It appears the Democrats may have popped the champagne cork a little early on DACA.

Courtesy of CNN: 

President Donald Trump is moving closer to a deal with Democrats that would protect hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation and put off funding for his marquee campaign promise of a border wall along the US-Mexico border. 

The bombshell developments, which were first announced in a statement Wednesday night by Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi and reiterated by Trump himself Thursday morning, were met with immediate outrage from conservatives and put pressure on the President's Republican allies in Congress. 

The two Democratic leaders announced that following a dinner at the White House, they had "agreed to enshrine the protections of (the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program) into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that's acceptable to both sides."

Yesterday when this news first broke I saw a number of pundits looking not all convinced that this was actually going to happen. Rachel Maddow in particular talked about "getting it in writing."

And it appears they were right to be cautious, because these were Trump's tweets from this morning.

No deal was made last night on DACA. Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent. Would be subject to vote.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

The WALL, which is already under construction in the form of new renovation of old and existing fences and walls, will continue to be built.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

The lesson here is that nobody should take this asshole at his word EVER.

However it does appear that Pelosi and Schumer may have managed to move him just a little.

Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

...They have been in our country for many years through no fault of their own - brought in by parents at young age. Plus BIG border security

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017

So MAYBE there is a little room to negotiate, but then again maybe not.

It really depends on who Trump talks to next, because his opinions seem to be based on who he talked to last. 

The next time somebody tells you that Obamacare is failing, read them this list of ten ways that Republicans worked to make it fail.

1. CO-OPs short-changed from the start 

Let’s start by considering the ACA’s Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans, or CO-OPs. Early drafts of the ACA called for $10 billion in federal grants for the CO-OP program. But insurance lobbyists and conservative lawmakers insisted on $6 billion in loans instead of $10 billion in grants, restrictions limiting CO-OPs to the individual and small-group market (and not the more stable and profitable large-group market), and limitations stating that the federal loan money could not be used for marketing. 

The ACA passed in 2010 and the CO-OPs were to be up and running in the fall of 2013, in time for the first open enrollment period. But during 2011 budget negotiations, $2.2 billion was cut from the CO-OP funding. And then during the “fiscal cliff” negotiations at the end of 2012, another $1.4 billion in CO-OP loan funding was eliminated. 

Those Republican led changes undermined and ultimately killed most of the original 23 co-ops.

Just as the GOP planned.  

2. Day One legal challenges 

On March 23, 2010, the same day the ACA was signed into law, attorneys general from 14 states began the process of challenging the ACA’s individual mandate via the court system. A total of 26 states eventually joined in the lawsuit, which went all the way to the Supreme Court. 

3. Refusal to take ACA’s Medicaid expansion 

These are his actual words, and yet almost half of the country will vote for him.

You know I often see Trump surrogates on cable news arguing that they should stop focusing on all of these sex scandals and start focusing on important policy questions.

I think I actually agree with that.

I would love to see Trump respond to an actual policy discussion during a debate without benefit of notes and with a moderator who asked follow up questions and did not accept vague fact free responses.

Does anybody really think that Hillary would not mop the floor with him in a debate structured like that?

The only reason the Trump surrogates make noise to suggest they actually want to talk about policies is because they are confident that the interviewer will not call their bluff.

If suddenly Anderson Cooper or Joy Reid said "Sure let's talk in depth about Donald Trump's policy solution to Syria," they would urinate all over themselves and make a mad dash for the door.

President Obama's Address to the Nation in full.

Here are some of the highlights courtesy of Vox: 

And I know that after so much war, many Americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer that has no immediate cure. 

Well, here's what I want you to know. The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it. We will destroy ISIL and any other organization that tries to harm us. Our success won't depend on tough talk or abandoning our values or giving into fear. That's what groups like ISIL are hoping for. Instead, we will prevail by being strong and smart. 

The President then laid out a four step approach to stopping the terrorists.

These included going after terrorist plotters, providing training and equipment to those fighting Daesh on the ground, working with friends and allies to disrupt terrorist groups, and finding a resolution to the war in Syria.

Of course this address has already come under attack from those on the Right, who desperately want to start another war, or restart the ones the President is trying to end, but then again what would we expect from them at this point?

The President also said this which really agitated the conservatives:  

There are several steps that Congress should take right away. To begin with, Congress should act to make sure no one on a no-fly list is able to buy a gun. What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semiautomatic weapon? This is a matter of national security. 

We also need to make it harder for people to buy powerful assault weapons like the ones that were used in San Bernardino. I know there are some who reject any gun safety measures, but the fact is that our intelligence and law enforcement agencies, no matter how effective they are, cannot identify every would-be mass shooter, whether that individual was motivated by ISIL or some other hateful ideology. What we can do and must do is make it harder for them to kill.

For some reason. according to conservatives, the fact that the shooting in San Bernardino was done by Muslims means that it has NOTHING to do with guns, or access to guns.

Magically the fact that they are linked to a terrorist group outside of America, means that the methods by which they killed are simply no longer worthy of concern. Somehow I think that if they had blown their victims up, instead of shooting them, that this would not be the case.

And finally the President reminded us of this fact:  

We cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam. That, too, is what groups like ISIL want. ISIL does not speak for Islam. They are thugs and killers. Part of a cult of death. And they account for a tiny fraction of a more than a billion Muslims around the world, including millions of patriotic Muslim-Americans who reject their hateful ideology. 

Moreover, the vast majority of terrorist victims around the world are Muslim. If we're to succeed in defeating terrorism, we must enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest allies rather than push them away through suspicion and hate.

Yeah, that didn't go over very well either.

Especially for the Republican presidential candidates who are relying on the fear by the American people, and the ability to manipulate that fear into voter turnout, that is now at the center of many of their campaign strategies.

THAT is why they are attacking this speech so aggressively.

The President is calling for calm, when the Republicans want anything but.

Another thing to blame on Obama. For the first time in 30 years unemployment has dropped in every state.

You're welcome.

Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal:

Unemployment fell in every state and the nation’s capital last year—something that hadn’t happened since 1984. 

The broad decline, revealed in a Labor Department report Wednesday, offers the latest sign the labor market recovery kicked into a higher gear in 2014. The declines varied broadly. 

Unemployment fell the most in Illinois, where the rate dropped 2 percentage points from the prior year to an average 7.1%. The rate declined by 1.8 points in Colorado, North Carolina and Ohio. 

North Dakota, at the center of the nation’s energy boom of the past few years, had the lowest jobless rate of any state at 2.8% last year. 

Unemployment across the entire U.S. fell 1.2 points to 6.2% last year.

Gee look, President Obama DID fundamentally change America. 

For the better.

Senator Elizabeth Warren receives new job, that illustrates her importance to the future of the Democratic party.

Courtesy of Politico: 

Senate Democrats have enlisted progressive firebrand Elizabeth Warren to be a member of their leadership team, giving a major platform to a liberal icon just a week after Democrats took a beating at the polls and lost control of the Senate. 

Harry Reid, the incoming Senate minority leader, had engaged in private talks with the Massachusetts freshman to create a special leadership post for the former Harvard professor, and the leadership elections Thursday solidified the new Democratic team.

The title will be strategic policy adviser to the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee — a specially created position that puts Warren into a much more prominent position in the Senate hierarchy. 

In the new position, Warren is expected to serve as a go-between to liberal groups to ensure their voice is part of the leadership’s private deliberations. She would be part of the messaging and policy team. 

Some see this appointment by Reid is a move away from bipartisanship,  but let's face it the Republicans are not really ever going to work with the Democrats anyhow. Unless of course the Democrats agree to acquiesce to every one of their demands.

However Warren's take no shit personality scares the bejeezus out of the Republicans, and that endears her to the liberal base which is only growing bigger everyday.

I think this might just be Harry Reid's way of sticking his thumb in the eye of the conservatives.

But do you know what would send them right over the edge?

Having Warren's name appear on the ballot alongside Hillary's in 2016.

Oh, that would be glorious.

Mike Huckabee is "utterly disgusted" about gay marriage. Gay marriage responds with "Right back at ya buddy."

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

On the Saturday edition of his show following the Supreme Court’s decision not to reverse decisions that struck down same-sex marriage bans in five states, Huckabee accused Republicans of allowing judicial activism. 

“I wonder sometimes, do we still teach civics in school?” he asked. “Several governors and other elected officials reacted by saying, ‘Well, that’s it. That’s the final word.’” 

“Horse apples!” Huckabee shouted. “The Supreme Court is not the supreme being!” 

The former Arkansas governor noted that he held “the same view that President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden held just until two years ago, that it was inconsistent with nature and nature’s law.” 

“But the biggest issue is the betrayal of our Constitution and the surrender to a small group of unelected black-robed jurists who can’t make law, nor enforce it,” Huckabee added “Now, if you believe that men should marry men and women should marry women, then get the people’s representatives to vote for it, the chief executive to sign it, and then have the courts agree with it.” 

“I’m utterly disgusted with fellow Republicans who want to walk away from the issue of judicial supremacy just because it’s politically volatile,” he concluded. “Here is my advice: Grow a spine, show a modicum of knowledge about the way we govern ourselves, and lead, follow, or get the heck out of the way.”

As I am sure many of you have surmised I am contractually not allowed to agree with Mike  Huckabee. And if I get caught doing so they take back my "I'm a Liberal" punch card and then I have to pay full price for my Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks.

However I am going to risk it by agreeing with Huckabee that the Republicans running for office in this election cycle really need to make opposition to gay marriage a prominent part of their campaigns, and they DEFINITELY need to include it in every one of their TV ads.

I mean it is already a plank in the Republican platform, so why not "grow a spine" and use it to rally the base and show the voters that you and your party are still stuck in the middle ages even though it is 2014?

Seriously, what is more important? Winning elections, or sticking to your principles even in the face of overwhelming support for something which makes your pastor cry?

(P.S. My laugh can't be heard on the internet, right?)

P.P.S. By the way our Governor, Sean Parnell, is essentially taking Huckabee's advice and is planning to challenge the Federal judge's ruling that the Alaska marriage ban is unconstitutional:  

“As Alaska’s governor, I have a duty to defend and uphold the law and the Alaska Constitution,” Gov. Sean Parnell said in a press release. “Although the district court today may have been bound by the recent Ninth Circuit panel opinion, the status of that opinion and the law in general in this area is in flux. I will defend our constitution.”

To be clear, Parnell has no problem with National Guard troops sexually abusing women, but two women getting married? Well THAT'S just immoral. 

Harry Reid hopes, he really hopes, that the unrelenting opposition to President Obama from the Republican party is not based on racism. I have some bad news for you Harry.

"Gee I hope that the party made up of unapologetic racists is not opposing the first black President due to racism."

Courtesy of TPM:  

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told KNPR radio Friday that he hopes Republicans' ongoing opposition to President Obama is driven by "substance" and not race. 

"My counterpart, Mitch McConnell, said at the the beginning of the presidency of Barack Obama that he had one goal -- and that is to defeat Obama and make sure he wasn't re-elected. And that's how they legislate in the Senate," he said. "It was really bad. And we're now seven months into this second term of the president's and they haven't changed much." 

"It's been obvious that they're doing everything they can to make him fail," Reid said. "And I hope, I hope -- and I say this seriously -- I hope that's based on substance and not the fact that he's African-American."

This angered the Republicans who fired up their token black person, Senator Tim Scott, to respond:

I am sincerely disappointed by continued attempts to divide the American people by playing to the lowest common denominator. Instead of engaging in serious debate about the failed policies of this administration – from the ever-increasing burdens created by the national health care reform plan to the tax and spend approach to economic recovery, along with countless others – Democrats are once again trying to hide behind a smokescreen. 

Our country deserves more from those in Washington. I hope Senator Reid will realize the offensive nature of his remarks and apologize to those who disagree with the President’s policies because of one thing – they are hurting hardworking American families. 

Okay well Tim Scott is the PERFECT person to defend the Republicans against charges of racism  from the Senate Majority leader as he is the ONLY black Republican Senator in GOP history.

However he may be one of the least pro-African American black politician since former Rep. Allen West. Scott has received an F rating from the NAACP, and has voted right along with the undeniably racist Teabaggers at every opportunity.

The idea that the opposition toward Obama is based on his policy decisions is refuted completely by the fact that Mitch McConnell and other GOP operatives decided to block EVERYTHING he tried to do on the night he was inaugurated.

That was before he had actually done anything for them to oppose. But it was NOT before he was unfortunate enough to be born black.

Of COURSE the opposition is based on racism, and it only takes a visit to the town halls taking place right now in the South to have that confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt.

P.S. Since we are talking about Harry Reid I thought you all might like to know that Reid just came out and said that  Obamacare is the first step toward eventual single payer.

Now you know why the Republicans are freaking out so hard about the law. And why MOST of us should love it!

White House prepares to overwhelm NRA and pass legislation to deal with gun violence. Oh, this is great news! Update!

Courtesy of TPM:  

The White House and gun control supporters are gearing up for a whirlwind month, with plans to pass reform legislation before outrage over the Sandy Hook massacre has a chance to fade. 

While the fiscal cliff has dominated Washington’s attention in recent weeks, lawmakers and activists are laying the groundwork for their big push. Vice President Joe Biden, tasked with heading a commission to investigate gun violence, has been quietly meeting with experts, interest groups, and public officials and is expected to release a set of recommendations within weeks. Boston mayor Thomas Menino, co-chair of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, told the Boston Herald this week that an optimistic Biden had assured him that Obama would sign legislation “by the end of January.” 

“We had been led to believe their report would come by end of January, but we’re hearing they may want to have something out by January 15, even quicker than expected,” Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, told TPM. 

House Democrats are moving ahead with their own plans as well. On Friday, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), chair of the newly created Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, announced the appointment of 12 vice chairs, including Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), the body’s leading voice on gun control. According to a Democratic aide, the group plans to release its recommendations in early February and is already organizing public hearings on the issue. 

Obama has personally identified an assault weapons ban and limits on ammunition magazine size as top priorities. Other possible reforms could include background check requirements for purchases at gun shows, a loophole that’s helped create a huge market of off-record arms purchases.

This is SUCH good news!

I had been worried that the attention span of the American people and Congress would prove to short for anything of importance to be done on this issue before we became distracted with other breaking news items or partisan political battles.

However I have also believed that this time things were different and that we would finally see some real impactful legislation passed to deal with what I think we can all agree is an out of control situation.

You know I believed the President when he said that hearing about the Newtown massacre was the worst day of his presidency.  I saw that man's heart breaking when he addressed the nation after that attack, and believed that he could not simply allow things to remain the way they are without doing something to protect our children.  I am glad to see that I was right to have faith.

Update: Gabby!

Courtesy of the New York Daily News:  

Limping slightly and leaning on astronaut husband Mark Kelly for support, Giffords smiled as she entered town hall and embraced Schools Superintendent Janet Robinson. 

“We’re so glad you came,” Robinson said. “Thank you.” 

“How horrible,” Giffords replied, holding on to Robinson for a beat longer. 

Then Giffords was ushered inside for a private meeting with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D—Conn.) and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman.  

Giffords brought with her a perspective that only a select few share — that of a person who came face-to-face with the kind of madness that left 20 innocent children and six school staffers dead on a cruel December morning. 

You know I thought I was filled with hope after reading of the President's plans, but seeing Gabby in Newtown, and realizing that she will most likely lend her voice to this issue as well, increases that hope tenfold.

Everything you need to know about the Fiscal Cliff deal. But were too confused to ask. Update!

Smokin' Joe Biden rides to the rescue and finally gets through a fiscal cliff package.

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

 — Tax rates will permanently rise to Clinton-era levels for families with income above $450,000 and individuals above $400,000. All income below the threshold will permanently be taxed at Bush-era rates. 

— The tax on capital gains and dividends will be permanently set at 20 percent for those with income above the $450,000/$400,000 threshold. It will remain at 15 percent for everyone else. (Clinton-era rates were 20 percent for capital gains and taxed dividends as ordinary income, with a top rate of 39.6 percent.)

 — The estate tax will be set at 40 percent for those at the $450,000/$400,000 threshold, with a $5 million exemption. That threshold will be indexed to inflation, as a concession to Republicans and some Democrats in rural areas like Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mt.). 

— The sequester will be delayed for two months. Half of the delay will be offset by discretionary cuts, split between defense and non-defense. The other half will be offset by revenue raised by the voluntary transfer of traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs, which would tax retirement savings when they’re moved over.

 — The pay freeze on members of Congress and all other federal civilian employees, which Obama had lifted this week, will be re-imposed, . 

— The 2009 expansion of tax breaks for low-income Americans: the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and the American Opportunity Tax Credit will be extended for five years.

 — The Alternative Minimum Tax will be permanently patched to avoid raising taxes on the middle-class. 

— The deal will not address the debt-ceiling, and the payroll tax holiday will be allowed to expire. 

— Two limits on tax exemptions and deductions for higher-income Americans will be reimposed: Personal Exemption Phaseout (PEP) will be set at $250,000 and the itemized deduction limitation (Pease) kicks in at $300,000. 

—The full package of temporary business tax breaks — benefiting everything from R&D and wind energy to race-car track owners — will be extended for another year.

 — Scheduled cuts to doctors under Medicare would be avoided for a year through spending cuts that haven’t been specified. 

— Federal unemployment insurance will be extended for another year, benefiting those unemployed for longer than 26 weeks. This $30 billion provision won’t be offset. 

 — A nine-month farm bill fix will be attached to the deal, Sen. Debbie Stabenow told reporters, averting the newly dubbed milk cliff. 

I understand that the House is supposed to vote on this by 1:00 EST today. However there are still rumors that many House members are not planning to vote for it and John Boehner has also made some remarks about possible modifications, which would kill the bill outright.

Still there is hope that it will pass.

Of course this bill only postpones those deep spending cuts for two months so it really is nothing more than a Band-Aid applied to a potential internal hemorrhage, but it is still a lot better than many thought the Senate could ever hope to agree on.

I wonder if this new Congress will really be any more rational or if THIS is the kind of thing we will see for the next two years?  God, let's hope not.

Update: There are some who think the President completely punked the Republicans with this deal:

Higher taxes on the richest Americans (the level is yet to be determined, and the president pointedly stayed away from confirming the $400K/$450K numbers floating around, but taxes are going up). He just forced Grover Norquist's Republican party to allow a tax increase. Big. F*cken. Deal. 

The middle class tax credits, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, child tax credit education tax credit and other Obama stimulus tax credits are staying in place for 5 years, as are the breaks for small businesses, especially for the clean energy industry (I don't think most people running around with their hair on fire realize how big a deal this is for the environmental community). The Alternative Minimum tax is fixed permanently not to affect the middle class. 

Unemployment benefits extension. 

An increase in the estate tax rate to 40%. 

What do the Republicans get in return? Bupkiss. Nada. Nothing. A big fat zero. So basically, the president permanently protects working people and the poor and the middle class, permanently raises taxes on the rich, and the additional tax revenue from that. Republicans get no entitlement changes, not even a permanent aversion of the cuts hitting defense and other Republican sweetheart industries.

I know there are those on the Left who think the President gave away too much, but in the end it looks like the President did that whole Jedi mind trick thing again.

Update 2: Politicususa agrees that the President (And Joe Biden) cleaned the Republican's clock..

Obamacare really DOES care. Americans to receive 1.3 billion in health care rebates.

Courtesy of MSNBC:

Millions of consumers and small businesses will receive an estimated $1.3 billion in rebates from their health plans this summer under a provision of the health care law that effectively limits what insurers can charge for administration and profits, a new study projects. 

Almost one third of people who bought their own insurance last year will get rebates averaging $127, according to an analysis of state data by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) 

"This alone is not going to make health insurance affordable for large numbers of people, but it is getting excess administrative cost out of the system," says Larry Levitt, a study author. 

The percentage of consumers and businesses in line for rebates varies widely by state. In Texas, for example, 92 percent of consumers who purchased individual policies are expected to get rebates because insurers spent too little of their premium dollars on medical care. But in Vermont, Rhode Island, Iowa and Hawaii, insurers are likely to owe less than 1 percent of consumers who bought policies on the individual market. 

Nationally, an estimated 3.4 million people who bought their own coverage are projected to receive rebates this year from 215 insurance plans, according to the study. The biggest dollar amounts are expected to go to consumers in Alaska, where per person rebates are expected to average $305, Maryland, $294, Pennsylvania, $243 and Idaho, $241. Insurers hit the spending targets for policies sold directly to consumers in several states, including Hawaii, Maine and the District of Columbia, so no rebates are expected for individual consumers there. 

More than a dozen states sought to relax the standard for insurance sold directly to consumers, saying it would cause insurers to withdraw from their markets. The Obama administration granted seven such requests, choosing to phase in the requirement between now and 2014 in Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire and North Carolina. 

Rebates averaging $76 per enrollee are projected to go to more than one quarter of small businesses nationally, covering an estimated 4.9 million people. When averaged by state, the biggest per-enrollee rebates will go to businesses in Alaska at $517 and Alabama, at $203 and Oregon, $172. No rebates will go to small businesses in eight states, where insurers met their spending targets, including Hawaii, Minnesota and North Dakota.

Interesting that the state which benefits the most from these rebates is also the state which produced the biggest loudmouth to speak out against the Affordable Care Act, Sarah "Death Panels" Palin.

And perhaps Alaskans should also take note that our current Governor filed suit, along with 20 other states, to overturn the new reforms. Think about that my friends while you are spending your $305 at Costco.

Of course this is only the beginning, and many of the most impressive, and impactful changes to health care in this country are still yet to come.

Unless of course the radically conservative leaning Supreme Court decides to throw the whole thing out that is.

Early Sunday morning guest rant.

This morning's rant comes to us from Tally of the Obama Diary:

I am so tired of people supposedly on my side, being as F**KING STUPID as the baggers are. 

FACTS FOR EVERYONE WHO CLAIMS THEY’RE A LIBERAL PROGRESSIVE: 

- ONLY 6 (SIX) DEMOCRATS VOTED TO FUND THE CLOSING OF GITMO. That means that not only did ALL of the REPUBLICANS in Congress vote against it, but MOST of the DEMOCRATS DID TOO. People who blame President Obama for that are F**KING STUPID. 

- THE DEMOCRATS NEVER CONTROLLED CONGRESS. No, not EVER. Stop repeating this lie. You look like an idiot, and you’re not helping. There were NEVER 60 votes – enough for a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Not even for a microsecond. People who blame President Obama for something that is OUR FAULT (for not sending him a Progressive Army, then staying home in a whiny snit) are F**KING STUPID. 

- CANDIDATE OBAMA RAN ON CHANGE AND PROMISED TO END PARTISANSHIP. He is still trying. It’s the GOP who refuse. HE has KEPT THAT PROMISE. It’s OUR FAULT there are asshats in Congress who care more about their hatred for one man, and regaining power, than their own COUNTRY, and ALL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Either we elect ALL DEMS, or who aren’t bought and paid for corporate whores (BEN NELSON, I’M TALKING TO YOU), or non-insane Independents, or we’re DONE. There are no sane Republicans left. That is a fact. Anyone who cannot understand this is F**KING STUPID.

There is much more at the link, and I advice everybody to click it and read what Tally wrote. And then after you finish e-mail it to all of your so-called "liberal" friends who claim that this President has not lived up to the hype.

Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, could have done more for this country against the unprecedented blowback that has been coming his way since day one from the Republicans than Obama has done. Not Hillary, not Bill, not anybody!

From the second that he was elected, the Republicans have done NOTHING except work against every single policy decision that he has tried to implement.  If he were not such a  determined and gifted leader, he would never have managed to be as successful as he has been, despite the roadblocks, disinformation, and outright sabotage he has been forced to deal with during these last three years.

If we really want to see this President "be all that he can be," we need to not ONLY give him four more years, we need to send as many REAL Democrats to Washington as we can possibly dig up.