing" on Afghanistan? If doing the "right thing" means making a carefully deliberated, reasoned, and thoughtful decision (an approach we seldom saw in the past), then yes, I trust him to do that.

@the REAL REAL AMCsoldier, 1:25
Are you done?

Hey Soldier -
Why would anyone admit to being in Army Material Command? That unit is a rear-echelon goat rope.

Sorry but "V" is completely wrong, that is just economic ignorance. The reality is pretty much completely reversed. We don't have capitalism now--we have STATE capitalism, which is not the same at all. Our current system resembles fascism more than a free market and a free society. Yet capitalism and the free market gets blamed for these "failures"--the products of state intervention. What a load of propaganda.

The new deal was a RAW deal. It made the depression LONGER and worse, and it's artifacts are still at work destroying our economy even today. Ever hear of the depression of 1921 (also caused by the Federal Reserve)? Probably not, because it ended in about a year--the government did NOTHING and it came to an end quickly. Forward to the "great" depression and we have a case of the exact same thing happening--only this time the government did try to "fix" the problem and they prolonged/worsened the Federal Reserve generated disaster.

Too bad our government-run schools don't teach that reality in history class..gee, I wonder why?

Now we have Obama trying to repeat history. No, of course I don't "trust" someone implementing the same type of failed policies of FDR.

@ George Washington

Maybe you have been asleep the past 30 years.
1) The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980.
2) The Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982.
3) The Glass-Steagall Act in 1999.
These are just the major financial reforms that gave us the Savings and Loans crisis, the housing bubble and the last 3 recessions.
I've not even mentioned all the industries that have been deregulated that have left us with decades old infrastructure, failing companies and high costs (transportation, energy and communications come to mind, where the US is clearly in the bottom percentile of all nations serving its citizens).

@ Anonymous (1:15 p.m.):

Your question: "If the Express simply want to poll trust in the president (your comment about whether to trust or not to trust), then why the superfluous verbiage?"

My reply: Because the staff of the Express likes to dress up questions in superfluous language. It sparks debate, and drives traffic to its website. That's good for advertizing revenue -- important to the Washington Post which is seeing declining revenues.

You ask a second question: ""Do you (as of today) still trust President Obama to do the right thing on bringing the Olympics to Chicago?"

My reply: Seventy-three.

Re CK @ 1:44 PM -
Not arguing, I understand concern about the military experience of our Commander in Chief, but just want to offer my unsolicited comments:
- The military answers to the people, not the other way around.
- The only prerequisites are listed in Article II of the Constitution. Any additional ones will require an amedmant, which my unscientific poll of vets say they would oppose.
- By that logic, the only qualified OB-GYN doctors are those who gave birth; males need not apply. The only qualified history teachers are those who witnessed the event; nobody is now qualified to teach about the Greek empire, the Black Plague, the Civil War, etc. Nobody is qualified to be a CEO at McDonald's Corp unless they flipped burgers and passed drinks through a window; MBAs and CPAs need not apply.
- Bill Clinton was described as a a "pot-smoking, draft dodging, womanizer" - all making him unfit for service, or a violation of the UCMJ; does that mean the US has to take back his eight years as Commander in Chief?

Does he want to please the soft-on-terrorists left? Or does he want to be known as the President who lost Afghanistan, followed possibly by Pakistan, to the Al Qaeda and the Taliban? His choice.

Looking at these comments, there are some real conspiracy theory nuts here.

I trust President Obama to do the right thing. Why wouldn't he? Why would a President want to do the wrong thing, especially when peoples' lives are at stake. Moreover, by his actions of meeting with members of congress on both sides and having countless meetings with his advisers, he obviously is thinking everything through and determing what is best for the US.

@George Washington

The US an example of State Capitalism? Are you joking? What are you smoking to give such a distorted sense of "reality"? State Capitalism describes a society wherein the productive forces are OWNED and run by the state. You are correct that this described Facist Italy where Mussolini's government owned/monopolized strategic resources necessary for national security, such as transport, communications and oil production. That is hardly the case in the US.
A more relaxed definition of State Capitalism is a close relationship between the government and private capitalism, such as one in which the private capitalists produce for a guaranteed market and for-profit companies are not subject to the discipline of competitive markets. This aptly describes the US military-industrial complex. Perhaps you have this in mind, but last I heard, the US produces things other than guns and WMDs.

Your arguments about the New Deal are fatuous at best. The New Deal gave the US its growth in the 50s and 60s, when US citizens enjoyed its highest standard of living. However, with Reaganomics, we now have a wealth gap exceeded only by India and Saudi Arabia. Poverty is a daily fact of life for a significant number of US citizens.

@V:

You didn't go back nearly far enough. If you research back to 1913 when the Federal Reserve was created, and New Deal interventions, you'd be more on target. Those examples you cited were not "deregulation" but re-regulation.

If you want to talk housing bubbles, the very existence of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc. is extremely anti-free market. Are the Federal Reserve's artificially low interest rates, which enabled the recent tech and housing bubbles another failure of the "free market"? (Of course not!) Just these two things alone are massive interventions into the market by the government! (Or government sub-orgs in the case of the Fed.)

To blame anything on "deregulation" (thus implying a free market), you have to have a free market to begin with! A 20% more "free" market is not the same!

Do we trust the President to do the right thing on Afghanastain? Of course, why would anyone think he would do the wrong thing.

Of course he would do the right thing, why wouldn't he do the right thing.