Eight years ago, we inaugurated the first African-American President after he won a decisive victory over his Republican opponents. He made clear that his agenda from the outset would include affordable health care, ending the war in Iraq which had been sold by the previous Administration on false pretenses and, most critically, reversing the economic catastrophe that eight years of Republican mismanagement had wrought. The month before President Obama took office, the U.S. economy was bleeding 800,000 jobs per month, the U.S. auto industry was nearing bankruptcy, major financial institutions were collapsing, the housing market was imploding, and the stock market had crashed.
The same day he was inaugurated, Republican Congressional leaders gathered in an upscale restaurant, The Caucus Room, and conspired to obstruct and oppose every piece of legislation proposed by the new President, whether or not it was something they had previously supported. After losing the White House and both chambers of Congress, their defeated party couldn't afford to give Obama a "win" on anything. Facing these headwinds -- the bogus Tea Party/ Koch brothers astroturf movement, the racist birther movement, and total monolithic obstruction from Republicans -- Obama was able to achieve several landmark objectives: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Wall Street reform (Dodd-Frank), the stimulus which reversed the economic collapse, loans which turned around the auto industry, the repeal of "don't ask don't tell," Federal support of same-sex marriage, ending major military involvement in the Iraq War, negotiating the Iran nuclear deal, and overseeing the mission that eliminated Osama bin Laden. His signature achievement, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which Republican nihilists derisively labeled "Obamacare," was passed over Republican obstruction (despite incorporating many of their amendments), and is now the focus of their mean- spirited legislative attacks, despite providing life- altering protection for some 20 million Americans who previously lacked affordable health insurance. Want more? Here are those and many other accomplishments of the Obama Administration.
Beyond his official role, President Obama represented the best of us: compassion, dignity, decency, a good husband and father, and a calm reasonable approach to not only his job but to life, despite relentless racist animosity directed at him. He's the first two- term President since Dwight Eisenhower to leave office with no serious scandal marring his tenure. His often self-deprecating humor, his intelligence and extraordinary communications skills will be missed tremendously in the coming years as his polar opposite takes office. (HC has captured some of their favorite Obama family moments, which we endorse.) But, we'll always remember this picture of the young African American boy confirming his ethnicity by touching President Obama's hair, an image that captures so much about what President Obama meant to all of us, and who he was:
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| (Photo: White House) |
Lest we forget the other main ingredient in the Obama presidency, the wonderful First Lady Michelle Obama (who had significant accomplishments herself), let's take a final, short, nostalgic walk with her through the White House:
We're already seeing Rump claim credit for things he had no role in, which will only increase as he manipulates the broken corporate media eager for access and the clueless cult supporting him. But Obama's achievements are real, and must not be forgotten. What must also not be forgotten would be any dismantling of those achievements by the no- mandate, party- before- country Russo- Republicans, and the harm that would be done by that dismantling. Never forget those who would "comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted."
So, for future comparison, here's a snapshot of where we are as the Obama Administration hands the ball off to the tiny- fingered neo- fascist incompetent *:
Latest unemployment rate: 4.7% (December 2016)
Gross National Product, 2008- 2016 (click on image to enlarge):
Housing starts (December 2016): +11.3%; 1.17 million units for the year (strongest since 2007)
Prime mortgage rate: 3.75%
National average gasoline price (AAA): $2.34
Dow Jones Industrial Average (January 18): 19,717
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So, friends, let's celebrate today and continue the struggle tomorrow and in the months and years to come.
* Nancy LeTourneau has more data points for future comparison here.
(This post was a collaboration by the Hackwhacker brothers.)
