Something to remember.

Source

That is what a competent and historically significant presidency looks like. 

It's official, Barack Obama will go down as one of the most consequential presidents in US history.

Courtesy of Vox: 

The utter failure of Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and Donald Trump to pass a bill rolling back the Affordable Care Act makes one thing perfectly clear: love him or hate him, Barack Obama is one of the most consequential presidents in American history — and that he will be a particularly towering figure in the history of American progressivism. 

He signed into law a comprehensive national health insurance bill, a goal that had eluded progressive presidents for a century — and built it strong enough to withstand assaults from the Supreme Court and avoid repeal from a Republican administration. He got surprisingly tough reforms to Wall Street passed as well, not to mention a stimulus package that both blunted the recession and transformed education and energy policy. 

He's put in place the toughest climate rules in American history and signed a major international climate accord. He opened the US to Cuba for the first time in more than half a century, and reached a peaceful settlement to the nuclear standoff with Iran. 

You can celebrate or bemoan these accomplishments. Liberals hail them as moves toward a social democratic welfare state and a foreign policy more skeptical of military intervention; conservatives critique Obama's efforts to expand regulation and the government's reach, and accuse him of abdicating America's role as world hegemon. 

But no one can deny that the changes Obama has wrought are enormous in scale.

Even if Trump manages to roll back some of this progress, and yes he is trying with all of his might, it will still be noted that Obama achieved those goals, and pushed his country forward.

And let's face it many of these changes, even if Trump stalls them, will likely continue forward once he is out of office.

Plus the existence of a Trump presidency will just allow historians to note how important the presidency that came before was in keeping the country whole during such a turbulent time.

If any face is going to someday be featured on Mt. Rushmore it is most likely this one.

And yes, WITH the sunglasses included.

Just a reminder.

Obama's accomplishments seem even more courageous and progressive when compared to the juvenile rantings of the guy who replaced him in the White House.

President Obama worked hard to make this country a better place to live, Donald Trump seems to be working hard to leave the biggest smoking crater possible in its place.

President Obama shows Donald Trump how to use Twitter to uplift Americans rather than attack his enemies.

As we look ahead to the future, I wanted to take a moment to look back on the remarkable progress that you made possible these past 8 years.

— President Obama (@POTUS) January 1, 2017

Facing the worst financial crisis in 80 years, you delivered the longest streak of job growth in our history. pic.twitter.com/Vk3PfRgZqF

— President Obama (@POTUS) January 1, 2017

After decades of rising health care costs, today nearly every American now has access to the financial security of affordable health care. pic.twitter.com/5e4nEcCxIM

— President Obama (@POTUS) January 1, 2017

We traded foreign oil for clean energy, we doubled fuel efficiency standards, & we acted on a global scale to save the one planet we've got. pic.twitter.com/7alrOtHNIr

— President Obama (@POTUS) January 1, 2017

We brought home more of our troops & strengthened U.S. leadership—leading with diplomacy & partnering with nations to meet global problems.

— President Obama (@POTUS) January 1, 2017

From realizing marriage equality to removing barriers to opportunity, we've made history in our work to reaffirm that all are created equal.

— President Obama (@POTUS) January 1, 2017

It’s been the privilege of my life to serve as your President. I look forward to standing with you as a citizen. Happy New Year everybody.

— President Obama (@POTUS) January 1, 2017

That is how you make Americans feel good about themselves.

That is how you make us feel good about our accomplishments and the future of this nation.

Not petty, not defensive, simply encouraging and filled with hope.

Just like this presidency.

President Obama talks about his achievements while in office, and assures Americans that it would be quite difficult for a Republican President to dismantle them.

Courtesy of CBS News: 

"How much time do you wonder or spend thinking about what you have done might be undone if a Republican ends up in the White House?" (Lee) Cowan asked. 

"Well, you think about that," he replied. "But what you discover when you're president is that the institutions and programs and things that you have put in place and built, if you've done a good job and you've done them sensibly, you know, in some cases may need tinkering with, can be improved. But if they're good things, they're harder to undo than you think."

That is comforting news. Though I still want to hedge our bets by making sure that the next President will only protect and reinforce the policies put in place by President Obama.

As for this interview I was especially impressed to once again see all of the things that President Obama fought to accomplish during his presidency and how well they turned out, despite constant attempts to block or undermine them by the Republicans.

I find myself often trying to explain to people all of the great things the Obama Administration has accomplished, and that I see President Obama as one of the most important presidents of my lifetime.

A lot of people are simply not ready to hear that yet, but I contend that in the years to come scholars will compare this presidency favorably to the presidencies of John F. Kennedy, Harry Truman, and yes, even Abraham Lincoln.

I just hope I live long enough to get a few "I told you so's" in.

Final images of the day, just because.

Caption: First Lady Michelle Obama snuggles against President Barack Obama before a videotaping for the 2015 World Expo, in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House.

 Caption: President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hold hands as they listen to Rep. John Lewis during an event to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches.

I saw these over at The Obama Diary and I just felt the need to share after suddenly feeling a wave of emotion over the fact that we only have these two incredible people in the White House for one more year.

I don't think it dawned on me just now much I would miss them until I saw these photos, and now it is literally all I can think about.

We've come so far in these last seven years and I truly believe we could not have accomplished half as much if any other candidate had been elected in 2008.

Here's hoping that the person who replaces President Obama stays true to his vision, and continues to move us in the path he set before us.

And that of course means it most certainly cannot be any of those clowns on Republican side of the aisle.

Nancy French, once again channeling Bristol Palin, attacks President Obama for playing golf, and claims it is unfair that Sarah Palin is called "the controversial one."

Courtesy of Bristol's Pikore account.

So Nancy French links to a story on the Business Insider which claims that over the last seven years President Obama has played more than 1,100 hours of golf.

French is appalled at this and makes the following completely unrelated comparison: 

Remember when my mom put a jet on eBay to save Alaska much-needed money? 

Yet, SHE is the one that the media tends to skewer, not the President who is spending our taxes on his many many rounds of golf while the nation struggles under the weight of government waste and fraud. 

Doesn’t seem right.

Personally, considering the vast number of accomplishments by this President, I would not care if he played golf every damned day of the year. Hell he could even take up smoking doobies again and play the game in a haze of marijuana smoke with Beyonce and Jay-Z so long as he keeps doing his job at this level.

WTF do I care?

Oh, it just dawned on me that some of our newer visitors might be confused as to why a middle aged woman like Nancy French is calling Sarah Palin "my mom."

You see my friends Nancy French is essentially a professional schizophrenic who is paid to pretend to be Bristol Palin, a woman so illiterate that her text messages look like they have been typed out by pigeon on LSD.

So periodically Nancy French puts on her Bristol Palin skin suit, sits down at a typewriter, and types out some BS so that she can earn that sweet sweet SarahPAC money. 

I have to admit that I almost missed this post as I was otherwise entertained by every other thing happening in the world which was by its very nature much more relevant. 

However somebody sent me a link to Wonkette, who had covered it, and I will share a little of what they had to say about the post:

A) While the president has spent about 46 days of his two-term presidency golfing, he has spent most of his time in office working, unlike some presidents named Republican President, who spent years — literally, YEARS — vacaying at their ranches, clearing brush, and ignoring important memos. 

(2) Even the king of vacationing while president, George W. Bush, says this obsession with Obama’s time on the links is idiotical. 

Third: Bristol, honey, your mom QUIT HER JOB right in the middle of doing it, sort of, and then she quit, like, OH ALL OF THE “JOBS” after that, and she even quit her bus tour, when all she had to do was sit on her ass, in a bus, and sometimes stop to wave at the people, that’s all she had to do and she couldn’t even do that, Jesus H.! 

Also, your mom is a dumb. A super real dumb. Like, dumb dumb. So many kinds of dumb. And she raised a dumb daughter, also too, who is too dumb to know how all of these babies keep ending up inside of her, when she keeps saving herself again and again. 

Gotta love it!

Oh and Wonkette also referred to the author of the post as  "Bristol Palin’s ghostblogger."

And one more thing about Sarah Palin being the "controversial one."

Brancy, right now Sarah Palin is the "irrelevant one." She only wishes that we all still considered her conversational.

But in a world where Donald Trump is leading the Republican field, and Jeb Bush is talking about "anchor babies," there is very little she could do to wrestle that word back from those who are using controversy as a stand in for actual political credibility.

Tricked you.

I think this needs to be spread far and wide.

If any Republican president had accomplished even a fraction of what Obama has accomplished the conservatives would never shut up about it.

Bill Clinton the most admired President by far according to new Wall Street Journal poll.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Despite constant obstructionism and withering partisan attacks, President Obama has completed almost 100% of the domestic agenda he laid out in his 2009 inaugural speech.

Courtesy of New York Magazine:  

On January 20, 2009, when Obama delivered his inaugural address as president, he outlined his coming domestic agenda in two sentences summarizing the challenges he identified: “Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many, and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.” Those were the four major areas of domestic reform: economic recovery measures, health-care reform, a response to climate change, and education reform. (To the justifiable dismay of immigration advocates, Obama did not call for immigration reform at the time, and immigration reform is now the only possible remaining area for significant domestic reform.) With the announcement of the largest piece of his environmental program last Monday, Obama has now accomplished major policy responses on all these things. There is enormous room left to debate whether Obama’s agenda in all these areas qualifies as good or bad, but “ineffectual” seems as though it should be ruled out at this point.

Shocking right? But there you have it.

The President has continued moving forward despite the fact that he is often swimming against the political current in shark infested waters.

And what exactly has he accomplished? Well I'm glad you asked.

Courtesy of Americans Against the Tea Party:

Economic Recovery: By the time Obama entered office, the Bush Recession had already crushed our — and most of the world’s — economy by sheer force of greed. Obama’s first actions kept the Great Recession from turning into a full-blown Great Depression. An $800 billion stimulus, the Frank-Dodd financial regulations, bank reorganization and the auto bailout were controversial moves, but they gave America’s sinking ship the vital moments it needed to level out. Since then, we’ve been steadily bailing water and pumping ballast from the bilge. Unemployment is down to at least mid-2008 levels, as is deficit spending, with both dropping steadily. Wall Street closed at an all-time high not long ago, and Gross Domestic Product is growing at about the same rate it was in 2007. We’ve got a ways to go yet, but the way things are going, we very likely will see a full recovery to a Pre-Bush-Recession economy by the time Hillary gets elected. 

Health Care Reform: Obamacare. Despite the fact that almost nobody likes it (us because blood-sucking insurance companies are still involved, them because Obama’s involved), the Affordable Care Act has already hit its target number for paying enrollees. Uninsured rates are dropping precipitously, and the exponential rise in the cost of medical care has at least begun to level off. Which, in itself is impressive, considering that Koch-owned conservatives were (again) predicting exactly the opposite. More impressively still, this is in spite of the fact that almost half the states in the country don’t even allow their citizens access to expanded Medicaid. Because, Tea Party. Once those states’ constituencies start firing the people who are killing them…well, we’ll see what the figures look like then. 

Education Reform: Obama’s education reforms haven’t been mind-blowing, but some progress is better than the regress we were facing under Republican authority. As of now, it’s estimated that about 22 million students are currently benefitting from Obama’s educational reforms, which included doubling funding for Pell grants, offering “Race to the Top” grants for schools that improved standards and education, and most recently, stopped student loans from more than doubling for 7 million college students, and capped federal student loan rates at 10 percent of income. Which is, you know…better. At least, it’s better than just sending all the white kids to private schools to receive a proper, Christian education before the strongest get shipped off to Koch U to get an indoctrination they’ll never finish paying for. 

A Response to Climate Change: In 2009, Obama promised to “double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in three years.” Challenge accepted, and met: Solar energy supplies have tripled, and wind energy has increased by a whopping 16-to-1. But that was a somewhat intangible thing for most. Obama’s latest bit of legislature has been called a “war on coal” by people who sell coal. The rest of us just call it “a market-based cap on carbon emissions via EPA regulations passed more than 20 years ago.” It might not be the most drastic step imaginable, but nobody can argue that it’s not a serious response to climate change. You know it’s serious, because the Koch Brothers hate it.

There is reasonable criticism which can be voiced concerning the effectiveness of these changes or the methodology used to achieve them, but what cannot be argued is that the goals were not reached.

They were.

And don't forget all of this was accomplished despite the fact that key Republicans met the night of Obama's inauguration to make sure NONE of it would succeed.

Imagine just how much more could have been accomplished if the Republicans were actually working for the American people instead of their corporate overlords.

Just another reality check.

Seriously, could ANYBODY ELSE have done a better job?

And then you throw in the never ending obstructionism from the Republicans, and it is almost enough to convince me that Barack Obama really IS "The One."

Perhaps NOBODY explains the important differences between the Democrats and the Republicans better than President Clinton.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

For nearly 50 minutes, Clinton reminded voters of the challenges Obama inherited in 2009, and highlighted the ways in which the administration and Democrats in congress helped put the economy on a path towards recovery. 

To drive home the point, Clinton employed a running tally of both the Obama White House’s and the Republican party’s record on private sector jobs over the last 50 years:

I have now listened to Bill Clinton's speech about three times, and it LITERALLY gets better very time you hear it. And the points he made were spot on!

P.S. Here is a picture of the Secretary of State watching her husband bring the house down.

President Obama's greatest achievement? Ending the Iraq War.

Courtesy of Electa blog:

But he gets almost no credit for this. On the right, they say he was just following Bush’s timeline and we should still have troops there to prevent a civil war. On the left, they say he was just following Bush’s timeline and we still have thousands of contractors in a giant embassy. 

Both sides forget history. As Barack Obama was winning the 2008 election on the issue of the Iraq War, he changed the debate and forced the timeline that Bush adopted. 

From July 18, 2008: 

"In a stunning diplomatic breakthrough for Barack Obama, Iraq’s prime minister yesterday endorsed the Democratic candidate’s 16-month timeline for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq." 

The timeline Bush adopted was never Bush’s timeline. It was Obama’s. (That’s why he won the Nobel Peace Prize, in case you’re wondering.) The privatization of the military as described in Rachel Maddow’s Drift made getting out a bit easier. But ending this war was a mission this man adopted as a State Senator and achieved as President. Denying that only reveals your bias.

You know what pisses me off? That even I had started to adopt the talking point that all Obama did was to follow Bush's timeline.

It just goes to show how insidious the Republican talking points can be, and how quickly they become ingrained in out political discourse.

I should have remembered this fact, but I didn't.  Did you?

We have to do a better job my friends.  Not only are the facts sometimes elusive, but apparently the Republicans are attempting to coat them in some kind of political KY Jelly.

Boy I have been on the receiving end of THIS look quite a few times!

Really the best thing to do here is to speak in a soft, soothing voice while backing away slowly.

A couple of days ago somebody asked that I provide a list of President Obama's accomplishments.

Here is a great one, complete with citations.

The next time any of your Right Wing family members start to refer to the President as a "do nothing politician" just send them the list.

They have to read the big words of course, so it may not help. But hey, at least you tried!

Three years of progress.

Now THAT is a powerful campaign commercial!

I wish today were election day, because I am ready to vote for our President right now!

Fired up! Ready to go!

Here is the link to a blog for you to send to the next person, on either side of the ideological fence, who attacks our President for not doing enough.

Somebody sent me the link to this blog today, and it contains the MOST comprehensive list of President Obama's achievements that I have ever seen.

Here is just a sampling.

Legislative Prowess

Despite the characterizations of some, Obama’s success rate in winning congressional votes on issues was an unprecedented 96.7% for his first year in office. Though he is often cited as superior to Obama, President Lyndon Johnson’s success rate in 1965 was only 93%. http://n.pr/i3d7cY

Wall Street Reforms and Consumer Protection

Ordered 65 executives who took bailout money to cut their own pay until they paid back all bailout money. http://huff.to/eAi9Qq

He pushed through and got passed Dodd-Frank, one of the largest and most comprehensive Wall Street reforms since the Great Depression. http://bit.ly/hWCPg0 http://bit.ly/geHpcD

He made it so that banks could no longer use YOUR money to invest in high-risk financial instruments that work against their own customers' interests. http://bit.ly/fnTayj

He supported the concept of allowing stockholders to vote on executive compensation. http://bit.ly/fnTayj

He wholly endorsed and supported the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009 that would close offshore tax avoidance loopholes. http://bit.ly/esOdfB http://bit.ly/eG4DPM

He made a deal with Swiss banks that permits the US government to gain access to the records of criminals and tax evaders. http://bit.ly/htfDgw

He established a Consumer Protection Financial Bureau designed to protect consumers from financial sector excesses. http://bit.ly/fnTayj

Civil Rights and Anti-Discrimination

He advocated for and signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which made it a federal crime to assault anyone based on his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. http://bit.ly/gsMSJ7

He pushed through and signed a repeal of the discriminatory “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy that forced soldiers to lie to fight for their country, and put our troops at risk by disqualifying many qualified soldiers from helping. http://bit.ly/fdahuH

He appointed Kareem Dale as the first ever Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy. http://1.usa.gov/fi5IY0

He extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. http://1.usa.gov/g2RLCj

He's appointed more openly gay officials than anyone in history. http://bit.ly/g1lA7D

He signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, restoring basic protections against pay discrimination for women and other workers. This was after the GOP blocked the bill in 2007. Only 5 Republican Senators voted for the bill. http://bit.ly/fT3Cxg

Wrote and signed an Executive Order establishing a White House Council on Women and Girls to ensure that all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies evaluate the effect of their policies and programs on women and families. http://bit.ly/e1puTk

He expanded funding for the Violence Against Women Act. http://1.usa.gov/dSbI0x

And it just goes on, and on, and on from there.

Go ahead and give it a visit.  Then bookmark it for the next time somebody sends you one of those "Obama is failure" e-mails, or calls you on the phone and asks "How is that hopey changey thing working out for you?"

Or hell look up your least favorite Republican politician, or Fox News talking head, and send it to THEM.

I just sent it to Michele Bachmann.  I expect a full apology directed to our President from that bitch later on today.  Do you think I should hold my breath?