The best I felt about President Obama wasn't when I voted for him.

[RedSpartan]

Last edited Sun Sep 2, 2012, 08:00 AM - Edit history (1)

Not by a long shot, although I was proud to do so and look forward to doing so again.

I felt great about President Obama when the first thing he did in office was pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which guarantees equal pay for women in the workforce, because I am the father of two young daughters and want them to be as rewarded for their hard work as I have been.

I felt great about President Obama when he helped avert a second Great Depression, because, call me crazy, I don't think Great Depressions are all that great.

I felt great about President Obama when he helped rescue the now-thriving US auto industry, rather than let it go bankrupt as Mitt Romney wanted, because I believe that American jobs and American companies deserve Americans' support, especially in hard times.

I felt great about President Obama when he passed heathcare reform -- something that every President since Teddy Roosevelt has failed to achieve -- because I feel that we have a moral obligation to help the sick and the poor, and I find it repugnant that we have allowed it to become acceptable practice for health insurance companies to put profits over people.

I felt great about President Obama when he appointed two strong, smart women to the Supreme Court because I believe that We The People deserve Supreme Court Justices who understand that, while Lady Justice is supposed to be blind, even she can see that corporations are not people, money is not speech, and issues of law are not a partisan game.

I felt great about President Obama when, as Commander-in-Chief, he authorized the raid in which our Navy SEALs terminated Osama bin Laden, because I watched the murder of 3,000 people on September 11, 2001 and believe it was unacceptable for a mass murderer to escape justice for his crimes for almost a decade.

I felt great about President Obama when he helped secure the downfall of Col. Qaddafi, because I still remember PanAm 103 and I likewise believe it was unacceptable for a murderous dictator to escape justice for over twenty years.

I felt great about President Obama when he ended the Iraq War, because I am repulsed by the price in blood and treasure -- both ours and the Iraqi people's -- that has been paid in a war of choice in which we allegedly achieved "Mission Accomplished" over nine years ago.

I felt great about President Obama when he began the draw-down of the war in Afghanistan, because I believe that it is far past time to end the longest military operation in American history, especially after the elimination of bin Laden.

I felt great about President Obama when he passed Wall Street reform, because I believe the selfish, greedy bastards who almost collapsed the world's economy shouldn't be given free rein to do so again.

I felt great about President Obama when he repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," because my sister-in-law served in the Navy for ten years, including Iraq, and had to keep who she is a secret and, regardless, I believe that all Americans, of every type, must be allowed to openly serve in our military as who they are: proud Americans.

I felt great about President Obama when he ordered the Justice Department to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act, because I believe that all Americans should be able to love and marry whomever they choose, which only serves to strengthen (not weaken) the "institution of marriage" as a whole.

I felt great about President Obama as he has repaired the image of America around the world, because while I believe that we are a great country, as a world we are only as strong as the sum of our parts and can achieve a far better future together than we can apart.

And I have felt great about President Obama as he has, at every turn, been the adult in the room and showed nothing but class and grace in the face of an opposition that has plotted to destroy him from Day One, has publicly stated their most important goal is to make him a one-term President, has hoped and prayed for his failure, has brought assault weapons to protests against him, has questioned his citizenship, his intelligence, his race, his religion, his patriotism and his legitimacy and has pandered to and riled up the most grotesque elements of society in an attempt to "take our country back" to when they nearly destroyed it.

This November, I will feel great about voting again for President Barack Obama, because I feel great about what he has achieved over the last four years and feel great about what the next four years can bring. I hope you will, too.

[Freddie]

1. Awesome, thank you!!

Between the "Muslim Kenyan Socialist" crap on the right and the "he didn't do enough" crap on the far left (you know who you are) someone needs to highlight the many and great accomplishments of Obama's presidency. Four more years!!

[freshwest]

58. +1

[BrooklynBoy]

77. I Know It's Wrong

Sadly, I am one of those "he didn't do enough" lefties. I just can't bring myself to get motivated after the health care debacle and the extension of the Bush tax cuts. I first voted in '72 for McGovern and have voted in every election since, twice for third party candidates. But, I've become disillusioned. I thought our time had finally come. And was let down. I didn't watch any of the Republican infomercial, and won't be watching any of the Democratic infomercial. I don't "hate" Obama. I like the guy. I just feel that his handlers (not necessarily him personally, but ultimately he calls the shots and gets the credit or the blame, as the case may be) are more forceful and dig their heels in when they're in campaign mode, when in governance mode, not so much.

Needless to say, I have nothing but disdain for Romney. If I vote, it will be for Obama. But, after holding my nose while I voted for Clinton a second time in '96 hoping against hope that he would govern as he campaigned (and didn't), I just don't know if I can do the hold my nose thing again. (BTW, even at his worst, Obama is head and shoulders infinitely better than Clinton, I wasn't implying they're cut from the same cloth.)

I just have to try to motivate myself to get out there and vote, and I just don't think it's gonna happen. After waiting 44 years (since the '68 election) for our chance, only to be let down, I just can't get interested and get myself motivated. I've become jaded and disillusioned. I truly hope that will change. But, I don't think it will.

[GTurck]

79. How about this...

for motivation: if you don't vote for Obama you are giving a tacit vote to Romney?

[Freddie]

85. Sometimes you have to vote for the "lesser of two evils"

Because the other side is truly evil.
By not voting you are supporting a party who thinks a woman should be forced to bear the spawn of a rapist. And countless other things that are just plain wrong.
Think of all the folks in Florida who voted for Nader. I hope they can't sleep at night.

[lamp_shade]

2. I second Freddie's "awesome". Kick and Rec.

[pamela]

3. Someone should invite you to give this as a speech at the convention.

Seriously.

[NYC_SKP]

4. Taking out Osama, and when he repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

And so much more.

I'm not fond of taking out bad guys, per se, but because it was something Cheney could not or would not do, it's a grand slap in the face of teabillies.



K/R

[solara]

5. Bravo!!

Beautifully eloquent- thank you for speaking for me!

This should go viral.

[CrispyQ]

6. I am not the prez's greatest fan, but he has something that you don't often see in politics,

especially among men, grace. And I think it's that grace that makes the right wing hate him all the more. They hate that he doesn't get angry. They hate that he is articulate & reasonable. They hate that he comes across as a nice guy. They hate that he has a nice family. And they hate that the entire family deals with their outright hate with grace.

I am voting against bigotry & for sanity this November.

[nevergiveup]

8. I love your reply

It is something I have known but have never been able to put it in words. You said it perfectly. Also K & R for the OP.

[one_voice]

10. I second loving your reply...

very well said!

[lamp_shade]

15. Beautifully said!!!

[emmadoggy]

33. I agree completely! Well said. nt

[Flatulo]

36. You forgot one. They hate that he doesn't hate. nt

[lamp_shade]

40. I linked this thread to my facebook with special mention of your Reply #6.

[Doctor_J]

7. Umm

I felt great about President Obama when he passed heathcare reform -- something that every President since Teddy Roosevelt has failed to achieve

Medicare? Medicaid?

Seriously, can we keep it reality-based here? This is like a freeperville thread about Smirk.

Mods - how about a "vanity thread" forum where members can post fawning hyperbole and rec each other.

[lamp_shade]

17. Umm

[Chorophyll]

29. +1

[SunSeeker]

42. They need to add that one to the smilie box!

[Tarheel_Dem]

81. I want that!

[progressivebydesign]

34. Sorry your Wheaties got peed in this morning. n/t

[Skittles]

62. is that the best you can do?

that is pitiful

[Roland99]

61. And the Wall St reform? What a joke!

[a kennedy]

9. This is a thing of beauty.....

Love it, and thank you for posting this, I'm sending it to almost everyone I know.....just A W E S O M E!!

[ejbr]

11. k & r n/t

[avebury]

12. K&R nt

[kag]

13. Beautifully written!

Classy, eloquent, and truthful. Just like our president!

[Catch2.2]

14. President Obama's...

re-election campaign should make this an ad. Are you better now than 4 years ago? Hell yes I am! Here's why!

[Barry2012]

16. Obama deserves a second term

Let me tell you something, president obama is a champion of the middle class.there's no way you can acomplish your goals when you have the tea baggers in the house purposely trying to destroy the country to blame him.I think its so unfair to blame all of our problems on him.If G.W bush got a second term, obama deserves another term too.

[alp227]

24. You do realize Barry is RW slur for obama?

[CJCRANE]

30. The poster knows that. It was pointed out in the first few posts.

It was an innocent mistake. It's not easy to change username.

[Barry2012]

47. I do

But first of all I e-mailed DU to have it changed and never got a response.second, I'm an independent and dont listen to idiots like limbaugh and hannity, so I wasn't aware of it til now.third, I mean no disrespect to the president, if you read my posts I have been his biggest supporter since the ryan pick.Not only verbally but with my wallet also.fourth, my name is barreto and and friends call me barry, sorry if I offended anyone.

[MH1]

48. Welcome to DU, Barry, and I have no problem with your username :)

you may want to create a sig with a disclaimer similar to what you posted here (maybe shorter), at least until you get your post count built up, so you don't keep getting harangued like this. We get a lot of trolls here (shocking, isn't it? ) so people are just hyper-sensitive about some things. Me, if I see a username that strikes me "wrong", I usually look at what the person posts before I go off on them. And usually by that time, if they're really a troll, our MIRT team has taken out the trash.

Seriously and sincerely, thank you for supporting Prez Obama, and welcome to DU.

[alp227]

52. Then point out your real name is Barreto in your profile, to make things more clear.

[Barry2012]

74. ok whatever

i don't like your tone.Sergeant

[progress2k12nbynd]

59. I understand completely. I'm not sure why it's so hard to get an admin response.

There's a lot of DUer registrations but there's honestly not THAT many highly active users, yet I've never gotten an email response from the Admins on anything. Not even an acknowledgement that they received it.

[Surya Gayatri]

18. Tell it , RS! Great riposte to Rmoney's meme...

[subterranean]

19. A hearty K&R!

[spartan61]

20. to RedSpartan from a GreenSpartan

Awesome post!!!

[SaveAmerica]

21. This is how I feel, also, imagine what he can do with the next 4 years!

Especially when the Republicans in Congress get the memo that America has had it with them and their blockage of anything good that will help us.

I am so hopeful for all the good that can come from 4 years of President Obama working to get more good things done without the distraction of the schoolyard bullies who won't have that one goal (to keep him from being elected) as their MO.

[bayareaboy]

22. Well Red Spartan ...

Sounds to me like you are one of those hippy dippy new-fangled liberals, that writes well!

I tend to agree with you, I also think that with opposition the man has gotten from the GOP and business really means that the he really is playing three level chess.

[LittleGirl]

23. Excellent! nt

[liberalmuse]

25. Kick this for awesomeness!

[grantcart]

26. Everytime I say President Obama it makes me feel good.

And if you don't understand why just say President Bush or Vice President Cheney a couple of times.

Great post.

[russspeakeasy]

28. Excellent. Thanks.

[Chorophyll]

27. Well done, and thank you for doing it.

[babylonsister]

31. Outstanding! Thanks for writing this! nt

[DinahMoeHum]

32. The words of Doris "Granny D" Haddock are appropriate here. . .

. . .especially for those of us (and you) on the left who aren't happy with the slowness of changes in our nation. . .

http://www.grannyd.com/speeches/sub-speeches/dont-stand-in-the-way-4-30-03.htm

(The boldface emphasis below is mine - DMH)
(snip)
There are many among us who will not support a candidate unless that candidate is perfect on every issue. Politics is about winning. For us, it is about winning to save lives and raise people up from poverty and illness and loneliness and injustice. Those posturing on the left sometimes forget that. Don't tell me that you can't support a particular candidate because of this or that. This isn't about you and your precious political standards. It is about saving nature and our people. We are coming out to win, so please don't stand in our way. When we have reasonable people in power, let us start our arguments again, for we can not move forward unless we have a decent government underneath us and a Bill of Rights to let us speak freely.
(snip)

Looking forward to this coming week with the Democratic convention.

FOUR MORE YEARS!!! (and many more after that)

[progressivebydesign]

35. Beautifully written!! Not letting the Roves marginalize us, our vote was NOT a fad.

I am more pleased with the President every single day. My favorite President so far. He clearly walks his talk, and is working for us every single day. Working for everyone. I will be MORE proud and happy to vote for him again this year.

The insidious new campaign plan by Romney/Rove is to treat us like 10 year olds whose parents let us eat all the ice cream we want, so we would get a stomachache, and learn a lesson.

[WinstonSmith4740]

37. Freakin' excellent!

This needs to be a commercial. Picture a different person reading each of these points. Try submitting it to something like MoveOn. Seriously.

[elbloggoZY27]

38. Say No To The GOP

The GOP would be a utter disaster for the United States.

[secondwind]

39. Wholehearted K&R!!!!!!!

[lamp_shade]

41. A wonderful essay, RedSpartan. I linked this OP to my facebook for all to see.

[SunSeeker]

43. K&R

[AtomicKitten]

44. Another "feel good" moment.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1026771

[Cha]

50. Thank you for that reminder,

AKitten!

[AtomicKitten]

98. u r welcome

Too many of these really important things he has done get lost in the daily shuffle. This one in particular illustrates how we know he has our backs.

[DianaForRussFeingold]

45. Heartwarming and beautifully written essay! K&R

So thoughtful,so brilliant..Thank you for this literary masterpiece.. This would make an awesome convention speech..

[mzmolly]

46. Bravo!

[Cha]

49. Thank you for such an appreciated, eloquent,

walk through our shared history in the reality of the last 3 1/2 years, RedSpartan!

MAKE IT VIRAL!


Urbandale, Iowa, September 1

Pic Thanks to The Obama Diary~

[speedoo]

51. + 1billion!

Awesome, wonderful post.

Thank you!

[oldsarge54]

53. Damn

You said exactly what I think, and could not put together as well as you. You mind me spreading this about my precinct?

[RedSpartan]

63. Feel free.

Thank you, I'm flattered.

[lunatica]

54. You can add that he's running an almost perfect campaign

He's got control of the talking points and has the Republicans whining for him to stop!

[xtraxritical]

55. Kicked and recommended.

Check out how many websites are devoted to "Obama achievements"...

http://www.bing.com/search?q=obama+accomplishments&qs=AS&form=QBLH&pq=obama+acc&sc=8-9&sp=1&sk=

[lamp_shade]

57. ???

See Reply #17

[NashvilleLefty]

66. You need to go back and actually READ the OP.

Obama has done some wonderful things, despite the Republicans trying to block him at every turn.

[Tx4obama]

60. K&R. Awesome :) n/t

[applegrove]

64. I love him all the time. I was especially thrilled when he got bin Laden.

[bagimin]

65. We are with you

well stated.

[tavalon]

67. Except for the Osama thing, I'm with you

I felt like we could have taken him alive, sent him to the Hague and had a fair and open trial and I wonder why that wasn't the choice taken.

[Amonester]

68. I think it was some kind of 'prevention from retaliation' or something.

Keeping him alive and in jail there would have kind-of 'enraged' millions of Muslims (not all of them, but an awful lot). They went 'crazy' of shocking toons published in Europe...

The State dept. wanted him to go away as fast as possible. Now the extremist Muslims know they can't do anything to 'free' him: he's dead, and resting at the bottom of the sea, so the 'incentive' to 'fight to free him' is non-existent. I'm not saying they can't find other causes to fight for (they will always find something wrong).

Let's hope no other mass-murderer will ever become as 'popular' as he was in the future.

We can say Cheney & Bush are mass murderers, but they're not really 'popular' among the 'crazies' (Tealiban).

[clydefrand]

69. Thank you. I will vote for him again.

He has done a great job regardless of the hateful attitudes of the "wrong" wingers. Not ever right!

[FailureToCommunicate]

70. Excellent! Preach it!

[usregimechange]

71. Forgot these two moments

[RedSpartan]

83. You're right.

Shame on me. Fixed. Thanks!

[calimary]

72. This is FABULOUS!!!!

Mind if I share it?

[RedSpartan]

84. By all means.

I'm flattered, thanks.

[jenmito]

73. I wrote a whole bunch of tweets to Willard saying these same thngs in fewer characters

but this post has it all and I will gladly tweet this! K&R.

[Pacafishmate]

75. Reading through this list makes me sad that Obama is the best we've got.

*sigh*

[Tarheel_Dem]

82. According to Gallup, 83% - 86% of us disagree with you. We feel he's the best.

[Pacafishmate]

96. If you read through that list and think Obama is the best, you've probably given up.

I mean, half those things I could see being done by any centrist president. When you list irrelevant things like picking women for the court ( It's nice and all ,but it isn't exactly groundbreaking). and no-brainers like authorizing a raid, you're really starting to dig. I'm more concerned with his outright lies. You know, like when he said he wouldn't go after medical marijuana, but did anyway.

[Tarheel_Dem]

97. And America doesn't give a flying fuck about your dope. Dispensaries still have to follow.....

the laws on the books, and stoners should stop scapegoating sick folk to get their heads bad.

"What I specifically said was that we were not going to prioritize prosecutions of persons who are using medical marijuana," Obama said. "I never made a commitment that somehow we were going to give carte blanche to large-scale producers and operators of marijuana -- and the reason is, because it's against federal law."

The president continued: "I can't nullify congressional law. I can't ask the Justice Department to say, 'Ignore completely a federal law that's on the books.' What I can say is, 'Use your prosecutorial discretion and properly prioritize your resources to go after things that are really doing folks damage.' As a consequence, there haven't been prosecutions of users of marijuana for medical purposes."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/25/obama-marijuana-raids-rolling-stone_n_1451744.html

I mean it's a cute talking point and all, but bullshit just the same.

[Pacafishmate]

100. Doesn't change the fact that it's a bullshit justification.

[Tarheel_Dem]

102. Hey, I hope you didn't pull anything.

[ecstatic]

76. Great post. R&R's characterization of Obama voters

is very insulting. Why would they think such condescending remarks would bring us to their side?

[Daayyummmboi]

78. Awesome! Thanks for sharing!

[Tarheel_Dem]

80. Please allow me to join you. Rec #198.

[mojo2012]

86. Thank you RedSpartan

Everyone has been trying to express all the good things that President Obama has done and have successfully done so but one or two things at a time. You, my friend have been able to express ALL of it in one excellent post.

I would love to see this in my local paper in the opinion column. You see, I live in a state that is 93% Republican and who stand behind Romney/Ryan even in the midst of all the lies. The two local papers here are owned by the LDS Church. Friday, they devoted 5-6 FULL PAGES of articles on Mitt Romney. Undoubtedly, there probably WON'T be that many pages in the paper at the conclusion of the DNC on Obama/Biden.

I don't want to plagiarize your piece. So I can give you an address to the paper's editors if you'd like. Still I would like to thank you for a great post.

[RedSpartan]

101. Thanks.

By all means, go ahead and sent it in if you'd like. See my post #94. Thanks again!

[boston bean]

87. "pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which guarantees equal pay for women in the workforce"

it does no such thing, not by a long shot.

[GermanGypsy]

88. The best I felt about President Obama wasn't when I voted for him.

I don't usually comment on these threads but there were two comments about Romneys speech that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The first was it was time for Obama to quit blaming the mess we're in on his predecessor. I believe that Clinton had this country in the black when he left office, but after 8 years of Republican governing we were in "caca" up to our necks. The second is he keeps saying the first thing he is going to do when he becomes president is to throw out Obamacare. Then what? Is he going to let the medical field continue to have a field day at the expense of the middle class? I mean, really, it doesn't affect the rich. And the poor have been without it for so long, it is not going to hurt them as much as it will the middle class. Or is he going to start over from page 1 trying to come up with something better -- he hasn't said what he is going to do in that case. Oh yeah, there was a third thing - he always says Obama has not accomplished what he said he was going to do if elected -- does the word "stonewalling" mean anything to him? If Obama had not been blasted by Republicans for 4 years, maybe he could of made some progress. I am not as politically literate as I should be, but I have heard these excuses so much and I don't understand why there are so many Republicans that keep buying this "hockey"! I may not have said this eloquently, but I appreciate the chance to get it off my chest!

[Paulie]

90. Welcome to DU!!!

You said it well!

[CJCRANE]

91. You made your points very well.

Welcome to DU!

[UrbScotty]

92. Welcome to DU!

You don't need to be eloquent. Nor do you need to be politically literate - but I have found that being on DU makes me more educated about what's going on in the world!

[egbertowillies]

89. Excellent Words

May I blog cross blog this at my site http://EgbertoWillies.com.

[RedSpartan]

93. Certainly, thanks!

[RedSpartan]

94. Thanks everyone for all the kind words.

In answer to several of you, yes, by all means, if you want to, feel free to repost, link to, forward, whatever. And even, should you like (post #86) forward as a letter to the editor (I suppose you can just say where and who it came from and "submitted with permission," or something like that). I'm easy. Again, thanks everyone. I'm incredibly flattered and humbled.

[donna123]

95. Aren't most of us better off than 4 yrs ago?

Wasn't the DOW like 8000 back then? Jobs are being added not lost. We're out of Iraq. A bunch of autoworkers were able to keep their jobs. I keep hearing that housing looks to be recovering. So isn't the country better off? All this naysaying, wow. Where's the optimism? I feel like I hear so much doom and gloom by the media.

I do not understand the segment of the population who continue to vote for republicans and will vote in a republican congress because all they are ensuring is more gridlock and the regressive policies of a republican party that cannot face the 21st century. Congress has such a low rating and yet people will continue to vote these same extreme obstructionist idiots in. Unbelievable. If only the people who actually voted these idiots in could be affected by their actions, rather than the entire country being held hostage by their ideology.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

99. I couldn't add any more to this post

You've summed it up so eloquently! I couldn't agree more! You speak for me!