Ronald Reagan famously asked in his 1980 presidential campaign, “Are you better off now than you were” when the incumbent, Jimmy Carter, took office. Sometimes the comparison is so stark that you simply need to impeach. Consider how things have changed between January 2009 when Obama took office and today:
- The economy was shrinking at an alarming 5.4%; now it’s growing at about 4%.
- The stock market had lost 40% of its value and was free-falling; now it has regained all of its value and gone on to record highs.
- We were losing 800,000 jobs per month; now we’re gaining 200,000 per month.
- The housing market was in crisis; now it’s stabilized.
- The auto industry was about to go bankrupt and crater the economy; now it’s running healthy profits.
- Young Americans were regularly coming home in body bags from foreign wars; now our combat units are out.
- We’ve eliminated Osama bin Laden, the Somali pirates who kidnapped Americans, the head of al-Shabaab (per Kenyan mall attack), and captured the guy behind the Benghazi attacks.
- After five presidents tried and failed at health care reform, the ACA (Obamacare) puts us one step closer to the affordable, universal health care that the rest of the West enjoys.
- Big banks had free reign; Obama pushed through Wall St regulations and credit card reforms mandating transparency in fees and rate increases.
- Pushed for a market-based cap on carbon and increased renewables such that wind capacity has tripled and solar capacity increased 16-fold.
We need to impeach the integrity of the media outlets that continually scream a false narrative about how this president had led us in the wrong direction.
shakemyheadhollow 
I love the impeachment talk. It just shows how out of touch the Republicans are. They have no chance of the Senate supporting them so it is like a DA accepting a case he knows he can’t win but because he wants to make a show. The Republicsn would be the “Jim Garrison Congress” of history. As long as this stupidity goes on, the Democrats will continue to take in lots of $$ and the people in the center will more and more see the “Tea Party” mentality as being bad for the country.
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I like the “Jim Garrison Congress” moniker, and I hope you’re right about who will more and more see what (but I lack your optimism, at least in the short term).
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I agree an impeachment would be most entertaining at this point in President Obama’s quite successful administration of our country. It is tragically hilarious how the powers of, let us politely say, anachronism, will not even admit into their own baby-pool minds the possibility of a man of Mr. Obama’s shade and heritage possessing the talent and will to move U.S. policy, both domestic and foreign, in a progressive direction. Their denial is their downfall.
Bring it on, Mr. Speaker!
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Their denial doesn’t seem to have hurt them in the upcoming Senate elections, but I have to share your view that it will be their downfall, or part of it, long-term.
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I think you have an excellent point; it is shameful what distortions (or downright lies) the press can get away with, both in America and Britain. I was really intrigued by Number 8. Do you think it is possible that America will ever have a National Health Service? The NHS often gets a bad press in Britain, but – although reform is needed – it is an amazing service overall because having the worry of paying medical bills (albeit through insurance premiums) on top of the trauma/grief following accidents or illness is a burden we don’t have to carry, and I truly believe it is worth forking out the tax to pay collectively for the health of the people. Bear with me, as I know next to nothing about America, but I was wondering what you, and other like-minded souls, would think about a health service paid for by taxes? I never have to think twice about taking my children to the doctor, or fret about what my medical insurance covers (or indeed having medical insurance at all) and it does seem hard on Americans that they don’t appear to have that privilege.
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Hi Fan of Dickens. I and many – perhaps half – of Americans agree with your sentiments exactly, but it may be hard for an outsider to fathom how politicized, how loud and large the 24/7 orchestra of disinformation (along with snippets of good information, confusing information, etc.) is in the U.S. on this topic. The number of Americans who would like a health service paid for by taxes varies as the disinformation pumps ebb and flow and varies with how the question is asked. When Obama first took office, about 61-64% of Americans thought we should have a “public option” for health care coverage. But with resistance in Congress, Obama compromised away the public option, and the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), although it moves toward universal coverage, leaves all that coverage to the private insurance industry, so when our kids get sick we still have to worry about deductibles, what’s covered and what’s not, and what fights we’re going to have with our insurance providers when payment is due. At this point, more than half of Americans are skeptical about Obamacare and the raw question about the “public option” would probably pull less than 61% now – it’s probably about an even split. But there is enormous power and money promoting the idea that any kind of “socialized” or “government-run” health care would be catastrophic. And indeed — don’t laugh — they paint pictures of suffering Europeans unable to get treatment as an example of how bad socialized medicine is. Since more than half of Americans have never traveled outside the country, this imaginary picture often has the desired impact.
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