Difference between revisions of "Barack Hussein Obama"

From Conservapedia
Jump to: navigation, search
(Undo revision 1298205 by JDano (talk) This distracts from the point. Also, most GOP gains (Other than the Sen., where redistricting does not matter) happened in 2010, before redistricting.)
(22 intermediate revisions by 7 users not shown)
Line 23: Line 23:
 
}}
 
}}
  
'''Barack Hussein Obama II''' (reportedly born in [[Honolulu, Hawaii]] on August 4, 1961) is the 44th President of the [[United States]]. Elected to serve as America first "post-racial" president, race relations largely deteriorated under President Obama's leadership.<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/05/politics/obama-race-relations-poll/ </ref> With the complete disengagement of American troops from [[Iraq]] and the assassination of [[Osama bin Laden]], the [[Islamic State]] arose and recruitment of global [[jihad]]is multiplied exponentially. His 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.
+
'''Barack Hussein Obama II''' (reportedly born in [[Honolulu, Hawaii]] on August 4, 1961) was the 44th President of the [[United States]]. Elected to serve as America first "post-racial" president, race relations largely deteriorated under President Obama's leadership.<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/05/politics/obama-race-relations-poll/</ref> With the complete disengagement of American troops from [[Iraq]] and the assassination of [[Osama bin Laden]], the [[Islamic State]] arose and recruitment of global [[jihad]]is multiplied exponentially. His 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 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.<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/18/politics/obama-trumps-rigged-election-claim-whining-before-the-games-even-over/ </ref> 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.<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/us/politics/russia-hack-election-trump-obama.html </ref>
+
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.<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/18/politics/obama-trumps-rigged-election-claim-whining-before-the-games-even-over/</ref> 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.<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/us/politics/russia-hack-election-trump-obama.html</ref>
  
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 are fake.<ref>Jackson, David (August 24, 2012). [http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/08/obama-has-millions-of-fake-twitter-followers/1#.UDfQVqA2et_ "Obama has millions of fake Twitter followers"].  USA Today website/The Oval blog.  See [[USA Today]].</ref>  And although the [[lamestream media]] promoted Obama as a great orator, in fact he relies 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.
+
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.<ref>Jackson, David (August 24, 2012). [http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/08/obama-has-millions-of-fake-twitter-followers/1#.UDfQVqA2et_ "Obama has millions of fake Twitter followers"].  USA Today website/The Oval blog.  See [[USA Today]].</ref>  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.
  
Obama is [[pro-abortion]].  In fact, he is the most pro-abortion president yet.<ref>[http://www.sba-list.org/suzy-b-blog/obama-most-pro-abortion-president-ever "Obama: The most pro-abortion president ever"] (July 12, 2011).  The Susan B. Anthony List website/The Suzy B Blog.</ref>  Obama has 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.  During his campaigns Obama said that he intended to "[[Redistribution of wealth|spread the wealth around]]" and was portrayed as saying that entrepreneurs and employers deserve no credit for building their businesses.<ref>Multiple references:
+
Obama is [[pro-abortion]].  In fact, he was the most pro-abortion president to date.<ref>[http://www.sba-list.org/suzy-b-blog/obama-most-pro-abortion-president-ever "Obama: The most pro-abortion president ever"] (July 12, 2011).  The Susan B. Anthony List website/The Suzy B Blog.</ref>  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.  During his campaigns Obama said that he intended to "[[Redistribution of wealth|spread the wealth around]]" and was portrayed as saying that entrepreneurs and employers deserve no credit for building their businesses.<ref>Multiple references:
 
*Zuckerman, Mortimer B. (July 16, 2010).  [http://www.usnews.com/opinion/mzuckerman/articles/2010/07/16/obamas-anti-business-policies-are-our-economic-katrina "Obama's anti-business policies are our economic Katrina"]. ''U.S. News and World Report'' website.
 
*Zuckerman, Mortimer B. (July 16, 2010).  [http://www.usnews.com/opinion/mzuckerman/articles/2010/07/16/obamas-anti-business-policies-are-our-economic-katrina "Obama's anti-business policies are our economic Katrina"]. ''U.S. News and World Report'' website.
 
*Barnes, Fred (July 22, 2009).  [http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/619dvjlm.asp "An anti-business president"]. ''The Weekly Standard''. Vol. 14, No. 38.  Retrieved at the The Weekly Standard website.  See [[The Weekly Standard]].
 
*Barnes, Fred (July 22, 2009).  [http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/619dvjlm.asp "An anti-business president"]. ''The Weekly Standard''. Vol. 14, No. 38.  Retrieved at the The Weekly Standard website.  See [[The Weekly Standard]].
Line 78: Line 78:
 
===Personal life===
 
===Personal life===
 
[[Image:Michelle Obama.jpg|frame|right|Michelle (Robinson) Obama, Barack Obama's life partner.]]
 
[[Image:Michelle Obama.jpg|frame|right|Michelle (Robinson) Obama, Barack Obama's life partner.]]
Barack Obama met his spouse Michelle Robinson, who identifies as a woman, while he was an intern and she was on staff at Sidley Austin LLP, a very large corporate law firm.<ref name=msnbc /> 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,<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/03/obama-anniversary-20-years-married_n_1935840.html "Obama anniversary: Barack & Michelle celebrate 20 years of marriage (photos)"] (October 3, 2012).  Huffington Post website.  Huffington Post says it was October 3, 1992.  See [[Huffington Post]].</ref> were married by Reverend [[Jeremiah Wright]] at Trinity United Church,<ref>http://hillbuzz.org/time-to-tell-everyone-you-know-about-jeremiah-wrights-down-low-club-barackobama-presobama-26407 </ref> a church which has supported gay marriage since the 1970s.<ref name=revealed /> Michelle has not practiced law since 1994 when she failed to renew her law license, allegedly to start a family. Malia, the couple's oldest dsughter, was not born until 1999, and Natasha (often called Sasha) in 2001.<ref name=msnbc />
+
Barack Obama met his spouse Michelle Robinson, who identifies as a woman, while he was an intern and she was on staff at Sidley Austin LLP, a very large corporate law firm.<ref name=msnbc /> 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,<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/03/obama-anniversary-20-years-married_n_1935840.html "Obama anniversary: Barack & Michelle celebrate 20 years of marriage (photos)"] (October 3, 2012).  Huffington Post website.  Huffington Post says it was October 3, 1992.  See [[Huffington Post]].</ref> were married by Reverend [[Jeremiah Wright]] at Trinity United Church,<ref>http://hillbuzz.org/time-to-tell-everyone-you-know-about-jeremiah-wrights-down-low-club-barackobama-presobama-26407</ref> a church which has supported gay marriage since the 1970s.<ref name=revealed /> Michelle has not practiced law since 1994 when she failed to renew her law license, allegedly to start a family. Malia, the couple's oldest dsughter, was not born until 1999, and Natasha (often called Sasha) in 2001.<ref name=msnbc />
  
 
===Early employment===
 
===Early employment===
Line 314: Line 314:
 
Unlike Presidents [[Abraham Lincoln]] and [[Franklin Roosevelt]], Barack Obama has shown scant concern about the revival of [[slavery]] which took place on his watch shortly after his "apology tour", intended to diminish U.S. influence in the world.<ref>[http://womensenews.org/story/international-policyunited-nations/150527/un-sex-violence-envoy-focusing-syria-iraq UN Sex Violence Envoy: Focusing on Syria, Iraq]</ref><ref>[http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2009/06/barack-obamas-top-10-apologies-how-the-president-has-humiliated-a-superpower Barack Obama's Top 10 Apologies: How the President Has Humiliated a Superpower], Heritage Foundation</ref> Obama, who was raised a Muslim<ref>[http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2007/01/was_obama_blood.html Was Obama bloodied by madrassa story?]</ref><ref>[http://www.danielpipes.org/11952/obama-muslim-childhood Obama's Muslim Childhood]</ref> and is not a descendent of slaves, criticized Christians and the Crusades as reports of thousands of women and girls being captured, sold, and raped flooded in.<ref>[http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/579393/ISIS-Michelle-Obama-prostitute-justifies-raping-slave-girls-Koran ISIS calls Michelle Obama a PROSTITUTE and justifies raping slave girls with the KORAN]</ref><ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-speech-at-prayer-breakfast-called-offensive-to-christians/2015/02/05/6a15a240-ad50-11e4-ad71-7b9eba0f87d6_story.html Critics pounce after Obama talks Crusades, slavery at prayer breakfast], Washington Post</ref>
 
Unlike Presidents [[Abraham Lincoln]] and [[Franklin Roosevelt]], Barack Obama has shown scant concern about the revival of [[slavery]] which took place on his watch shortly after his "apology tour", intended to diminish U.S. influence in the world.<ref>[http://womensenews.org/story/international-policyunited-nations/150527/un-sex-violence-envoy-focusing-syria-iraq UN Sex Violence Envoy: Focusing on Syria, Iraq]</ref><ref>[http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2009/06/barack-obamas-top-10-apologies-how-the-president-has-humiliated-a-superpower Barack Obama's Top 10 Apologies: How the President Has Humiliated a Superpower], Heritage Foundation</ref> Obama, who was raised a Muslim<ref>[http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2007/01/was_obama_blood.html Was Obama bloodied by madrassa story?]</ref><ref>[http://www.danielpipes.org/11952/obama-muslim-childhood Obama's Muslim Childhood]</ref> and is not a descendent of slaves, criticized Christians and the Crusades as reports of thousands of women and girls being captured, sold, and raped flooded in.<ref>[http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/579393/ISIS-Michelle-Obama-prostitute-justifies-raping-slave-girls-Koran ISIS calls Michelle Obama a PROSTITUTE and justifies raping slave girls with the KORAN]</ref><ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-speech-at-prayer-breakfast-called-offensive-to-christians/2015/02/05/6a15a240-ad50-11e4-ad71-7b9eba0f87d6_story.html Critics pounce after Obama talks Crusades, slavery at prayer breakfast], Washington Post</ref>
  
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. Vladimar Putin and Russia had thoroughly embarassed Barack Obama on the world stage as Obama withdrew America from its traditional role of global leadership and reputiated 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 then 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 Vladimar Putin and fostering an atmosphere of paranoia about Russia, the future, and a Trump presidency.
+
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. Vladimar Putin and Russia had thoroughly embarrassed Barack Obama on the world stage as Obama withdrew America from its traditional role of global leadership and reputiated 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 then 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 Vladimar Putin and fostering an atmosphere of paranoia about Russia, the future, and a Trump presidency.
 
====Commander-in-chief====
 
====Commander-in-chief====
 
As Senator, Obama was highly critical of President Bush and promised change. As President, Obama has tripled down in Afghanistan, widened the war into Pakistan, multiplied 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 has 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.<ref>Krauthammer, C. (April 19). [http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-news-in-obamas-speech/2011/05/19/AF4dFN7G_story.html The News in Obama's Speech]. ''Washington Post''.</ref>
 
As Senator, Obama was highly critical of President Bush and promised change. As President, Obama has tripled down in Afghanistan, widened the war into Pakistan, multiplied 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 has 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.<ref>Krauthammer, C. (April 19). [http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-news-in-obamas-speech/2011/05/19/AF4dFN7G_story.html The News in Obama's Speech]. ''Washington Post''.</ref>
Line 339: Line 339:
 
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.<ref>''KABC-TV/DT'' (2011, July 27). [http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/national_world&id=8273909 Risk of anti-US violence up after Osama bin Laden's death]. On ''ABC7 News''.</ref> 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.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/12/world/africa/libya-attack-jihadists/index.html Pro-al Qaeda group seen behind deadly Benghazi attack], By Nic Robertson, Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister, CNN, September 13, 2012.</ref> 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.
 
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.<ref>''KABC-TV/DT'' (2011, July 27). [http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/national_world&id=8273909 Risk of anti-US violence up after Osama bin Laden's death]. On ''ABC7 News''.</ref> 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.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/12/world/africa/libya-attack-jihadists/index.html Pro-al Qaeda group seen behind deadly Benghazi attack], By Nic Robertson, Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister, CNN, September 13, 2012.</ref> 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<ref name="pbs">{{cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamaswar/themes/strategy.html#ixzz1LhWNImZp|title=Obama's New Strategy (March '09)|author=George Packer, Seth Jones, David Kilcullen, Rory Stewart, Andrew Exum, Col. Andrew Bacevich (Ret.)|work=[[PBS]]|language=English}}</ref> and defense costs in Afghanistan from $43.5 billion in George Bush's last year to $113.7 billion for 2011.<ref>Congressional Research Service, quoted in Gregory Anthony, ''What price war?''</ref> 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."<ref name="pbs"/> T
+
Obama needlessly escalated troop strength<ref name="pbs">{{cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamaswar/themes/strategy.html#ixzz1LhWNImZp|title=Obama's New Strategy (March '09)|author=George Packer, Seth Jones, David Kilcullen, Rory Stewart, Andrew Exum, Col. Andrew Bacevich (Ret.)|work=[[PBS]]|language=English}}</ref> and defense costs in Afghanistan from $43.5 billion in George Bush's last year to $113.7 billion for 2011.<ref>Congressional Research Service, quoted in Gregory Anthony, ''What price war?''</ref> 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."<ref name="pbs"/>
  
 
====Another dumb Obama war====
 
====Another dumb Obama war====
Line 354: Line 354:
 
This set off a fierce debate in the [[Obama administration]] over the wisdom of arming terrorists.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/world/africa/30diplo.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss Washington in Fierce Debate on Arming Libyan Rebels], The New York Times</ref> It is now known sometime prior to March 31, 2011,<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/world/africa/31intel.html?_r=2&hp C.I.A. Agents in Libya Aid Airstrikes and Meet Rebels], The New York Times</ref> at the urging of Hillary Clinton<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/africa/19policy.html?_r=3&hp& Obama Takes Hard Line With Libya After Shift by Clinton], The New York Times</ref> and over the objections of his National Security Council, Obama signed a Presidential Finding authorizing support for the rebel jihadis.<ref>[http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/30/us-libya-usa-order-idUSTRE72T6H220110330 Exclusive: Obama authorizes secret help for Libya rebels], [[Reuters]]</ref>
 
This set off a fierce debate in the [[Obama administration]] over the wisdom of arming terrorists.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/world/africa/30diplo.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss Washington in Fierce Debate on Arming Libyan Rebels], The New York Times</ref> It is now known sometime prior to March 31, 2011,<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/world/africa/31intel.html?_r=2&hp C.I.A. Agents in Libya Aid Airstrikes and Meet Rebels], The New York Times</ref> at the urging of Hillary Clinton<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/africa/19policy.html?_r=3&hp& Obama Takes Hard Line With Libya After Shift by Clinton], The New York Times</ref> and over the objections of his National Security Council, Obama signed a Presidential Finding authorizing support for the rebel jihadis.<ref>[http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/30/us-libya-usa-order-idUSTRE72T6H220110330 Exclusive: Obama authorizes secret help for Libya rebels], [[Reuters]]</ref>
  
By October 2011, [[Libyan rebel fighting group]]s with support from [[NATO]] overtook the capital and toppled the government. Gaddafi was captured and brutally and sadistically murdered.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPzeLLL9V-c Leading from behind - a critique of Obama foreign policy]</ref> 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.<ref name="Sharia">[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8861608/Libya-Al-Qaeda-flag-flown-above-Benghazi-courthouse.html Libya: Al Qaeda flag flown above Benghazi courthouse] - [[Daily Telegraph]]</ref> Abdel Rahim al-Kib, the country's interim prime minister, echoed Jalil's words days later.<ref>[http://www.presstv.ir/detail/207953.html New Libyan PM backs Islamic sharia law]</ref> 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.<ref name="Sharia" /> By February 17, 2013, four foreign nationals were arrested for distributing Christian literature, a charge that could carry the death penalty<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/17/libya-arrests-suspected-foreign-missionaries Libya arrests foreign 'missionaries' Four foreign nationals accused of distributing Christian literature] a charge that could carry the death penalty, Chris Stephen [[The Guardian]], Sunday 17 February 2013.</ref>
+
By October 2011, [[Libyan rebel fighting group]]s with support from [[NATO]] overtook the capital and toppled the government. Gaddafi was captured and brutally and sadistically murdered.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPzeLLL9V-c Leading from behind - a critique of Obama foreign policy]</ref> 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.<ref name="Sharia">[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8861608/Libya-Al-Qaeda-flag-flown-above-Benghazi-courthouse.html Libya: Al Qaeda flag flown above Benghazi courthouse] - [[Daily Telegraph]]</ref> Abdel Rahim al-Kib, the country's interim prime minister, echoed Jalil's words days later.<ref>[http://www.presstv.ir/detail/207953.html New Libyan PM backs Islamic sharia law]</ref> 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.<ref name="Sharia" /> By February 17, 2013, four foreign nationals were arrested for distributing Christian literature, a charge that could carry the death penalty.<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/17/libya-arrests-suspected-foreign-missionaries Libya arrests foreign 'missionaries' Four foreign nationals accused of distributing Christian literature] a charge that could carry the death penalty, Chris Stephen [[The Guardian]], Sunday 17 February 2013.</ref>
  
 
=====Terrorist attack on American soil=====
 
=====Terrorist attack on American soil=====
Line 376: Line 376:
  
 
The ''Washington Post'' has reported however 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]].<ref>Horwitz, S. & Grimaldi, J.V. (2010, December 17). [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/17/AR2010121706598.html White House Delayed Rule Meant to Stop Gun Flow to Mexico]. ''The Washington Post''.</ref> Gun dealers have been required for decades to report the sales of multiple handguns to the ATF.
 
The ''Washington Post'' has reported however 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]].<ref>Horwitz, S. & Grimaldi, J.V. (2010, December 17). [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/17/AR2010121706598.html White House Delayed Rule Meant to Stop Gun Flow to Mexico]. ''The Washington Post''.</ref> Gun dealers have been required for decades to report the sales of multiple handguns to the ATF.
 +
 +
====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.<ref>[http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamas-cuban-detente-1418862551 Obama’s Cuban Detente]. ''The Wall Street Journal''. December 17, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2017.</ref><ref>Spetalnick, Matt; Gardner, Timothy (December 13, 2016). [http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cuba-whitehouse-idUSKBN1422U6 Obama to press Trump to preserve Cuba detente: White House]. ''Reuters''. Retrieved January 15, 2017.</ref> In August 2015, the U.S. and Cuba reopened each other's embassies.<ref>Frumin, Aliyah (July 1, 2015). [http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/obama-announces-historic-deal-cuba Obama announces historic deal with Cuba]. ''MSNBC''. Retrieved January 15, 2017.</ref><ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/08/14/kerry-in-havana-for-reopening-us-embassy-tough-negotiations-ahead.html Kerry marks opening of US Embassy in Havana, critics rip 'diplomacy for show']. ''Fox News''. August 14, 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2017.</ref> In September 2016, Obama nominated the first U.S. Ambassador to Cuba in 55 years.<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/09/27/obama-nominates-first-us-ambassador-to-cuba-in-more-than-45-years.html Obama nominates first US ambassador to Cuba in more than 55 years]. ''Fox News''. September 27, 2016. Retrieved January 15, 2016.</ref> 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.<ref>Spetalnick, Matt; Marsh, Sarah (October 14, 2016). [http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-usa-idUSKBN12E1H3 Obama eases restrictions on Cuba, lifts limits on rum and cigars]. ''Reuters''. Retrieved January 15, 2017.</ref>
 +
 +
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.<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/12/obama-reportedly-to-scrap-wet-foot-dry-foot-policy-for-cuban-refugees.html Obama announces end to 'wet foot, dry foot' policy for Cuban refugees]. ''Fox News''. January 12, 2017. Retrieved January 15, 2017.</ref>
  
 
====Guantanamo Bay====
 
====Guantanamo Bay====
 
{{main article|Guantanamo Bay}}
 
{{main article|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.<ref name="salon">{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/25/obama_guantanamo_rhetoric|work=Salon|title=The Obama/Gitmo timeline|author=Natasha Lennard|language=English}}</ref> 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.<ref name="salon"/>
 
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.<ref name="salon">{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/25/obama_guantanamo_rhetoric|work=Salon|title=The Obama/Gitmo timeline|author=Natasha Lennard|language=English}}</ref> 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.<ref name="salon"/>
 +
 +
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.<ref>Saxena, V. (January 6, 2017). [http://www.westernjournalism.com/obama-to-release-18-hardened-gitmo-terrorists-before-leaving-office/ Obama To Release 18 Hardened Gitmo Terrorists Before Leaving Office]. ''Western Journalism''. Retrieved January 15, 2017.</ref><ref>Ryan, Missy; Tate, Julie (December 28, 2016). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/with-final-detainee-transfer-obamas-guantanamo-policy-takes-its-last-breath/2016/12/28/dfdf8cb2-cd0f-11e6-a747-d03044780a02_story.html?utm_term=.62bebcb1f672 With final detainee transfer, Obama’s Guantanamo policy takes its last breath]. ''The Washington Post''. Retrieved January 15, 2017.</ref>
  
 
====Russia====
 
====Russia====
Line 388: Line 395:
  
 
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.<ref name="StrikeAgain"/><ref name="FedUpDrastic"/> 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<ref>Hanchett, Ian (December 28, 2016). [http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/12/28/nbcs-neely-kerry-speech-firing-a-flare-across-israel-he-wanted-to-give-it-for-some-time-but-wh-blocked-it/ NBC’s Neely: Kerry Speech ‘Firing a Flare’ ‘Across Israel’ He Wanted To Give It ‘For Some Time’ But WH Blocked It]. ''Breitbart''. Retrieved December 28, 2016.</ref> speech viciously attacking Israel and paying worthless lip-service to American "support" for the nation.<ref>Pollak, Joel B. (December 28, 2016). [http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/12/28/kerry-on-israel-peace-un-resolution/ Kerry Attacks Israeli Government, Defends UN Resolution]. ''Breitbart''. Retrieved December 28, 2016.</ref> Israeli Prime Minister [[Benjamin Netanyahu]] responded harshly but appropriately to the Administration's blatant betrayal.<ref>Key, Pam (December 28, 2016). [http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/12/28/netanyahu-i-must-express-my-deep-disappointment-with-john-kerry-israelis-do-not-need-to-be-lectured/ Netanyahu: ‘I Must Express My Deep Disappointment’ With Kerry — ‘Israelis Do Not Need To Be Lectured’]. ''Breitbart''. Retrieved December 28, 2016.</ref>
 
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.<ref name="StrikeAgain"/><ref name="FedUpDrastic"/> 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<ref>Hanchett, Ian (December 28, 2016). [http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/12/28/nbcs-neely-kerry-speech-firing-a-flare-across-israel-he-wanted-to-give-it-for-some-time-but-wh-blocked-it/ NBC’s Neely: Kerry Speech ‘Firing a Flare’ ‘Across Israel’ He Wanted To Give It ‘For Some Time’ But WH Blocked It]. ''Breitbart''. Retrieved December 28, 2016.</ref> speech viciously attacking Israel and paying worthless lip-service to American "support" for the nation.<ref>Pollak, Joel B. (December 28, 2016). [http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/12/28/kerry-on-israel-peace-un-resolution/ Kerry Attacks Israeli Government, Defends UN Resolution]. ''Breitbart''. Retrieved December 28, 2016.</ref> Israeli Prime Minister [[Benjamin Netanyahu]] responded harshly but appropriately to the Administration's blatant betrayal.<ref>Key, Pam (December 28, 2016). [http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/12/28/netanyahu-i-must-express-my-deep-disappointment-with-john-kerry-israelis-do-not-need-to-be-lectured/ Netanyahu: ‘I Must Express My Deep Disappointment’ With Kerry — ‘Israelis Do Not Need To Be Lectured’]. ''Breitbart''. Retrieved December 28, 2016.</ref>
 +
 +
Despite these actions, the U.S. House passed a motion on January 5, 2017 condemning Obama's allowing of the UN resolution.<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/05/house-overwhelmingly-votes-to-condemn-un-resolution-on-israel-settlements.html House overwhelmingly votes to condemn UN resolution on Israel settlements]. ''Fox News''. January 5, 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2017.</ref><ref>Cortellessa, Eric (January 6, 2017). [http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-house-passes-repudiation-of-un-security-council-resolution-on-israel/ US House passes motion repudiating UN resolution on Israel]. ''The Times of Israel''. Retrieved January 6, 2017.</ref> Additionally, Republican President-elect [[Donald Trump]] voiced strong support for Israel during this time.<ref>Pollak, Joel B. (December 23, 2016). [http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/12/23/trump-hints-defunding-un-anti-israel-vote/ Trump on UN Anti-Israel Vote: ‘Things Will Be Different After Jan. 20’]. ''Breitbart''. Retrieved January 6, 2017.</ref><ref>Swoyer, Alex (December 29, 2016). [http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/12/29/trump-im-very-very-strong-on-israel/ Trump: ‘I’m Very, Very Strong on Israel’]. ''Breitbart''. Retrieved January 6, 2017.</ref>
 +
 +
Soon before leaving office, Obama bypassed Congress and gave the [[State of Palestine]] $221 million.<ref name="221MLastHours">[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/24/us-quietly-sent-221m-to-palestinians-in-obamas-last-hours.html US quietly sent $221M to Palestinians in Obama's last hours]. ''Fox News''. January 24, 2017. Retrieved January 24, 2017.</ref>
  
 
====Opposition to U.S. sovereignty====
 
====Opposition to U.S. sovereignty====
Line 396: Line 407:
  
 
===Last days and transition===
 
===Last days and transition===
In a stunning repudiation of Obama's leftist policies, Republican businessman [[Donald Trump]] was elected over the corrupt, leftist Democrat [[Hillary Clinton]]. In a frantic attempt to leave some sort of legacy, Obama issued a very large amount of far-left executive orders which revealed his true political views if any doubt remained.<ref name="ActionsSpree">Lucas, Fred (December 26, 2016). [http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/26/spree-obama-actions-revives-gop-concerns-over-midnight-regs-agenda.html?refresh=true Spree of Obama actions revives GOP concerns over ‘midnight’ regs, agenda]. ''Fox News''. Retrieved December 26, 2016.</ref> These orders included blocking large areas of the [[Arctic Ocean|Arctic]] and [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] oceans from oil and gas drilling, effectively barring the U.S. from real [[Energy Independence|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 a defunct but necessary, beneficial, and useful registry for male immigrants from [[Islam|Muslim]] countries; attempting to transfer even more terrorists out of [[Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp|Guantanamo Bay]]; allowing an anti-[[Israel]] resultion pass in the [[United Nations]]; enacting a record amount of unnecessary, useless, and job-killing regulations; and even more.<ref name="ActionsSpree"/> 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.
+
In a stunning repudiation of Obama's leftist policies, Republican businessman [[Donald Trump]] was elected over the corrupt, leftist Democrat [[Hillary Clinton]]. In a frantic attempt to leave some sort of legacy, Obama issued a very large amount of far-Left executive orders which revealed his true political views if any doubt remained.<ref name="ActionsSpree">Lucas, Fred (December 26, 2016). [http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/26/spree-obama-actions-revives-gop-concerns-over-midnight-regs-agenda.html?refresh=true Spree of Obama actions revives GOP concerns over ‘midnight’ regs, agenda]. ''Fox News''. Retrieved December 26, 2016.</ref> These orders included blocking large areas of the [[Arctic Ocean|Arctic]] and [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] oceans from oil and gas drilling, effectively barring the U.S. from real [[Energy Independence|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 a defunct but necessary, beneficial, and useful registry for male immigrants from [[Islam]]ic countries; attempting to transfer even more terrorists out of [[Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp|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.<ref name="ActionsSpree"/> 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.<ref name="StrikeAgain">[https://worldisraelnews.com/israel-fears-obama-will-strike/ Israel fears Obama will strike again]. ''World Israel News''. December 26, 2016. Retrieved December 26, 2016.</ref><ref name="FedUpDrastic">Berkowitz, Adam Eliyahu (December 26, 2016). [https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/80855/fed-up-with-obamas-trickery-netanyahu-takes-drastic-actions/#VbVlRMtkx4zLRc3f.97 Fed Up With United States Trickery, Netanyahu Takes Drastic Actions]. ''Breaking Israel News''. Retrieved December 26, 2016.</ref>
+
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.<ref name="StrikeAgain">[https://worldisraelnews.com/israel-fears-obama-will-strike/ Israel fears Obama will strike again]. ''World Israel News''. December 26, 2016. Retrieved December 26, 2016.</ref><ref name="FedUpDrastic">Berkowitz, Adam Eliyahu (December 26, 2016). [https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/80855/fed-up-with-obamas-trickery-netanyahu-takes-drastic-actions/#VbVlRMtkx4zLRc3f.97 Fed Up With United States Trickery, Netanyahu Takes Drastic Actions]. ''Breaking Israel News''. Retrieved December 26, 2016.</ref> Soon before leaving office, Obama bypassed Congress and gave the [[State of Palestine]] $221 million.<ref name="221MLastHours"/>
  
Obama continued to believe that he could have successfully won a third term as president had he been able to run.<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/26/obama-could-have-won-third-term.html?refresh=true Obama: I could have won third term]. ''Fox News''. December 26, 2016. Retrieved December 26, 2016.</ref> 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.<ref name="1,000Seats">[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/27/democrats-lost-over-1000-seats-under-obama.html?refresh=true Democrats lost over 1,000 seats under Obama]. ''Fox News''. December 27, 2016. Retrieved December 27, 2016.</ref> Obama also believed that "the Democratic Party has stayed pretty grounded in fact and reality" despite its negative policies that suggest otherwise.<ref>Lawler, David (December 26, 2016). [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/26/barack-obama-says-democrats-will-not-disintegrate-like-labour/ Barack Obama says Democrats will not 'disintegrate' like Labour under Jeremy Corbyn]. ''The Telegraph''. Retrieved December 26, 2016.</ref>
+
Obama continued to believe that he could have successfully "won" a third term as president had he been able to run.<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/26/obama-could-have-won-third-term.html?refresh=true Obama: I could have won third term]. ''Fox News''. December 26, 2016. Retrieved December 26, 2016.</ref> 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.<ref name="1,000Seats">[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/27/democrats-lost-over-1000-seats-under-obama.html?refresh=true Democrats lost over 1,000 seats under Obama]. ''Fox News''. December 27, 2016. Retrieved December 27, 2016.</ref> Obama also believed that "the Democratic Party has stayed pretty grounded in fact and reality" despite its negative policies that suggest otherwise.<ref>Lawler, David (December 26, 2016). [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/26/barack-obama-says-democrats-will-not-disintegrate-like-labour/ Barack Obama says Democrats will not 'disintegrate' like Labour under Jeremy Corbyn]. ''The Telegraph''. Retrieved December 26, 2016.</ref>
  
 
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.<ref>Swoyer, Alex (December 28, 2016). [http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/12/28/donald-trump-responds-to-president-obamas-many-inflammatory-statements/ Donald Trump Responds to President Obama’s ‘Many Inflammatory’ Statements]. ''Breitbart''. Retrieved December 28, 2016.</ref><ref>Scott, Eugine (December 28, 2016). [http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/28/politics/trump-obama-statements-not-smooth-transition/ Trump: 'NOT' a smooth transition after Obama 'roadblocks']. ''CNN''. Retrieved December 28, 2016.</ref>
 
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.<ref>Swoyer, Alex (December 28, 2016). [http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/12/28/donald-trump-responds-to-president-obamas-many-inflammatory-statements/ Donald Trump Responds to President Obama’s ‘Many Inflammatory’ Statements]. ''Breitbart''. Retrieved December 28, 2016.</ref><ref>Scott, Eugine (December 28, 2016). [http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/28/politics/trump-obama-statements-not-smooth-transition/ Trump: 'NOT' a smooth transition after Obama 'roadblocks']. ''CNN''. Retrieved December 28, 2016.</ref>
  
 
Despite his foreign policy blunders, Obama received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service from [[Secretary of Defense]] [[Ash Carter]], an Obama appointee in the same administration, effectively awarding himself the medal.<ref>Huston, Warner Todd (January 4, 2017). [http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/01/04/president-obama-awards-himself-distinguished-public-service-medal/ President Obama Awards Himself Distinguished Public Service Medal]. ''Breitbart''. Retrieved January 7, 2017.</ref> 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.
 
Despite his foreign policy blunders, Obama received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service from [[Secretary of Defense]] [[Ash Carter]], an Obama appointee in the same administration, effectively awarding himself the medal.<ref>Huston, Warner Todd (January 4, 2017). [http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/01/04/president-obama-awards-himself-distinguished-public-service-medal/ President Obama Awards Himself Distinguished Public Service Medal]. ''Breitbart''. Retrieved January 7, 2017.</ref> 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,"<ref>[http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/01/13/president-obama-60-minutes-no-white-house-scandals-during-my-administration Obama: I'm the 1st Modern President Without a Major Scandal]. ''Fox News Insider''. January 13, 2017. Retrieved January 16 2017.</ref> and Obama's Chief of Staff [[Denis McDonough]] claimed likewise,<ref>Shelbourne, Mallory (January 15, 2017). [http://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/314396-obama-chief-of-staff-most-proud-we-are-scandal-free Chief of staff: Obama administration 'historically free of scandal']. ''The Hill''. Retrieved January 16, 2017.</ref> despite the strong and massive evidence to the contrary.<ref>Dickens, Geoffrey (January 16, 2017). [https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/geoffrey-dickens/2017/01/16/ The Seven Most Undercovered Obama Scandals]. ''[[NewsBusters]]''. Retrieved January 16, 2017.</ref><ref>Hemingway, Mark (January 9, 2017). [http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-obama-era-had-scandals-aplenty/article/2006197 The Obama Era Had Scandals Aplenty]. ''[[Weekly Standard]]''. Retrieved January 16, 2017.</ref>
  
 
==2012 Presidential campaign==
 
==2012 Presidential campaign==
Line 421: Line 434:
  
 
===2011: Retribution killings===
 
===2011: Retribution killings===
Obama transformed the Bush administration War on Terror from a preventative measure against terrorism to a cry for vengence, mob bloodlust, and retribution killings which spawned a fresh, new, and larger cycle of violence.  
+
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 <ref>Obama, B. (2011, May 2). "[http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/05/02/osama-bin-laden-dead Osama Bin Laden Dead]." ''White House''.</ref><ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf1SLhNoUNY Nobel Prize Winner with a kill list].</ref> that Osama bin Laden was "killed in a firefight" after a U.S. special operations group infiltrated a compound in [[Abbottabad raid|Abottobad]], Pakistan.<ref>Baker, P., Cooper, H., & Mazzetti, M. (2011, May 1). "[Bin Laden is Dead, Obama Says]." ''The New York Times''.<br>"[http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Osama_Bin_Laden/ Target Bin Laden: The Death of Public Enemy #1]." ''ABC News''.<br>''[[NPR]]''. "[http://www.npr.org/series/135908383/osama-bin-laden-dead Special Series: Osama Bin Laden Killed]."</ref> 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.<ref>''Associated Press'' (2011, May 10). "[http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/05/10/pakistani-president-claims-bin-laden-deal/ Former Pakistani President Claims There Was Never Bin Laden Deal With U.S.]." Retrieved from ''Fox News''.</ref> For all his duplicity and criticism of the War on Terror, Obama experienced only a temporary blip in approval ratings.<ref>Dao, J. & Sussman, D. (2011, May 4). "[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/us/politics/05poll.html For Obama, Big Rise in Poll Numbers After Bin Laden Raid]." ''New York Times''.<br>''Pew Research Center'' (2011, May 2). "[http://www.people-press.org/2011/05/03/public-relieved-by-bin-ladens-death-obamas-job-approval-rises/ Public 'Relieved' by Bin Laden's Death, Obama's Job Approval Rises]."<br>Jones, J.M. (2011, May 5). "[http://www.gallup.com/poll/147437/obama-approval-rallies-six-points-bin-laden-death.aspx Obama Job Approval Rallies Six Points to 52% After Bin Laden Death]." ''Gallup''.</ref><ref>''[[CBS News]]/Associated Press'' (2012, May 1). "[http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57424622/1-year-after-osama-bin-laden-killed-still-no-answers-from-pakistan/ 1 Year After Osama bin Laden Killed, Still No Answers from Pakistan]."</ref>  
 
On May 1, 2011, Obama misled the public when he announced <ref>Obama, B. (2011, May 2). "[http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/05/02/osama-bin-laden-dead Osama Bin Laden Dead]." ''White House''.</ref><ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf1SLhNoUNY Nobel Prize Winner with a kill list].</ref> that Osama bin Laden was "killed in a firefight" after a U.S. special operations group infiltrated a compound in [[Abbottabad raid|Abottobad]], Pakistan.<ref>Baker, P., Cooper, H., & Mazzetti, M. (2011, May 1). "[Bin Laden is Dead, Obama Says]." ''The New York Times''.<br>"[http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Osama_Bin_Laden/ Target Bin Laden: The Death of Public Enemy #1]." ''ABC News''.<br>''[[NPR]]''. "[http://www.npr.org/series/135908383/osama-bin-laden-dead Special Series: Osama Bin Laden Killed]."</ref> 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.<ref>''Associated Press'' (2011, May 10). "[http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/05/10/pakistani-president-claims-bin-laden-deal/ Former Pakistani President Claims There Was Never Bin Laden Deal With U.S.]." Retrieved from ''Fox News''.</ref> For all his duplicity and criticism of the War on Terror, Obama experienced only a temporary blip in approval ratings.<ref>Dao, J. & Sussman, D. (2011, May 4). "[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/us/politics/05poll.html For Obama, Big Rise in Poll Numbers After Bin Laden Raid]." ''New York Times''.<br>''Pew Research Center'' (2011, May 2). "[http://www.people-press.org/2011/05/03/public-relieved-by-bin-ladens-death-obamas-job-approval-rises/ Public 'Relieved' by Bin Laden's Death, Obama's Job Approval Rises]."<br>Jones, J.M. (2011, May 5). "[http://www.gallup.com/poll/147437/obama-approval-rallies-six-points-bin-laden-death.aspx Obama Job Approval Rallies Six Points to 52% After Bin Laden Death]." ''Gallup''.</ref><ref>''[[CBS News]]/Associated Press'' (2012, May 1). "[http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57424622/1-year-after-osama-bin-laden-killed-still-no-answers-from-pakistan/ 1 Year After Osama bin Laden Killed, Still No Answers from Pakistan]."</ref>  
Line 428: Line 441:
  
 
===2012: defends Mohammad===
 
===2012: 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, {{Cquote|The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.<ref>https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/25/remarks-president-un-general-assembly </ref>}}
+
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, {{Cquote|The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.<ref>https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/25/remarks-president-un-general-assembly</ref>}}
 
Four Americans died in the terrorist action intended to commemorate the [[9/11 attack]]s. 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]].
 
Four Americans died in the terrorist action intended to commemorate the [[9/11 attack]]s. 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]].
  
Line 454: Line 467:
  
 
== Quotes ==
 
== Quotes ==
*When asked by a reporter a month before the election, President Obama said, "I continue to believe that [[Donald Trump]] will not be president."<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4iZSW_76TE Democrats and Media Agreed: There Was No Way Donald Trump Could Be Elected], Video</ref> However, once elected, Obama worked with Trump to assure a smooth transition.
+
*"I continue to believe that [[Donald Trump]] will not be president." (stated when asked by a reporter a month prior to Election Day)<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4iZSW_76TE Democrats and Media Agreed: There Was No Way Donald Trump Could Be Elected], Video</ref>
  
 
==See also==
 
==See also==
Line 486: Line 499:
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
  
 +
*[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=O000167 Profile] on the ''Biographical Directory of the United States Congress''
 
*[http://barackobamadoubletalk.com/ Barack Obama Doubletalk]
 
*[http://barackobamadoubletalk.com/ Barack Obama Doubletalk]
 
*[http://hotair.com/archives/2013/07/03/national-journal-obama-facing-crisis-over-incompetence/ National Journal: Obama facing crisis over incompetence]
 
*[http://hotair.com/archives/2013/07/03/national-journal-obama-facing-crisis-over-incompetence/ National Journal: Obama facing crisis over incompetence]

Revision as of 02:14, February 24, 2017

Barack Hussein Obama
President Barack Obama.jpg
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
Information
Party Democrat Party
Spouse(s) Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama; may have had a prior marriage.[1]
Religion Islamic heritage, said to have converted to Protestantism

Barack Hussein Obama II (reportedly born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961) was the 44th President of the United States. Elected to serve as America first "post-racial" president, race relations largely deteriorated under President Obama's leadership.[2] 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. His 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 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.[3] 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.[4]

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.[5] 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.

Obama is pro-abortion. In fact, he was the most pro-abortion president to date.[6] 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. 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.[7] On March 1, 2013 Obama issued executive orders to implement his sequester of budget cuts which[8] has been widely criticized for destroying jobs in what was an anemic and fragile recovery.[9]

Warren L. Dean Jr., an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, wrote:

  • Washington has done more during Mr. Obama’s term in office to promote wealth and income inequality than at any other time in history.[10]

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.[11] 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.[12] 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.

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.[13] Remarkably, the New York Times was critical of Obama's incessant boasting about the killing of bin Laden.[14]

According to a NBC News poll, from August 2014, Obama's approval rating was a dismal 40%,[15] 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%.

Biography

Birth

Contents

Main article : Early life and career of Barack Hussein Obama

Obama claims to have been born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961 to Stanley Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr.—who had married just six months prior.[16] Some contend that this story is a complete fabrication. After many leading conservatives—including the leadership of this site and Donald Trump—called for Obama to release his birth certificate he produced a document that he claimed was his birth certificate on April 27, 2011. Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County in Arizona conducted an investigation of Obama's eligibility and questioned whether the alleged "birth certificate" was a fake; however, no charges have been filed. Obama was reportedly assigned a social security number whose area code was assigned to applications coming from zip codes in Connecticut.[17]

As an interesting side note, the Hawaii official (Loretta Fuddy, State Health Department Director) who verified Barack Obama’s birth certificate died in a plane crash.[18] Besides Fuddy, Health Department Deputy Director Keith Yamamoto was also on board. The plane's engine had failed right after take off and crashed about a half-mile off Molokai's north shore on Dec 11, 2013 at about 4:00 p.m. Interestingly enough, Health Director Loretta Fuddy was the only death of the nine people on board; she died of "cardiac arrhythmia".

The original claims that Obama was born in Kenya come from the Obamas themselves. In 1991, Obama's literary agent, Acton & Dystel, published a promotional booklet that stated that Obama was born in Kenya.[19] The claim that Obama was born in Kenya remained on the agent's web site until 2007.[20] Internet archives confirm this information.[21] In addition to the information from literary agents, Michelle Obama stated in a speech that Kenya is Obama's "homeland".[22]

Barack Obama Sr. was not a citizen of the United States. At the time of Obama's birth, Kenya was a British colony, meaning that not only was Obama Sr. a British subject, but he passed that status on to his son. When Kenya gained independence, Obama and his father both ceased to be British subjects and became Kenyan citizens. Barack Obama was a dual citizen of the United States and Kenya until his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired in 1984, as he had failed to renounce US nationality and swear loyalty to Kenya. Even if he had been born with US citizenship through his mother, it has been argued that as he was born with dual nationality, he is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and thus constitutionally ineligible to become President. Despite this, no court that has considered such arguments has accepted the proposition that Obama is not a natural-born citizen.[23]

Early life

Obama's birth parents divorced in 1963 when his mother discovered Barack Obama Sr. was already married to a woman living in Kenya.[24] 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.[25] His mother then abandoned him in Hawaii with his grandparents (Stanley and Madelyn Dunham, who had moved to Hawaii in 1959) [26] so she could return to Indonesia after her divorce. 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.[27] 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.[26]

Obama attended Reverend Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church from 1984-1988 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.[26]

Education

At age 6, Obama attended schools in Indonesia, the first a Catholic School while he was in Kindergarten, and later a public school. 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."[28] 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?"[29]

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.[30] He was accepted through a scholarship for disadvantaged minorities while he was in 5th grade.[26] At this elite high school with 1,200 students he was just 1 of 3 black students, and couldn't make the starting lineup of the state champion basketball team his senior year. He wrote a poem for the school's literary magazine, Ka Wai Ola.[27]

In 1979, he began a 2-year stint at Occidental College college in Los Angeles,[16] and then transferred to Columbia University in New York, which he graduated from in 1983.[31] During this time he published an anti-military tirade embracing Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev's [32] proposal for a nuclear freeze in the campus newspaper and allegedly spoke at an Anti-Apartheid rally,[26] 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.[33] 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.[27] This led to national attention and numerous job offers, which Obama passed up, at age 30, to pursue his political career in Chicago.[34]

Personal life

Michelle (Robinson) Obama, Barack Obama's life partner.

Barack Obama met his spouse Michelle Robinson, who identifies as a woman, while he was an intern and she was on staff at Sidley Austin LLP, a very large corporate law firm.[16] 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,[35] were married by Reverend Jeremiah Wright at Trinity United Church,[36] a church which has supported gay marriage since the 1970s.[26] Michelle has not practiced law since 1994 when she failed to renew her law license, allegedly to start a family. Malia, the couple's oldest dsughter, was not born until 1999, and Natasha (often called Sasha) in 2001.[16]

Early employment

1983-1984, financial analyst and writer

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.[37]

1984-1988, community organizer

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.[33]

From 1985-88, Obama worked as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago [38] 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[39] 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.[40]

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.[26]

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,[41] owned by Newton Minow, thanks to the recommendation of Minow's daughter Martha, a professor at Harvard Law School. It was at Minow's law firm that Obama would meet Michelle Robinson, his future wife.[27] From 1993-96 he practiced civil rights law including suing Citibank to force them into making subprime mortgages to unqualified minority borrowers.[42] After graduating from Harvard he was hired by Miner, Barnhill, & Galland, a small politically-connected law firm.[43] It was at Miner, Barnhill, & Galland that he would meet influential real estate developer Tony Rezko.[26]

1991-1992, Project Vote

In 1991 Obama was recruited by Sandy Newman to head the Chicago chapter of Project Vote!,[26] 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 Mosely Braun as a reprisal for Dixon's support for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.[44]

1995, Nation of Islam

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.[45]

1992-2004, lecturer at University of Chicago

Obama taught part-time at the University of Chicago Law School[27] from 1992-2004. Though Obama erroneously describes himself as a "constitutional law professor",[46] he was actually only a senior lecturer and the class he taught the most times was called "Current Issues in Racism and the Law".[47] He was a Lecturer from 1992–96, teaching 3 courses per year, and a senior lecturer from 1996-2004. 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.[48]

1995, author

In 1995 Obama published Dreams From My Father about his life and family background.[16]

Personal awards

2009 Nobel Peace Prize

On October 9, 2009 Barack H. Obama became the third sitting U.S. President[49] to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".[50] Obama stated that he was "surprised and deeply humbled" to receive the unexpected award,[51] 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".[49] The award was widely criticized given Obama's then lack of accomplishments.[52]

1996-2003, Illinois State Senate

1996 election

Main article: Radical roots of Barack Hussein Obama

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,[53] 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[54] are authors of Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-imperialism, the title taken from The Sayings of Mao Zedong.[55] The book declares "we are communist men and women."[56] Ayers later jokingly, publicly admitted to ghostwriting Obama's book, Dreams From My Father[57] and Obama was to appoint several openly avowed Maoists to prominent White House and Executive Branch positions.[58]

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.[31] 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;[59] yet nevertheless led to the term "hardball" by The New York Times[31] and "cutthroat" by David Mendel as reported by both CNN[26] and MSNBC.[16] 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."[59] 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[60]

Mark Ewell, another candidate, filed 1,286 signatures, and Obama's challenges left him 86 short of the minimum requirement (757).[61] Ewell filed a federal lawsuit contesting the election board's decision but Tom Johnson intervened, and Ewell's case was dismissed just a few days later. Ewell and other Obama opponents were using early 1995 polling sheets to verify signatures of registered voters, but city authorities had just purged 15,871 unqualified people from the 13th district list, and Obama's challenges used the more recent, updated list. Askia was left 69 signatures short of the requirement. If names were printed instead of signed in cursive, they were declared invalid. If they were good but the person registering the signatures wasn't a registered voter (e.g. underage) they were invalid.[62] Palmer had according to Obama campaign consult Ronald Davis, used two children to help gather her petition signatures. To this day Palmer denies the challenges were valid, and maintains she could have overcome the objections with more time and resources.[59] Thanks to his lawyers, Obama would win the election without a single other candidate on the ballot.

2000 election

Main Article: Illinois 1st congressional district election, 2000

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 an such an iconic figure dear to the community and threatened divorce.[63] Establishment Democrats considered Obama "a white man in blackface".[64] 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."[65] 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."[61]

Rush would go on to win the Primary with 61.02% of the vote; Obama received 30.36%.[66] 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".[16]

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.[67] 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.”[68]

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.[68] 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.[68]

Obama established himself as a chief spokesperson in opposition to the War on Terror during an October 2002 rally at Federal Plaza in Chicago[69] organized by veteran Maoist and webmaster of Progressives for Obama,[70] Carl Davidson.

2003 Emil Jones deal

Main Article: 2003 Barack Obama deal with Emil Jones

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.[16] 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"[71] 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.’"[44]

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[61]—as CNN's Suzanne Malveaux observed, "With help from on high, Obama got his name on hundreds of bills that he pushed through."[26] Jones not only had Obama craft legislation addressing daily tragedies to raise his political profile,[71] 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.[61] 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.[72] 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[27]

2004-2008, U.S. Senate

See also: Barack Obama:U.S. Senate (2004-2008), United States Senate election in Illinois, 2004
Senator Barack Obama

2004 Primary election

Despite initially trailing in the polls to frontrunner Blair Hull,[73] Obama greatly benefited from what the Chicago Tribune called "the most inglorious campaign implosion in Illinois political history"[74] when pressure from journalists and opposing candidates, just weeks before the election, forced the unsealing of Hull's messy divorce files.[75] The files revealed Hull's ex-wife's accusations of verbal and physical abuse.[61] Hull would afterwards criticize the media, stating, "As for the press, I will never read the newspaper the same way again."[74] Obama would go on to win the Primary with 53% of the vote.[75] Obama's unexpected victory led to him being termed a "rising star" by the media.[76]

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.[77] Ryan then dropped out of the race (per request by the Illinois GOP[78]), 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[79]), catapulting him into the national spotlight, and leading to further media publicity terming him a "rising star".[80]

2004 General election, Alan Keyes

Main Article: Obama born alive controversy

After a number of candidates including former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka declined to run,[81] the Illinois GOP finally settled on fiery Alan Keyes, a former Ambassador to the Economic and Social Counsel of the United Nations,[61] with less than 3 months left before the November 2004 election.[16] His sudden entrance into the state for the election was initially attacked in the press as "carpetbagging".[82] 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.[83] Keyes, from his first day of arriving in Illinois (August 9, 2004),[84] 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[85]) where hospitals left newborn infants to die like garbage.[86] Obama in a debate on October 13, 2004, defended himself against Keyes' accusations of infanticide by claiming that Illinois law was already sufficient.[87]

However, Keyes' rhetoric, calling Obama's votes "the slaveholder's position"[84] and saying "Jesus Christ would not vote for Obama"[88] was widely ridiculed by the press. Keyes' unabashed criticism of homosexuality as "selfish hedonism" was also targeted.[89] Obama would ultimately win the election, 70% to 27%.[90]

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."[91] In 2008 as candidate for president Obama called George W. Bush's request to raise the debt limit "irresponsible" and "unpatriotic".[92]

The National Journal ranked him the most liberal senator in 2007.[93]

Obama frequently used the filibuster to obstruct the operations of government,[94] and voted against the minimum wage bill[95] 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[96] 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.[97] All four subsequently received approximately $70 billion in taxpayer assisted bailout money from the TARP program he voted for.[98] UBS AG, a foreign bank and the 12th largest donor to Obama,[99] was fined $780 billion in February 2009 in a U.S. Federal Court on charges it helped thousands of Americans evade taxes.[100]

2008 Presidential election

Main article: Barack Hussein Obama 2008 Presidential campaign

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 til 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,[101] and spending more than a billion dollars from special interests to snag reelection in 2012.[102]

Former Democrat Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman endorsed Obama's opponent John McCain in 2008 and declined to endorse Obama for the 2012 presidential election.[103]

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[104]—including the Born Alive ones,[105] and cowardly ducking the votes.[106] This led to criticism of Obama by two pro-choice organizations, Emily's List, and the National Organization for Women.[107] 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.[108][109]

"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[110]

As the contest in Iowa drew near and the former First Lady's inevitability was being usurped by a challenger, Hillary Clinton organizers began circulating rumors that Obama was secretly a Muslim.[111][112][113][114] Clinton also made the claim repeatedly that while Obama was leading in Delegates she was winning the Popular Vote,[115] though this was in part because Obama hadn't been registered in Michigan.[116][117] Obama's advantage with super-delegates over Clinton was about 2-to-1.[118] Obama was able to attract the support of liberals by pointing out that he had come out against the Iraq War "from the beginning" whereas Clinton had voted in favor of the war in 2002.[119] On June 7, 2008, Hillary Clinton withdrew from the Primaries, conceding the race and endorsing her opponent,[120] when Obama passed the 2,118 Delegates required; winning 2,201 delegates to Clinton's 1,896.[121]

Born Alive record resurfaces

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.[122][123] This led in August to a confrontation between Obama and the NRLC.[124] After Obama accused critics of 'lying'[125] 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.[126] 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."[127]

Jeremiah Wright

See also: Barack Obama and Liberation Theology

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[128] 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.[129] 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."[130] 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.[131] 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."[132][133]

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."[134]

"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[135]

On August 22, Obama selected Joe Biden as his running mate for the vice presidency,[136] which would be contrasted one week later with John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin.[137]

On November 2, 2008, Barack Obama won the presidential election with 365 electoral votes to John McCain's 173.[138] Obama received 53% of the popular vote to John McCain's 46%.[139]

2009-2017: U.S. Presidency

Main article: Obama administration
President Barack Obama meets with former President George H. W. Bush in the Oval Office, Feb. 15, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza).

Five years into Obama's presidency the number of people holding jobs still was 3 million below the all-time high of 138 million[140] workers - despite an increase of 10 million people in population over the same period of time.[141] Under Obama and Senate Democrats[142] budget management, the United States suffered its largest deficits[143] 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[144][145] 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."[146] 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."[147]

Domestic policy

Economic policy

See also: Obamunism and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Critics of the Obama administration have coined the word "Obamunism" to describe Barack Obama's socialistic and "fascism light" economic planning policies.[152][153][154] Obamunism can also refer to Obama's ruinous fiscal policies and reckless monetary policies.[155][156][157] 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.[158]

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.[159]

Wall Street firms and banks that were bailed out were among Obama's biggest campaign supporters.[160] 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.[161] 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).[162]

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.[155][156][163] 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[164] by several judges and constitutional by others, and is credited as a major cause of uncertainty, high unemployment,[165] lagging job creation,[166] and risk of a credit default crisis.[167][168]

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.[169]

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." [170]

Stimulus
See also: Recovery Summer

In early 2009, Obama lobbied Congress and the public to pass a sweeping Stimulus package[171] known as The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1).[172] The report of the Congressional Budget Office mandated by law stated that the legislation would ultimately harm the economy.[173] Contrary to his promise of bipartisanship,[174] the bill passed the House 244-188 on January 28, 2009 with 11 Democrats voting with the entire Republican caucus against,[175] and received just 3 Republican votes when passing the Senate 61-37.[176] One third of the massive $838 billion bill consisted of backdoor tax expenditures[177] and the rest direct new spending on "just about every pent-up Democratic proposal of the last 40 years."[178] 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."[179] On February 18, 2009, the Stimulus was signed into law by Obama.[180] 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".[181]

Sequestration

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,”[182] 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,[183] 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[184] - if Obama's budget and economic plans were allowed to take effect.[185]

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.[186]

Spreading the poverty

Following the 2011 debt ceiling standoff between Obama and House Republicans,[187] the United States Government's credit rating was, for the first time in its history, downgraded from AAA to AA+, and poverty[188] increased markedly. By and large his programs, said to combat the recession, unemployment, slow growth, and deficits, have failed[189] leaving the country saddled with an $18 trillion national debt and climbing.[190] One of his most well known tactics is 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 net loss of over 100 billion dollars would occur from the repeal.[191]

Job killer healthcare mandates

Main article: Obamacare

On March 23, 2010, Obama signed the unpopular Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The act originated in the Democrat-controlled House and was amended and passed the Senate just prior to Sen. Ted Kennedy's death largely along party lines with a significant number of Democrats voting to oppose. 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.[192] After Obama made a promise to issue an executive order that would ultimately prohibit the use of taxpayer subsidies to pay for abortion services,[193] the Democratic House of Representatives would pass the bill as it left the Senate 219-212, with 34 Democrats and all other parties dissenting.[194]

Amongst other things, the act mandated that everyone purchase health care coverage or face punitive tax measures, and was upheld by the Supreme Court.

The revolving door

Obama criticized the "revolving door" of government and business.[195] 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.[196] Before the bailout, Orszag's expert opinion of the chances of a mortgage meltdown were 1 in 500,000.[197]

Environment and energy

Main article: Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster

President Obama authorized offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico[198] stating, "oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills"[199] and was widely criticized for his mishandling of the "worst environmental disaster in US history."[200][201]

Reverses the Progressive 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' policy

Main article: Don't Ask Don't Tell

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;[202] 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."[203]

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;[204] it passed the Senate three days later 65-31.[205] Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 on December 22.[206] The Pentagon itself could not immediately implement the repeal and questioned whether it would hurt combat readiness.[206]

Labor law and compensation to 9/11 first responders

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;[207] the law made corporations subject to suit within 180 days of each time the employee was unfairly paid.[208]

On January 2, 2011, Obama signed the James Zadroga 9/11 Healthcare and Compensation Act.[209] 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.[210]

Obama administration and the restriction of religious freedom for Christians

Phyllis Schlafly's book No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom documents Obama's attack on religious freedom.[211]

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."[212]

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.[213]

In addition, the Obama administration has been criticized for promoting religious freedom for Muslims and restricting religious freedom for Christians.[214]

Obama administration met with an atheist group

See also: Atheism and American politics

The Obama administration is the first administration to met with an atheist group. It meet with the Secular 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."[215] Among the issues the group discussed were the issues of "military proselytizing" by evangelical Christian members of the military and faith-based initiatives[215]

Foreign policy

Unlike Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, Barack Obama has shown scant concern about the revival of slavery which took place on his watch shortly after his "apology tour", intended to diminish U.S. influence in the world.[216][217] Obama, who was raised a Muslim[218][219] and is not a descendent of slaves, criticized Christians and the Crusades as reports of thousands of women and girls being captured, sold, and raped flooded in.[220][221]

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. Vladimar Putin and Russia had thoroughly embarrassed Barack Obama on the world stage as Obama withdrew America from its traditional role of global leadership and reputiated 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 then 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 Vladimar 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 has tripled down in Afghanistan, widened the war into Pakistan, multiplied 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 has 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.[222] 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.' [223]

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.' [224]

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 have fallen. 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.[225]

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.[226] 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."[227][228]

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.[229][230][231]

Escalates Afghan occupation into a conflict

Main article: Afghanistan War

American deaths in Afghanistan more than doubled in Obama's first few years compared with the preceding eight years of George Bush [232] 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.[233] 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.[234] 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[235] and defense costs in Afghanistan from $43.5 billion in George Bush's last year to $113.7 billion for 2011.[236] 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."[235]

Another dumb Obama war

Main article: Libyan uprising 2011

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[237] with legitimate steps.[238] 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,[239] directed American forces to take out Libya's air defense system.[238] 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."[240] 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."[241] 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.[241]

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.’’ [242]

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."[243]

Aid to terrorists

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.[244]

This set off a fierce debate in the Obama administration over the wisdom of arming terrorists.[245] It is now known sometime prior to March 31, 2011,[246] at the urging of Hillary Clinton[247] and over the objections of his National Security Council, Obama signed a Presidential Finding authorizing support for the rebel jihadis.[248]

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.[249] 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.[250] Abdel Rahim al-Kib, the country's interim prime minister, echoed Jalil's words days later.[251] 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.[250] By February 17, 2013, four foreign nationals were arrested for distributing Christian literature, a charge that could carry the death penalty.[252]

Terrorist attack on American soil
For a more detailed treatment, see Benghazi Attack.

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".[253] 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.[254] A commander of the terrorist group boasted jovially about the attack over drinks with reporters for the New York Times in Benghazi.[255][256]

Al Qaeda in the Maghreb

Two more Americans were killed, along with 35 others, after being taken hostage by rebel jihadists in Mali shortly after the Libyan upheaval.[257]

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.[258]

Mexico

Eric Holder resigned as Attorney General in light of Fast & Furious[259] and other scandals.
Main article: Operation Fast and Furious

In May 2010, President Obama promised Mexican President Felipe Calderon that his administration would assist Mexico in curbing drug cartel violence, which has led to 30,000 deaths in Mexico. "President Calderon and I . . . stand together against the drug cartels that have unleashed horrific violence in so many communities," Obama said on May 19. "Mexico can count on the United States as a full partner in this effort."

The Washington Post has reported however 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.[260] Gun dealers have been required for decades to report the sales of multiple handguns to the ATF.

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.[261][262] In August 2015, the U.S. and Cuba reopened each other's embassies.[263][264] In September 2016, Obama nominated the first U.S. Ambassador to Cuba in 55 years.[265] 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.[266]

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.[267]

Guantanamo Bay

Main article: 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.[268] 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.[268]

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.[269][270]

Russia

Obama criticized president of Russia, Vladimir Putin for carrying out a referendum for the seizure of Crimea to Russia.[271]

Anti-Israel policies

Obama has had very poor relations with the conservative IsraelI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During the very tight and closely-watched 2015 elections, the Obama Administration attempted to influence the election—in order to elect a leftist government in the nation and defeat Netanyahu—by financing a liberal Israeli political organization.[272] Netanyahu decisively won the election, despite opposition from left-wing world leaders such as Obama.[273]

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.[274][275] 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[276] speech viciously attacking Israel and paying worthless lip-service to American "support" for the nation.[277] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded harshly but appropriately to the Administration's blatant betrayal.[278]

Despite these actions, the U.S. House passed a motion on January 5, 2017 condemning Obama's allowing of the UN resolution.[279][280] Additionally, Republican President-elect Donald Trump voiced strong support for Israel during this time.[281][282]

Soon before leaving office, Obama bypassed Congress and gave the State of Palestine $221 million.[283]

Opposition to U.S. sovereignty

Preferring international cooperation and equality (despite the U.S.'s obviously superior geopolitical position) to American sovereignty and independence, 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.[284][285]

Congressional relations

Obama has maintained tense relations with Congress throughout his term as President. Each of his budgets have been 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 have drawn extensive criticism as infringing upon Congressional legislative powers.

Last days and transition

In a stunning repudiation of Obama's leftist policies, Republican businessman Donald Trump was elected over the corrupt, leftist Democrat Hillary Clinton. In a frantic attempt to leave some sort of legacy, Obama issued a very large amount of far-Left executive orders which revealed his true political views if any doubt remained.[286] 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 a defunct but necessary, beneficial, and useful registry for male immigrants from Islamic countries; 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.[286] 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.[274][275] Soon before leaving office, Obama bypassed Congress and gave the State of Palestine $221 million.[283]

Obama continued to believe that he could have successfully "won" a third term as president had he been able to run.[287] 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.[288] Obama also believed that "the Democratic Party has stayed pretty grounded in fact and reality" despite its negative policies that suggest otherwise.[289]

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.[290][291]

Despite his foreign policy blunders, Obama received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service from Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, an Obama appointee in the same administration, effectively awarding himself the medal.[292] 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,"[293] and Obama's Chief of Staff Denis McDonough claimed likewise,[294] despite the strong and massive evidence to the contrary.[295][296]

2012 Presidential campaign

Main article: Presidential Election 2012

2011: Birth certificate controversies

Main article: Barack Obama Controversies#Birth Certificate

On April 27, 2011,[297] a long-running controversy surrounding Obama's birth was largely put to rest[298] when Obama had his long-form birth certificate posted at WhiteHouse.gov.[299] 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[300] 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.[301] 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."[302] 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.[303]

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.[304][305] A group registered as People United Means Action (PUMA), which members say really stands for Party Unity My Ass, was made up of Hillary Clinton supporters who not only opposed Barack Obama's nomination but also sought to delegitimitize his presidency.[306] PUMA members charged that the media directed sexism and misogyny at Clinton during the 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.

2011: 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 [307][308] that Osama bin Laden was "killed in a firefight" after a U.S. special operations group infiltrated a compound in Abottobad, Pakistan.[309] 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.[310] For all his duplicity and criticism of the War on Terror, Obama experienced only a temporary blip in approval ratings.[311][312]

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.[313] 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.

2012: 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.[314]

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.

2012: 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.[315] Obama's "Fight the Smears" campaign has denied this, as has Politico's Ben Smith.[316] Others who claim he was affiliated with the New Party/ACORN include The Blaze's Billy Hallowell,[317] Breitbart's Joel Pollack, Human Events' Erick Erickson,[318] Newsbusters' P.J. Gladnick,[319] Rick Moran at AmericanThinker.com,[320] and various writers at Discover the Networks (which include Kurtz and Erickson).[321]

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."[316] 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."[322]

2012: Attacks on employers and service providers

For a more detailed treatment, see You didn't build that.
On July 13, 2012, at a campaign event in Virginia, Obama gave a speech that immediately stirred up controversy. Speaking about the government's role in the success of private business, he said:[323]

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.
The Romney campaign has used "If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that" in ads to show America that Obama believes it is government that creates business rather than hard-working individuals. The Obama campaign has alternatively stated that the sentenced was poorly worded since he was not giving a scripted speech and that when Obama said "that" he was referring to roads and bridges. Obama points to a later portion of his speech in which he said, "The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together," to support his claim.

Results

On November 6, 2012 Barack Obama won reelection with 332 electoral votes to Mitt Romney's 206.[324] Obama received 51% of the popular vote (65,899,660 votes) to Romney's 47% (60,932,152 votes).[325]

Legacy

In September 2016, a parasitic worm, the Baracktrema obamai, was named after Obama.[326] As of December 2016, at least 15 schools in the United States have been named after Obama.

During Obama's 8 years in office, Democrats lost over 1,000 seats in the federal and state governments.[288]

Dinesh D'Souza wrote, "Obama's legacy is to double the national debt & dramatically reduce US influence in the world."[327]

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 in order to keep unwanted people out.[328]

Quotes

  • "I continue to believe that Donald Trump will not be president." (stated when asked by a reporter a month prior to Election Day)[329]

See also

External links

References

  1. Corsi, Jerome R. (July 19, 2012). "Was Barack Obama married in college?". WorldNetDaily website. See WND
  2. http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/05/politics/obama-race-relations-poll/
  3. http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/18/politics/obama-trumps-rigged-election-claim-whining-before-the-games-even-over/
  4. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/us/politics/russia-hack-election-trump-obama.html
  5. Jackson, David (August 24, 2012). "Obama has millions of fake Twitter followers". USA Today website/The Oval blog. See USA Today.
  6. "Obama: The most pro-abortion president ever" (July 12, 2011). The Susan B. Anthony List website/The Suzy B Blog.
  7. Multiple references:
  8. Bedard, Paul (February 27, 2013). "Sequester hype: DNC adds 1.25 million job cuts to Obama's 750,000". Washington Examiner website. Article located by Weasel Zippers website.
  9. Foys, Bob (February 26, 2013). "President Obama's sequester". Chicago Tribune website. See Chicago Tribune.
  10. Dean, Jr., Warren L. (December 17, 2013). "Dean: The real cause of income inequality". The Washington Times website.
  11. Kurtzman, Daniel (March 6, 2014 or aft.) "Obamaisms: Dumb quotes and gaffes by Barack Obama". About.com webiste/About entertainment/Political humor/Funny political jokes/Political gaffes.
  12. Sink, Justin (June 1, 2012). "Obama apologizes in writing for 'Polish death camp' verbal gaffe". The Hill website/Policy/International.
  13. The number of Islamic extremists susceptible to jihadist recruitment during the George W. Bush administration worldwide was estimated at 12,000; the Islamic State alone by 2015 had estimates of a standing army of jihadis as high as 70,000 to 200,000.
  14. Baker, Peter and Shear, Michael D. (April 27, 2012). "Obama trumpets killing of Bin Laden, and critics pounce". The New York Times website. See The New York Times.
  15. Murray, Mark (August 5, 2014). "Poll: Obama’s approval rating hits all-time low". MSNBC website. See MSNBC
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 16.7 16.8 "Obama becomes rising star among Democrats: Transcript of 'The Candidates: Barack Obama'" (February 20, 2008). MSNBC. Retrieved from NBC News website/MSNBC TV documentaries. See MSNBC.
  17. Beginning in 1972, all Social Security numbers were issued from a central office in Baltimore, Maryland. "The SSN numbering scheme" (March 2001 or bef.) Social Security: Official Social Security website/History/Social Security Numbers.
  18. "State Health Director killed in plane crash, 8 others survive" (December 11, 2013). Honolulu Star-Advertiser website/News/Breaking.
  19. Multiple references:
  20. Shapiro, Ben (May 17, 2012). "Obama's lit agency used 'born in Kenya' bio until 2007". Breitbart website/Big government. See Breitbart.com.
  21. "Client list". Dystel and Goderic Literary Management website. Retrieved from April 3, 2007 archive at Internet Archive.
  22. "Michelle Obama: Kenya is Barack Obama's homeland!" (Michelle Obama speaking at the 2008 LGBT Democratic Convention delegate luncheon hosted by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and the Human Rights Campaign: "The world as it should be", August 26, 2008) (April 7, 2010). YouTube video, 0:30, posted by Rubystars0000. See Human Rights Campaign.
  23. See Initial Decision by Jeff S. Masin in Purpura and Moran v. Obama at 7 ("Thus, accepting for the point of this issue that Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii, he is a “natural born Citizen” regardless of the status of his father."), Tisdale v. Obama (E.D.Va 2012) Order at 2 ("It is well settled that those born in the United States are considered natural born citizens." (citing United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649)), aff'd per curiam by 4th Cir., Ankeny v. Governor of the State of Indiana, 916 N.E.2d 678, 685 (Ind. Ct. App. 2009) ("With regard to President Barack Obama, the Plaintiffs posit that because his father was a citizen of the United Kingdom, President Obama is constitutionally ineligible to assume the Office of the President....we hold that the Plaintiffs' arguments fail to state a claim upon which relief can be granted")
  24. Birrell, Ian (August 12, 2011). "Barack Obama's father: Bigamist, drunk and wife-beater, [review of] The Other Barack by Sally H. Jacobs (Pubic Affairs £20)". MailOnline/U.K./Books [U.K.] This is one of the first misleading statements about Barack Obama when he was introduced to America as Keynote Speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Advance publicity billed him as the "son of Kenyan economist" when infact Obama Sr. was forced out of the graduate program at Harvard because of his bigamy. He returned to Kenya. Obama at the age 9 once briefly met his father who served in the corrupt Kenyan socialist regime's Department of Economic Planning. Obama Sr. killed himself in a drunken car accident.
  25. Stacy Schiff (May 3, 2011). "Dreams of his mother": Review of A Singular Woman by Janny Scott. The Daily Beast website. See The Daily Beast.
  26. 26.00 26.01 26.02 26.03 26.04 26.05 26.06 26.07 26.08 26.09 26.10 Malveaux, Suzanne (August 20, 2008). Transcript of "Barack Obama Revealed". CNN website/Transcripts. See CNN
  27. 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4 27.5 Purdum, Todd (March 2008). "Raising Obama". Vanity Fair.
  28. Obama, Barack (1995). Dreams from My Father (New York: Times Books), p. 14. Quoted at "Dreams from my father: On principles & values". OnTheIssues website. See Dreams from my Father
  29. Schlussel, Debbie (January 19, 2007). "Hillary Clinton agrees with Schlussel: Obama suspicious, deceptive on Muslim background". Debbie Schlussel website. See Debbie Schlussel.
  30. Johnson, Luke (May 25, 2012). "Obama pot-smoking details revealed in David Maraniss book". The Huffington Post website. See Huffington Post.
  31. 31.0 31.1 31.2 Scott, Janny (July 30, 2007). "In Illinois, Obama proved pragmatic and shrewd". The New York Times website. See New York Times.
  32. Obama supported Communist Party of the Soviet Union General Secretary Brezhnev's foreign policy over both Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan's decision to deploy the MX Missile in Europe.
  33. 33.0 33.1 Scott, Janny. (October 30, 2007). "Obama's account of New York years often differs from what others say". The New York Times. See The New York Times.
  34. Multiple references:
  35. "Obama anniversary: Barack & Michelle celebrate 20 years of marriage (photos)" (October 3, 2012). Huffington Post website. Huffington Post says it was October 3, 1992. See Huffington Post.
  36. http://hillbuzz.org/time-to-tell-everyone-you-know-about-jeremiah-wrights-down-low-club-barackobama-presobama-26407
  37. Multiple references:
  38. The Developing Communities Project (DCP) of the Calumet Community Religious Conference (CCRC)
  39. Multiple references:
  40. Beckwith (April 23, 2008 or bef.). "Community organizing". The Obama File website/Politics.
  41. Multiple references:
  42. Schweizer, Peter (October 5, 2009). "A poisonous cocktail: Expanding the Community Reinvestment Act". Forbes website. See Forbes. In Selma S. Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank, lead attorney Obama alleged that although his clients had been denied mortgages "because of delinquent credit obligations and adverse credit," they were really victims of institutional racism. The suit was brought about by the Community Reinvestment Act, so called affirmative action mortgage lending. The plaintiffs won $60,000, Obama and two other attorneys were paid $950,000.
  43. Lattman, Peter (May 11, 2007). "When Barack met Michelle". Wall Street Journal website/Business/Law Blog/Lawyers and Law Firms. See Wall Street Journal.
  44. 44.0 44.1 Multiple references:
  45. Hoft, Jim (April 2, 2008). "Wright & Obama helped organize march with Louis Farrakhan". Gateway Pundit website. See Gateway Pundit
  46. Whiteman, Timothy (April 5, 2013). "Obama complains of being 'constrained by a system' Founding Fathers put in place". Examiner.com/News/Politics/Republican.
  47. Holt, Mytheos (September 20, 2012). "Obama’s favorite course to teach at the University of Chicago revealed". The Blaze/Stories/Media. See The Blaze.
  48. "Media inquiries: Statement regarding Barack Obama" (March 2008 or bef.). University of Chicago Law School website. See University of Chicago
  49. 49.0 49.1 Wilson, Scott (October 10, 2009). "President Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize". Washington Post website. See Washington Post.
  50. "The Nobel Prize for 2009: Press release" (October 9, 2009). Nobel Prize website [Oslo, Norway]/Nobel Prizes/Peace/Laureates/2009. Accessed May 13, 2012.
  51. CNN (October 9, 2009). "Obama: Nobel Peace Prize is 'Call to Action'". CNN website/World/Europe.
  52. Multiple references:
  53. Geyer, Georgie Anne and Beech, Keyes (October 1970). "Cuba: School for U.S. Radicals [five part series]". Chicago Daily News/Chicago Sun-Times. Excerpted in Foreign Influence: Weather Underground Organization (WUO) (August 20, 1976), pp. 113-115. FBI. Retrieved from "Weather Underground (Weathermen)" webpage PDF rendering, part 3 of 6, pp. 5-7 at FBI website/FBI Records: The Vault. Located by The Real Barack Obama blog. See Chicago Sun-Times.
  54. Klein, Aaron (August 13, 2009). "Obama's 'green jobs czar' worked with terror founder". WorldNetDaily website. "Van Jones...served on board of..." "activist group where ex-Weatherman serves as top director"'. See WorldNetDaily.
  55. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (1966), 2nd ed. Retrieved from Internet Archive.
  56. Klehr, Harvey (1988). Far Left of Center: The American Radical Left Today (New Brunswick: Transaction Books), p. 109.
  57. Cashill, Jack (March 28, 2011). "Ayers affirms he wrote Dreams from my Father". American Thinker website/Blog. See American Thinker.
  58. Fund, John (October 21, 2009). "From Mao to Obama". Wall Street Journal website.
  59. 59.0 59.1 59.2 Jackson, David and Long, Ray (April 4, 2007). "Barack Obama: Showing his bare knuckles". Chicago Tribune website. See Chicago Tribune.
  60. Jackson, David & Long, Ray (April 3, 2007). "Obama knows his way around a ballot". Chicago Tribune website. Retrieved from January 23, 2013 archive at Internet Archive.
  61. 61.0 61.1 61.2 61.3 61.4 61.5 Spivak, Todd (February 28, 2008). "Barack Obama and me". Houston Press website.
  62. Griffin, Drew & Johnston, Kathleen (May 29, 2008). "Obama played hardball in first Chicago campaign". CNN website. Article text begins: "When the Democratic National Committee meets Saturday on the thorny issue of seating the Florida and Michigan delegations..."
  63. Bates, Daniel (May 16, 2012). "New book claims Michelle Obama prepared divorce papers to separate from Barack—leaving him so depressed friends feared he'd kill himself". Daily Mail website. See Daily Mail.
  64. Gilmore, Jim (reporter, producer). (October 9, 2012). "Transcript of 'Barack Obama' in Kirk, Michael and Wiser, Mike (producers) 'Frontline: The Choice 2012'". PBS website/WGBH/Frontline/film/The Choice 2012.
  65. Ballasy, Nicholas (March 28, 2012). "Bobby Rush in 2000: Obama a Harvard ‘educated fool’ who ‘thinks he knows all about’ the ‘civil rights protests’". Daily Caller website. See Daily Caller.
  66. Scott, Janny (September 9, 2007). "In 2000, a streetwise veteran schooled a bold young Obama." The New York Times. See The New York Times.
  67. Clark, Amy (January 17, 2007). Obama record may be gold mine for critics. CBS News website. See CBS News.
  68. 68.0 68.1 68.2 Scott, Janny (July 30, 2007). In Illinois, Obama proved pragmatic and shrewd. The New York Times website..
  69. The rally was organized by Chicagoans Against War in Iraq (CAWI) later renamed Chicagoans Against War and Injustice. See Davidson, Carl (November 2, 2006). "About CAWI". Chicagoans Against War and Injustice website. Retrieved from August 11, 2010 archive at Internet Archive.
  70. Carl Davidson (2010 or bef.) LinkedIn [Profile page/Experience/Webmaster]. Retrieved March 13, 2010 and February 13, 2016.
  71. 71.0 71.1 Associated Press (March 31, 2008). "Obama's political 'godfather' in Illinois". CBS News website. See Associated Press, CBS News.
  72. Multiple references:
  73. Spivak, Todd (March 25, 2004). "In the black". Illinois Times.
  74. 74.0 74.1 Mendell, David (March 17, 2004). "Obama routs Democratic foes". Chicago Tribune website. See Chicago Tribune.
  75. 75.0 75.1 Voegeli, William (March 19, 2004). "The rise and fall of Blair Hull". The Claremont Institute website. Retrieved from August 26, 2007 archive at Internet Archive. See Claremont Institute.
  76. Howlett, Debbie (March 18, 2004). Dems "See a rising star in Illinois Senate Candidate". USA Today website/News/Politics-Elections/Nation/Campaign 2004. See USA Today.
  77. Associated Press (June 26, 2004). "Jack Ryan abandons Senate bid". USA Today website/News/Politics-Elections/State/Campaign 2004. See Associated Press.
  78. Sangwan, Rahul (October 1, 2004). "Jack Ryan '81: The conservative idealist". Dartmouth Independent website. Retrieved from September 24, 2006 archive at Internet Archive.
  79. Obama, Barack (June 26, 2004). "Transcript: Illinois Senate candidate Barack Obama [Keynote address at 2004 Democratic National Convention]". Transcribed by FDCH E-Media. Washington Post website. See Washington Post.
  80. Page, Susan and Despeignes, Peronet (July 28, 2004). "Rising star brings Democrats to their feet". USA Today website/News/Politics-Elections/Nation/President/Campaign 2004. See USA Today.
  81. CNN (August 9, 2004). "Keyes challenges Obama for Illinois Senate seat". CNN website/Politics/America Votes 2004. See CNN.
  82. Multiple references:
  83. Keyes, Alan (August 18, 2004). "How YOU can help Alan Keyes for Senate!" Message from Keyes2004 Inc. to multiple internet mailing lists. Retrieved from archive of newsandviews internet mailing list at The Mail Archive website.
  84. 84.0 84.1 Associated Press (August 9, 2004). "Keyes assails Obama's abortion views". NBC News website/Politics.
  85. United States Congress (October 21, 2003). "S. 3 (108th): "Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003", sec. 2, subsec. 14, paras. G and O. Govtrack.us website/Congress/Bills/108th Congress/Senate bill 3/Text.
  86. Multiple references:
    • Keyes, Alan (June 2008 or bef.) "Alan Keyes on the Tavis Smiley Show". Alan Keyes Archives website. Transcript of interview by Tavis Smiley. Tavis Smiley Show (New York City: National Public Radio, August 31, 2004). See NPR.
    • Keyes, Alan (June 2008 or bef.) "Alan Keyes on CBS2 Chicago This Morning". Alan Keyes Archives website. Transcript of interview with CBS This Morning show. CBS This Morning (Chicago: CBS 2, August 30, 2004).
  87. "Debate or discussion?" (October 13, 2004). Chicago Tribune website/News.
  88. Keyes, Alan (June 2008 or bef.). "Alan Keyes on the Scott Thomas Show (AM1160 - WYLL)". Alan Keyes Archives website. Transcript of interview by Scott Thomas. Scott Thomas Show (Chicago: WYLL, AM 1160, September 7, 2004).
  89. Multiple references:
  90. "America votes 2004: Election Results, U.S. Senate/Illinois" (November 2, 2004). CNN Hungary website/Elections.
  91. Multiple references:
  92. "Obama says adding $4 trillion to debt is unpatriotic [July 3, 2008]" (August 23, 2011). YouTube video, 0:38, posted by maywhitley31.
  93. Montopoli, Brian (January 31, 2008). "National Journal: Obama most liberal senator in 2007". CBS News website.. See CBS News.
  94. O'Keefe, E. (2010, February 4). Obama criticizes Senate Republicans for delaying confirmation votes. Washington Post.
  95. Multiple references:
  96. more than any other political candidate for office since 1989. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Invest in Lawmakers, By Lindsay Renick Mayer, September 11, 2008. opensecrets.org
  97. Multiple references:
  98. Beneficiary Banks, The New York Times. 2008-10-14.
  99. Top 20 Contributors, 2007-2008
  100. UBS fined $780 million in tax evasion scandal, Investment News, February 19, 2009.
  101. "Candidate comparison: Top contributors 2008 cycle" (betw. September–November 2013). OpenSecrets.org website.
  102. Multiple references:
    • "Barack Obama (D): Candidate summary, 2012 cycle/Source of funds" (betw. March–June 2013). Opensecrets.org website. 34% Individual contributions, 67% large and corporate.
    • "2012 presidential race/Overall spending" (betw. August–September 2015). OpenSecrets.org website. This special interests count of over $1 billion may have decreased at least for a time since August–September 2015, where a grand total of individual contributions of less than $1 billion is reflected, but the grand total is presumably incomplete (shown, for example, by the uncounted University of California contributions revealed when comparing the subtotal from the time before August–September 2015 to the time afterwards, the subtotal thus increasing), has every chance of remaining close to its precise revised estimated amount at the beginning of that time (of $964 million) and does not include Super PAC contributions, which is indirect spending.
      • (Link to version of this reference on March 4, 2015 [whose pertinent subtotal which follows was the same back to the time indicated in the first bulleted reference] which shows $1,212,245 in contributions from the University of California. This is vs. $1,350,139 in contributions shown in the version indicated by the Internet Archive to have been published between August–September 2015 and shown in versions at least for a time thereafter [version retrieved on February 7, 2016 shows the same amount].)
  103. Lillis, M. (2012, April 22). Sen. Lieberman declines to endorse in presidential race. The Hill.
  104. Bettelheim, Adriel (2008, February 13). "Obama's 'Present' Tension." PolitiFact.
  105. Multiple references:
  106. Multiple references:
  107. Multiple references:
  108. Hernandez, Raymond & Drew, Christopher (2007, December 20). "Obama's Vote in Illinois Was Often Just 'Present'." The New York Times.
  109. Follmer, Max (2008, March 28). "Obama Emphasizes Pro-Choice Voting Record as Clinton Questions 'Present' Votes." Huffington Post.
  110. Davis, Teddy (2007, July 17). "Obama Abortion Dodges Blessed by Planned Parenthood, ABC News.
  111. Obama Under the Clinton Microscope, By JEFF ZELENY, The New York Times, December 10, 2007
  112. Clinton volunteer's sending of anti-Obama e-mail causes stir. December 6, 2007. CNN
  113. Hillary Clinton Press Release - Sen. Obama Rewrites History, December 2, 2007, references Obama in the Muslim school in Indonesia in 3rd grade, quoting the Los Angeles Times, 3/15/07
  114. Obama ‘was educated in madrassa’, Tim Reid and Tom Baldwin, The Times of London, January 20, 2007.
  115. Koffler, Daniel (2008, May 28). "Hillary Clinton and the Popular Vote: Not Wrong, but Meaningless." Huffington Post.
    Barone, Michael (2008, March 28). "Projection: Clinton Wins Popular Vote, Obama Wins Delegate Vote." U.S. News.
  116. Romano, Andrew (2008, August 2). "Clinton's Popular Vote Claim? Close--But Not Quite*." Newsweek.
  117. RealClearPolitics. "2008 Democratic Popular Vote."
  118. Superdelegate endorsements for Friday 6/6. Democratic Convention Watch.
  119. David Jackson. Obama, Clinton stress differences on Iraq, issues (English). USA Today.
  120. Associated Press. "Clinton Ends Historic Bid, Endorses Obama." MSNBC
  121. CNN. "Election Center 2008.
  122. CNN. "How He Really Voted on Abortion: Obama's Record Under Attack." The Situation Room. Uploaded to YouTube by Jill Stanek.
  123. CNN. "Transcripts: June 30, 2008." The Situation Room.
  124. National Right to Life Committee. "Obama Cover-up Revealed on Born-Alive Abortion Survivor's Bill." NRL News, Vol. 35, Issue 7-8, pg. 5.
  125. Brody, David (2008, August 16). "McCain/Obama Forum." CNN. Uploaded to YouTube by Jill Stanek.
    David Brody (August 16, 2008). "Obama Gets Heated on Born Alive Infant Protection Act." CBN News. The Brody File.
  126. Berman, Russell (2008, August 18). "Obama Facing Attacks From All Sides Over Abortion Record." New York Sun.
  127. Johnson, Douglas (2008, August 18). "Obama Cover-up on Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Continues to Unravel After Sen. Obama Says NRLC is 'Lying'." National Right to Life Committee.
  128. Trinity United Church of Christ Website (Barack Hussein Obama's Church)
  129. Obama's church pushes controversial doctrines, March 20, 2008
  130. Obama's Pastor: G-d Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11, ABC News
  131. Obama Drops Church Membership in Chicago, Fox News May 31, 2008
  132. USA Today, Obama breaks with former pastor, Candidate cites rants on U.S. role in terror, AIDS, by Kathy Kiely and David Jackson
  133. Obama Says He Is Outraged By Wright's "Rants"
  134. Dobbs, Michael (2008, April 2). "FactChecker: McCain's '100-Year War'." Washington Post.
  135. Zeleny, Jeff (2008, April 18). "Obama Criticizes McCain on Economic Stance." The New York Times.
  136. CNN (2008, August 23). "Obama Introduces Biden as Running Mate."
  137. Cooper, Michael & Bumiller, Elisabeth (2008, August 29). "Alaskan is McCain's Choice; First Woman on G.O.P. Ticket. The New York Times.
  138. (2008, November 14). "Electoral Explorer." Election Results 2008. The New York Times.
  139. (2008, November 17). "President." Election Center 2008. CNN.
  140. The effectiveness of Stimulus and deficits: Job growth under President Obama's first term; Source: United States Department of Labor.
  141. U.S. Population growth during Obama's first four years in office. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
  142. The Democrat-controlled Senate did not propose, vote on, or pass a budget for nearly five years. Senate passes its first budget proposal in four years, Ted Barrett and Alison Harding, CNN, March 23, 2013.
  143. Edwards, B. et. al. (2009, November 6). Monthly Budget Review: Fiscal Year 2009. Congressional Budget Office.
    Delisle, E.C. et. al. (2010, November 5). Monthly Budget Review: Fiscal Year 2010. Congressional Budget Office.
  144. Di Leo, L & Lynch, S.N. (2010, August 20). Jobless Claims Jump in New Sign Recovery is Sputtering. Wall Street Journal.
  145. United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Databases, Tables & Calculators by Subject: Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey. United States Department of Labor. Data extracted on: July 19, 2010 (4:31:11 PM).
  146. Berry, M.F. (2010, July 20). Energy Arena, Driving the Conversation: Contracting Out U.S. Security? And will Branding Tea Party Racist Work? Politico.
  147. Caddell, P.H. & Schoen, D.E. (2010, July 28). Our Divisive President. Wall Street Journal.
  148. John Maynard Keynes the stealthy enemy of human freedom
  149. Deathbed of Keynesian Economics will be in the UK
  150. Will the G8 Repudiate the Philosophy of Living Beyond Our Means?
  151. KEYNES AT HARVARD Economic Deception as a Political Credo BY ZYGMUND DOBBS
  152. Benito Mussolini defined fascism as the wedding of state and corporate powers. Accordingly, trend forecaster Gerald Celente labels Obama's corporate bailouts as being "fascism light" in nature.
  153. David Sessions (July 20, 2009). Obamunism, Inc. (English). The Big Money. Washington Post.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC.
  154. Jim Blasingame. Is the government creating a bailout bubble?.
  155. 155.0 155.1 Gerard Jackson (February 16, 2009). Monetary Policy-Not Obama's Stimulus-Is What Needs Watching. Seeking Alpha.
  156. 156.0 156.1 BAM'S WISE WORDS. New York Post (May 17, 2009).
  157. Conn Carroll (March 24, 2009). Bush Deficit vs. Obama Deficit in Pictures. The Foundry. Heritage Foundation.
  158. Naked Emperor News (2011, October 12). Exclusive Dictatorship: Obama Instructs Advisors to Push Through Stimulus Projects Without Pesky 'Congressional Authorization'. The Blaze.
  159. Rick Ungar (May 24, 2012). Who Is The Smallest Government Spender Since Eisenhower? Would You Believe It's Barack Obama?. Forbes.
  160. OpenSecrets.org. Barack Obama: Top Contributors. The Center for Responsive Politics.
  161. Faccio, M. et. al. (2005, March 1). Political Connections and Corporate Bailouts. Social Science Research Network.
  162. Woods, T.E. (2009, April 10). Why You've Never Heard of the Great Depression of 1920. Ludwig von Mises Institute. Hosted on YouTube.
  163. Carroll, C. (2009, March 24). Bush Deficit vs. Obama Deficit in Pictures. The Foundry. The Heritage Network.
  164. Schoenberg, T. & Fisk, M.T. (2010, December 13). Obama's Health-Care Law Ruled Unconstitutional Over Insurance Requirement. Bloomberg.
  165. Obamacare: Unemployment You Can Believe In, Human Events
  166. Foster, J.D. (2010, August 5). It’s Official: Medicare’s Finances Shadowed by Uncertainty. The Foundry. The Heritage Network.
  167. Samuelson, R.J. (2010, March 29). With health bill, Obama has sown the seeds of a budget crisis. Washington Post.
  168. Cramer, J. (2010, March 19). 'Mad Money' Cramer: Health Care Passage 'Will Topple the Stock Market'. Newsbusters.
  169. Newspapers Call Out White House: ‘What Would That Path Be, Mr. President?’
  170. Debacle: Obama's War on Jobs and Growth and What We Can Do Now to Regain Our Future
  171. (2009, January 3). "Obama Urges Congress to Pass Stimulus Plan." Associated Press.
    Parsons, C. & Nicholas, P. (2009, February 10). "Barack Obama Sternly Urges Congress to Pass Economic Stimulus." Chicago Tribune.
  172. "Bill Text Versions: H.R. 1." 111th Congress (2009-2010). Library of Congress.
    "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: Information Center." IRS.
  173. Dinan, S. (2009, February 4). "CBO: Obama Stimulus Harmful Over Long Haul." U.S. News.
  174. Dinan, S. (2009, March 28). "McCain: Obama Breaks Promise of Bipartisanship." Washington Times.
  175. Calmes, J. (2009, January 28). "House Passes Stimulus Plan With No G.O.P. Votes." The New York Times.
  176. Herszenhorn, D.M. (2009, February 10). "Senate Approves Stimulus Plan." The New York Times.
  177. (2009, February 11). "Senate Passes $838 Billion Stimulus Bill." Associated Press.
  178. (2009, January 28). "A 40-Year Wish List." Wall Street Journal.
  179. Kane, P. (2009, January 23). "Stimulus Plan Meets More GOP Resistance." Washington Post.
  180. (2009, February 17). "Obama: Stimulus Lets Americans Claim Destiny." Associated Press.
  181. (2009, November 18). "Obama Calls Stimulus Data Errors 'Side Issue,' Says Focus Is on Job Growth." Fox News.
  182. Obama’s sequester deal-changer, By Bob Woodward, Washington Post, February 22, 2013.
  183. Fact-check: Woodward wrote that Obama administration proposed sequester. The Daily Caller
  184. Monthly Jobloss under George W. Bush, Jan 2007 - Jan 2009. See also Initial Unemployment Claims over the same period, annualized. Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  185. Bernanke: Spending cuts add 'significant' burden to recovery, By Annalyn Kurtz, CNN February 26, 2013.
  186. Bob Woodward: White House Threatened Me On Sequester, businessinsider.com
  187. United States of America Long-Term Rating Lowered to 'AA+' on Political Risks and Rising Debt Burden; Outlook Negative. Standard and Poor's (August 5, 2011). Retrieved on April 3, 2013.
  188. Figure 4: Number in Poverty and Poverty Rate: 1959-2009. U.S. Census Bureau. Current Population Survey, 1960 to 2010 Annual Social and Economic Supplements.
  189. "The vast majority (73%) of respondents reported the fiscal stimulus enacted in February 2009 has had no impact on employment to date. While 68% also believe a jobs bill, such as the one recently enacted into law, will have no impact on payrolls, 30% do believe it will boost payrolls moderately".
    Industry Survey, National Association for Business Economics, April 2010, p. 2.
  190. During Obama's first two years in office, the rate of new U.S. federal debt added per year to its total tripled the rate of new debt accumulated by Bush to place the U.S. on a war footing, and during Obama's first six years in office, the total National Debt has nearly doubled ($7.5 trillion added). See National Debt.
  191. Letter to the Honorable John Boehner providing an estimate for H.R. 6079, the Repeal of Obamacare Act, Congressional Budget Office
  192. Chris Cillizza (January 19, 2010). Scott Brown wins Massachusetts Senate special election race (English). Washington Post.
  193. Noam N. Levey and Janet Hook (March 22, 2010). House passes historic healthcare overhaul (English). Los Angeles Times.
  194. Alan Silverleib (March 21, 2010). House passes health care bill on 219-212 vote (English). CNN.
  195. "We need to close the revolving door that lets lobbyists come into government freely, and lets them use their time in public service as a way to promote their own interests over the interests of the American people when they leave." REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN WELCOMING SENIOR STAFF AND CABINET SECRETARIES TO THE WHITE HOUSE, January 21, 2009. White House
  196. Citigroup Received More Bailout Money Than Any Other Bank, By Nitasha Tiku, 3/16/11.
  197. Implications of the New Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Risk-based Capital Standard, by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Jonathan M. Orszag and Peter R. Orszag. Fannie Mae Papers, Volume 1, Issue 2, March 2002, Conclusion p.6.
  198. Gulf of Mexico oil spill imperils Obama's offshore drilling plan, By Mark Clayton, Christian Science Monitor, April 30, 2010.
  199. White House Press Release, Remarks by the President in a Discussion on Jobs and the Economy in Charlotte, North Carolina, Office of the Press Secretary, April 02, 2010. Retrieved from whitehouse.gov 3 May 2010.
  200. Worst environmental disaster in US history, Maryann Tobin, Examiner, April 29, 2010.
  201. Conscience of a Liberal: The Oil Spill Is Obama’s Fault, Paul Krugman, The New York Times, April 30, 2010.
  202. Rowan Scarborough (November 21, 2008). Obama to delay ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal (English). Washington Times.
  203. Mark Thompson (Jun. 09, 2009). Dismay Over Obama's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Turnabout. Time Magazine. Time Inc..
  204. FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 638. Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.
  205. U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 111th Congress - 2nd Session (English). The U.S. Senate.
  206. 206.0 206.1 'Don't ask, don't tell' repealed as Obama signs landmark law (English). The Guardian (22 December 2010).
  207. Sheryl Gay Stolberg (January 29, 2009). Obama Signs Equal-Pay Legislation (English). The New York Times.
  208. Joanna L. Grossman (Feb. 13, 2009). The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (English). FindLaw.
  209. Fred Mogul (January 2, 2011). Obama Signs Zadroga Act into Law (English). wNYC. New York Public Radio.
  210. Congress Approves 9/11 Health Bill (English). wNYC. New York Public Radio (December 22, 2010).
  211. Obama’s Attack on Religious Freedom: It’s Worse Than You Think, Crises Magazine
  212. Obama angers midwest voters with guns and religion remark, The Guardian
  213. The Obama Administration: Religious Freedoms for American Muslims, Not American Christians, Townhall
  214. 215.0 215.1 Atheists meet with White House officials, USA Today
  215. UN Sex Violence Envoy: Focusing on Syria, Iraq
  216. Barack Obama's Top 10 Apologies: How the President Has Humiliated a Superpower, Heritage Foundation
  217. Was Obama bloodied by madrassa story?
  218. Obama's Muslim Childhood
  219. ISIS calls Michelle Obama a PROSTITUTE and justifies raping slave girls with the KORAN
  220. Critics pounce after Obama talks Crusades, slavery at prayer breakfast, Washington Post
  221. Krauthammer, C. (April 19). The News in Obama's Speech. Washington Post.
  222. DeYoung, K. (2011, July 4). CIA Halts Drone Launches From Pakistan Base. The Boston Globe.
  223. Obama's words disguise his Israel foreign policy actions.
  224. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/24/114662/what-price-war.html#ixzz1Nz07pg5O
  225. Aaron Dykes. Obama’s Signing Statement on NDAA: I have the power to detain Americans… but I won’t, Infowars.com, January 1, 2012.
  226. President Decides to Sign Ill-Conceived National Defense Authorization Act. US: Refusal to Veto Detainee Bill A Historic Tragedy for Rights, Human Rights Watch, December 14, 2011.
  227. White House Backs Away from Defense Bill Veto Threat, ACLU, December 14, 2011.
  228. Paul Joseph Watson. Obama Administration Demanded Power To Indefinitely Detain U.S. Citizens, Infowars.com, December 12, 2011.
  229. S.1867 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Engrossed in Senate [Passed Senate] - ES), Library of Congress THOMAS, 112th Congress (2011-2011), Accessed January 25, 2012.
  230. Text of S.1867 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. Sec. 1031. Affirmation of authority of the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force., U.S. Congress, OpenCongress.org, (Accessed January 25, 2012).
  231. Chesser, S.G. (2012, July 12). Afghanistan Casualties: Military Forces and Civilians - CRS Report for Congress. Pg. 3. Congressional Research Service'.
  232. KABC-TV/DT (2011, July 27). Risk of anti-US violence up after Osama bin Laden's death. On ABC7 News.
  233. Pro-al Qaeda group seen behind deadly Benghazi attack, By Nic Robertson, Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister, CNN, September 13, 2012.
  234. 235.0 235.1 George Packer, Seth Jones, David Kilcullen, Rory Stewart, Andrew Exum, Col. Andrew Bacevich (Ret.). Obama's New Strategy (March '09) (English). PBS.
  235. Congressional Research Service, quoted in Gregory Anthony, What price war?
  236. There Was No Libyan Peaceful Protest, Just Murderous Gangs and Nic Robertson
  237. 238.0 238.1 Libya — Protests and Revolt (2011) (English). The New York Times. The New York Times Inc..
  238. Gates: Libyan no-fly zone means attacking Libya, CBS News
  239. Barack Obama (March 28, 2011). Obama's Speech On Libya: 'A Responsibility To Act' (English). National Public Radio (NPR).
  240. 241.0 241.1 Alan J. Kuperman (April 14, 2011). False pretense for war in Libya?. The Boston Globe.
  241. Libya and the “Obama Doctrine”.
  242. Gaddafi begs Obama to halt 'unjust war' , The Guardian
  243. Libyan opposition includes a small number of al-Qaeda fighters, U.S. officials say, Washington Post
  244. Washington in Fierce Debate on Arming Libyan Rebels, The New York Times
  245. C.I.A. Agents in Libya Aid Airstrikes and Meet Rebels, The New York Times
  246. Obama Takes Hard Line With Libya After Shift by Clinton, The New York Times
  247. Exclusive: Obama authorizes secret help for Libya rebels, Reuters
  248. Leading from behind - a critique of Obama foreign policy
  249. 250.0 250.1 Libya: Al Qaeda flag flown above Benghazi courthouse - Daily Telegraph
  250. New Libyan PM backs Islamic sharia law
  251. Libya arrests foreign 'missionaries' Four foreign nationals accused of distributing Christian literature a charge that could carry the death penalty, Chris Stephen The Guardian, Sunday 17 February 2013.
  252. Interview with Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, Breitbart.com
  253. When an Obama adviser called Benghazi an al-Qaeda hotbed
  254. Election-Year Stakes Overshadow Nuances of Libya Investigation, The New York Times
  255. Frappe-Sipping Libyan Militant Laughs at U.S. Manhunt for Benghazi Killers, Wired (magazine)
  256. Algeria: 37 Foreigner Hostages Killed in Attack, Associated Press, Jan. 21, 2013. Time Magazine.
  257. Clinton says militants used weapons from Libya in Algeria attack Reuters, Jan 23, 2013.
  258. Fast and Furious in a Rotten Nutshell, Ronald Kolb, American Thinker, October 7, 2011,
  259. Horwitz, S. & Grimaldi, J.V. (2010, December 17). White House Delayed Rule Meant to Stop Gun Flow to Mexico. The Washington Post.
  260. Obama’s Cuban Detente. The Wall Street Journal. December 17, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
  261. Spetalnick, Matt; Gardner, Timothy (December 13, 2016). Obama to press Trump to preserve Cuba detente: White House. Reuters. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
  262. Frumin, Aliyah (July 1, 2015). Obama announces historic deal with Cuba. MSNBC. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
  263. Kerry marks opening of US Embassy in Havana, critics rip 'diplomacy for show'. Fox News. August 14, 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
  264. Obama nominates first US ambassador to Cuba in more than 55 years. Fox News. September 27, 2016. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
  265. Spetalnick, Matt; Marsh, Sarah (October 14, 2016). Obama eases restrictions on Cuba, lifts limits on rum and cigars. Reuters. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
  266. Obama announces end to 'wet foot, dry foot' policy for Cuban refugees. Fox News. January 12, 2017. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
  267. 268.0 268.1 Natasha Lennard. The Obama/Gitmo timeline (English). Salon.
  268. Saxena, V. (January 6, 2017). Obama To Release 18 Hardened Gitmo Terrorists Before Leaving Office. Western Journalism. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
  269. Ryan, Missy; Tate, Julie (December 28, 2016). With final detainee transfer, Obama’s Guantanamo policy takes its last breath. The Washington Post. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
  270. Obama calls for a 'rethinking' on Crimea vote. Cybercast News Service
  271. Klein, Aaron (July 13, 2016). Israeli Lawmakers Fume Over Obama Administration ‘Intervention’ to Defeat Netanyahu. Breitbart. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  272. Netanyahu scores crushing victory in Israeli elections. The Times of Israel. March 18, 2015. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  273. 274.0 274.1 Israel fears Obama will strike again. World Israel News. December 26, 2016. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  274. 275.0 275.1 Berkowitz, Adam Eliyahu (December 26, 2016). Fed Up With United States Trickery, Netanyahu Takes Drastic Actions. Breaking Israel News. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  275. Hanchett, Ian (December 28, 2016). NBC’s Neely: Kerry Speech ‘Firing a Flare’ ‘Across Israel’ He Wanted To Give It ‘For Some Time’ But WH Blocked It. Breitbart. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  276. Pollak, Joel B. (December 28, 2016). Kerry Attacks Israeli Government, Defends UN Resolution. Breitbart. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  277. Key, Pam (December 28, 2016). Netanyahu: ‘I Must Express My Deep Disappointment’ With Kerry — ‘Israelis Do Not Need To Be Lectured’. Breitbart. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  278. House overwhelmingly votes to condemn UN resolution on Israel settlements. Fox News. January 5, 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
  279. Cortellessa, Eric (January 6, 2017). US House passes motion repudiating UN resolution on Israel. The Times of Israel. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
  280. Pollak, Joel B. (December 23, 2016). Trump on UN Anti-Israel Vote: ‘Things Will Be Different After Jan. 20’. Breitbart. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
  281. Swoyer, Alex (December 29, 2016). Trump: ‘I’m Very, Very Strong on Israel’. Breitbart. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
  282. 283.0 283.1 US quietly sent $221M to Palestinians in Obama's last hours. Fox News. January 24, 2017. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
  283. Solomon, Howard (October 3, 2016). New era in Internet governance starts as US cedes control of domain name system. IT World Canada. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  284. Lieberman, Eric (September 24, 2016). Obama Admin Wants To Surrender US Control Over Internet To Global Bureaucracy. The Daily Caller. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  285. 286.0 286.1 Lucas, Fred (December 26, 2016). Spree of Obama actions revives GOP concerns over ‘midnight’ regs, agenda. Fox News. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  286. Obama: I could have won third term. Fox News. December 26, 2016. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  287. 288.0 288.1 Democrats lost over 1,000 seats under Obama. Fox News. December 27, 2016. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  288. Lawler, David (December 26, 2016). Barack Obama says Democrats will not 'disintegrate' like Labour under Jeremy Corbyn. The Telegraph. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  289. Swoyer, Alex (December 28, 2016). Donald Trump Responds to President Obama’s ‘Many Inflammatory’ Statements. Breitbart. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  290. Scott, Eugine (December 28, 2016). Trump: 'NOT' a smooth transition after Obama 'roadblocks'. CNN. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  291. Huston, Warner Todd (January 4, 2017). President Obama Awards Himself Distinguished Public Service Medal. Breitbart. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  292. Obama: I'm the 1st Modern President Without a Major Scandal. Fox News Insider. January 13, 2017. Retrieved January 16 2017.
  293. Shelbourne, Mallory (January 15, 2017). Chief of staff: Obama administration 'historically free of scandal'. The Hill. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  294. Dickens, Geoffrey (January 16, 2017). The Seven Most Undercovered Obama Scandals. NewsBusters. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  295. Hemingway, Mark (January 9, 2017). The Obama Era Had Scandals Aplenty. Weekly Standard. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  296. CNN Political Unit (2011, April 27). "White House Releases Obama Birth Certificate." CNN.
  297. Winter, J. (2011, April 29). "Expert: No Doubt Obama's Birth Certificate is Legit." Fox News.
    Tuchman, G. (2011, April 25). "Obama Birther Claims Have No Merit." CNN.
    (2011, April 27). "Obama Releases Detailed U.S. Birth Certificate." MSNBC.
  298. "Certificate of Live Birth." State of Hawaii. Retrieved from WhiteHouse.gov.
  299. James, F. (2011, April 15). "Donald Trump, Birther In Chief? Poll Has Him Leading GOP Field with 26 Percent." NPR.
  300. The Great Islamophobic Crusade, CBSNEWS, December 19, 2010. cbsnews.com
  301. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article102354777.html
  302. http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthers/booklet.asp
  303. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama: an alliance long and slow in the making, Gary Younge, Guardian UK.
  304. Who is BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA? Mission Statement, stop-obama.org
  305. https://youtu.be/bifsEkjTAc8
  306. Obama, B. (2011, May 2). "Osama Bin Laden Dead." White House.
  307. Nobel Prize Winner with a kill list.
  308. Baker, P., Cooper, H., & Mazzetti, M. (2011, May 1). "[Bin Laden is Dead, Obama Says]." The New York Times.
    "Target Bin Laden: The Death of Public Enemy #1." ABC News.
    NPR. "Special Series: Osama Bin Laden Killed."
  309. Associated Press (2011, May 10). "Former Pakistani President Claims There Was Never Bin Laden Deal With U.S.." Retrieved from Fox News.
  310. Dao, J. & Sussman, D. (2011, May 4). "For Obama, Big Rise in Poll Numbers After Bin Laden Raid." New York Times.
    Pew Research Center (2011, May 2). "Public 'Relieved' by Bin Laden's Death, Obama's Job Approval Rises."
    Jones, J.M. (2011, May 5). "Obama Job Approval Rallies Six Points to 52% After Bin Laden Death." Gallup.
  311. CBS News/Associated Press (2012, May 1). "1 Year After Osama bin Laden Killed, Still No Answers from Pakistan."
  312. NBC investigation claims Obama knew where bin Laden was ONE YEAR before 2011 raid and backs Seymour Hersh's claim Pakistan intelligence hid al-Qaeda chief, Daily Mail
  313. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/25/remarks-president-un-general-assembly
  314. Kurtz, S. (2012, June 7). Obama's Third-Party History. National Review Online.
  315. 316.0 316.1 Pollack, J.B. (2012, June 7). Obama Caught Lying Again: He WAS Member of 'New Party', Says Kurtz. Breitbart.com
    Smith, B. (2008, October 25). The Dread New Party. Politico.
  316. Hallowell, B. (2012, June 7). News Docs Reportedly Show Obama Was a Member of the Far-Left 'New Party'. The Blaze.
  317. Erickson, E. (2008, June 10). Obama and the New Party. Human Events.
  318. Gladnick, P.J. (2008, October 12). Will MSM Report on Obama Membership in Socialist New Party? Newsbusters.
  319. Rick Moran. Obama's Alliance with Marxists, American Thinker, June 03, 2008.
  320. NEW PARTY (NP), Discover the Networks.
  321. Pollack, J.B. (2012, June 7). Exclusive: Axelrod Plays Dumb on Obama and Socialist New Party. Breitbart.com.
  322. Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event in Roanoke, Virginia, White House
  323. 2012 Presidential Election, Politico
  324. Official 2012 Presidential General Election Results, Federal Election Commission
  325. Kaplan, Sarah (September 9, 2016). Scientists like Barack Obama so much that they named a parasite after him. The Washington Post. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  326. https://twitter.com/dineshdsouza/status/760447860638789632
  327. Obama building a wall around his new DC house. Washington Examiner. January 6, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  328. Democrats and Media Agreed: There Was No Way Donald Trump Could Be Elected, Video