The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

I find it kind of funny that many Americans, Republican politicians in particular, seem to feel this country is on the "wrong track." While we certainly have our share of problems in this country (and overseas), do these people remember where we were 6 years ago? Remember how many jobs were being lost toward the end of Bush's presidency and at the start of President Obama's first term? How can these people look toward another with a straight face and say, "We're worse off today than when Obama took office"? According to FactCheck.org , here are the numbers from the time President Obama took office in late-January of 2009 to July of 2014: - Affordable Care Act Exchange Sign-ups: +8 million - Affordable Care Act New Medicaid Sign-ups: +6.1 million - Jobs: +4.8 million - Unemployment rate: down to 6.1% - Corporate Profits: +184% - Real Weekly Earnings: +0.3% - U.S. Crude Oil Production: +67% - New Car MPG: +21% - Wind & Solar Power: ...

An ultra-conservative acquaintance of mine posted a status on Facebook the other day which really had me shaking my head. On Monday, it was planned for President Obama to give a speech revolving around the 5-year anniversary of when the country's economic meltdown started. Then came the mass shooting in this nation's capital. Instead of postponing the speech, the president added more to it. He began the speech talking about the tragedy which occurred earlier in the day, transitioned to the situation in Syria, and then to the economy - what all we faced five years ago, how much progress we've made since that point, and what all needs to be done to complete the rebound. Having read all that, this acquaintance of mine then said Monday's speech by President Obama was far worse than former President Bush's mission accomplished banner, due to the tragedy which occurred earlier in the day. He insinuated that the president didn't mention this tragedy in the speech at ...

Following President Obama's State of the Union Address and his claim that our nation is "stronger," I've seen several posts on Facebook from Republican friends of mine about this claim. What has their focus been on exactly? The unemployment rate, where they showcased that we've had more months of being at over 8.0% unemployment under President Obama than we had in all the years before him since 1948. These numbers may be true on the surface, but once again, don't tell the whole story. The unemployment rate was 4.6% on January 1st of 2007, 5.0% on January 1st of 2008, and 7.7% on January 1st of 2009, just before Obama took the reigns away from George W. Bush. See which way those numbers are moving? Obama was then handed the keys to the car which was going 90 mph and inching ever closer to a cliff. The unemployment rate continued to increase at an unheard of rate (outside of the Great Depression) to 9.7% as of January 1st of 2010. However, the unemployment rat...