Preliminary Note
Does that title seem disrespectful? I agree; it is. Please read on and judge if the disrespect is earned.
Barack Obama
I became aware of rOEWBarack Obama seeing him on television during the 2007 primaries and thinking "what a great looking guy and what a great voice!" I was impressed by his apparent competence and his apparent devotion to eliminating divisiveness in American politics. Remember the theme "No Red States, no Blue States, only the United States."
Intrigued, I did some research and discovered that the operative word was "apparent", not real.
Prior to his election, Obama had 6 years as an Illinois state senator and had not even completed one term as US Senator. His work experience outside of politics was negligible.
As a state senator in Illinois, he voted three times against bills requiring medical care and protection for babies born alive after a failed abortion.
In his abbreviated term as United States Senator, he joined filibusters against President Bush's Supreme Court nominees and voted against both Alito and Roberts.
While proclaiming humility, he displayed a narcissism that was appalling even in a profession where it is common. Remember his nomination acceptance spvgeech, staged in a stadium in front of a constructed faux Greek Temple:
I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. …this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment - this was the time - when we came together to remake this great nation. [Emphasis added.]
And five days before the election:
We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.
Unfortunately, that boast became true, which is why "Make America Great Again" won the election.
His narcissism continued through his two terms. Not content with being loved by 95% of the media [ARCHIVE Issue 11], he fretted because it was not 100%. Obama has railed against Fox News more than he has against Islamic terrorism. e.g.
And narcissism flourished in the last days of his presidency when he had his Secretary of Defense award him a distinguished public service medal!
A Talent for Lying
Barack Obama is an incredible actor able to convey "sincerity" to an out-and-out lie. Before you dismiss that statement, please take the time to watch this truly remarkable video:
The video collects 16 instances where Barack Obama is seen claiming credit for ending the war in Iraq and removing our troops. Of course, time proved that to be a disastrous decision. Iraq, which he claimed was stable, collapsed without American military support. It created a vacuum which was filled by ISIS and led to increased terrorist atrocities throughout the Middle East and into the United States. Obama compounded his error by actually dismissing ISIS as "the JV."
Eventually, a member of the media had the temerity to ask Barack Obama about the consequences of his decision. You have to see it to believe it. After the 16 instances claiming "credit", the last segment on the video is this:
Reporter: “Mr. President, do you have any second thoughts about pulling all ground troops out of Iraq?”
Obama: “What I just find interesting is the degree to which this issue keeps on coming up, as if this was my decision.” [Emphasis added.]
He makes that reply appearing puzzled and hurt that anyone could suggest he had anything to do with removing the troops. Jaw-dropping chutzpah!
Another more frightening possibility has been suggested- that he creates his own reality and believes what he says, dismissing from his memory his words and actions to the contrary.
Please watch the video again to get the full impact of his ability to speak bald-faced lies while looking righteous. He has treated us to this playacting for 8 years and, in the last month, has used it repeatedly to assure us that his term in office accomplished things which in fact did not occur.
Obama's WHOPPERS
Herewith only a few of the many.
We made America more respected around the world.
Really?
After the Iranians returned our sailors, Secretary of State Kerry actually thanked them! [ARCHIVE Issue 24]
Kerry in the closing days of the Obama Administration followed the script:
President Obama laid a stronger foundation for American leadership in the world.
As for respect, note Obama's "respect" for America. [ARCHIVE Issue 5]
Obama CLAIMS
CLAIM: I’m proud of the fact that, with two weeks to go, we’re probably the first administration in modern history that hasn’t had a major scandal in the White House.
And OUR FORMER PRESIDENT SAID THIS WITH A STRAIGHT FACE!
This site lists 745 scandals.
This site limits itself to summaries of 18 major scandals. Here are a few.
Benghazi
On the night of September 11 and continuing into September 12, the American embassy compounds were attacked and 4 Americans murdered. 5 days earlier President Obama had declared: Al-Qa'ida is on the path to defeat.
Immediately after the attack, the President and the Hillary Clinton blamed it on an amateur video critical of Islam. On September 14, she repeated that several times to family members of the murdered Americans. That same day, the White House Press Secretary stated These protests were in reaction to a video. We have no information to suggest that it was a preplanned attack.' The next day, Susan Rice, our ambassador to the United Nations, after a White House briefing, on five Sunday interview programs, blamed the attacks on the video.
THOSE STATEMENTS WERE LIES!
The country eventually found out that at 11:12 PM, September 11, 2012, Hillary sent an email to her daughter, Chelsea, that reads: 'Two of our officers were killed in Benghazi by an al Qaeda-like group.': On the morning of September 12, Hillary told an Egyptian diplomat, 'We know the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack — not a protest'.”
When these facts came to light, Clinton accused the family members of lying.
As the scandal received more and more attention, she uttered the infamous words:
With all due respect, the fact is, we had four dead Americans! Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night and decided they'd go kill some Americans?! What difference, at this point, does it make?
It is beyond dispute that Obama knew the story of the video was false; the true facts were covered up to help Obama's re-election chances.
During the attacks, American lives might have been saved by deploying American air support but political considerations prevented that help from arriving.
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/07/03/judicial-watch-obama-and-hillary-clinton-concocted-benghazi-video-lie-with-jihadist-help/
[ARCHIVE Issue 15 - Benghazi]
Operation Fast and Furious
The program that involved arming Mexican drug dealers and resulted in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jamie Zapata, plus hundreds of Mexican citizens. One interpretation of this inept venture was that the Obama administration wanted to create gun crimes in Mexico so they would have a story to curb Second Amendment rights.
Eric Holder held in contempt of Congress
Holder became the first sitting member of a president’s cabinet in history to be held in contempt of Congress on both civil and criminal grounds. The contempt charge came in connection with Holder’s refusal to turn over documents about his agency’s lies on Operation Fast and Furious.
Iran nuclear deal and ransom payment
After doing nothing In 2009 when the mullahs put down the uprising, Obama completed the nuclear deal in which he claimed we have achieved a detailed arrangement that permanently prohibits Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The arms deal prohibited nothing that wasn't already prohibited more than 45 years ago. lt enables Iran to cheat the whole time. There is no inspection ‘anytime, anywhere’ -- which is the only type of inspection that matters. The United States is prohibited from ever sending in its own inspectors. No military sites can ever be inspected. Iran can therefore establish or move nuclear facilities to whatever area it wishes and label those areas military.
Following the announcement, controversy and contradictions exploded as to why the U.S. did not negotiate for the release for 4 hostages when they had the leverage of making the deal.
When the hostages were released, there were denials that a ransom was paid, then a modification as to the timing of the payments, then claims the payment was part of an earlier 1.7 billion agreement, then questions as to how that made any sense.
After the release of four American hostages, Iran took two more Americans hostage.
[ARCHIVE Issue 24 IRAN]
Selective targeting of conservative groups by the IRS
The IRS admitted wrongdoing. Pro-life and Tea Party groups were deliberately targeted for extra scrutiny, their tax exemption applications delayed until after the 2012 election. IRS officials lied about having backups of relevant computer data and claimed that multiple state-of-the-art hard drives failed, and were instantly shredded instead of being subjected to data recovery procedures.
Lois Lerner took the Fifth to frustrate the Congressional investigation, The Justice Department filed no charges and she took taxpayer-funded retirement/
Not included above are the Obamacare lies, the Clinton email fraud, the "stimulus", Solyndra, the NSA spying, Bowe Bergdal, etc,.etc. Please take the time to look at the sites and consider again how anyone can claim
...we’re probably the first administration in modern history that hasn’t had a major scandal in the White House.
This commentator summed it up verbally:
President Obama and his mouthpieces have embarked on a bizarre scheme to hypnotize America into forgetting the many scandals of his presidency. They seem to think that intoning 'this administration hasn't had a scandal' over and over again will make history disappear...the lamest Jedi Mind Trick ever...[Emphasis added.]
And the always-insightful cartoonist Mike Lister did so visually:
CLAIM: ... no foreign terrorist organization has successfully planned and executed an attack on our homeland these past eight years
The Daily Mail did a comprehensive review which deserves to be set out without editing as it demonstrates how false Obama's words are. The article cautions that, while the list contains the major, verifiable radical Islamic attacks over the last eight years, there are other incidents suspected of having been motivated by the ideology but have not been verified to be so.
Little Rock, Arkansas, June 1, 2009. Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad shot and murdered one soldier, Army Pvt. William Andrew Long, and injured another, Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, at a military recruiting station in Little Rock. Muhammad reportedly converted to Islam in college and was on the FBI's radar after being arrested in Yemen–a hotbed of radical Islamic terrorism–for using a Somali passport, even though he was a U.S. citizen. In a note to an Arkansas judge, Muhammad claimed to be a member of al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, the terror group's Yemen chapter.
Fort Hood, Texas, November 5, 2009. Major Nidal Malik Hasan shot up a military base in Fort Hood and murdered 14 people. Hasan was in contact with al-Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki prior to the attack and shouted "Allahu Akbar!" as he fired upon the soldiers on the Fort Hood base. After being sentenced to death, Hasan requested to join ISIS while on death row. It took six years for Obama to acknowledge the shooting as a terror attack instead of "workplace violence."
Boston, Massachusetts, April 15, 2013. Tamerlan and Dhozkar Tsarnaev set off two bombs at the 2013 Boston marathon, killing three and injuring over 260 people. The Tsarnaev brothers later shot and murdered Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier. The Tsarnaev brothers were self-radicalized through online jihadist propaganda and through a mosque with ties to al-Qaeda.
Moore, Oklahoma, September 24, 2014. Alton Nolen beheaded a woman, Colleen Huff, at a Vaughan Foods plant and stabbed and injured another person. While Nolen's motives are unclear, he appears to have been another radicalized Muslim who was obsessed with beheadings.
Queens, New York, October 23, 2014. Zale Thompson, another self-radicalized Muslim, injured two police officers with a hatchet before being shot dead by other cops. Thompson reportedly indoctrinated himself with ISIS, al-Qaeda and al-Shabab–a Somali jihadist terror group–websites and was a lone wolf attacker.
Brooklyn, New York, December 20, 2014. Ismaayil Brinsley shot and murdered two police officers execution-style and his Facebook page featured jihadist postings and had ties to a terror-linked mosque.
Garland, Texas, May 3, 2015. Two gunmen shot up the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, where a Mohammed cartoon contest was taking place, and were killed by a police officer. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Chattanooga, Tennessee, July 16, 2015. Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez shot and killed four Marines and a sailor at a military base in Chattanooga and was believed to have been inspired by ISIS.
San Bernardino, California, December 14, 2015. Two radical Islamists, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, shot and murdered 14 people and injured 22 others at an office holiday party.
Orlando, Florida, June 12, 2016. Omar Mateen, 29, opened fire at a gay nightclub, killing 49 and injuring 53. The FBI investigated Mateen twice before his rampage, but did not take any substantive action. Officials believe Mateen was self-radicalized but he pledged fealty to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before his death. "The real muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west," Mateen posted on his Facebook page after committing his heinous act at Pulse nightclub. "I pledge my alliance to (ISIS leader) abu bakr al Baghdadi..may Allah accept me," he wrote.
St. Cloud, Minnesota, September 17, 2016. Dahir Ahmed Adan, a 20-year-old Somali refugee, began hacking at people with a steak knife at a Minnesota mall, injuring nine people before he was shot dead by off-duty police officer Jason Falconer. The FBI said numerous witnesses heard Adan yelling "Allahu akbar!" and "Islam! Islam!" during the rampage. He also asked potential victims if they were Muslims before inflicting wounds in their heads, necks, and chests. The FBI believe he had recently become self-radicalized. (As the Daily Wire highlighted, the Minneapolis Star Tribune attempted to blame "anti-Muslim tensions" for his murderous actions.)
New York City/New Jersey, September 17, 2016. Ahmad Khan Rahami, a 28-year-old naturalized citizen from Afghanistan, set off multiple bombs in New York and New Jersey. In Chelsea, his bomb resulted in the injury of over 30 people. Rahami wrote in his journal that he was connected to "terrorist leaders," and appears to have been heavily influenced by Sheikh Anwar, Anwar al-Awlaki, Nidal Hassan, and Osama bin Laden. "I pray to the beautiful wise ALLAH, [d]o not take JIHAD away from me," Rahami wrote. "You [USA Government] continue your [unintelligible] slaught[er]" against the holy warriors, "be it Afghanistan, Iraq, Sham [Syria], Palestine ... "
Columbus, Ohio, November 28, 2016. Abdul Razak Ali Artan, an ISIS-inspired 20-year-old Somali refugee who had been granted permanent legal residence in 2014 after living in Pakistan for 7 years, attempted to run over his fellow Ohio State students on campus. After his car was stopped by a barrier, he got out of the vehicle and began hacking at people with a butcher knife before being shot dead by a campus police officer. He injured 11 people, one critically. ISIS took credit for the attack, describing Artan as their "soldier." Just three minutes before his rampage, Artan posted a warning to America on Facebook that the "lone wolf attacks" will continue until America "give[s] peace to the Muslims." He also praised deceased al-Qaeda cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki as a "hero."
CLAIM: America’s economy is not just better than it was eight years ago — it is the strongest, most durable economy in the world.
8 years? Try 10 years. That is when the democrats took control of Congress. Before the democrats took over the budget in January 2007, we had 52 straight months of job growth; unemployment was at 4.6%.
Under Obama, for the 1st time in history, our credit rating was downgraded.
When Bush was president, Obama said raising the debt was unpatriotic and criticized Bush for raising the debt 4 trillion dollars. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kuTG19Cu_Q
President Obama almost doubled the debt in 8 years, meaning that he came close to topping the debt of his 43 predecessors combined!
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/feb/18/jeb-bush/jeb-bush-says-barack-obama-will-add-more-debt-all-/ [also in September press release www.jec.senate.gov/]
Obama currently ranks as the fourth worst president on record with a GDP growth sitting at 1.457%. Obama is the only president in the history of the United States that didn’t deliver a single year of 3.0% economic growth.
The sub-5 percent unemployment number in this year has been called "a statistical illusion." The more Americans dropped out of the workforce or gave up looking for a job, the lower the unemployment rate plunged. Obama leaves office with a labor force participation rate at or near its lowest level since the 1970s.
Under Obama, we have the most people on food stamps in our history, almost doubling the number when the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007.
CLAIM: I promise you, for the most part, race relations have gotten better.
This is the MOST DESPICABLE OF ALL OBAMA'S LIES.
In fact, Obama never missed an opportunity to increase racial animosity.
The following sites give chapter and verse of how Obama distorted incident after incident into an incendiary racial situation.
Worst was his dishonest treatment of the Michael Brown shooting.
A lie circulated at the time that Brown, described as a black unarmed teenager, had his hands up saying "don't shoot" when he was needlessly gunned down by a police officer. The lie, encouraged by the mass media and Obama, Holder and Sharpton, sparked violent rioting throughout the country and 'Hands Up Don't Shoot' became the shorthand for what was claimed to be police wanton killing of blacks.
The facts were dramatically different. A 6’4” 295 pound man on THC, minutes after robbing a store and assaulting a clerk [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2z5-H8NSGA], strode down the middle of a street, refused to go the sidewalk and charged a police officer, attempting to take the officer's gun.
The local authorities conducted a meticulously thorough investigation. All the testimony and evidence elicited were made public. The conclusion was the hands up don't shoot claim was a lie; it never happened. The evidence - eyewitnesses ,mostly black, and forensics, including autopsy results - established this.
Obama and Holder disgracefully implied a fix was in. Holder spent 3 months and countless taxpayer dollars trying to find a different conclusion. He could not. The honorable, honest course course of action was for Obama and Holder to make clear to the country that every piece of evidence was examined, there was no 'Hands Up Don't Shoot' and the officer was justified in his reaction to being attacked. They did not do that. Holder even suggested it was a technicality that prevented the officer from being charged.
To this day, years later, Obama has never stated the truth: 'Hands Up Don't Shoot' was a lie.
Rather he fostered the lie and it has festered. Consequently, millions of people believe it to be true with resulting animosity and danger to the police, further riots, and irreparable damage to race relations.
[ARCHIVE Issue 6 contains full details]
Hard as it is to believe, Ferguson has a memorial to Michael Brown. Please read the inscription.
Contrast those words with the reality - this video photo taken minutes before Brown attacked the
police officer.
QUESTION
Given the facts demonstrating the failure of of Obama's presidency, how can the polls show an approval rating of over 50%. I have not seen any commentator have the temerity to state the reason. It is the same reason that affected the polls showing Hillary Clinton winning the election by a large margin.
Recall that Obama repeatedly made the point in the days leading up to the election that his legacy was on the ballot. My name may not be on the ballot, but our progress is on the ballot.
What many people have learned the hard way over the past few years is that any dissent to the Obama doctrine will result in the label "racist." I believe that many folks chose to say they voted democrat and that they approved of Obama rather than open themselves to that charge.
SUMMARY
The inimitable Michael Ramirez nails it:
FINAL THOUGHT
As wonderful as it is to say GOODBYE to former President Obama, I fear his narcissism and penchant for ignoring facts will keep him opining to the world and throwing brickbats at President Trump. He cannot seem to keep from sneering at the most productive members of our populace. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen...[Archive 15]
To Obama, the successful are society's lottery winners; success is a matter of chance; hard work and intelligence are irrelevant.
For a great response, please note the last lines of the closing Reagan quote.
One legislator accused me of having a nineteenth-century attitude on law and order. That is a totally false charge. I have an eighteenth-century attitude. ... man is not free unless government is limited. ... As government expands, liberty contracts... Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives...elected officeholders need to retain a certain skepticism about the perfectibility of government....
Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States...The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away. Ronald Reagan