Obama Hatred

Obama Hatred

I find it difficult to have a rational discussion with many (most) who dislike President Obama. Either as a result of Fox News or their innate inability to think rationally (or both), they continue to throw up the same stuff. Here is a sampling. I omit the really stupid stuff (birth certificate; vacation days/golfing; travel expenses; actually a Muslim; does not love America; etc.).

Obamacare is a failure and is ruining the United States.

President Obama has no foreign policy achievements, none.

Employment remains high because President Obama changed the method used to determine the unemployment rate.

And, of course, Benghazi.

Here is my response, which either is ignored or met by weak replies that usually amount to no more than, when translated: "Obama is black, and I do not like him eating off the White House china."

1. Affordable Care Act. While the system is not perfect, and more needs to be done to continue reducing costs, the number of uninsured Americans has dropped by 16.4 million since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. I believe it requires a hard heart to want to deny health care to millions of Americans.

2. Foreign Policy Achievements: (a) led the world to impose sanctions on Iran (even convincing China and Russia to participate); (b) halved the number of Russian nuclear weapons launchers; (c) completed the Bush administrations withdrawal of troops from Iraq; (d) ordered then-CIA director Leon Panetta to “redouble” efforts to track down al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, resulting in the death of Osama bin Laden; (e) ordered a drone attack that killed al Qaeda propagandist Anwar Al Awlaki, a U.S.-Yemeni dual citizen; (f) forced Iran to the negotiating table; (g) backed every sanction imposed by the European Union on Russia for its assault on the Ukraine; (h) deft refusal to do what Bush disastrously did and send in the troops -- any where; (i) negotiated, along with Russia, Syria's abandonment of its chemical weapons.

Even if President Obama had accomplished none of the above, in comparison to President George W. Bush, President Obama would be superior. Bush's invasion of Iraq still looms as the largest American foreign policy blunder of the post-Vietnam era.

3. Unemployment. The Labor Department uses the same method to measure the American workforce and unemployment as it did during every Presidential administration since Ronald Reagan. Those who tell you otherwise are just lying to support their dislike of President Obama. Total non-farm payroll employment increased by 295,000 in February, and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.5 percent, the U.S. This is using the methodology in place for decades.

4. Benghazi. Other than the desire to discredit President Obama, I guess I will never understand the Republican preoccupation with the death of four Americans in Benghazi.

The U.S. House Select Committee on Intelligence delivered their bipartisan report on the terrorist attacks. It concluded that "there were no efforts by the White House or any other Executive Branch entities to "cover-up" facts or make alterations for political purposes.