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I thought it would be interesting we haven't done this for a little while we
sometimes get bogged down in
here are the things that we don't like about Obama here a good things that
President Obama is doing
and I was on ring a fire I guest co hosted ring a fire with my Pappy Antonio
last week
and we talked about what what should progressives be saying about President
Obama and I said there's no simple
one-sentence explanation progressive should be saying on many issues
we would much prefer President Obama over
a more conservative alternative and probably over most Republicans however
there are many issues including appointing 23 ambassadors
or simply for bundling and getting a buncha donations for him
drones not closing Guantanamo Bay all these other things
TPP in negotiating TPP behind-the-scene this is long list of complaints with
President Obama
and on those we should criticize him but what I want to look at here
are some areas where the numbers don't lie
and president Obama has improved the situation dramatically from January of
2009 before he took office until today
the dow was under 8000 when President Obama took the reins in the United
States
today it is over sixteen thousand this has more than doubled
remembering of course as we spoke about with with economist Richard wolf
stock ownership is disproportionately in the hands above the rich
unemployment has dropped from 7.8 percent 26.7 percent right-wingers will
tell you well
that's because so many people are discouraged by not finding jobs
that they're no longer looking and they don't contribute to that rate
shirt but that would have been the case no matter who was the next president
that's always been the way
the unemployment rate is measured GDP growth
was that negative 5.4 percent when President Obama took office
it is now up 4.1 percent 4.1 percent growth this is merely a 10
percentage-point swing
this is huge this is a huge change deficit
as a percentage of the GDP was at 9.8 percent
it has dropped two-thirds to only 3.3 percent
and the consumer confidence index has gone from 37
278 it has more then doubled yes President Obama
and his drone policies concerning he didn't close Guantanamo Bay which he
said he would do
health care reform while it did good things with it was a huge not to big
business
a lot of President Obama's biggest donors were nominated to be ambassadors
TPP furthering expanding an essay in Patriot Act stuff
we can't deny that those things are concerning
at the same time we also can't deny these numbers Louis
of course I with with most presidents
there's the good and there's the bad and unfortunately he is still
in many cases at the mercy I'll I
you know congress yeah and let's not let him off the hook altogether he is still
also in many ways just another plutocratic elected official
of course of course right we we can't deny that either