Barack Hussein Obama II | |||
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44th President of the United States From: January 20, 2009 – January 20, 2017 | |||
Vice President | Joe Biden | ||
Predecessor | George W. Bush | ||
Successor | Donald Trump | ||
U.S. Senator from Illinois From: January 3, 2005 – November 16, 2008 | |||
Predecessor | Peter Fitzgerald | ||
Successor | Roland Burris | ||
Illinois Senate, 13th District From: January 8, 1997 – November 4, 2004 | |||
Predecessor | Alice Palmer | ||
Successor | Kwame Raoul | ||
Information | |||
Party | Democratic Party | ||
Spouse(s) | Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama; may have had a prior marriage.[1] | ||
Religion | Islam (See Obama's Religion) |
Barack Hussein Obama II (reportedly born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961, age 60) was the 44th President of the United States. Elected as America's first "post-racial" president according to mainstream fake news media, Obama exacerbated racial tensions and left a dismal legacy of a divided[2] America along Marxist class, racial, and "gender normative" lines.[3] In his final year in office, Barack Obama illegally meddled in the 2016 Presidential election and attempted to blame the Russians for it.[4] In early January 2017, Obama empowered holdovers in his administration to engage in sedition against the Trump transition team and newly elected Trump administration.[5] Barack Obama is the first American president since the transition of James Buchanan to Abraham Lincoln who refused a peaceful transfer of power to his elected successor. Despite his personal involvement,[6] Obama was not impeached for Spygate crimes after leaving office.[7]
According to Joe Biden, who served for more than four decades in the nation's capital, there were no clean, bright, and articulate Blacks prior to Barack Obama.[8] Obama was the first partial non-birthing person of color to hold the office of president. Obama was selected for admission to Harvard Law School. In a paper he wrote as a student, he dismissed the American dream as "unfounded optimism" while noting that Donald Trump is the true idol of the American working class.[9]
Obama insisted on failed policies, such as ObamaCare, and yet had an arrogant dismissal of his critics.[10] A hard veil of censorship and domestic spying abuses fell during his administration on investigative journalists, political opponents, and critics.[11] Much of Obama's personal life was shrouded in mystery[12] as a fawning media promoted his agenda of uprooting cultural norms. Critics of Obamacare or gay marriage typically were smeared as racist. The US Intelligence Community was used to spy on, harass, and intimidate independent journalists and political opponents.[13] His presidency was marred by anemic economic growth, rising federal debt, his poor foreign policies and multiple political scandals.[14] Obama separated families at the border and locked children in cages.[15] Pursuing a foreign policy that undermined American interests, he developed close relations with foreign dictators and shunned democratic movements.[16][17] He failed to see the backlash against his "transformational" Cultural Marxist programs and said in February 2016, "I continue to believe that Mr. Trump will not be president."[18] Some people say that Obama is the worst president in history.[19]
Obama is pro-abortion. In fact, he was the most pro-abortion president to date.[20] Obama dedicated himself to promoting abortion—rather than reduce them as he promised. Just to name a few of the administrative actions by which he has done this would include expanding abortions through Obamacare, appointing many pro-abortion judges and officials, moving to strip medical professionals of rights of conscience, and forcing taxpayers to support the pro-abortion movement around the globe.
Obama partnered with al Qaeda and Islamic State elements in Syria for a regime change war against Bashar al Assad.[21] Assad was a voice for pluralism and inclusion, protecting Christians, Jews, Yazidis and minorities against Obama-backed Islamofascists.[22]
Despite framing himself as an advocate for the poor, speaking about income inequality and socialism, Obama is a limousine liberal as his life after his presidency attests. Obama is famously known for inciting mob violence by promising to "punish our enemies,"[23] and "if they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,"[24]
Early controversies
Obama claims to have been born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961, to Stanley Ann Dunham and possibly Barack Obama Sr.—a bigamist who already had a wife in Kenya.[25] Some contend that this story is a complete fabrication. Obama was reportedly given a social security number whose first three digits were assigned at that time to applications coming from zip codes in Connecticut.[26] Obama traveled to Pakistan, India, and Indonesia in 1981, however, he never obtained a U.S. passport until 2004 after he was elected to the United States Senate. During the 2008 presidential primaries, a firm headed by John Brennan hacked into the U.S. State Department's visa files and accessed Obama's passport files using whichever Social Security numbers Obama was using at the time.[27] An FBI informant and whistleblower who worked for Brennan, and was the key witness, was found murdered by a gunshot wound two weeks later.[28] Obama later appointed Brennan to a key White House position and as CIA director in his second term. Brennan was referred for criminal investigation in 2019 in Obama's Spygate scandal.
Claims that Obama was born in Kenya have been traced to sources hired by Obama. In 1991, Obama's literary agent, Acton & Dystel, published a promotional booklet stating that Obama was born in Kenya.[29] The claim that Obama was born in Kenya remained on the agent's website until 2007.[30] Internet archives confirm this information.[31] In addition to the information from literary agents, Michelle Obama stated in a speech that Kenya is Obama's "homeland".[32] At a speech in Kenya shortly after his presidency ended, Obama publicly stated that, "Now, three years ago, I visited Kenya as the first sitting American President to come from Kenya."[33]
Obama's birth parents divorced in 1963 when his mother discovered Barack Obama Sr. was already married to a woman living in Kenya.[34] When Obama was 2 years old his mother married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian geologist. At age 6 his mother and adoptive father took him to Jakarta, Indonesia for 4 years while his mother pursued a Ph.D. in Anthropology requiring fieldwork there.[35] His mother then returned to Hawaii and abandoned him there with his grandparents (Stanley and Madelyn Dunham, who had moved to Hawaii in 1959) [36] so she could return to Indonesia after her divorce. In Honolulu Obama attended the exclusive Punahou Academy where, according to classmates and the Huffington Post, he had sex with older white men for money to buy drugs.[37] In 1986 Obama's high school pot dealer was beaten to death with a hammer by his gay lover over drugs and breaking wind in his face.[38] Obama's grandfather arranged for his friend, the noted Communist writer Frank Marshall Davis, to serve as a mentor and role model for an impressionable African-American youth.
Other siblings of Obama's include his half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng and 7 other children born to his father by 4 different women.[39] For much of his early life, prior to his transfer to Columbia University, he went by his nickname, "Barry." In the summer of 1988, before attending Harvard Law School (he'd just been accepted), he visited Kogelo, Kenya, to learn more about his father's family. When his mother died in 1995, he and his sister Maya scattered her ashes over Hawaii's south shore.[36]
Obama attended Reverend Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church from 1984 to 1988 during his time as a community organizer (See 1985-1988, Community Organizer section). Obama credits Wright with his alleged conversion to Christianity, and had both his daughters, Sasha and Malia, baptized there.[36]
At age 6, Obama attended schools in Indonesia, the first a Catholic school while he was in kindergarten, and later a public school which taught religion. The school had mostly Muslim students (since most Indonesians are Muslim). In Dreams from My Father, Obama writes, "In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to my mother that I had made faces during Koranic studies."[40] Insight magazine first reported Hillary Clinton's organization had "questions about Obama’s Muslim background: Are the American people ready for an elected president who was educated in a Madrassa as a young boy and has not been forthcoming about his Muslim heritage?"[41]
In 1971, at age 10, Barack Obama moved to Hawaii, and his grandparents helped him gain entrance to the prestigious Punahou Academy in Honolulu where he began substance abuse and illegal drugs.[42] He was accepted through a scholarship for disadvantaged minorities while he was in 5th grade.[36] At this elite high school with 1,200 students he was just 1 of 3 black students. Obama failed to make the starting lineup of the school's state champion basketball team his senior year. He wrote a poem for the school's literary magazine, Ka Wai Ola.[39]
In 1979, he began a 2-year stint at Occidental College college in Los Angeles,[25] and then transferred to Columbia University in New York, which he graduated from in 1983.[43] During this time he published an anti-military tirade embracing Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev's [44] proposal for a nuclear freeze in the campus newspaper and allegedly spoke at an Anti-Apartheid rally,[36] although several prominent student leaders said they did not remember him there. Professor Michael L. Baron was impressed by Obama and wrote him a recommendation for Harvard Law School.[45] From 1983 to 1988, Obama took time off from his education to work as a financial analyst and later a community organizer in Chicago. In the winter of 1988, Barack Obama decided to attend Harvard Law School, and left Chicago for Cambridge, Massachusetts. In his 2nd year a power struggle broke out among the dominant white liberals over control of the Harvard Law Review. Obama was elected its first black president as a compromise candidate largely with help of conservatives following a "marathon voting session" in which he finally won on the 19th ballot.[39] This led to national attention and numerous job offers, which Obama passed up, at age 30, to pursue his political career in Chicago.[46]
When Obama was attending Harvard Law School, he dreamed of him or his children becoming like Donald Trump.[47]
Personal life According to Rising Star by David J. Garrow, in 1986 Obama tried hard to convince Sheila Miyoshii Jager, someone of Dutch and Japanese ancestry, to marry him.[48] She refused his request to marry him due to her age. By 1987, Obama had his sights on becoming U.S. president.[48]
Barack Obama met his mate known then as Michelle Robinson, while he was an intern and Michelle was on staff at Sidley Austin LLP, a very large corporate law firm.[25] Despite company policy prohibiting relations between staff and interns, the two became involved. The two continued a long-distance relationship while he finished law school, and on October 18, 1992,[49] were joined in a domestic union officiated by Reverend Jeremiah Wright at Trinity United Church,[50] a church which has supported gay marriage since the 1970s.[36] Michelle has not practiced law since 1994 when she failed to renew her law license, allegedly to start a family.[51] Malia, the couple's oldest daughter, was born in 1999, and Natasha (often called Sasha) in 2001.[25]
1983–1984: financial analyst and writer
In 1983 Obama colluded with Russia to further Russian foreign policy interests against the United States in an essay entitled Breaking The War Mentality published in Columbia University's weekly magazine, The Sun Dial.[52]
In 1984 Obama worked as a writer and financial analyst for Business International Corporation to help pay off some of his student loans. Business International Corporation was a small newsletter-publishing and research firm which aided multinational companies in understanding overseas markets. Obama served as a writer/researcher for a company reference service, Financing Foreign Operations, and wrote for their newsletter, Business International Money Report. His supervisor was Cathy Lazere.[53]
In 1984, Obama was hired by the New York Public Interest Research Group, a non-profit organization promoting environmental, consumer, and government reforms. He also was paid just under $10,000 annually as a full-time organizer for Harlem's City College to mobilize student volunteers.[45]
From 1985 to 1988, Obama worked as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago [54] funded with a $25,000 grant by Bill Ayers' Woods Fund. The New York Times reported he was paid $1,000 a year, with $2,000 extra for a car[55] however stories vary wildly. Jerry Kellman, who hired him, says it was "$10,000 a year and a $2,000 car allowance". Obama himself gave different numbers; his memoir says $10,000 (as well as the car), in his Wesleyan speech he gave it as "$12,000 a year plus $2,000 for an old, beat-up car", and when he announced his candidacy for president, it was "a group of churches had offered me a job as a community organizer for $13,000 a year".
Ryan Lizza at The New Republic reported that "Jean Rudd of the Woods Fund...had provided Kellman with his original $25,000 to hire Obama". Ari Berman reported in The Nation that the "[Woods Fund] gave a $25,000 grant to the Developing Communities Project, which hired Obama". CBS Channel 2 in Chicago ran a story with a document showing that Obama's proposed salary in 1987 was $25,000, a number that the Obama campaign confirmed while insisting at the same time his original salary was $13,000.[56] Many of the organizers that Obama worked with in Chicago were experienced in the methods of Saul Alinsky, and taught Obama many of the methods found in his book Rules for Radicals.[57]
During this time Obama joined Reverend Wright's Trinity United Church because in the words of Suzanne Malveaux of CNN, "It was the church to join if you wanted to be one of Chicago's black movers and shakers." At the time, community organizing involved close affiliation with churches, which was how Obama met Wright. Obama abandoned the fight against asbestos contamination in the Altgeld Gardens housing project to pursue personal interests and a career by enrollment at Harvard Law School in the winter of 1988.[36]
1988–1996: law practice In 1988 Obama gained work as a Summer Associate at one of the most prestigious corporate law firms in the world, Sidley Austin LLP,[59] whose partners included Newton Minow, thanks to the recommendation of Minow's daughter Martha, a professor at Harvard Law School. It was at the Sidley Austin firm that Obama would meet Michelle Robinson, his future domestic partner.[39] From 1993 to 1996 he practiced civil rights law including suing Citibank to force them into making subprime mortgages to minority borrowers.[60] After graduating from Harvard he was hired by Miner, Barnhill, & Galland, a small politically connected law firm.[61] It was at Miner, Barnhill, & Galland that he would meet influential real estate developer Tony Rezko.[36]
1991–1992: Project Vote In 1991 Obama was recruited by Sandy Newman to head the Chicago chapter of Project Vote!,[36] and in 1992 was the Executive Director, overseeing a voter registration drive which registered 125,000 black voters and was credited with defeating popular incumbent Democrat Senator Alan Dixon in the primary and electing Carol Moseley-Braun as a reprisal for Dixon's support for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.[62]
1991-1995: Author
In 1995 Obama published Dreams From My Father about his life and family background.[25] It was in a 1992 book Obama claimed to have been born in Kenya.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, prior to the information being scrubbed from its website in mid-April 2008 during the Democratic Presidential Primaries, Obama was one of three prominent organizers of black supremacist group the Nation of Islam's Million Man March on Washington, D.C.[63]
1992–2004: lecturer at University of Chicago Obama taught part-time at the University of Chicago Law School[39] from 1992 to 2004. Though Obama erroneously describes himself as a "constitutional law professor",[64] he was actually only a senior lecturer and the class he taught the most times was called "Current Issues in Racism and the Law".[65] He was a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, teaching 3 courses per year, and a senior lecturer from 1996 to 2004. After Obama was criticized for lying about his job title, the University of Chicago released a statement stating that senior lecturers are considered Law School faculty and regarded as professors but not full-time or tenured. Obama was invited to join the faculty in a full-time, tenured track position several times during this period but declined each time.[66]
Obama rose to prominence as an Illinois state senator invited to give the 2004 Democratic Party Nomination Convention Keynote Speech. Gloria Borger, later chief political analyst at CNN, appeared on the state media channel PBS Washington Week in Review program, and introduced the unkown Obama to America as a "Kenyan economist" running for the U.S. Senate in 2004. In the most memorable line of the speech, Obama said,
"Tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there’s the United States of America."[67] |
The words were spoken to enthusiastic applause. In the confused and befuddled atmosphere of 2004, two nights later the Democrat presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, said the exact opposite:
"After September 11th all our people rallied to President Bush's call for unity to meet the danger. There were no Democrats. There were no Republicans. There were only Americans. And how we wish it had stayed that way."[68] |
Likewise, Kerry's words were met with thunderous applause.
Obama shares the distinction with Richard Nixon and Josef Stalin as twice being named Time magazine person of the year.
2009 Nobel Peace Prize
On October 9, 2009, Barack H. Obama became the third sitting U.S. President[69] to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".[70] Obama stated that he was "surprised and deeply humbled" to receive the unexpected award,[71] and also said, "To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize—men and women who have inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace".[69] The award was widely criticized given Obama's then lack of accomplishments.[72]
1996 election
In 1995 a cadre of like-minded individuals gathered for a fundraising event in the early career of Barack Obama hosted by Weather Underground (WUO) terrorist William "Bill" Ayers. Besides Obama, those in attendance were Ayers wife Bernardine Dohrn,[73] and Carl Davidson, veterans of guerrilla warfare training in Cuba just prior to the 1968 Democrat National Convention riots. Ayers and Dohrn have taken credit for, and never denied, bombing the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and the State Department.
Ayers and Dohrn used their celebrity status among leftists to launch Obama's career. Ayers, Dohrn and Jeff Jones[74] are authors of Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-imperialism, the title taken from The Sayings of Mao Zedong.[75] The book declares "we are communist men and women."[76] Ayers later jokingly, publicly admitted to ghostwriting Obama's book, Dreams From My Father[77] and Obama was to appoint several openly avowed Maoists to prominent White House and Executive Branch positions.[78]
In a 2001 interview on WBEZ FM Chicago Public Radio, Senator Obama said some critically disparaging things about the United States Constitution. He said:
If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to vest formal rights in previously dispossessed peoples. So that I would now have the right to vote, I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order and as long as I could pay for it I’d be okay.
But the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society. And to that extent as radical as people tried to characterize the Warren court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as it’s been interpreted, and the Warren court interpreted it in the same way that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. It says what the states can’t do to you, it says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf. And that hasn’t shifted. One of the I think tragedies of the civil rights movement was because the civil rights movement became so court focused, I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributed change and in some ways we still suffer from that.[79][80][81]
Backstabbing fellow Democrats
Barack Obama ran for the Illinois state senate in 1996. He was initially supported by incumbent Alice Palmer, who declared she would run for the U.S. Congress. However, when her bid for Congress failed on November 28, 1995, she tried to run for her old seat in the March 1996 election. Her supporters asked Obama to step aside, although whether this was with her permission remains uncertain.[43] Not only did Obama not step down, he gathered a team of high-priced lawyers, including fellow Harvard Law School graduate Thomas Johnson, to challenge his opponent's petition signatures on technicalities after the filing deadline had passed. Such tactics are legal and frequently used in Chicago; in 2006 they eliminated 67 of the 245 aldermanic candidates;[82] yet nevertheless led to the term "hardball" by The New York Times[43] and "cutthroat" by David Mendel as reported by both CNN[36] and MSNBC.[25] The Chicago Tribune declared Obama had mastered "the bare-knuckle arts of Chicago electoral politics", noting "The man now running for president on a message of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by leveling the playing field, but by clearing it."[82] As one of Obama's four opponents, eliminated through his ballot challenges, would put it:
“ | "Why say you're for a new tomorrow, then do old-style Chicago politics to remove legitimate candidates? He talks about honor and democracy, but what honor is there in getting rid of every other candidate so you can run scot-free? Why not let the people decide?"
—Gha-is Askia, 1996 Illinois Senate candidate[83] |
” |
2000 election
In 2000, Obama lost his only political election when he chose to run against experienced incumbent and former Black Panther Bobby L. Rush for the U.S. Congress in a 65% black district. Rush's name recognition began at 90%, Obama's at 11%. Michelle Obama opposed taking on such an iconic figure dear to the community and threatened divorce.[86] Establishment Democrats considered Obama "a white man in blackface".[87] Rush said of Obama, "He went to Harvard and became an educated fool," adding, "We’re not impressed with these folks with these eastern elite degrees."[88] Todd Spivak would give voice to this impression of Obama, noting that
“ | "My view of Obama then wasn't all that different from the image he projects now....One thing I can say is, I never heard him launch into the preacher-man voice he now employs during speeches. He sounded vanilla, and activists in his mostly black district often chided him for it."[84] | ” |
Rush would go on to win the Primary with 61.02% of the vote; Obama received 30.36%.[89] The loss led to Obama considering dropping out of politics altogether, particularly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, since his name sounds similar to "Osama bin Laden".[25]
State Senate voting record
Obama entered the Illinois Senate promising change to a corrupt system. He mixed often radical votes with more pragmatic agreements. Possibly one of his most radical votes was against requiring medical care for aborted children who survive the procedure – in fact, the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council ascribed him a 100% rating for his consistently pro-choice votes.[90] He was criticized for using the statehouse as a stepping stone for a more illustrious career: Steven J. Rauschenberger, a Republican, said prior to Obama's election as president: “He is a very bright but very ambitious person who has always had his eyes on the prize, and it wasn’t Springfield. If he deserves to be president, it is not because he was a great legislator.”[91]
The statehouse was majority Republican, so the Senator was sometimes forced to compromise. He formed allegiances across party lines to pass campaign finance reform that banned most gifts by lobbyists, prohibited spending campaign money for legislators’ personal use and required electronic filing of campaign disclosure reports.[91] Obama also helped pass a so-called “driving-while-black bill”, which required the police to collect data on the race of drivers they stopped as a way to monitor racial profiling.[91]
Obama established himself as a chief spokesperson in opposition to the War on Terror during an October 2002 rally at Federal Plaza in Chicago[92] organized by veteran Maoist and webmaster of Progressives for Obama,[93] Carl Davidson.
2003 Emil Jones deal
When Illinois' U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald announced he would be retiring in April 2003, Obama jumped at the opportunity, declaring that he would be a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2004.[25] To boost his chances Obama approached the newly crowned president of the Illinois Senate, Emil Jones Jr., with a proposal. According to Jones, whom Obama has since called his "godfather"[94] the conversation went as follows:
“ | "After I was elected president, in 2003, he came to see me, a couple months later. And he said to me, he said, ‘You’re the senate president now, and with that, you have a lot of pow-er.’ And I told Barack, ‘You think I got a lot of pow-er now?,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, you got a lot of pow-er.’ And I said, ‘What kind of pow-er do I have?’ He said, ‘You have the pow-er to make a United States sen-a-tor!’ I said to Barack, I said, ‘That sounds good!’ I said, ‘I haven’t even thought of that.’ I said, ‘Do you have someone in mind you think I could make?,’ and he said, ‘Yeah. Me.’"[62] | ” |
Because of the deal, Obama's entire Illinois Senate legislative record was, as longtime Obama reporter Todd Spivak put it, built in a single year. During his 7th and final year in the Illinois Senate, Obama sponsored an incredible 26 bills into law, including many he now points to when criticized as inexperienced[84]—as CNN's Suzanne Malveaux observed, "With help from on high, Obama got his name on hundreds of bills that he pushed through."[36] Jones not only had Obama craft legislation addressing daily tragedies to raise his political profile,[94] he also appointed Obama head of almost all high-profile legislation in the Illinois Senate, angering other state legislators with more seniority who'd spent years supporting the bills.[84] Illinois State Senator Rickey Hendon, the original sponsor of the famous racial profiling bill requiring videotaped confessions in police interrogations, complained bitterly about Jones' decision.[95] Jones' influence had a major impact on Obama's chances in the 2004 elections, preventing major political players from backing Obama's opponents. To quote Emil Jones,
“ | "He knew if he had me in the run for the Senate, it would put a block on the current mayor. The current mayor and the father of the controller, which was Dan Hynes, they were roommates in Springfield when the mayor was a state senator, so they had a relationship. Another big financial backer for the governor was Blair Hull. Barack knew if he had me it would checkmate the governor, ’cause the governor couldn’t come out and go with Blair Hull, ’cause the governor needs me. Same with the mayor. So he had analyzed and figured all of that out. He knew I could help him with labor support. And I could put a checkmate on some of the local politicians that didn’t know him, but they couldn’t really go against me."
—Emil Jones[39] |
” |
2004 Primary election Despite initially trailing in the polls to frontrunner Blair Hull,[96] Obama greatly benefited from what the Chicago Tribune called "the most inglorious campaign implosion in Illinois political history"[97] when pressure from journalists and opposing candidates, just weeks before the election, forced the unsealing of Hull's messy divorce files.[98] The files revealed Hull's ex-wife's accusations of verbal and physical abuse.[84] Hull would afterward criticize the media, stating, "As for the press, I will never read the newspaper the same way again."[97] Obama would go on to win the Primary with 53% of the vote.[98] Obama's unexpected victory led to him being termed a "rising star" by the media.[99]
2004 General election, Jack Ryan
Once again Obama found himself trailing to popular front-runner Jack Ryan, and once again a candidate's campaign imploded thanks to media intervention. In an unprecedented move, the Chicago Tribune and local TV station WLS sued to force the unsealing of Ryan's divorce files, despite opposition from both Ryan and his wife, Jeri Ryan, who in the files accused Jack Ryan of trying to coerce her to perform sex acts in public. Though Ryan advisors told him he could still win if using a negative attack on Obama, Ryan refused to engage in what he considered dirty politics.[100] Ryan then dropped out of the race (per request by the Illinois GOP[101]), following which the Illinois GOP scrambled to find a replacement, leaving Obama uncontested for weeks to campaign and build up public support. On top of all this, Obama was selected to give the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention (July 27[102]), catapulting him into the national spotlight, and leading to further media publicity terming him a "rising star".[103]
2004 General election, Alan Keyes
After a number of candidates including former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka declined to run,[104] the Illinois GOP finally settled on fiery Alan Keyes, a former Ambassador to the Economic and Social Counsel of the United Nations,[84] with less than 3 months left before the November 2004 election.[25] His sudden entrance into the state for the election was initially attacked in the press as "carpetbagging".[105] Keyes repeatedly claimed his primary motivation for entering a race he had seemingly no chance of winning was his disgust at Obama's votes on the popular Born Alive bills.[106] Keyes, from his first day of arriving in Illinois (August 9, 2004),[107] accused Obama of having voted against bills mandating medical care for newborn children, and supporting "infanticide" (the term twice used in the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act[108]) where hospitals left newborn infants to die like garbage.[109] Obama in a debate on October 13, 2004, defended himself against Keyes' accusations of infanticide by claiming that Illinois law was already sufficient.[110]
However, Keyes' rhetoric, calling Obama's votes "the slaveholder's position"[107] and saying "Jesus Christ would not vote for Obama"[111] was widely ridiculed by the press. Keyes' unabashed criticism of homosexuality as "selfish hedonism" was also targeted.[112] Obama would ultimately win the election, 70% to 27%.[113]
U.S. Senate voting record Obama's incomplete term in the U.S. Senate was largely not noteworthy. In voting against raising the debt limit in 2006 Obama famously said, "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. government can’t pay its own bills. ... I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit."[114] In 2008 as candidate for president Obama called George W. Bush's request to raise the debt limit "irresponsible" and "unpatriotic".[115]
The National Journal ranked him the most liberal senator in 2007.[116]
Obama frequently used the filibuster to obstruct the operations of government,[117] and voted against the minimum wage bill[118] he introduced because it included a provision to pay active duty U.S. troops. He voted for the $700 billion TARP program to bailout the big banks after receiving more than $120,000 in contributions from Fannie Mae, a government-sponsored entity[119] taken into conservatorship for mismanaging its affairs and responsible for all the big banks' problems.
According to Opensecrets.org, of the 671,269 contributions to Obama during his time in the Senate, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley were among the top 20 biggest money donors to his campaigns.[120] All four subsequently received approximately $70 billion in taxpayer assisted bailout money from the TARP program he voted for.[121] UBS AG, a foreign bank and the 12th largest donor to Obama,[122] was fined $780 billion in February 2009 in a U.S. Federal Court on charges it helped thousands of Americans evade taxes.[123] After just four short years, Obama still ranks number one over all time of Big Pharma money recipients with slightly under $5 million, followed by Hillary Clinton with a little more than $3.5 million.[124] Since entering the Senate, prescription opioid deaths in the U.S. rose from 12,000 per year to over 46,000 per year.[125]
Contrary to popular myth at the end of the Cold War, Communism did not die, it only went into remission. The rise of Barack Obama and passage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) signaled a renewed attack on basic constitutional rights and a revival of a spectre haunting humanity.
Unlike Democrat contenders Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, Obama's hands were not "stained" with the Iraqi war resolution; a number of Democrats wanted to punish candidates for acting bi-partisan and called for his candidacy. His only career accomplishment until then had been the delivery of a speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
Through heavy use of early voting by the Democrat political machine, Obama was elected president in 2008 in the midst of a severe economic meltdown and a foreign policy crisis. Obama outspent John McCain by hundreds of millions of dollars in 2008,[126] and spending more than a billion dollars from special interests to snag reelection in 2012.[127] Former Democrat Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman endorsed Obama's opponent John McCain in 2008 and declined to endorse Obama for the 2012 presidential election.[128]
Primary election
In 2007–08, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton competed for the Democrat nomination. Hillary Clinton cleverly resurrected the "Born Alive" controversy surrounding Obama that had lain largely dormant since 2004 (notwithstanding the continuing mentions by Jill Stanek), by accusing Obama of not being pro-choice for voting "Present" on a number of abortion-related bills[129]—including the Born Alive ones,[130] and cowardly ducking the votes.[131] This led to criticism of Obama by two pro-choice organizations, Emily's List, and the National Organization for Women.[132] However, Pam Sutherland, the long-time head of Illinois Planned Parenthood, came to Obama's aid, criticizing Clinton for making the attack, and stating repeatedly that Obama's present votes were part of a broader strategy used by Planned Parenthood to keep Illinois voters from knowing their state senators were voting against the controversial and popular bills.[133][134]
“ | "He came to me and said: ‘My members are being attacked. We need to figure out a way to protect members and to protect women. A ‘present’ vote was hard to pigeonhole which is exactly what Obama wanted. What it did was give cover to moderate Democrats who wanted to vote with us but were afraid to do so" because of how their votes would be used against them electorally. A ‘present’ vote would protect them. Your senator voted ‘present.’ Most of the electorate is not going to know what that means."
-Pam Sutherland, President/CEO of Illinois Planned Parenthood Council, 1980-2012[135] |
” |
Jeremiah Wright controversy
One major dilemma that arose for Obama during his campaign was his connection to his preacher Jeremiah Wright. Obama and his wife (raised a Baptist) were members of the Trinity United Church of Christ[148] in Chicago, a church that embraced black liberation theology and its emphasis on empowering so-called "oppressed groups" against "establishment forces". This denomination was the first in America to ordain gays as ministers.[149] Church pastor Jeremiah Wright had been making inflammatory comments and posting his sermons online for sale. These include the statement "G-d damn America," and in describing the September 11th attacks, "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."[150] In addition, Rev. Wright blamed America saying "We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic."
In April 2008, after 20 years in the church, candidate Obama made public statements poised to set him at odds with the man who conducted his wedding and baptized his children. With the negative publicity persisting, a month later Obama ended the friendship, left Wright's church, and blamed the media.[151] Obama claimed “It’s not fair to the other members of the church who seek to worship in peace...", and distanced himself from Wright's sermons as "a bunch of rants that aren't grounded in the truth."[152][153]
On June 30, 2008, Obama's voting record on the "Born Alive" bills came once more to the forefront when CNN gave voice to the growing controversy and revealed the defense Obama had been using since 2004–2008, that the Illinois bills he'd voted against were different from the federal bill, was false, since he'd brought up for a vote a bill word for word identical to the federal bill in the Health and Human Services Committee he chaired, and voted against it, defeating it.[154][155] This led in August to a confrontation between Obama and the NRLC.[156] After Obama accused critics of 'lying'[157] the NRLC challenged the assertion, and the Obama campaign conceded he "misspoke" and had voted against an identical bill to the "federal bill that everybody supported" but focused on Obama's new claim, that Illinois law was already sufficient to protect newborn children.[158] The NRLC promptly declared "Senator Barack Obama's four-year effort to cover up his full role in killing legislation to protect born-alive survivors of abortions continues to unravel."[159]
Result Obama made an effort to portray John McCain as similar to George W. Bush, drawing attention to McCain's refusal to criticize the unpopular president. McCain was particularly criticized for saying of how many years we should be willing to stay in Iraq, "Make it a hundred."[160]
“ | "John McCain went on television and said that there has been great progress economically over the last seven-and-a-half years. John McCain thinks our economy has made great progress under George W. Bush? How could somebody who has been traveling across this country, somebody who came to Erie, Pennsylvania, say we’ve made great progress?"
-Barack Obama[161] |
” |
On November 2, 2008, Barack Obama won the presidential election with 365 electoral votes to John McCain's 173.[164] Obama received 53% of the popular vote to John McCain's 46%.[165]
During his campaigns, Obama said that he intended to "spread the wealth around" and was portrayed as saying that entrepreneurs and employers deserve no credit for building their businesses.[166] On March 1, 2013 Obama issued executive orders to implement his sequester of budget cuts which[167] has been widely criticized for destroying jobs in what was an anemic and fragile recovery.[168]
Warren L. Dean Jr., an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, wrote:
Obama's illegal domestic spying on political opponents and FISA abuse began in June 2012 before the November 2012 presidential election and was continued beyond his term of office by holdovers.[170]
According to a NBC News poll, from August 2014, Obama's approval rating was a dismal 40%,[171] showing that six in ten Americans disapproved of his liberal policies. Given that liberals frequently engage in deceit, the actual approval ratings could be much lower. When Obama left office, the same pollsters who prognosticated a blowout win for Hillary Clinton maintained Obama's approval rating was above 50%.
On April 27, 2011,[172] a long-running controversy surrounding Obama's birth was largely put to rest[173] when Obama had his long-form birth certificate posted at WhiteHouse.gov.[174]Donald Trump, who had been critical of Obama for allowing the divisiveness to linger was then leading Republicans in polls for the upcoming GOP primary[175] and has been credited with bringing final resolution to the issue. The birth certificates of Michelle Robinson, which would disclosure her birth-sex, and the two children which would clarify their birth parentage, however, remain undisclosed.
The following is a synopsis of previous events leading up to the release:
Hillary Clinton top advisor Sidney Blumenthal, and his son, Max Blumenthal, were the origin of the rumors in 2008 that Barack Hussein Obama was a Muslim in order to stir up fear among white Democrats and women, intended for Hillary's benefit.[176] McClatchy Washington Bureau Chief James Asher relayed, "Mr. Blumenthal and I met together in my office and he strongly urged me to investigate the exact place of President Obama’s birth, which he suggested was in Kenya."[177] Snope's has identified a claim that a 1991 promotional booklet by Barack Obama's then-literary agency, Acton & Dystel, touted Obama as "born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii" as being true.[178]
Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign team then began spreading Islamophobic rumors that Obama was a Muslim schooled in a madrassa as a child in Indonesia.[179][180] A group registered as People United Means Action (PUMA) was made up of Hillary Clinton supporters who not only opposed Barack Obama's nomination but also sought to delegitimize his presidency.[181] PUMA members charged that the media directed sexism and misogyny at Clinton during the 2008 primary campaign and expressed anger at Democratic Party leaders' failure to speak out or otherwise respond appropriately.
Hillary Clinton had received a majority of votes in the 2008 Democratic primaries and PUMA felt the Superdelegates robbed Hillary of the nomination.
Retribution killings
Obama transformed the Bush administration War on Terror from a preventative measure against terrorism to a cry for vengeance, mob bloodlust, and retribution killings which spawned a fresh, new, and larger cycle of violence.
On May 1, 2011, Obama misled the public when he announced [182][183] that Osama bin Laden was "killed in a firefight" after a U.S. special operations group infiltrated a compound in Abottobad, Pakistan.[184] Attacks, murders, and kidnappings of Americans have since escalated as reprisals for bin Laden's death. Al Qaeda, once broken and on the run, operates openly as the jihad has now become global. Relations with Pakistan, a longtime ally throughout the Cold War and War on Terror, became strained. The government of Pakistan denied White House claims it allowed Americans to kill Muslims on its territory.[185] For all his duplicity and criticism of the War on Terror, Obama experienced only a temporary blip in approval ratings.[186][187]
An NBC investigation revealed Obama was informed of bin Laden's whereabouts one full year before he attempted to use it as an election year issue. NBC further reported that there was no "firefight" at all, contradicting what the president told the nation.[188] As early as the day after bin Laden was executed, it was learned bin Laden was not armed in the alleged "firefight" that Obama claimed took place.
Defends Mohammad
After the Benghazi terrorist attack which his administration knowingly and fraudulently blamed on the creator of an irreverent YouTube video critical of the founder of Islam, Obama made a speech at the UN in which he said,
“ | The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.[189] | ” |
Four Americans died in the terrorist action intended to commemorate the 9/11 attacks. The attack occurred on the US Consulate at Benghazi, part of the territory of the United States. Administration officials did nothing to repel the attack in progress while huddling to discuss the domestic political ramifications for the upcoming presidential election, less than two months away. The creator of the video was jailed on bogus charges unrelated to the video. In 2015, a series of terrorist attacks in France, Denmark and the United States claimed the lives of at least 15 people with dozens injured, including security and police officers, motivated by Muslim extremists defending what, in their view were, unflattering depictions of the founder of Islam, Mohammad.
Voting irregularities
According to Stanley Kurtz - author of Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism (2010) Obama in 1995 sought and obtained the endorsement of a left-wing third party, the New Party in his quest to be elected to the Illinois State Senate.[190] Obama's "Fight the Smears" campaign has denied this, as has Politico's Ben Smith.[191] Others who claim he was affiliated with the New Party/ACORN include The Blaze's Billy Hallowell,[192] Breitbart's Joel Pollack, Human Events' Erick Erickson,[193] Newsbusters' P.J. Gladnick,[194] Rick Moran at AmericanThinker.com,[195] and various writers at Discover the Networks (which include Kurtz and Erickson).[196]
Kurtz in 2012 has claimed to find minutes of the New Party Chicago chapter that say, "Barack Obama, candidate for State Senate in the 13th Legislative District, gave a statement to the membership and answered questions. He signed the New Party 'Candidate Contract' and requested an endorsement from the New Party. He also joined the New Party."[191] Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod responded to Kurtz with silence and when asked if that meant "yes or no", Axelrod stated, "You can take that as I have no idea what you are talking about."[197]
"You didn't build that"===
For a more detailed treatment, see You didn't build that.
On July 13, 2012, at a campaign event in Virginia, Obama attacked capitalism in a speech that immediately stirred up controversy. Speaking about the government's role in the success of private business, he said:[198]
“ | If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business - you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. | ” |
Results
On November 6, 2012 Barack Obama won reelection with 332 electoral votes to Mitt Romney's 206.[199] Obama received 51% of the popular vote (65,899,660 votes) to Romney's 47% (60,932,152 votes).[200]
The liberal claptrap that elected Obama seems silly today. It was claimed, for example, that Obama had millions of followers on Twitter, when allegedly some 70% of them were fake.[201] And although the lamestream media promoted Obama as a great orator, in fact, he relied almost entirely on teleprompters for his speeches and press conferences, and at one point even had teleprompters set up for him in a middle school classroom in order to speak to the media.
Five years into Obama's presidency the number of people holding jobs still was 3 million below the all-time high of 138 million[202] workers – despite an increase of 10 million people in population over the same period of time.[203] Despite the "Hope and Change" rhetoric, from 2007 to 2017, the rate of Americans ages 10 to 24 who died by suicide rose by 56 percent, from 6.8 deaths per 100,000 persons to 10.6.[204] Under Obama and Senate Democrats[205] budget management, the United States suffered its largest deficits[206] in history and its credit-worthiness downgraded from Standard and Poor's. Obama assured Americans that unemployment would not rise above 8% if his economic stimulus program was adopted, however, it rose and stagnated in the 8-10% range[207][208] for the entirety of his first term.
Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen, writing in the Wall Street Journal, noted, "Rather than being a unifier, Mr. Obama has divided America on the basis of race, class and partisanship." The commentators also note Obama's approach to governance has encouraged radical leftists to pursue a similar strategy on his behalf. Mary Frances Berry, former head of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, acknowledged that the Obama administration has taken to polarizing America around the issue of race as a means of diverting attention from other issues, saying, "Having one's opponent rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing joblessness."[209] Caddell and Schoen, who worked for President Carter and Clinton, respectively, further stated, "Mr. Obama has also cynically divided the country on class lines. He has taken to playing the populist card time and time again. He bashes Wall Street and insurance companies whenever convenient to advance his programs, yet he has been eager to accept campaign contributions and negotiate with these very same banks and corporations behind closed doors in order to advance his political agenda... President Obama's divisive approach to governance has weakened us as a people and paralyzed our political culture."[210]
Obama appointed numerous communists and red diaper babies to important administration positions.[211] He abused his presidential power several times during his presidency.[212]
Obama's economic stimulus package in response to the Crash of 2008 took seven years to return unemployment to historically acceptable levels. Economic growth remained below 2.0% throughout his two terms as poverty and income inequality increased.
Obama sought to end the "schoolhouse-to-jailhouse pipeline" by bribing public school districts through grants for not having law enforcement authorities arrest students for arrestable offenses – this policy led to a major school shooting in Florida over a year after he left office.[213]
Under Barack Obama's lack of leadership, an Inspector General appointed by Obama discovered, for the first time in history, that the top two personnel appointed by Obama to head the FBI had both violated the law.[214] Additionally, the Obama Administration prosecuted more whistleblowers as spies than other administrations.[215]
Not wanting the Financial crisis of 2008 "to go to waste," America embarked on a grand socialist experiment. Thanks to "stupidity of the American voter" in the words of the bill's author, Obama passed his signature legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) on March 10, 2010. Also known as Obamacare. In keeping with his progressive ideals, the bill used coercive measures to force Americans to buy insurance they didn't want or need.
The employer mandate – the requirement that employers pay 50% of a workers insurance – held down new job creation and wages. Overall GDP growth barely exceeded 1% throughout Obama's years, while population continued to grow at a 2.5% rate, thus steadily impoverishing the nation as a whole.
The act originated in the Democrat-controlled House, was amended and passed the Senate just prior to Sen. Ted Kennedy's death with no Republicans and 44 Democrats voting to oppose. 60 Democrats in total lost their seats afterward in the 2010 Midterms.
In what was construed as a de facto rejection of the bill, Massachusetts voters elected a Republican candidate, Scott Brown, who promised to vote against the bill if given the chance.[218] After Obama made a promise to issue an executive order that would ultimately prohibit the use of taxpayer subsidies to pay for abortion services,[219] the Democratic House of Representatives would pass the bill as it left the Senate 219–212, with 34 Democrats and all other parties dissenting.[220]
The individual mandate required everyone to purchase health care insurance or suffer punitive measures, with the typical Marxist provisions for exemptions and transfer payments from taxpayers to protected classes of Democrat voters. The individual mandate was upheld by the Supreme Court with Chief Justice John Roberts – himself the victim of Obama era FISA abuse – casting the tie-breaking vote.
The forced transfer of wealth from job creation to healthcare (including illegal immigrants) impoverished the country and left a generation of younger Obama supporters unemployed or underemployed.
Critics of the Obama administration have coined the word "Obamunism" to describe Barack Obama's socialistic and "fascism light" economic planning policies.[225][226][227] Obamunism can also refer to Obama's ruinous fiscal policies and reckless monetary policies.[228][229][230] As seen in his own actions, Barack Obama instructed his advisors to find loopholes that would enable the president to act as a dictator by pushing through legislation and increases in spending without congressional authority.[231]
Nevertheless, budgets passed under President Obama have included the smallest average annualized growth of federal spending (1.4%) since before President Reagan. Federal spending grew an average of 8.7% per year during Reagan's first term and an average of 8.1% per year during George W. Bush's second term.[232]
Wall Street firms and banks that were bailed out were among Obama's biggest campaign supporters.[233] Therefore, the Obama administration bailouts of corrupt, unproductive, and reckless Wall Street firms was hardly surprising, and many argue that it was not helpful in making the United States economy more productive and prosperous by encouraging more risk taking through letting banks off with a slap on the wrist. Others argue that bailing out the banks kept credit flowing and prevented a much deeper recession and a total collapse of the financial system. The government will recoup some though not all of its capital infusions over time. A 2005 study found that government corporate bailouts are often done for mere political considerations and the economic resources allocated exhibit significantly worse economic performance than resources allocated using purely business considerations.[234] Proponents of free market capitalism said Bernanke should not have bailed out failing firms and instead should have allowed free market capitalism to quickly recover as it did in the depression of 1920 without government intervention (free market capitalists assert that government intervention drags out economic recessions and depressions).[235]
The Obama administration has been sharply criticized for its massive deficit spending and its reckless monetary policy via vast increases in the money supply, although inflation under Bernanke has been below the historic mean.[228][229][236] Celente predicts that if a "second American Revolution" occurs in a peaceful and productive manner, it may include a third party movement of governance that will advocate a more free market capitalism approach to the American economy and a more strict interpretation of the United States Constitution as far as the authors' original intent.
During what the White House billed as Recovery Summer, one half million workers per week continued losing their jobs. His signature legislative achievement, ObamaCare,has been found to be unconstitutional[237] by several judges and constitutional by others, and is credited as a major cause of uncertainty, high unemployment,[238] lagging job creation,[239] and risk of a credit default crisis.[240][241]
His 2012 Budget plan has been roundly criticized in the mainstream and liberal press as not a serious effort to deal with the nation's economic crisis.[242]
Jeffrey Tucker wrote, "President Obama's economic policy has been catastrophic for liberty, enterprise, and the American dream—the very archetype of what not to do to end recession."[243]
According to conservative investigative journalist Peter Schweizer, Obama weaponized the regulatory process to help his friends buy businesses that had been devalued through Obama Administration policies.[244]
Stimulus
In early 2009, Obama lobbied Congress and the public to pass a sweeping Stimulus package[245] known as The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1).[246] The report of the Congressional Budget Office mandated by law stated that the legislation would ultimately harm the economy.[247] Contrary to his promise of bipartisanship,[248] the bill passed the House 244–188 on January 28, 2009, with 11 Democrats voting with the entire Republican caucus against,[249] and received just 3 Republican votes when passing the Senate 61–37.[250] One third of the massive $838 billion bill consisted of backdoor tax expenditures[251] and the rest direct new spending on "just about every pent-up Democratic proposal of the last 40 years."[252] In responding to criticism of the broken bipartisanship promise at the time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously quipped, "We won the election. We wrote the bill."[253] On February 18, 2009, the Stimulus was signed into law by Obama.[254] In August 2009, Republicans and Democratic Senator David Obey drew attention to mistakes on the Recovery.gov site claiming millions of Stimulus jobs created that didn't exist. Obama responded by saying the errors just indicate his accounting is an "inexact science".[255]
According to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, Obama misled the American people in a Presidential debate only two weeks before the 2012 election when he said, "The sequester is not something that I’ve proposed,”[256] when in fact his chief budget negotiator and current Chief of Staff, Jack Lew, made a call to Democrat Harry Reid at 2:30 pm on July 27, 2011 with the proposal after clearing it with Obama,[257] as fully documented in Woodward's book, The Price of Politics. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned of immediate jobloss of about 750,000 jobs – about the same level as under George W. Bush[258] – if Obama's budget and economic plans were allowed to take effect.[259]
Woodward, who's reporting on Watergate is credited with toppling the administration of Richard Nixon, told Wolf Blitzer of CNN he was told by a senior White House official he'd regret talking about the President Obama's positions on the sequester.[260]
Spreading poverty and raising the debt
Following the 2011 debt ceiling standoff between Obama and House Republicans,[261] the United States Government's credit rating was, for the first time in its history, downgraded from AAA to AA+, and poverty[262] increased markedly. By and large, his programs, said to combat the recession, unemployment, slow growth, and deficits, have failed[263] leaving the country saddled with an $18 trillion national debt and climbing.[264] One of his most well-known tactics was blaming someone else, such as George W. Bush, for all his failures instead of taking responsibility. Also on the domestic front, Obama passed an expensive health care bill in 2010 with no national consensus or bipartisan support and 34 Democrats dissenting. Recently, the Congressional Budget Office wrote an open letter to John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, outlining the effects of repealing Obamacare and explaining why a net loss of over 100 billion dollars would occur from the repeal.[265]
During Obama's presidency, the national debt nearly doubled, going from $10.6 trillion to $19.9 trillion.[266]
The Obama Administration was weak on illegal immigration. It established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA)[269][270][271] in 2012, which gave protection and work permits (jobs which could have gone to American citizens) to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. In his 2013 memoir, liberal Democrat U.S. Representative Luis Gutiérrez, an ally of Obama on immigration issues, stated that Obama did not believe that DACA was legally possible until he enacted it.[272] The Obama Administration was able to give green cards to about 40,000 of those DACA illegals.[273][274] Additionally, it was reported the administration let 2.2 million deportable illegal immigrants, including 400,000 with criminal convictions, remain on the streets,[275] while releasing 68,000 with criminal records in 2013 alone.[276] He nearly doubled the number of illegal immigrant juveniles with the EB-4 visa, which gave them legal status.[277] The Administration "administratively closed" up to 200,000 deportation cases, meaning those illegal immigrants were free to go where they wanted in the U.S.[278] The administration also obstructed deportation cases[279] and blocked 550,000 illegals from deportation.[280] The Obama Administration issued 140,000 U visas, which are given to illegal immigrants who testify against criminals in court and allow them to eventually gain citizenship, massively expanding the program.[281] The Obama Administration's failure to close an immigration loophole caused over 250,000 illegal minors to be separated from their parents,[282][283][284] and those minors faced significantly worse conditions in their holding facilities than under the Trump Administration, which also took tougher action.[285]
In 2014, President Obama announced the DAPA program, which would have expanded protections from deportation to a total of about 5 million illegal immigrants. This order was blocked by a federal judge,[286] upheld by an appeals court,[287] and a split 4–4 Supreme Court ruling upheld the appeals court ruling.[288]
Under President Obama, Immigration and Customs Enforcement released 564 convicted sex offender illegal immigrants, in many cases because various countries refused to accept them back.[289] In May 2017, a whistleblower revealed that the Obama Administration knowingly let illegal immigrant MS-13 gang members into the country.[290][291] In January 2018, the DHS inspector general reported that the Obama Administration did not identify and arrest terrorist aliens classified as "highest risk" due to them not being screened.[292][293]
The Obama Administration moved illegal migrant teens across state lines so they could have abortions.[294] Its policies led to an increase in illegal immigration.[295]
After assuming office in 2017, the Trump Administration made a large change in its policies towards illegal immigration compared to the Obama Administration.[296] Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly of the Trump Administration strongly criticized the Obama Administration for its failures regarding illegal immigration and national security.[297][298]
Rising migration levels
Because of the Obama Administration's open borders policies, total migration into the U.S. in 2016 and 2017 reached record high levels, at 1.75 million people per year.[299][300]
The Obama Administration failed to act upon warnings by federal drug investigators and state officials about the growing problem of illegal fentanyl as the drug killed 70,000 people between 2013 and 2017.[302] In fact, the administration softened its enforcement against "low-level nonviolent drug offenses."[302][303]
Cop killings increased dramatically in Obama's final years.[304] But the groundwork was laid in the early months of Obama's presidency when he made a televised statement that the police "acted stupidly". Obama gave encouragement to Black Lives Matter and the Antifa terrorist organization.
When first running for office Obama angered religious conservatives with his comment about working-class voters in old industrial towns. Obama said, "They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."[305]
The Obama administration has been widely criticized for his policies which encroach on religious freedom in areas such as: health care, freedom to dissent on matters relating to the homosexual agenda, religious freedom in the military and religious freedom in other spheres of American life.[306]
In addition, the Obama administration has been criticized for promoting religious freedom for Muslims and restricting religious freedom for Christians.[307]
President Obama authorized offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico[308] stating, "oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills"[309] and was widely criticized for his mishandling of the "worst environmental disaster in US history."[310][311] The Administration spend vast sums of taxpayer money on futile environmentalist efforts, including $4.1 million on a study that attempted to find a connection between pollution and obesity.[312]
The Obama Administration enacted many environmental regulations and used scientific studies to back up the supposed need for the regulations, but after the Trump Administration began undoing the Obama-era rules, many of the merits of the studies were found to be dubious.[313]
Obama's first act of office was to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act – effectively nullifying the Supreme Court case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which ruled that Ledbetter had to have filed a pay discrimination suit within 180 days of the first time Ledbetter was paid less than her male peers;[314] the law made corporations subject to suit within 180 days of each time the employee was unfairly paid.[315]
9/11 responders
On January 2, 2011, Obama signed the James Zadroga 9/11 Healthcare and Compensation Act.[316] The act, which afforded 9/11 first responders who were sickened by the dust from the collapse of the World Trade Center health care and compensation, passed Congress after its sponsors agreed to scale down the pricing from 7.4 to 4.2 billion dollars.[317]
Diversity over safety
During the Obama Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration issued new hiring rules for air traffic controllers which placed achieving diversity over ensuring that new employees were talented, educated, and even knew what they were doing.[318]
The Obama administration became the first administration to met with an atheist group. It met with the Secularism Coalition for America which is a coalition which represents the American Atheists, the American Humanist Association, and the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.
According to the USA Today, the group met with the White House officials to "discuss problems that they believe are fueled by religion."[319] Among the issues the group discussed were the issues of "military proselytizing" by evangelical Christian members of the military and faith-based initiatives[319]
Candidate Obama promised to repeal a policy that originated with President Clinton and passed by a Democrat-controlled Congress that prohibited inquiries into military personnel's sexual orientation while barring openly gay homosexuals from serving in the military. Liberals expressed anger when time passed and no effort to repeal the law was seen;[320] in fact, Obama's justice department, as part of their duty to defend all laws passed by any administration, filed a brief arguing against the Supreme Court granting a writ of certiorari to a gay soldier challenging the law (the writ was not granted). In response, the soldier, James Pietrangelo II, a former Army infantryman and lawyer, said, "(Obama's) a coward, a bigot and a pathological liar. This is a guy who spent more time picking out his dog, Bo, and playing with him on the White House lawn than he has working for equality for gay people."[321]
On December 15, 2010, a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives to repeal the law – it passed a day later by a vote of 250–175;[322] it passed the Senate three days later 65–31.[323] Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 on December 22.[324] The Pentagon itself could not immediately implement the repeal and questioned whether it would hurt combat readiness.[324]
On the day Rev. Jim Jones left for Jonestown, Harvey Milk wrote to Jones and said "my name is cut into stone in support of you - and your people."[325] President Obama honored Milk posthumously with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on the anniversary on his death.[326]
Obama criticized the "revolving door" of government and business.[327] After appointing Peter Orszag his first Budget Director to dole out the stimulus cash, Orszag resigned to become Citigroup's Vice Chairman of Global Banking. Citigroup was the recipient of $476 billion in bailout money - more than any other bank - after the disastrous Financial crisis of 2008.[328] Before the bailout, Orszag's expert opinion of the chances of a mortgage meltdown was 1 in 500,000.[329]
Obama launched a global anti-Christian jihad with his support for al-Qaeda and the Islamic State to overthrow the governments of Libya and Syria. The Black African slave trade was revived in Libya after Obama removed Muammar Gaddafi, an ally in the War on Terror.[330][331] Obama, who was raised a Muslim[332][333] and is not a descendant of slaves, criticized Christians and the Crusades as reports of thousands of women and girls being captured, sold, and raped flooded in.[334][335] Additionally, Obama overemphasized political correctness in U.S. national security policy, something disliked by CIA officials.[336]
The number of jihadis worldwide has grown by a factor of 4 or 5 at least, since Obama took the reins of power as Commander-in-Chief.[337] Remarkably, the New York Times was critical of Obama's incessant boasting about the killing of bin Laden.[338] With the complete disengagement of American troops from Iraq and the assassination of Osama bin Laden, the Islamic State arose and recruitment of global jihadis multiplied exponentially.
Obama entered his second term mocking and ridiculing the idea that Russia was America's prime geo-strategic competitor; by the closing days of his presidency, Obama was in a panic fanning the flames of a Third Red Scare. Vladimir Putin and Russia had thoroughly embarrassed Barack Obama on the world stage as Obama withdrew America from its traditional role of global leadership and repudiated the idea of American exceptionalism. Respect for America degenerated in the world as issues such as transexual bathrooms occupied more of Obama's time and attention than the 12 million homeless refugees Obama had driven from their homes in his failed "Arab Spring" policy. Having been thoroughly rebuked politically with the election of Donald Trump, as a lameduck Obama attempted to coverup DNC scandals uncovered by Wikileaks by scapegoating Vladimir Putin and fostering an atmosphere of paranoia about Russia, the future, and a Trump presidency.
Commander-in-chief
As Senator, Obama was highly critical of President Bush and promised change. As President, Obama tripled down in Afghanistan, widened the war into Pakistan, multiplied by drone attacks, bombed Yemen and Somalia, and started an undeclared NATO war in Libya. On presidential war powers, surveillance questions, Guantanamo, detention policy and habeas corpus, Obama similarly stayed the course or expanded Bush's precedents. In a speech on May 19, 2011, Obama fully embraced the Bush Doctrine of preventative war.[339] From the Boston Globe:
'The New America Foundation, which tracks the strikes, has listed 23 raids since the beginning of April 2011, all but one in Pakistan’s tribal regions of North and South Waziristan. A June 20 attack was reported in Kurram, an area north of North Waziristan along the Afghanistan border.'
'The drone program has become increasingly controversial as the Obama administration has expanded its use beyond the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Lethal missiles have been launched from unmanned aircraft in at least five countries in addition to Pakistan: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and, most recently, Somalia. The military’s Joint Special Operations Command used a drone last June to attack what officials said were two senior members of the Al Shabab militant group on the Somali coast.' [340]
A commentator says:
'Obama is commendable when he says he wants to avoid war. His policies, however, favor war by destabilizing the Middle East making it extremely hostile and favoring radical Islam over America’s ally, Israel, and American interests in the region... The president has chosen a very dangerous path for every American and one that promises great difficulty for Israel.' [341]
By Obama's third year as Commander-in-Chief, over 1200 American troops died in Iraq and Afghanistan - significantly more than the number who died during President George W. Bush's term of office. And growing numbers of civilian contractors also rose. In the first half of 2010, 250 contractors reportedly died in Iraq and Afghanistan - more than the 235 military personnel who fell during the same period.[342]
National Defense
President Obama signed into U.S. law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), only after his administration successfully lobbied to remove language from the bill that would have protected American citizens from being detained indefinitely without trial.[343] After the legislation cleared Congress, the ACLU commented that if President Obama signed the bill it "will damage both his legacy and American’s reputation for upholding the rule of law," while executive director of the Human Rights Watch blasted the President for being ‘on the wrong side of history,’ noting that "Obama will go down in history as the president who enshrined indefinite detention without trial in US law."[344][345]
Section 1031 of the NDAA bill, which itself defines the entirety of the United States as a “battlefield,” allows American citizens to be snatched from the streets, carted off to a foreign detention camp and held indefinitely without trial. As reported by Infowars.com, the bill states that “any person who has committed a belligerent act” faces indefinite detention, but no trial or evidence has to be presented, the White House merely needs to make the accusation.[346][347][348]
The Obama Administration accidentally allowed the chipmaker AMD to ship sensitive and important technology to China, despite the significant national security risks.[349]
Afghan conflict
American deaths in Afghanistan more than doubled in Obama's first few years compared with the preceding eight years of George Bush [350] as he increased troop strength for no discernible purpose and to "win" unstated objectives. Against his own Defense Secretary's advice, Obama attacked Libya and forced regime change without Congressional authorization in violation of the post-Nixon era reform measure, the War Powers Act.
After he took personal credit for killing Osama bin Laden, the U.S. State Department warned of increased risk to the lives and safety of Americans.[351] Bin Laden's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri confirmed the Benghazi Attack which took place on the anniversary of 9/11 and killed more Americans, was motivated by al-Qaeda's desire for revenge.[352] Bin Laden's death, as Obama's advisers warned, freed up jihadis who swore an oath of allegiance to the 9/11 mastermind to swear allegiance to rival and competing factions. The competing factions advocated the immediate establishment of the Islamic State, rather than after the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy and retaking of Mecca. As was well known, bin Laden always held a controversial and minority position among jihadis on the strategy for global jihad by attacking the United States first. Bin Laden's killing, intended as an election year gimmick, brought Obama no improvement in approval ratings and spawned unprecedented growth in global terror and jihadi recruiting.
Obama needlessly escalated troop strength[353] and defense costs in Afghanistan from $43.5 billion in George Bush's last year to $113.7 billion for 2011.[354] Adviser to General Stanley McChrystal David Kilcullen wrote, "One of the big strategic shifts is the use of language now which talks about Pakistan and Afghanistan as the same theater. Now we talked about Af-Pak long before the Obama administration came about, but the public use of that term, and the description of it as the Afghanistan-Pakistan campaign, sends a new message to people about how the administration is going to think about Afghanistan and Pakistan."[353]
Bowe Bergdahl swap
When Barack Obama released five Taliban commanders from the Guantanamo Bay prison in exchange for American deserter Bowe Bergdahl in 2014, he assured Americans that the enemy combatants would not be allowed to return to Afghanistan. 6 American soldiers lives were lost searching for the American deserter.[355] Upon Bergdahl's return, Obama celebrated Bergdahl as a heroic “POW,” a designation the Pentagon never gave him. Khairullah Khairkhwa, one of the five released from Guantanamo, sat across the table from Joe Biden’s personal representative in Moscow in the spring of 2021, where Mullah Khairkhwa was part of the Taliban delegation that negotiated the terms of the US withdrawal. Mullah Khairkhwa is the mastermind of the Taliban takeover, even though the Pentagon classified Khairkhwa as too dangerous to release.
Khairkhwa assured the Biden junta that the Taliban would not retaliate against Afghans who worked with the US military or the US-backed government in Kabul. However, reports out of Kandahar and Kabul soon after the fall of Afghanistan indicate the Taliban was going door to door with a kill list to wipe out their enemies. Mullah Khairkhwa previously served as the Taliban’s interior minister prior to 2002, where he oversaw Islamist punishments, including beheadings and stonings.[356]
All five of the terrorists in the Bowe Bergdahl swap assumed prominent positions in the Taliban interim government announced on September 11, 2021:[357]
In February 2011, the political unrest that spread through the Arab world showed up as protests in Libya. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, leader of Libya for 41 years, responded to the violence[359] with legitimate steps.[360] The United Nations Security Council voted to impose sanctions, and later passed a resolution to protect civilians. Obama, without approval from Congress and over the objections of his own National Security staff,[361] directed American forces to take out Libya's air defense system.[360] Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, and White House counterterrorism chief John O. Brennan all opposed the action. Obama later said, "if we waited one more day Benghazi, a city nearly the size of Charlotte, could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world."[362] Alan J. Kuperman, in an editorial for the Boston Globe, suggested this statement was false, writing, "intervention did not prevent genocide, because no such bloodbath was in the offing. To the contrary, by emboldening rebellion, US interference has prolonged Libya’s civil war and the resultant suffering of innocents."[363] Kuperman, a professor of public affairs at the University of Texas who authored a book called The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention, further stated that the rebels had tricked the world into thinking a bloodbath was at hand and that Obama had lied to the American people in order to act on this theory.[363]
Gaddafi [never] threaten[ed] civilian massacre in Benghazi, as Obama alleged. The “no mercy’’ warning, of March 17, targeted rebels only, as reported by The New York Times, which noted that Libya’s leader promised amnesty for those “who throw their weapons away.’’ Gaddafi even offered the rebels an escape route and open border to Egypt, to avoid a fight “to the bitter end.’’ [364]
Gaddafi wrote to Obama and told him he bore no ill will. "We have been hurt more morally than physically because of what had happened against us in both deeds and words by you," he wrote. "Despite all this you will always remain our son whatever happened. We still pray that you continue to be president of the USA. We endeavour and hope that you will gain victory in the new election campaign."[365]
Syria and Obama's "red line"
In 2012, during the Syrian Civil War, President Obama stated that if the Syrian dictator, President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against Syrians, that would be unacceptable and cross a red line. However, after it was confirmed that Assad did use weapons against his people, Obama did practically nothing. He went to Congress to authorize a military strike, but this request was rejected (he had the ability to order a military strike without Congress's approval). Later, the Obama Administration (particularly Susan Rice)[366] and the mainstream media[367] claimed they had worked with Syria to remove its chemical weapons. In April 2017, Syria again used chemical weapons against its people, proving their claim wrong.[366] The new president, Donald Trump, unlike Obama, quickly ordered a large airstrike against a Syrian airbase.[368]
Turkey
President Obama attempted to overthrow the legitimate government of Turkey, a vital NATO ally. Turkish President Recep Erdoğan repeatedly warned Obama's support of Kurdish forces and ISIL threatened the NATO alliance. Turkey slowly began establishing closer ties with Russia.
Obama and his administration had a weak stance on Russia.[369] He and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to "reset" relations with Russia, and he mocked Mitt Romney for calling Russia the most dangerous geopolitical threat to the U.S. in a 2012 debate. According to Brett Bruen, the White House director of global engagement from 2013 to 2015, the Obama Administration ignored his warnings about Russia.[370] Obama criticized president of Russia, Vladimir Putin for carrying out a referendum for the seizure of Crimea to Russia.[371] After taking office in 2017, Donald Trump took several actions against Russia that Obama never went so far as to do.[372]
Cuba
During his presidency, Obama instituted a major détente with the oppressive Communist dictatorship of Cuba, despite its failed leftist governance and human rights violations.[373][374] In August 2015, the U.S. and Cuba reopened each other's embassies.[375][376] In September 2016, Obama nominated the first U.S. Ambassador to Cuba in 55 years.[377] Obama did everything in his power to normalize relations with the failed dictatorship, but the U.S. embargo against Cuba remained in place due to opposition from the Republican-controlled Congress.[378] No one knows the extent of underground bunkers of Soviet-era weapons consisting of AK-47s and MANPADS stockpiled between 1959 and 1986 when the collective stated foreign policy aims of Cuba and the Soviet Union were armed revolution and violent overthrow of the United States government and the capitalist system. The United States remains unprepared for trade talks and lifting travel restrictions on tourists.
Despite Obama's support for mass immigration and amnesty for those who immigrated illegally, he ended the "wet foot, dry foot" policy that allowed Cuban refugees to legally stay in the U.S.[379]
Liberal mainstream media regarded Obama's private meetings with the murderous thugs who run Cuba as a breakthrough in relations.
Guantanamo Bay
One of Obama's campaign promises was that he would close the American detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba - detainees would be flown to other countries while the ones awaiting trial would enter the American court system. Two days after taking office he signed an order directing the military to do so.[380] But, in November 2009 Obama admitted that his self-imposed deadline of January 2010 would be missed, and in March 2011 the president went back on his campaign promise, signing an executive order to create a formal system of indefinite detention for the prisoners.[380]
Obama ultimately failed to close Guantanamo Bay, although he continually attempted to reduce the number of detained terrorists held at the base, even in the last days of his presidency.[381][382]
Obama has had very poor relations with the conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he disregarded U.S. commitments to the country.[383] During the very tight and closely-watched 2015 elections, the Obama Administration attempted to influence the election—in order to elect a pro-Hamas leftist government in the nation and defeat Netanyahu—by financing a liberal pro-Palestinian political organization.[384] Netanyahu decisively won the election, despite opposition from left-wing world leaders such as Obama.[385]
On December 23, 2016, Obama broke over 35 years of American policy by abstaining from a UN vote and allowing a blatantly anti-Israel resolution to pass, showing his true anti-Israel stance.[386][387] On December 28, 2016, just a few weeks before the Trump Administration was to take office and a few days after the anti-Israel resolution was adopted, Kerry gave a major 72-minute[388] speech viciously attacking Israel and paying worthless lip-service to American "support" for the nation.[389] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded harshly but appropriately to the Administration's blatant betrayal.[390]
Despite these actions, the U.S. House passed a motion on January 5, 2017, condemning Obama's allowing of the UN resolution.[391][392] Additionally, Republican President-elect Donald Trump voiced strong support for Israel during this time.[393][394]
Soon before leaving office, Obama bypassed Congress and gave the State of Palestine $221 million.[395]
In contrast to his anti-Israel policies, Obama took a friendly stance toward Iran, helping negotiate the Iran nuclear deal with the country, something Obama's successor, President Trump, chose to reverse. The Obama Administration actively worked to give Iran access to American banks, and Iran got $150,000,000,000 from Obama, and they gave it to terrorists.[396] According to a high-ranking Iranian official in 2018, the Obama Administration granted U.S. citizenship to 2,500 Iranians during the nuclear deal negotiations, including the friends and family of Iranian government leaders.[397]
An Iranian militia leader who led an attack on the U.S. embassy in Iraq in 2019 had been invited to the White House by the Obama Administration in 2011.[398]
Preferring international cooperation and equality to American sovereignty and independence (despite the U.S.'s obviously superior geopolitical position), Obama intentionally reduced American power and strength during his presidency. One of his actions as president was to give up the nation's control of internet domain name system and transfer control over to an international organization in 2016.[400][401]
Obama also entered the U.S. into the Paris climate agreement and attempted to have it join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was under negotiation. Both of these agreements would have reduced American sovereignty and self-governance.
Obama also endorsed the United Nations 2030 Agenda in 2015, which called for "a 'new universal agenda' for all of humanity" and served as a major step toward a one-world government.[402]
Obama has maintained tense relations with Congress throughout his term as president. Each of his budgets was voted down, and many of his judicial appointments have not come to a vote. When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died on February 13, 2016, Obama made a point of addressing the nation to say that he would nominate a replacement, which drew criticism and rebuke from Republican Senators and Presidential candidates. Obama executive action in areas such as immigration policy drew extensive criticism as infringing upon Congressional legislative powers.
Obama turned the Justice Department into a cesspool of corruption.[403]
Obama was complicit in the whitewash of Hillary Clinton's email investigation. In fact, Obama himself crafted the language of "careless," reducing the charge of gross negligence punishable by 10 years in prison down to nothing. Obama himself had much to hide; he knew of Hillary's illegal email server. Obama communicated with Hillary on her illegal server at least 30 times, including from the territory of a "hostile foreign power," presumably Russia, where their communication was most certainly hacked.
When the disgraced Obama appointee as FBI director whitewashed the incident by saying Hillary communicated with "a senior government official," it was Obama himself and his complicity in the reckless handling of classified information that Comey was covering up, not just Hillary. Over the course of his presidency, Obama cost taxpayers $35 million to cover his Christmas vacations.[404] FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe's special counsel Lisa Page 's sworn congressional testimony confirms that the FBI was acting on orders from the Obama Justice Department to clear Hillary Clinton of felonious behavior and violations of the Espionage Act so that she could be nominated as the DNC 2016 presidential candidate.[405]
Year | Mexican drug related gun murders skyrocket during Obama's Fast and Furious campaign[407] |
---|---|
2006 | 62 |
2007 | 2,837 |
2008 | 6,844 |
2009 | 11,753 |
2010 | 19,546 |
2011 | 24,068 |
2012 | 18,061 (by October 31, 2012) |
2013 | 23,640 killed in 2013 (through to March 2014) |
Before Obama's Fast and Furious operation was exposed, the number of dead victims in drug cartel violence has been estimated as high as 160,000 deaths.
The Washington Post reported that White House officials stopped a requirement for gun dealers to report bulk sales of high-powered semiautomatic rifles commonly used by illegal drug cartels. Justice Department officials had asked for White House approval to require thousands of gun dealers along the border to report the purchases to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and Explosives. ATF investigators expected to get leads on suspected arms traffickers. Senior law enforcement sources said the proposal from the ATF was held up by then White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.[408] Gun dealers had been required for decades to report the sales of multiple handguns to the ATF.
A March 29, 2011 article in the Washington Post included these paragraphs:
“ | "It’s almost a certitude that at least part” of the Libyan opposition includes members of al-Qaeda, said Bruce Riedel, a former senior CIA analyst and adviser to President Obama. Riedel said that anti-Gaddafi elements in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi have had “very close associations with al-Qaeda” dating back years....I would hope that we now have a good sense of the opposition in Libya and can say that this is 2 percent, not 20 percent,” Riedel said. “If we don’t, then we are running the risk of helping to bring to power a regime that could be very dangerous.[409] | ” |
This set off a fierce debate in the Obama administration over the wisdom of arming terrorists.[410] It is now known sometime prior to March 31, 2011,[411] at the urging of Hillary Clinton[412] and over the objections of his National Security Council, Obama signed a Presidential Finding authorizing support for the rebel jihadis.[413]
By October 2011, Libyan rebel fighting groups with support from NATO overtook the capital and toppled the government. Gaddafi was captured and brutally and sadistically murdered.[414] The jihadis were immediately recognized by the U.S. and the U.N. as the new legitimate government. Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, announced Sharia will be the source for all legislation and all laws conflicting with Sharia are null and void.[415] Abdel Rahim al-Kib, the country's interim prime minister, echoed Jalil's words days later.[416] The al Qaeda flag was flown above the Benghazi courthouse, and reports surfaced that the Libyan jihadis had imposed Sharia law in some parts of the country even earlier.[415] By February 17, 2013, four foreign nationals were arrested for distributing Christian literature, a charge that could carry the death penalty.[417]
In 2014, the Obama Administration gave a $200,000 grant to a Sudanese group with ties to Al Qaeda.[418][419]
With several U.S. embassies besieged on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney declared there was no reason to believe the attack on the sovereign territory of the United States consulate in Benghazi, less than two months before the 2012 Presidential election which killed Americans, was a terrorist attack.
“ | The unrest that we’ve seen around the region has been in reaction to a video that Muslims, many Muslims, find offensive. | ” |
This became the official White House line. Between laughs with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central, Obama said the death of Americans was "not optimal".[421] When pressed by reporters, who pointed out evidence that the violence in Benghazi was a terrorist attack, Press Secretary Carney argued “the unrest around the region has been in response to this video.”
Leading suspected jihadis in the murders and terrorist attack were the local Benghazi branch of Ansar al-Shariah, known to have ties to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.[422] A commander of the terrorist group boasted jovially about the attack over drinks with reporters for the New York Times in Benghazi.[423][424]
Two more Americans were killed, along with 35 others, after being taken hostage by rebel jihadists in Mali shortly after the Libyan upheaval.[425]
Hillary Clinton testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the wake of the Benghazi murders under her stewardship, that weapons and fighters equipped by the Obama administration made their way to Mali and Algeria:
“ | There is no doubt that the Algerian terrorists had weapons from Libya. There is no doubt that the Malian remnants of AQIM [Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb] have weapons from Libya.[426] | ” |
After the 2012 election, Obama's chief fundraiser continued raising money for Democratic candidates. Frank White, Jr. and Pras Michel formed a joint venture with 1Malaysian Development Berhad (1MDB), wholly owned by the Malaysian government. The venture supposedly was to invest in green technology and solar panels, but corrupt officials of 1MDB were more interested in buying influence with the Obama administration and the Democratic party,[427] and White and Pras likewise were not interested in providing a renewable source of electricity or solving the problems of poverty for Malaysia's 30 million people.
Malaysians have a median household income of $4500, so the theft of $4.5 Billion by globalists pushing green technology and Democrats looking for foreign money to finance their campaigns cause they can't sell their ideas at home, had a devastating impact on the Malaysian people, economy, and political culture.
White and Pras got two anonymous investors to lend a half of a Trillion dollars for a little over a two-year period. They formed a joint partnership agreement with 1MDB to build a green technology solar plant. White and Pras owned 49%, 1MDB controlled 51%. White was supposed to have provided financial advice. His advice turned out to be for 1MBD to buy out his 49% for $69 million six months after the agreement was signed, without White's entities investing any of the half Trillion he borrowed.[428] Portions of the $69 million were then donated to Democrat Senate, Congressional, and Gubernatorial candidates. The $69 million Democrats stole from the people of Malaysia during the Obama presidency is only a fraction of the corrupt deals 1MDB did all over the planet. Much of the $4.5 Billion embezzled was laundered through U.S. banks, and has become the largest investigation ever under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Act.[429]
Vice President Joe Biden oversaw the disbursement of $1 billion allocated by the U.S. to the new government of Ukraine. In 2014, Biden's son Hunter Biden, was appointed to the board of directors of Burisma Holdings, the largest oil and gas company in Ukraine. Hunter Biden was hired by Mykola Zlochevsky, who served as Ukraine's ecology minister in the previous administration. Hunter Biden was paid $166,000 per month. The money was split with the nephew of Whitey Bulger.
Zlochevsky came under investigation by the new administration for alleged embezzlement of $5 billion while ecology minister. The prosecutor traced payments made to Hunter Biden. Vice President Biden threatened the new Ukrainian administration to withhold $1 billion in U.S. allocated funds unless the prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden was fired.[430]
Biden bragged about having caused the firing of the Ukraine prosecutor to a CFR conference.
U.S. banking records show Hunter Biden's firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners LLC, received regular transfers — usually more than $166,000 a month — from Burisma from spring 2014 through fall 2015, during a period when Joe Biden was the main U.S. official dealing with Ukraine. Biden threatened Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that the Obama administration would pull $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees, sending Ukraine toward insolvency, if it didn't immediately fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin who was investigating his son, Hunter. Biden recounted,
"'You’re not getting the billion'. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money'...Well, [SOB], he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time."[432][433] |
Yuriy Lutsenko, who replaced Shokin as the prosecutor looking into Burisma, said the evidence in the Burisma case he'd like to present to William Barr, particularly the vice president's intervention.
Between April 2014 and October 2015, more than $3 million was paid out by Burisma to an account linked to Biden's and Devon Archer's Rosemont Seneca firm, according to the financial records placed in a federal court file in Manhattan in another case against Archer. The bank records show that, on most months when Burisma money flowed, two wire transfers of $83,333.33 each were sent to the Rosemont Seneca–connected account on the same day. The same Rosemont Seneca–linked account typically then paid Hunter Biden one or more payments ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 each. Ukrainian prosecutors reviewed internal company documents and wanted to interview Hunter Biden and Archer about why they had received such payments, but couldn't because of Joe Biden's intervention.
On September 4, 2019, former Prosecutor General Victor Shokin made a sworn affidavit outlining Joe Biden's shakedown.[434]
In the Obama-era political surveillance programs, the lines between the CIA and FBI were blurred. They wworked together through contractors.[435] The Obama administration had been conducting illegal surveillance on American citizens since 2012, shortly after the IRS scandal was exposed. On March 9, 2016, the NSA FISA compliance officer discovered the illegal collusion between the FBI and CIA to spy on American citizens. Between March and July 2016, the CIA used foreign intelligence allies in Italy, the U.K. and Australia to create an illusion of Russian involvement with the Trump campaign. This operation was based on earlier more innocuous contacts from various countries, weaponized and redeployed in what everyone calls “spygate”. This track successfully culminated with the start of the FBI's Operation Crossfire Hurricane.[436]
On July 31, 2016 FBI deputy head of the counterintelligence division Peter Strzok began an investigation into Donald Trump. Two days later Strzok had this exchange with Lisa Page, an attorney in FBI deputy director Andy McCabe's office:
Lisa Page – He’s not ever going to become president, right? Right?! Strzok - No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it. |
On September 2, 2016, Lisa Page wrote about preparing talking points for Dir. Jimmy Comey because “potus [Obama] wants to know everything we’re doing.”[437] The text raised questions about the extent of Obama's personal involvement in on ongoing the FBI investigation.[438]
Susan Rice sent an email to herself about a secret Oval Office meeting where the Clinton-Steele dossier was discussed;[439][440][441] (the email was written and sent to herself 15 minutes after Trump was sworn in on Jan. 20):[442]"On January 5, following a briefing by IC leadership on Russian hacking during the 2016 Presidential election, President Obama had a brief follow-on conversation with FBI Director Jim Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates in the Oval Office. Vice President Biden and I were also present.At the conclusion of the briefing, Obama asked Sally Yates and James Comey to remain. Together with Susan Rice, is where the “by the book” CYA comment comes into play. The 90-day surveillance period under the FISA warrant had just a bit over two weeks left to run — it was set to expire just as Trump was to take office. (Reporting suggests that there may also have been a FISA warrant on Paul Manafort around this time.) The Obama administration was confronting a deadline if the FISA warrant was to be renewed while Obama was still in power. The officials in the meeting needed to figure out how the investigation could continue despite the fact that its central focus, Trump, was about to be sworn in as president. Rice's “by the book” bunkum is transparent: Obama officials claimed to adhere to a book that forbade consultations between political leaders and investigators. But here they were consulting. So Rice tried to cover their tracks in her email: She revises history such that the consultation morphs into a mere friendly reminder that Obama wanted everything done by the book.[445]
President Obama began the conversation by stressing his continued commitment to ensuring that every aspect of this issue is handled by the Intelligence and law enforcement communities "by the book". The President stressed that he is not asking about, initiating or instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective. He reiterated that our law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would by the book.
From a national security perspective, however, President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia.
[Redacted section]
The President asked Comey to inform him if anything changes in the next few weeks that should affect how we share classified information with the incoming team. Comey said he would."[443]
The Russia collusion hoax was predicated on the unverified premise that Wikileaks was a front for KGB activity. Nonetheless, Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning who passed national security secrets to WikiLeaks two days before Obama left office.
On March 4, 2017, after becoming president, Trump tweeted:
How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy![446]
and
Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
Members of the mainstream media called this wiretapping claim an "astonishing and reckless accusation".[447] It was later all found to be true and accurate. Nixon resigned over attempting to spy on the opposition party at the Watergate hotel; Obama got away with it on scale no one could ever imagine.
According to USA Today, "Obama blew it big time" in regards to Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller's final report flatly states that Russia began interfering in American democracy in 2014.[448] Over the next couple of years, the effort blossomed into an attempt to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The Obama administration knew this and did nothing. National Security Advisor Susan Rice told her staff to "stand down" and "knock it off" against the Russians.[449][450] Obama was singularly focused on the nuclear deal with Iran. Obama wanted Vladimir Putin in the deal, and to stand up to him on election interference would have, in Obama's estimation, upset that negotiation.[451]
According to DCWhispersObama had his hands all over this attempted coup of a duly elected President of the United States. The reasons for that are likely many, but perhaps a foundational reason is this—Barack Obama has never considered himself to be one required to follow U.S. law. He has always been inclined to see himself as a person of the world, not of a single nation and a single nation’s laws. Some have argued he is openly defiant of said laws, thinking them a byproduct of a deeply flawed America of which he has little if any loyalty toward. Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda is the antithesis of Obama’s “America Bad” world view and he could not abide seeing his legacy of relegating the United States to secondary world status overtaken by an outsider who was not beholden to the rules of the elite political class in D.C. And so, Mr. Obama once again weaponized the federal government in an attempt to destroy a political opponent. The fact this was a shocking violation of the law meant little because all of America’s laws mean so little to the now former president.[452]
According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, President Obama issued 1,928 grants of clemency, with 1,716 being commutations, more than any other U.S. president.[453] Obama pardoned Chelsea Manning who allegedly colluded with Julian Assange of Wikileaks, who allegedly colluded with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Manning was pardoned four days before Obama left office as the Russia collusion investigation was getting under way.
Several major controversies have dogged Obama throughout his political career and have received major media coverage and prominence.
Obamaisms
Obama's bizarre gaffes, or Obamaisms, were frequent and embarrassing, but typically unreported by the liberal media. Some examples are: spelling respect as R-S-P-E-C-T when he was attempting to sing that line from Aretha Franklin's famous song, spelling Ohio as O-I-H-O, and saying that we built the Intercontinental Railroad instead of the Transcontinental Railroad, saying "How's it going, Sunshine" when he was in the city of Sunrise, Florida.[454] Many hardworking American businessmen took offense to a 2012 campaign speech about the economy where, referring to infrastructure improvements, he said "You didn't build that." Obama offended Poland by referring to the Nazi death camps there as "Polish death camps." Later Obama apologized.[455] Gaffes are inevitable for people with a high profile, but several of Obama's were very revealing ("you didn't build that"), and they show how the mainstream media tends to emphasize the gaffes of conservatives as opposed to liberals.
Famous quotes
By custom, President Obama stayed neutral during the primaries, even though his close friend and Vice President Creepy Uncle Joe Biden was seriously considering a Presidential campaign.
Once Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination, Obama campaigned for her and also attended fundraisers. Obama publicly criticized the Republican candidate, Donald Trump who had previously spent years claiming that Obama was not born in the United States.
In a stunning repudiation of Obama's policies, Republican businessman Donald Trump was elected over Democrat Hillary Clinton – Obama considered it a personal insult.[457][458] In a frantic attempt to leave some sort of legacy, Obama issued a very large amount of far-Left executive orders and regulations which revealed his true political views if any doubt remained.[459] These orders included blocking large areas of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans from oil and gas drilling, effectively barring the U.S. from real energy independence; breaking the record of pardons and commutations in a single day for criminals (many of them were sentenced for drug-related crimes), showing his soft stance on crime and drugs; ending the defunct NSEERS program to register male immigrants from North Korea and Islamic countries (the necessary, beneficial, and useful program was suspended by the Obama Administration in 2011[460]); attempting to transfer even more terrorists out of Guantanamo Bay; allowing an anti-Israel resolution pass in the United Nations; enacting a record amount of unnecessary, useless, and job-killing regulations; and even more.[459] Obama added 120,000 illegal immigrants to the DACA program in the last three months of his presidency.[461] Obama made these actions knowing that Trump, who had almost completely opposite political views on these issues, was going to enter the White House in such short a time.
Although all of Obama's actions were worrisome, his actions in regards to Israel were particularly noteworthy. He broke over 35 years of American policy by abstaining from a UN vote and allowing a blatantly anti-Israel resolution to pass, showing his true stance concerning Israel.[386][387] Soon before leaving office, Obama bypassed Congress and gave the State of Palestine $221 million.[395]
Obama continued to believe that he could have successfully "won" a third term as president had he been able to run.[462] Regardless of the factuality of that claim, Democrats lost 1,042 seats—including U.S. House, Senate, state governorship, and state legislative seats—during his eight years in office.[463] Obama also believed that "the Democratic Party has stayed pretty grounded in fact and reality" despite its negative policies that suggest otherwise.[464]
Obama made Trump's transition much harder and rockier than it could have been by his leftist executive orders, decisions, and comments during the transition period.[465][466]
Obama received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service from Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, an Obama appointee in the same administration.[467] Although the award was created in 1947, the only other presidents to have received the medal (all during their tenure) are Bill Clinton, a left-wing Democrat, and George W. Bush, who holds RINO positions on certain issues.
In an interview, Obama claimed that "we are probably the first administration in modern history that hasn't had a major scandal in the White House,"[468] and Obama's Chief of Staff Denis McDonough claimed likewise,[469] despite the strong and massive evidence to the contrary.[470][471]
In addition to his other actions in 2016, Obama massively increased the number of federal regulations during his last days in office.[472][473] More regulations were finalized in every year since 2005, and they cost the economy $2 trillion.[474]
Obama made an ungraceful departure from office claiming on October 18, 2016, Donald Trump's complaints of lies spread about Trump were corrosive to American democracy and an invented conspiracy theory.[475] Less than two months later after Trump had won, Obama claimed he himself had been derelict in his duty and had fallen asleep at the switch allowing Russian hackers to steal the election for Donald Trump.[476]
Obama acquired a lavish celebrity lifestyle after ending his presidency.[477] He spent much of his time vacationing in exclusive and elite locations around the world.[478] He spent much time with left-wing celebrities, such as spending Good Friday 2017 on a $300 million yacht with celebrities such as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Hanks, and Oprah Winfrey,[479] and in Italy in 2019 with George Clooney.[480] Obama did not give any mention of Independence Day on his Facebook or Twitter on that day in 2017 while he was visiting Seoul.[481] In addition, Obama accepted a $400,000 speech backed by Wall Street,[482] something that stunned even many liberals.[483] Despite the criticism over the speech, Obama gave another $400,000 speech shortly afterward.[484] Bernie Sanders described Obama's speaking fees as "unfortunate."[485] In May 2017, Obama traveled to Italy to give a speech on climate change, but used pollution-heavy transportation to get to his destination.[486] On June 6, 2017, Obama gave a $400,000 speech to the Chamber of Commerce in Montreal in which one of the topics he spoke about was "warning against income inequality and the concentration of wealth."[487] After leaving office, Obama bought a house in D.C. for $8.1 million.[488][489] In August and September 2017, Obama made a combined $1.2 million from three Wall Street speeches.[490][491][492][493] In late 2019, the Obama family bought a mansion in Martha's Vineyard for $11.75 million.[494] Despite Obama's opposition to Trump's plan to build a wall along the U.S.–Mexico border in order to secure it, it was reported in early 2017 that he was building a wall around his new mansion, obviously to keep unwanted people out.[495]
Several of Obama's failures as U.S. president were revealed shortly after he left office, as it was found that Syria continued to possess chemical weapons after Obama stated they were gone, that the Obama administration misrepresented the release of some Iranian prisoners, and that the Obama Administration had unmasked Trump Transition officials (See: Barack Obama Controversies and Obamagate timeline).[496] It was reported in May 2017 that the Justice Department under Obama likely discriminated against veterans – in violation of federal law requiring the government to give preference to veterans in job hiring – by attempting to influence them to withdraw their applications.[497]
Many of the candidates that Obama campaigned for in the 2018 midterm elections lost.[498]
While the state of Iowa once played a key role in Obama's election, by 2019, Democrat candidates almost never mentioned his name in the state.[499] By 2019, Obama became disliked even by left-wing Democrats.[500]
Obama started his own foundation, the Obama Foundation, and set to work on building his presidential center and library.[501] Obama's 2018 budget request, which was over $1.1 million, made him the most expensive U.S. president in the country's history.[502] It was reported in June 2018 that construction work related to his presidential library would cost Illinois taxpayers nearly $200 million.[503][504] Despite promising not to cut down any trees in Jackson Park, where the library was planned to be built, the Obama Center and Chicago Park District began removing trees anyway for work related to the library construction.[505] Obama did a $50 million deal with the cultural Marxist child pornography vendor Netflix corporation.[506]
In retirement Obama turned to pushing UFO tinfoil hat conspiracy theories[507] about little green men and life on other planets on behalf of the military-industrial complex.[508]
In an interview with Roland Martin in 2015, Rep. Maxine Waters said:
Roland Martin: Come 2016 that’s it.Maxine Waters: Well, you know, I don’t know. And I think some people are missing something here. The president has put in place an organization that contains a kind of database[509] that no one has seen before in life. That’s going to be very very powerful, and whoever…(crosstalk)
Roland Martin (interrupts): In terms of Organizing for America that he’s now shifted to a 501(c)4.
Maxine Waters: That’s right. That’s right. And that database will have information about everything on every individual in ways that its never been done before and whoever runs on the Democratic ticket will have to deal with that…it’s very powerful what he’s leaving in place.[510]
The New York Post reported in early 2017:[511]
When former President Barack Obama said he was “heartened” by anti-Trump protests, he was sending a message of approval to his troops. Troops? Yes, Obama has an army of agitators — numbering more than 30,000 — who will fight his Republican successor at every turn of his historic presidency. And Obama will command them from a bunker less than two miles from the White House.In what’s shaping up to be a highly unusual post-presidency, Obama isn’t just staying behind in Washington. He’s working behind the scenes to set up what will effectively be a shadow government to not only protect his threatened legacy, but to sabotage the incoming administration and its popular “America First” agenda. He’s doing it through a network of leftist nonprofits led by Organizing for Action. Normally you’d expect an organization set up to support a politician and his agenda to close up shop after that candidate leaves office, but not Obama’s OFA. Rather, it’s gearing up for battle, with a growing war chest and more than 250 offices across the country.
Since Donald Trump’s election, this little-known but well-funded protesting arm has beefed up staff and ramped up recruitment of young liberal activists, declaring on its website, “We’re not backing down.” Determined to salvage Obama’s legacy, it’s drawing battle lines on immigration, ObamaCare, race relations and climate change.
While Obama worried that Trump was now president, he left enough swamp rats in DC to keep his operation running. Still, he was forced to have a more hands-on approach to OFA than intended. The article continues:
Obama is intimately involved in OFA operations and even tweets from the group’s account. In fact, he gave marching orders to OFA foot soldiers following Trump’s upset victory.“It is fine for everybody to feel stressed, sad, discouraged,” he said in a conference call from the White House. “But get over it.” He demanded they “move forward to protect what we’ve accomplished.” “Now is the time for some organizing,” he said. “So don’t mope.” Far from sulking, OFA activists helped organize anti-Trump marches across US cities, some of which turned into riots. After Trump issued a temporary ban on immigration from seven terror-prone Muslim nations, the demonstrators jammed airports, chanting: “No ban, no wall, sanctuary for all!” Run by old Obama aides and campaign workers, federal tax records show “nonpartisan” OFA marshals 32,525 volunteers nationwide. Registered as a 501(c)(4), it doesn’t have to disclose its donors, but they’ve been generous. OFA has raised more than $40 million in contributions and grants since evolving from Obama’s campaign organization Obama for America in 2013.
OFA, in IRS filings, says it trains young activists to develop “organizing skills.” Armed with Obama’s 2012 campaign database, OFA plans to get out the vote for Democratic candidates it’s grooming to win back Congress and erect a wall of resistance to Trump at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.[512]
Obama told aides that the nationwide riots following the death of George Floyd are “a tailor-made moment” to help his former vice president Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump.[513]
In 2021, Obama again attacked the "guns, God, and gays" crowd by claiming parental concerns over school rapes, pornography, and learning loss was "fake outrage".[514]
In total disregard of local and state regulations, Center for Disease Control Guidelines, the lives, health, and safety of invited guests, neighbors, and townspeople, Obama held a megalomaniacal birthday party with 700 guests at his exclusive, walled, Cape Cod mansion in the summer of 2021.[515]
There is no scientific evidence that the oceans ceased to rise with the election and swearing-in of Barack Obama, as he famously claimed.[516]
In September 2016, a parasitic worm, the Baracktrema obamai, was named after Obama.[517] As of December 2016, at least 15 schools in the United States have been named after Obama. Illinois, a very liberal state, enacted a law making August 4 "Barack Obama Day," and it almost made the day a paid holiday for its state workers despite its dire financial situation caused by leftist policies.[518] Obama's greatest legacy may be stoking anti-police hatred among a minority criminal element of black Democrat voters.
Conservatives strongly criticized Obama for his far-left and negative policies and the negative impact of those policies.[519][520][521] Dinesh D'Souza wrote, "Obama's legacy is to double the national debt & dramatically reduce US influence in the world."[522] During Obama's 8 years in office, Democrats lost over 1,000 seats in the federal and state governments.[463] Obama abused his power by using surveillance tools granted under the Patriot Act, intended to fight terrorism and Al Qaeda, against domestic political opponents and the Republican party. Obama may best be remembered for his use of coercion, police state tactics and authoritarian tendencies.
Upon assuming office, President Donald Trump wiped out much of Obama's last-minute regulatory actions through Congressional Review.[523][524] Trump also adopted a stronger foreign policy.[525][526]
Many commentators have noticed similarities between Mr. Obama and Breaking Bad's Walter White, including The New York Times,[527] Politico,[528] and USA Today.[529]
Former Obama HUD Secretary Julian Castro and Joe Biden sparred over who was the heir to the Obama legacy in the Democratic pre-primary 2020 presidential election debates. Obama withheld his support from his former vice president, Biden's age presumably being the main factor. Castro argued, "I'm fulfilling the legacy of Barack Obama, and you're not."[530]
In an article entitled, If God doesn’t do something soon, he’s going to owe Sodom & Gomorrah an apology, Tom Tillison wrote, "Oppose 9-year-old drag queens in post-Obama America and the liberal media is sure to tag you with a “homophobe” label."[531]
When millions of minorities defected from the Democrat plantation in the 2020 presidential election, Obama launched a racist attack against Hispanics.[532]
He owns two dogs, named Bo (Dog) and Sunny.
Obama denied the existence of any scandals "that embarrassed us" during his presidency.[533] In May 2018, he repeated his claim that the Administration "didn't have scandals" and was less corrupt than other modern administrations.[534] He repeated these false claims in March 2019.[535] In July 2018, he gave a speech in South Africa calling for basic income, saying he wanted to pay more taxes, and advocating for other left-wing ideas such as criticizing income inequality despite admitting he was very wealthy.[536] He also advanced his anti-nation-state agenda in the speech,[537] and he praised the country's racist strongman leaders.[538] On September 7, 2018, Obama made a speech in which he harshly criticized President Trump, breaking his promise not to publicly make such statements.[539] He also tried to take credit for the strong economic growth under President Trump.[540] Obama made speeches criticizing nationalism and promoting globalism.[541] On November 2, 2018, Obama called on Florida voters to vote Democrat because it would help Cuba.[542] In a speech in Berlin in April 2019, Obama referred to himself 392 times, a personal record and more than doubling his previous record.[543]
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