Allah:
Great line. Does anyone believe it? We elected a national savior from the left in 2008, now we’re weighing whether to elect one from the right. The guy making this point has expanded the powers of the presidency beyond even what George W. Bush was able to do, from intervening in Libya’s civil war without congressional approval to striking a nuclear deal with Iran without Senate ratification to issuing an unconstitutional executive amnesty of millions of illegals. He ordered a delay in the implementation of ObamaCare’s employer mandate and didn’t even pretend that he had the legal authority to do it. His second term has encouraged an insane yet seemingly widespread belief on the left that when Congress takes too long to act on the president’s priorities, he gains some sort of additional legal power to act in their absence. And he’s done all of this with the near-total acquiescence of members of his party, who believe, as partisans do, that their guy can be trusted with extraordinary power because his intentions are good. We do look to be ruled, as long as it’s our own side that’s doing the ruling. Given the intensity of partisan divisions, in fact, I’d say most of the public prefers a ruler. How else are you going to keep those jerks across the aisle in check?
But O got away with this because Trump is such a crass authoritarian (a “homegrown demagogue” as Obama put it, lumping him in with fascists, communists, and jihadists) that it’s irresistible to play the high-minded small-d democrat when drawing contrasts with him. That’s a decent play for anti-Trump votes of various stripes. But what about the great mass that cares less about who’s a demagogue than who’s going to bring back jobs? Byron York is right:
These are the wrong-track numbers for the last ten polls in the RealClearPolitics average of polls: 67, 70, 67, 71, 73, 69, 79, 68, 60 and 66.
And yet, in spite of clear evidence that a majority of Americans believe the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction, the president exhorted the nation, “Thank you for this incredible journey — let’s keep it going.”
Obama spoke as if broad areas of American life are better than ever, even if there remains work to be done. When Obama said, “My time in this office — it hasn’t fixed everything,” the millions of voters who believe the country is on the wrong track might have seen that as a significant understatement.
The happy, prosperous, optimistic America that exists in Obama’s head must be a wonderful place to live. Or rather, I should say, the America that exists on his teleprompter:
Emperor Obama referred to himself 119 times during his long-winded and disingenuous speech. What the Democrats really fear is that Trump will follow Obama’s unconstitutional example.
Democratic Convention Day 1
FactChecking Day 2 of the DNC
Video: FactCheck and PBS NewsHour
Summary
PHILADELPHIA — The president headlined the night’s speeches, and a few of his boasts of his record headline our fact-checking report:
* President Barack Obama claimed that under his administration, “we finally began to wean ourselves off foreign oil,” but dependency on imported oil had begun to drop years before he took office.
* The president repeated a frequent boast that the U.S. “doubled our production of clean energy” during his tenure. Monthly renewable energy production has gone up 40 percent.
* Obama said deficits have “come down” under his administration. That’s true, but they are expected to rise again soon under his proposed budget.
* Vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine falsely referred to economist Mark Zandi as “John McCain’s chief economic adviser during the ’08 race,” in touting an estimate of job loss under Donald Trump’s proposals. In fact, Zandi is a Democrat.
* Rev. Jesse Jackson wrongly said “we have not lost a single job, a single month” since Obama became president, and he was also off in saying the U.S. trades “more with Mexico than we do with China.”
* Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta falsely claimed that Trump “says he gets his foreign policy experience from … running the Miss Universe pageant.” Trump didn’t say that was his foreign policy experience.
* Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid claimed that the GOP ticket wanted to “gamble” Social Security “in the stock market.” But Trump’s campaign has called for making no changes to Social Security.
* Kaine claimed that Trump said he “wants to abandon” our NATO allies. Trump has said that he doesn’t want the U.S. to leave NATO, but has suggested he would not automatically defend NATO allies that do not pay their share of defense costs.
Video: Day 3 of the DNC
@Ditto: But, other than all that, their convention was a positive, uplifting experience. Not mean, like the Republicans.
George Soros is pulling Obamas strings