Oliver Stone: Obama Made Bad Situation 'Worse'

The refrain from Hollywood over the past four years is that President Barack Obama inherited a very bad situation and helped make things better – by a smidge.

Director Oliver Stone begs to differ.

The man behind “JFK” and “Wall Street” blasts Obama from the Left in a new book called “The Untold History of the United States,” hitting book stores tomorrow (Oct. 30).Stone even dropped the “B” word – “Bush” – in referencing Obama’s first term.”

The country Obama inherited was indeed in shambles, but Obama took a bad situation and, in certain ways, made it worse,” write Stone and Kuznick, reports Politico. “Rather than repudiating the policies of Bush and his predecessors, Obama has perpetuated them….”

On health care: “Obama’s failure to articulate a progressive vision was also apparent in the fight over health reform, which was to have been his signature initiative…Obama’s health care reform effort, marked by the inability to even refute Republican charges of death panels, was so unpopular that it became an albatross around the necks of Democrats in the 2010 election.”

On a troop surge in Afghanistan: “When it finally came down to decision time, Obama didn’t have the courage or integrity of a post-Cuban Missile Crisis John F. Kennedy. He settled on a 30,000-troop increase, giving the military leaders almost everything they wanted and more than they expected.”

On civil liberties: “Among the greatest disappointments to his followers was Obama’s refusal to roll back the expanding national security state that so egregiously encroached on American civil liberties.”