OBAMA THE ELITE

Clueless Republicans love to condemn President Barack Obama as “elite”, as though it were a character flaw. Of course he’s elite. On January 20, 2009, Obama joined an elite group – the first African-Americans to reach important milestones. Every one of them performed with exceptional courage and dignity despite abuse, harassment, threats, and intimidation from their “colleagues”, authorities, and the public.

Others in that group include Madame C.J. Walker, Jesse Owens, Hattie McDaniel, the Tuskegee Airmen, Jackie Robinson, the Little Rock Nine, and James Meredith. Some of them were physically assaulted. Many were ostracized, insulted, ridiculed, and slandered. There are dozens more. And millions more faced the same challenges but weren’t first, or famous. Many of their names are lost to history.

Their elitism demonstrates a strength of character, resilience, and determination that more people should possess. Not only were they first, but they were all distinguished in their fields. I’m glad that my president is elite.

DEMOCRATS’ SUCCESSES

President Obama’s strength and courage led Congressional Democrats to hundreds of impressive victories in only 21 months. We didn’t get everything we wanted, but he tackled issues that no one else would. And he didn’t give up. I’m not 100% pleased with Obama or the Democrats, but I am more pleased than I have been with any previous president.

According to PolitiFact.com, a Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking website, Obama made 506 campaign promises. To date, he’s kept 122 (24%), made progress on 236 (47%), compromised on 41 (8%), broken 22 (4%), and 82 (16%) are stalled in Congress BY REPUBLICANS. The Democrats’ accomplishments include:

• Created or saved 2,673,634 jobs in the first 16 months of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
• Extended unemployment benefits for millions of Americans who were about to lose their only source of income
• Restored regulations on the bankers, brokers, and financial institutions that decimated our economy
• Established a Credit Card Bill of Rights for consumers
• Expanded small business loan programs
• Passed health insurance reform, requiring coverage for dependent children, patients with pre-existing conditions, and those with serious illnesses
• Expanded eligibility for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program
• Fully funded the Veterans’ Administration
• Began removing combat forces from Iraq
• Re-committed American military efforts in Afghanistan, where they belong
• Established protections for families facing foreclosure
• And over 200 more successes

REPUBLICAN LIES

Meanwhile, the Republicans employ their standard strategy: lie, obfuscate, lie, obstruct, lie, distort, lie, threaten, lie, assault, lie, evade, and lie. If Barack Obama came out in favor of oxygen today, they’d try to ban it. Then they’d demand that HE apologize to them. 

• Death panels. Remember them?
• The dreaded “death tax”. No, the government is not going to take grandma’s family silver. The estate tax only concerns estates worth more than $3.5 million. Ask anyone who’s had a death in the family if they paid a single dime in federal estate taxes.
• Tax cuts create jobs. If they did, we would all have five jobs by now. Cutting wealthy PEOPLE’S taxes does not cause CORPORATIONS to hire more employees. Consumer demand for products and services creates jobs.
• President Obama tripled the deficit. No. Bush’s final budget included a $1.416 trillion deficit. Obama’s first budget deficit was $1.29 trillion. That’s $126 billion LESS.
• Health insurance reform costs taxpayers $1 trillion. Actually, it SAVES $138 billion on the deficit.
• He’s coming for your guns. If Obama wanted your precious guns, he would have them by now. And there’s not a thing you could do to stop him. He has more guns and bigger guns and more people than you do.
• Obama bailed out the banks. No, cheneybush did that. The TARP plan passed Congress on October 3, 2008, before Obama was even elected.
• Obama is a Marxist/socialist/Muslim/Nazi/Kenyan/terrorist. Seriously, grow up. And most Republicans wouldn’t know a Marxist if they tripped over one.

• And the biggest lie of all time, Democrats are engaged in a massive, nationwide conspiracy to get illegal aliens, dead people, and GASP !!!!! POOR PEOPLE to vote umpteen times each. Give me a break. The United States does not have, and has never had, a problem with voter fraud. It’s hard enough to get people to vote even once, let alone multiple times. And there is not a speck of evidence for any of their claims. What’s actually happening is an organized, Republican-funded election fraud plan to steal the entire election by preventing people from voting. Yes, really.

Are these the kinds of people you trust with your government?

POLLING

Current polls indicate that this election will be unusually close, but give a slight edge to the Republicans. I’m not so sure. Television commentators love polls because they can illustrate public opinion quickly and succinctly. And the graphs look cool on TV. A properly designed poll can be extremely accurate. And that is the problem. This year’s polls use obsolete designs. The typical questions – Is the country on the right track? Do you approve of the president’s job performance? – don’t fit this time. This is not the typical political climate. 

I participated in a telephone poll recently, and had some difficulty answering those questions. I can’t say whether the country is on the right track, because I’m not even sure what track we’re on. And no, I’m not crazy about the president’s performance. He spends far too much time kissing Republican backsides. It’s time to stop organizing the community and start leading it. And I know many people who agree with me. But that in no way means that I would ever vote for any of this herd of Republicans. The polls don’t consider that possibility. It means that we want the Democrats to grow a spine.

Summaries of all of the major polls are available on the Huffington Post.

So.

What have YOU accomplished in the past 21 months?

VOTE.

For more information:

• African-American Firsts
• President Obama’s Campaign Promises
• PolitiFact.com
• Democrats’ successes
• Republican Lies
• Six Fact-Checking Websites
• Republican Election Fraud

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