Two years ago, Republicans liked to say that the only hard thing Obama ever did right was beating Hillary Clinton in the primary, and in electoral terms, there was some truth to that. In 2012 the GOP hoped to cast him as an inspiring guy who was not up to the job. But now we know the difference between the wish and the thing, the hype and the man in the office. He stands somewhat shorter, having won 4 million fewer votes and two fewer states than in 2008. But his 5 million-vote margin of victory out of 129 million ballots cast shocked experts in both parties, and it probably would have been higher had so much of New York and New Jersey not stayed home after Hurricane Sandy. He won many of the toughest battlegrounds walking away: Virginia by 4 points, Colorado by 5 and the lily white states of Iowa and New Hampshire by 6. He untied Ohio’s knotty heartland politics, picked the Republican lock on Florida Cubans and won Paul Ryan’s hometown of Janesville, Wis. (Those last two data points especially caught the President’s interest.) He will take the oath on Jan. 20 as the first Democrat in more than 75 years to get a majority of the popular vote twice. Only five other Presidents have done that in all of U.S. history.
Now as many of you may remember last month I was advocating that Time pick Malala Yousafzai, the little Pakistani girl who was shot by members of the Taliban for openly campaigning for educational opportunities for females in her country, as the "Person of the Year."
However even while I was pushing for THAT outcome I was also cognizant enough to realize that the President may have had it locked up.
I cannot say that I am disappointed, as the President deserves as much recognition as possible for his four years in office, his heroic campaign, and the positive impact he has had on this nation.
He stood up to the Tea Party, he stood up to the billions of dollars used to smear him in the last campaign, he stood up to the endless stream of lies that flowed from the lips of Mitt Romney, and he stood up to the attempts of Karl Rove and others to suppress American's right to vote and steal the election outright.
So does he deserve to be the Person of the Year? Of course he does.
Update: You know perhaps it is THIS side of the President which makes him truly worthy of our affection.
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| Obama plays villain for son of White House staffer's son dressed as Spider-Man |
Grifter Granny and Briscow will hate this news. Their IRRELEVANCE is apparent, and hardly anyone pays attention to them anymore. Their next jobs will be promoting TODD'S Prostitution Ring.
ReplyDeleteThe honor is very fitting to go to President Obama.
ReplyDeleteI am a stoic unwavering supporter of President Obama. I am not one of those Democrats that when I don't get my way all the time, I start talking shit about our President. I knew President Obama would win a second term, because he MOST of us Democrats who are OLD ENOUGH TO VOTE, are mature enough to know our President has many issues to deal with, and it would take time to get things going the way we had it before the Bush/Cheney disastrous dismantling of the economy, their recklessness of running the country into the ground.
And if not for hurricane Sandy, his popular vote count would have been higher.
I second your comments. Thank you for posting them.
DeleteI'm an old Democrat from way back. I remember asking my dad when I was maybe 7 or 8 why he was a Democrat and I'll never, ever forget is response: "Because I have to work for a living." My dad did work, and hard, as an underground miner. He taught me that you don't waver in your support. You learn what the parties stand for and you support their candidates - always.
My sons have a hard time understanding this when I tell them, I don't vote the person, I vote the party. Used to be voters understood what party platforms were - no they don't. People will vote for a Republican here, and Democrat there. There should be a balance of power, however, this is what causes such gridlock.
Just so happens though, I really admire Mr. Obama. He's been the most maligned and threatened president in the history of this great country. He's held his head high and weathered the constant barrage of attacks with dignity and never attacked anyone personally. He's a credit to this country and we should all be proud of him.
Sorry for rambling but dems' me thoughts...
To Anonymous10:34 AM
DeleteI posted the 6:48 AM post, that you are responding to.
I also, am a Democrat from way back, 64 years old. And we both think alike.
I have never voted for a Repub in all my years of voting (and never will), and I have voted in EVERY election since I was 18, and since I am 64, you can figure out how many elections ago that was.:)
I too, believe in voting the party line. I believe in the Democratic Party.
One thing I can't stand is wishy-washy Democrats, who are the reason we get so many Repubs in office, in the Senate and the House, who wreak havoc on the poor and middle-class, especially the poor.
I can hear the cans hitting the refrigerator at the Palin household from here in Connecticut.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures of the POTUS playing with children are always priceless.
O.T. How big is the cat that uses that scratching post?
DeleteDon't miss this entire collection.
ReplyDeletehttp://lightbox.time.com/2012/10/08/pete-souza-portrait-of-a-presidency/#1
Fifty-seven percent of Americans approve of the job President Obama is doing and his party is viewed far more favorably than the Republican Party, according to a poll from CBS News released Tuesday evening.
ReplyDeletehttp://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/cbs-poll-obamas-approval-rating-reaches-highest-mark
“He leans back, tea at his side, legs crossed, to explain what he thinks just happened. ‘It was easy to think that maybe 2008 was the anomaly,’ he says. ‘And I think 2012 was an indication that, no, this is not an anomaly. We’ve gone through a very difficult time. The American people have rightly been frustrated at the pace of change, and the economy is still struggling, and this President we elected is imperfect. And yet despite all that, this is who we want to be.’
ReplyDelete“He smiles. ‘That’s a good thing.’”
Twenty-seven years after driving from New York City to Chicago in a $2,000 Honda Civic for a job that probably wouldn’t amount to much, Barack Obama, in better shape but with grayer hair, stood in the presidential suite on the top floor of the Fairmont Millennium Park hotel as flat screens announced his re-election as President of the United States. The networks called Ohio earlier than predicted, so his aides had to hightail it down the hall to join his family and friends. They encountered a room of high fives and fist pumps, hugs and relief.
ReplyDelete...But now it was done, and reason had returned. Ever since the campaign computers started raising the odds of victory from near even to something like surefire, Obama had been thinking a lot about what it meant to win without the lightning-in-a-bottle quality of that first national campaign. The Obama effect was not ephemeral anymore, no longer reducible to what had once been mocked as “that hopey-changey stuff.” It could be measured — in wars stopped and started; industries saved, restructured or reregulated; tax cuts extended; debt levels inflated; terrorists killed; the health-insurance system reimagined; and gay service members who could walk in uniform with their partners. It could be seen in the new faces who waited hours to vote and in the new ways campaigns are run. America debated and decided this year: history would not record Obama’s presidency as a fluke.
Read more: http://poy.time.com/2012/12/19/person-of-the-year-barack-obama/#ixzz2FW25Mj1O
Behind the Obama Cover: Person of the Year 2012
ReplyDeletehttp://lightbox.time.com/2012/12/19/behind-the-obama-cover-person-of-the-year-2012/#1
“The President works on his Newtown speech. Two days earlier, I photographed him when John Brennan first briefed him on the shootings. Throughout that day, he reacted as we all did, which people witnessed when he delivered his statement a few hours later. Before we headed to Newtown for the Sunday night vigil, he went to watch his daughter Sasha, 11, rehearse for her ballet performance in the Nutcracker. He was going to miss her performance that night because of the trip to Newtown. During breaks in the rehearsal, he worked on the speech. His expression in this photograph may be subtle to the viewer, but not to me. There is emotion and resolve etched on his face, and I know this was perhaps the toughest day of his Presidency.”
ReplyDeletehttp://lightbox.time.com/2012/10/08/pete-souza-portrait-of-a-presidency/#1
48 Hours with Obama: TIME’s Person of the Year 2012 by Callie Shell
ReplyDeleteCallie Shell has photographed President Barack Obama, TIME’s 2012 Person of the Year, countless times before. But for a POY feature shoot that is both grand and personal, Shell herself is humble. “I think people are sometimes surprised by how nervous photographers can get making images that can really show who the person is and what they are going through,” she says.
Shell has covered Barack Obama since 2004, and her quiet but steady lens has documented his development as a politician, father, and president, as well as his first, and now second, Person of the Year honors. This collection offers an intimate look at the President on the cusp of his second term. Shell traveled with President Obama on POY assignment for TIME earlier this month. She met him at the White House on December 10 and flew with him on Air Force One to Michigan, where they visited Daimler Detroit Diesel, and back to Washington later in the week, where the President and First Lady attended a holiday party.
Read more: http://lightbox.time.com/2012/12/19/48-hours-with-obama-times-person-of-the-year-2012-by-callie-shell/#ixzz2FW3np1eO
Runner-Up: Malala
ReplyDeletehttp://poy.time.com/2012/12/19/runner-up-malala-yousafzai-the-fighter/
I would be interested in knowing your feelings when he cuts Social Security ? I have a feeling that that will be the tip of the iceberg.
ReplyDeleteA good choice, but I’m torn about the cover. He takes some really great pictures and that isn’t one of them. But that’s how he looked at Sandy Hook, so it’s appropriate now. A tough call on the picture.
ReplyDelete7:45 AM He can't cut Social Security without Congress voting on it.
ReplyDeletePresident Obama did NOT cut Social Security! Research the facts!
Delete9:56 AM Who said that President Obama cut Social Security? That is merely stating that Congress would be the Branch responsible for any cuts. So what Facts are you referring to?
DeleteAs part of his budget proposal he proposed "chained CPI" for Social Security increases which suggests that, as money gets tight seniors will substitute less expensive items like substituting cat food for tuna.
DeleteAs anyone who has at least a half a brain knows that cuts to SS will not change the deficit one bit.
As someone on SS now. the increase in my check this year was not much more than $10 a month. There is only so much that can be substituted - food? maybe. Gas, heating oil, electricity and insurance? not so much. As the necessities go up you cut out out the extras. Sooner or later there is no extras to cut. then what?
President Obama deserves being named "Person of the Year"!!! Especially after the way the Republicans constantly have tried to discredit and block him every step of the way.
ReplyDeleteI think we will go off the 'curve/cliff' and think we should. Boehner is an asshole. The House doesn't work hard - it takes too much time off - and the majority of the Republicans need to be replaced in Congress!
If the majority of Americans worked the way they do - we'd be fired!
a remark from another, suites the position well. If, congress got paid for the days they work,would more get done? or would they still leave W.D.C. on thursday come back monday fiddle around then leave again thursday?
Deletethat is the worst photo of him i've EVER seen! wth? it reminds me of when time magazine had a cover pic of oj simpson (during the murder trial) that was at least 5 shades darker than the one on newsweek! it doesn't matter what the president's skin tone is in real life, but why would time make him look "extra black" for this cover? to rile up the racists and racist gun-nuts who hate him just a little more? are they priming people to shoot at him?
ReplyDeleteThis is well-deserved. There aren't enough superlatives to describe our President. He's truly noble--an adjective that applies to few politicians--and he's a genuine statesman. This cover is a great depiction of his dignity and thoughtfulness.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is time for a man and woman of the year....Malala or Hillary would qualify. I believe Obama is the right choice and each of the next 4 years will have him at the top of the list again, it is the nature of the beast. I don't see how you can escape history when every major problem that has accumulated over the last 8 wasted years of Bush has come out in plain view. People mostly overlook the fact that Clinton reversed Glass-Stegal which pretty much led the way to the crash and unleashed the unbridled greed of wall street, but this country was headed into a zero deficit nation. We had a surplus....without the stolen 2 elections, Gore would have enacted infrastructure spending, global warming protections and education. With Bush and Cheney we got 9/11, 2 wars, Medicare D (pharm company lottery win) and the hatred of the world..not to mention 2 massive tax cuts in the time of war. A BLACK democrat president gave us Fox, Beck, Hannity, Palin and the worst cross section of American society called the GOP ever unleashed. We need to hang tuff until 2010 then vote those assholes out, once and for all. Even with last Friday...I don't think we have hit bottom yet.
ReplyDeleteWow! The President knows Spiderman! Those are some pretty good connections he has. I'm impressed.
ReplyDeletePresident Obama definitely deserves this award. He has done so well in the face of almost constant opposition to everything. He should be able to do much better this term since he does not have to think about re-election. I support him 100%.
ReplyDeleteIt's also more difficult for the GOP to claim that his election was the result of smoke and mirrors.
DeleteClearly, the American people recognize that he's doing a remarkable job despite the disaster he was presented with and the Republicans fighting him every step of the way.
I don't know who else could have possibly been chosen. That was a slam dunk.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure we'll hear from Sarah Palin, posting her congratulations on the president's being chosen as Time's Person of the Year on her Facebook page in 3..2..1...zzzz
HA! She'll probably do a tribute to Andy Breitbart (Who's major accomplishment to benefit mankind was to achieve room temperatue)
DeleteI don't see any comparison in what Malala has done to change the world and the President. As best I can tell, Malala hasn't changed much of anything - excepts hearts. No small thing, and I wish her the very very best, but to the best of my knowledge, there has been zero change to education for girls in Pakistan, much less the world. Maybe that change will come, and maybe Malala's efforts will have been a significant contributor - but it hasn't happened yet, and might not.
ReplyDeleteGryphen This blog is dedicated to finding the truth, exposing the lies, and holding our politicians and leaders accountable when they fall far short of the promises that they have made to both my fellow Alaskans and the American people.
ReplyDeleteOkay if this profile is true, then you must go after President Obama on his offering to cut social security benefits with his beloved chained CPI. It is totally against the retoric he campaigned on and won the election with. I am (again) totally disgusted and throwing my hands into the air and cussing big time. I guess there is no hope for America if the Democratic party is willing to throw grandma to the wolves!!!
Yeah, throwing grandma and disabled people to the wolves while drone killing other people's little kids.
Delete12:24 PM=FOX TROLL.
Delete@2:05 pm
Deletehttp://www.alternet.org/media/even-some-liberal-journalists-are-losing-their-bearings-obamas-social-security-sellout
We spend a lot of tax dollars on war and bombing. People in the "War on Terror". Shouldn't we cut spending on that to take care of the elderly women and disabled kids and vets?
We chose well, and so did Time Magazine. Pete Souza's done and excellent job chronicling the President's time in and out of the White House. He captures some of the most historic moments and the composition complements President Obama's persona, especially playing a villain to some kid's "Spidey".
ReplyDelete-
I was rooting for Malala earlier, but she came in second to President Obama - not an easy feat! Obama won the gold medal, and she won the silver.