Fisking A Facebook Meme
A friend sent me something that was making the rounds of Facebook and asked me to take it apart, figured I’d give it a shot.
YOUR PRESIDENT: 1. Got Osama Bin Laden…check
Ayup, sure did, Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta had to drag him kicking and screaming, but he did get him. Well the SEALS got him, but he sure gave that order, which was way more gutsy than, you know, kicking down the door and giving Osama high velocity cranial lead poisoning. It was also Bush administration policies which led to the intelligence which found him.
2. Unemployment rate 8.5%…check.
Real unemployment rate closer to 11 percent and adding in those who are underemployed or who have simply given up, try about 20 percent.
3. 1.6 million jobs created with no GOP help…check
Reality is 3.5 million jobs lost under his presidency, he’s just cooking the numbers and not adjusting seasonally. Moreover, a lot of those jobs were in the public sector, which is a net drain on the economy.
4. 22 months of job and economic growth with no help…check
As Commentary Magazine points out, “The rate of economic growth under Obama has been only slightly higher than the 1930s, the decade of the Great Depression.”
5. Ended war in Iraq …check
Yup, he sure did. Of course the pullout schedule was created under Bush, and he said he’d do it on day one, but hey, he got it done. How long the government there will last now that we’re gone is an open question of course.
6. DADT repeal…check
Yup, did that too. Lot of the military ain’t real happy about it, but he don’t like them very much anyway, and most of them aren’t about to vote for him, so what does it matter to him?
7. Not one tax hike in 3 years….check
Not by his own choice, the Republicans had to practically hold him hostage to get him to keep the tax rates the same as they’d been for the previous 10 years and he tried to call it a cut.
8.Brought out of racism in the Gop…check
Yeah, ’cause we’re all racists even though a lot of us liked Herman Cain, and think that guy Bobby Jindal is pretty cool.
9.Still carry 80% of the black vote…check
Yup, he does, which doesn’t prove much. Once again from Commentary: “Black unemployment is at its highest level in 27 years, with black youth unemployment now closing in on 50 percent.” Why are ya’ll voting for this guy again? Oh, yeah right, hopenchange.
10.Same wife for 15 years …with no extra marital affairs…check
Most impressive, I’ll give him that. It’s better than Newt’s done. Oh wait, Mitt Romney’s been married for over 40 years.
11. Save auto industry and 1.5 million jobs.. check
Uh, he bought the auto industry from the stockholders, blackmailed Chrysler’s creditors into selling for pennies on the dollar, both GM and Chrysler went bankrupt anyway and then forced GM to put out overpriced electric cars that it turns out almost no one wants and which have a disconcerting tendency to catch on fire.
12. Assisted in ousting Khaddafi…check
Yup, after complaining we were involved in wars which didn’t serve the national interest, he poured millions of dollars we borrowed from China into bombing the kaftan off a guy who hadn’t been a threat to us since Reagan bombed the kaftan off him in the 1980s. We won’t discuss his replacement…
13.Only active President to receive Nobel Peace prize while in office…check
Yeah, not sure quite what he won that for, he hadn’t done anything yet. Which tells you everything you need to know about the Nobel Committee — if the award to Jimmy Carter hadn’t already. Anybody seen that killer rabbit?
14. Mortgage modification to prevent home owners from losing their home…check
Which hasn’t done a thing since no one can actually get the mortgage modifications.
15. STILL fighting for middle class families…check
If you call fighting for us leaving us in worse shape than we’ve ever been. It used to be the middle class was shrinking because more and more were moving into higher tax brackets. Now it’s shrinking because we’re all going broke.
16.Reform affordable healthcare…. check.
Yup, he sure did reform affordable health care to make it even more expensive.
Despite what the GOP would have you believe the President has been doing these things and more by himself. Obama 2012- Re-post to support!!!
I don’t know if I’d brag so much about all these things he’s done, and God help us if he does any more. Maybe we can get him to just play golf for the next year.
“Uh, he bought the auto industry from the stockholders….”
Uh, I’m pretty sure the stockholders got bupkis.
On #8 you did not mention the nation wide popular support for Allen West, and Marco Rubio, or the election of Tim Scott. there are also governors Haley and Jindal elected in southern states and not by minority voters.
Theodore Roosevelt won his Nobel Peace Prize in 1906. He was President from 1901-1909.
Yeah, but he was a Republican, so it don’t count.
– facts!
Lots about race in there. Pretty gutsy for a post-racial supporter of a post-racial President.
The sad thing is lots of people actually buy into this idiocy and will happily play-act the voting game for the incumbent.
Not that it matters, Comrade. The State knows who the best leaders are and one will be selected for you.
Orion
Unemployment DOWN to 8.5%, after he promised it would never be above 8% thanks to his policies.
What does “brought out of racism” (#8) even mean?
It means there’s not even enough marginally ambiguous material in Obama’s resumé to be able to spin his presidency as good, so the author of this meme had to resort to thinly veiled ad hominem attacks.
Considering *which* ad hominem attack they resorted to, it also suggests a lack of imagination… which might indicate this is a collaborative effort, since the rest seems to have been written by someone with an enormous capacity for fantasy.
It’s always enjoyable to see a well-done fisking.
I’m not on Facebook, but if I was, I would instantly “de-friend” anybody who sent me that crap.
Aside from the hostage admission, look at what an abject failure those previous ten years have been. It’s a fairly elementary reality that dictates that if you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’ll keep getting what you’ve been getting.
It’s also within the realm of rational thinking to deduce that what
worked well historically and what has failed historically would provide credible data to use in the above equation.
The Clinton tax era landed us 23 million jobs and a budget surplus.
Revenue was plentiful and businesses reinvested in the economy in order to avoid paying taxes. Businesses spent, employees worked and earned money, employees spent their money on the business’s goods and services, and the businesses made more profits to reinvest and improve their business. Or, they could opt to pay taxes.
But then came the big change (hence; we’re no longer doing what we’ve been doing and accordingly, what we’ve been getting will no longer be what we’ll get). The Bush Neo-conservative trickle down theory was implemented. Taxes, particularly on the wealthy, were lowered to the lowest point in 65 years. In fact, 30 of the top Fortune 500 companies paid NEGATIVE taxes last year while many paid less than 1%, actually becoming corporate welfare recipients. And the results have been corporations sitting on record piles of cash. They are not reinvesting it because they don’t have to. Instead of buying new company vehicles, computers, office furniture, warehouses, etc., or hire new employees, they simply amass more cash. Apple for example, is sitting on over $800 billion.
So it’s not an unfair or biased argument to look at what we had, what changed, and what results those changes brought.
There’s another element of the argument that justifies taxing the wealthy at a higher scale. Let’s say a corporation (which we’re told are people too) builds a factory in a small town(like they use to when the tax deduction justified it). That factory is profitable and earns the corporation huge profits. As a result of the success, it brings changes to the town. Newer and bigger roads are now needed, perhaps traffic lights, maybe a bridge, or the local police departments may find themselves undermanned. State or federal laws (or just common sense) may require larger and more equipped fire departments, the area municipals may have to make expensive changes to accommodate both the factory and the town.
So why or how is it fair to demand that the citizens of the town pay for these expenses while the corporation is is piling up the cash? How can you justify to the elderly, teachers, janitors, road crews, etc, that the their taxes should pay for improvements needed for the ultra wealthy to continue to make huge profits? And this is suppose to somehow be fair while the corporation is paying anywhere from negative to 1%.
That, as Ronald Reagan said on this issue, “doesn’t make sense”. It’s not what America is about.
My Granddad was a farmer. He had a strong belief that you take from the earth and you give back to the earth. America has been built on this same philosophy and has thrived. What we are seeing today is an effort of an unprecedented push towards Plutocracy and Social Darwinism.
This isn’t rocket science. We’ve tried the trickle down theory where the wealthy amass huge piles of cash from lower taxes and in return, jobs would be available as far as the eye could see. They are sitting on the more cash than ever in history while enjoying the lowest tax breaks in 65 years. It’s not working nor has it ever worked in history.
We need to return to proven policies.