User:Me, The First/Barack Obama



Barack Hussein Obama (Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 4, 1961) is the 44th President of the United States, and devout Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, gay, Atheist, Egyptian. Being the first President with African American lineage, he is now known to the world as the avatar of American racism perhaps being consigned to the "ash-bin of history". A lot of Americans are wary of Obama as they believe he is not actually American (see below).

He previously served as a "community organizer", Senator from Illinois and as an active member of the Democratic Party. President Obama was introduced to the world during the 2004 Democratic convention, when he gave a keynote speech that made much of the nation take notice. He is most notable for being young and seeming idealistic. One of the central things that distinguished his campaign from those of the other mainstream Democratic candidates was that he practices "the politics of hope." Plus, something about "change".

In October of 2009, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his stunning success in not being George W. Bush.

Political views
Obama has taken a clear stand against torture and for human rights -- except for privacy rights and some other civil liberties, as demonstrated when he voted for FISA.

He also does not advocate a mandatory universal health care plan, as his is merely about lowering premiums and costs. Many have called this plan more effective than Senator Clinton's mandatory plan, and many have criticized it for being not fully mandatory.

Obama was an opponent of the Iraq invasion, and was a state senator in Illinois when Congress authorized the president to use force in Iraq. Obama later said that opposing the war was “as tough a decision that I’ve had to make, not only because there were political consequences but also because Saddam Hussein was a bad person and there was no doubt he meant America ill.”

Islam
Many people have tried to smear Obama by claiming he is a Muslim (which, as Colin Powell rightly pointed out, shouldn't be a smear, but, alas, it is in practice), since his father (who was an African immigrant) was (or perhaps he may have been an agnostic or even an atheist). However, Obama is a staunch Christian, and often injects Jesus and God into his speeches. The myth of Obama's connections with Islam originated with paranoid right-wing pundit and litigator Andy Martin, who has also perpetuated various other smears against Obama, linking him to radicalism and socialism, as well as demanding public access to his birth certificate.

Lack of phony patriotism


Unlike some people, Senator Obama does not wear a flag pin in his lapel, possibly because he can remember which country he's President of without having to look at it every few minutes. However, he did wear one given to him by a veteran at one speech, and has continued to wear one sporadically during his campaign, notably at major political events.

In yet another horrific public display, Senator Obama was observed not putting his hand on his heart while the National Anthem was being sung. It should be noted, however, that this is not a necessary protocol - one is merely expected to remove one's headgear, and either remain respectfully silent or sing along.

Birthers

 * Main article: Obama citizenship denial

Additionally, many attempted to discredit the Obama campaign by claiming that he was not born in the U.S., a requirement for any U.S. president. Given that there is no evidence for him being a Martian, Muslim, Gay or Communist, this has been the last refuge of those who, frankly, just can't stand that a black man won an election.

Unsolicited New Party endorsement
In his first run for the State Senate, he received (without so much as a by-your-leave, mind you ) the endorsement of the "New Party," a highly obscure Marxist outfit that was aiming to reintroduce electoral fusion on a national level. Of course, no one outside the moonbat community actually noticed this until the wingnut community, scraping the dregs for any excuse to use "Obama" and "communist" in the same sentence, happened upon it. Therefore, the New Party is most known today for the right-wing fit this nomination provoked. The nomination is so obscure that, by Wikipedia rules, it cannot be mentioned in the article on Obama. This prompted Conservapedia to call Wikipedia "fascist."

Abundance of melanin, etc.
His other major issues with winning over people include:


 * His name terrifies illiterate rednecks:
 * Barack (rhymes with Iraq, also means "blessed" in Swahili--derived from the same Semitic language root as Baruch in Hebrew)
 * Hussein ('nuff said)
 * Obama (spelled by Faux News as Osama)


 * His skin color terrifies racist morons.


 * His alleged use of mind-control terrifies quacks.

Several conservative blogs and commentators, suffering from a huge case of sour grapes over the election, have stated that Barack Obama is the first affirmative action President. This quite idiotic and clearly bitter accusation is completely at odds with observed polling behavior related to race, known as the Bradley effect, where people of ethnic minorities get fewer votes in reality compared to polls. No one believes he is the second affirmative action President.

Obama has been attacked because his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, while certainly being a little edgy, and definitely being outspoken, has been quoted severely out of context in attempts to make him seem like an America-hating bat-shit crazy loon.

Cabinet appointments

 * Secretary of State: Hillary Rodham Clinton
 * Secretary of the Treasury: Timothy Geithner
 * Secretary of Defense: Robert Gates
 * Attorney General: Eric Holder
 * Secretary of the Interior: Ken Salazar
 * Secretary of Agriculture: Tom Vilsack
 * Secretary of Commerce: Bill Richardson
 * Secretary of Labor: Hilda Solis
 * Secretary of Health and Human Services: Tom Daschle, later withdrawn and replaced by Kathleen Sebelius
 * Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Shaun Donovan
 * Secretary of Transportation: Ray LaHood
 * Secretary of Energy: Steven Chu
 * Secretary of Education: Arne Duncan
 * Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Eric Shinseki

Guantanamo Bay military prison

 * As of January 20, 2009, a 120-day suspension was put on all trials taking place at Guantanamo Bay.
 * On January 22, 2009, President Obama signed an executive order to close Guantanamo within a year, and for those incarcerated within to be dealt with as quickly as possible. A year later, people still linger in Gitmo, and no trials have been held.

Universal health care

 * February 5, 2009: Obama extends health care to 4 million uninsured children.
 * February 25, 2009: Obama sets out eight guidelines for his new health care plan.
 * February 26, 2009: Health insurance and drug company lobbyists give Obama and prominent members of the Senate and Congress millions of dollars, turning Obama's only major reform into a watered down and spineless step that will accomplish nothing but cementing the power of the donors.

Ending the miltary occupation of Iraq

 * February 27, 2009: Obama sets the date of the Iraq War's end to be August 31, 2010. However, at least one report argues that American military combat brigades are slated to stay in Iraq for an indefinite time following the end of the official occupation.

Miscellaneous obvious expectations

 * January 30, 2009: The abortion funding "gag rule" (preventing any clinic anywhere in the world that receives US funding from mentioning the evil abortion word) is rescinded, along with other Dubya-era executive orders.
 * February 9, 2009: Obama lifts the restrictions on stem-cell research.

War crimes committed by the United States under President Obama

 * On January 23 2009, a mere 72 hours after taking office, Obama authorized an armed strike against a village in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan--an ally of the United States,(although the area being bombed, the tribal belt, is not under control of Pakistans government) because the Pakistan Taliban Movement in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) had launched a campaign to discover local informants for the Central Intelligence Agency, and had killed 40 of them -- "According to the Pakistani press, the strike not only killed the four Arab fighters and a Punjabi militant, but also the Pashtun host and some of his family members. A few hours later, missiles slammed into another residence near the village of Wana in a nearby tribal agency, South Waziristan, killing 10. Pakistani sources disagreed over whether there had been any foreign fighters at all at the second target, with locals claiming that 10 family members, including women and children, were the only victims. Villagers in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt sometimes rent to the Arab fighters because they are sympathetic to their struggle, but sometimes they just need the money."
 * On February 14, 2009, the United States, for the second time in a month, bombed a house in Pakistan that that was being used as a hideout by the Talaeban. Twenty-seven militants were killed.
 * By the end of March, it began to appear as if the US under Obama would be expanding the War on Terror into Pakistan while winding down its major military commitment in Iraq.

Other abuses of basic human rights committed by Barack Obama

 * On 20 February 2009, the Obama administration announced that it would maintain the Bush-era policy that Afghans being held prisoner in appalling conditions at the Bagram air base do not have constitutional rights, possibly (but not confirmed) including the right to access a lawyer or the right to challenge their detention. "They've now embraced the Bush policy that you can create prisons outside the law," said an attorney from the ACLU. Obama is also apparently planning the construction of expanded Bagram facilities in order to double the number of people being held as "enemy combatants."

The next 1361 days

 * March 23, 2010: Obama signed a health insurance reform bill into law. It may be a start, but right now it looks a bit like a handout to health insurance companies in the absence of a "public option".
 * December 17, 2010: Obama signed a bill extending the George W. Bush tax cuts for all Americans including for the wealthy until 2012. Unemployment benefits are also extended.
 * Pending: Obama signed the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell.

2008 primary and caucus out-of-dates
He won the Iowa caucus and South Carolina primary, and a bunch of others on Super Tuesday. He went twelve-for-twelve in February and won Vermont in March. In May, he won North Carolina, whereupon he was declared the "presumptive nominee" by many pundits.

Towards the end of the race, he succeeded in maintaining a marginal lead over Hillary Clinton, in what became a two-way race.

On May 14, he received the endorsement of John Edwards, the third-place former candidate. He also gained the support of Chris Dodd, another former candidate, and a half-dozen or so Kennedys.

By the end of the primary/caucus season, June 3 2008, he had garnered enough pledged delegates and endorsements from superdelegates to claim the Democratic Party nomination. This was confirmed further when Senator Clinton suspended her campaign on June 7, 2008, and pledged her support to Obama, effectively giving him the nomination. Clinton further sealed the deal, and also attempted to set the party back on the path to unity behind Obama by using her speech at the Convention to call for his nomination by acclamation (rather than going through the tedious process of delegate counting and voting).

2008 presidential election



 * August 23, 2008: Obama chose Senator Joseph Biden as his Vice-Presidential candidate.
 * August 28, 2008: Barack Obama was nominated by acclamation as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, making him the first African-American to become the presidential candidate for a major political party in the U.S.
 * November 4, 2008: Barack Obama won the 2008 Presidential Election.
 * January 20, 2009: Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.