@YoBob
1) When Obama took office in January 2009, the country had lost ~3,000,000 jobs in the previous 3 months. No intelligent economist or politician could blame Obama for the monthly job losses until maybe 3 months later, but we’ll say just two. The economy lost 700,000 jobs in March of 09, and that number dropped (or increased towards zero rather) virtually every month thereafter. The private sector has gained jobs the last 5 months straight, and 6 of the last 7, totalling a bit less than 1,000,000 jobs. Unfortunately you will never see a month gain in the 700k range that it would take to cancel out just how bad the economy was. Even now the economic recovery is slowing, but we are still projecting more jobs in the coming months, just tens of thousands rather than hundreds. http://flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/us-unemployment-august-2010.jpg
2) The national debt has gone up, you’re right, and its worrisome. But to be frank the only president since Carter who has given two craps about the debt is Clinton, and even he was only able to bring the deficit down to 18 billion in a year (in other words, he didn’t take away from it, just significantly lowered the amount we were adding). Heck even today captain conservatism Ronald Reagan, is responsible for more of our National Debt than George W Bush and Obama combined. I give Obama a tiny pass in that his spending arguably prevented a second Great Depression, but not a full pass as the issue needs to be fixed asap.
3) The Healthcare Bill won’t take full effect (or even majority effect) until 2014. Currently the sections in play about withholding healthcare from sick children, people with pre-existing conditions, people living with conditions getting their rates jacked up, and the part that lets children stay on their parents plans til 26…. is working out quite nicely for me, thanks.
4) The Patriot act and Gitmo you and I are in full agreement, he hasn’t done what he promised and he needs too.
5) He brought ~100,000 troops home from Iraq, and the guys still there are typically not the “front line” people anymore (notice you don’t read about them dying too much anymore). He also campaigned on increasing troop numbers in Afghanistan, which he did by about ~30,000 (not counting the additional NATO forces he negotiated from our allies). Those troops also have a designated withdrawal date. He did involve us in the Libyan conflict, but only after Britain and France dragged the issue to the UN and begged us to help.
6) I don’t understand at all what you’re implying about a Republican feeding frenzy if one had been in office and taken out Bin Laden?????
7) He also replaced two liberal supreme court justices with two new liberal justices, women…. and minorities (including the first ever hispanic). He oversaw a massive stimulus package that you either hate or love (I mean like in this country, not you specifically). He saved two American auto companies from disappearing, whilst turning a profit and saving jobs. Middle class taxes are literally the lowest they’ve been in 50 years (a combination of the Bush cuts and the cuts in the stimulus bill). Public spending into alternative energies and the sciences in general has relatively skyrocketed. He implemented the race to the top education program to do something for our schools. He is trying to start a massive mass-transport system that will bring us in line with the rest of the world in that regard. Better relations with virtually every nation in the world, especially a slue of those in the middle east (and Russia). He got us the second nuclear arms draw-down, which will cut about ⅓ of the weapons from the face of the planet. Killed more terrorists in 3 years than Bush did in 8 (including multiple high ranking terrorists). Deported more illegal immigrants in 3 years than Bush did in 8 (which may or may not be a good thing pending your prospective…... I could go on all day..
The point is, just because you don’t like the things he’s done, doesn’t mean he hasn’t done things. And to my fellow liberals I would say…. wake the F up. Did you think just cuz Obama was in office we were going to get everything we ever wanted and everything would be gum drops and unicorns? The guy has done more in 3 years than the last two presidents did in 16, and has been the most productive liberal president since AT LEAST Johnson. Quit crying because he isn’t actually the second coming of Jesus.