Debunking Teabagger myths about the President: A crib sheet.

[Skidmore]

Read and pass on. For starters:

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/01/13/debunk-right-wing-obama-myths/

1) Obama takes too many vacations.
FACT: As of August 16th of 2013, Obama had taken 92 days of vacation vs 367 for George W. Bush.

2) Obama has divided the nation.
FACT: Obama has done more to unite this nation than any president since Lincoln. But he’s up against a phalanx of 21st Century separatists, racists and neo-fascists, some of whom have openly proposed seceding. Here… let me hold that door for you. Besides; who’s dividing the Republican party into right wing and ultra-far right wings? Is Obama doing that too? Nope. Look in a mirror Teabigots.

3) Obama’s policies are bankrupting America.

FACT: Reagan added $1.9 trillion to the debt. Bush Sr. added an additional $1.5. Clinton added $1.4. Dubbya added $6.1. Obama has added less than $3.0, the bulk of which was to offset the effects of the Bush recession. Who holds that debt? China; $1.2 trillion. Japan; $900 billion. The Fed; $1.6 trillion. The public; $3.6 trillion. Government trusts; $1.9 trillion. Social Security; $2.7 trillion. So nice try, but no Kewpie doll for you

4) Obama’s a socialist.

FACT: Hardly. Obama’s economic and social policies are to the right of Kennedy’s, Eisenhower’s, Nixon’s, and even some of Reagan’s. If Obama’s a socialist, then Eisenhower, who had a 91% top tax rate, was a Republican Marxist.

more...

[WonderGrunion]

1. Nice info

I'll be copying and pasting parts of that to FaceBook threads

[wandy]

2. But "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest"..........

Especial if it is spoon fed to him........

Talking to people who religiously watch Fox News is better than space travel. You get to see what life is like on another planet without the risk of explosive decompression. But if you’re a Fox News devotee and insist that the rest of the world is crazy, this list is for you. Please, get help.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/01/27/50-signs-watch-much-fox-news/

[Donald Ian Rankin]

3. Some hits, and some misses, I think.

1,3,4,7,9,10,11,14,15 and 18 are palpable hits, I think (assuming the numbers cited are correct, which I don't know for sure).

2,6,8 are opinions with the word "Fact" written before them and underlined, although in fairness 6 and 8 are opinions with a strong evidence base behind them.

5 and 17 are misses, I'm afraid: I think it's unlikely that Obama was genuinely sure that “If you like your present policy, you can keep it,” when he presented it as a promise, and this list is full of attempts to deflect from talking about Obama to talking about Bush.

12,13 and 16 I don't know enough about to comment on.

[Skidmore]

4. We all have hits and misses in life.

I believe that overall the President has done a pretty good job given what was handed to him.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

14. I'm inclined to agree, but that's one hell of a qualifier.

I think that history will remember Obama as a "might-have-been-great" president, who was hamstrung by having to work with an exceptionally obstructive Congress, and inheriting the country in a particular bad state from one of the worst presidents for a long time.

[Skidmore]

16. It is a fact.

I think one thing that makes him great is that he has been able to get so much done in spite of an organized campaign against everything he does funded by RW billionaires and the Congress they bought as well as the political axes many others have ground too. He's a patient person. I shudder to think where we might be with a neocon like McCain or a 1%er like Romney in office now.

[freshwest]

5. Excellent! Thanks. And the meme pic says a lot, too:

The GOP and their paid media have nothing but lies and self-serving mythology. And enough hot air to fly a balloon.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

6. I think of teabaggers as fascists who are also way below average in knowledge about everything. nt

[Spitfire of ATJ]

7. No matter WHAT you tell them they think a white male Republican can do better.

[Godot51]

8. No matter...

No matter the facts, no matter the truth, no matter the reality Obama is bad for them and bad for America because he is black.

If he were white he'd still be hated and scorned, this is the new norm for treatment of the opposition, but being a black man is a sin they cannot forgive.

It reminds me of the hate that surrounded Jackie Robinson and the early black athletes who played in all white arenas to all white crowds with an all white press covering them.

I pity the first Democratic* woman president. She had better have ovaries of stainless steel or, better yet, titanium.

*If the first woman president is a Republican I believe she will probably be an air-headed "trophy" president with a cadre of old white men behind her, like Sarah Palin or George Bush.

[llmart]

9. Am I confusing two different things?

I thought when Clinton left office there was a surplus?

[WillyT]

10. "Obama’s a socialist..." - I Wish !!!

FACT: Hardly. Obama’s economic and social policies are to the right of Kennedy’s, Eisenhower’s, Nixon’s, and even some of Reagan’s. If Obama’s a socialist, then Eisenhower, who had a 91% top tax rate, was a Republican Marxist.

Yep...

[certainot]

11. good stuff, but that stuff was pounded into the earholes of 50 million radio listeners a week for

months and years, from 1200 coordinated radio stations. the right yelled these lies from ever corner and stump in the country and the left ignores it. the perfect weapon.

and it's too late to fix in an overall sense just because Dems don't monitor nor respond to the lies in real time. the left studiously ignores RW radio - the biggest mistake in political history considering the time lost on global warming action.

these facts need to be put on signs and waved in protests in front of rw radio stations. the radio gods and the stations that put them on, and the colleges that rent their sports logos to them need to be shamed with these facts where it can't be ignored.

[Skidmore]

15. We all can push back on the propaganda from the right.

We can do it everyday with people we know and those we don't know. Just simply stating a fact that is at refutes Fox disinformation is a good start. Nadinbrzenski had a good thread of her interactions with someone at a coffee shop. You have to speak up. I don't listen politely any more and push back when I can. I stay on Facebook because it is a way I can reach many others--people I know and those they know. I talk to people when I run errands and am out in public. You can't rely on people to absorb information by osmosis. Silence is a void that is quickly filled from all sides but your own--hence, the blatherings of Fox, Paul supporters, Cruzers, Palin groupies, and other. I'm not waving a white flag. It is too important to assent by silence.

[certainot]

17. that's imperative, but they have a few guys with big megaphones, protected by call screeners,

reaching 50 mil a week, week after week, establishing an alternate reality.

it needs to happen at the source but the left does't even know what they're selling until there are millions of people repeating the lies and pushing politicians around as if they represent a popular consensus.

they put carnival barkers on every corner and stump in the country screaming all day the and left has to play catchup. they dominate messaging and distort the national discussion at will with that radio monopoly.

that's the main reason people are even discussing and arguing about half this crap. a one on one argument about benghazi or the IRS hassling cons or minimum wage discussions where the con repeats it's going to kill business, are too late.

until the left starts taking rw radio seriously, starts monitoring it and responding to it in near real time, and starts including it in their political analysis, instead of ignoring it, the closest thing to a conversation that means something is when a liberal gets past a local blowhard's call screener and refutes him in front of thousands of people in his audience.

[Skidmore]

18. We can't coordinate?

We did so for election years. Why can't we do meet ups and organize task groups in the same way as then? Why can't the work of such group include a strategies to educate and disseminate information? I see a huge amount of disorganization and no willingness to work together. It doesn't take money always. It takes will power and one to one work. What's wrong with getting together at someone's house and hammering away. Town by town. County by county. That is grassroots.

[certainot]

20. my point is that in a real democracy what your are advocating is much more effective

than now. today the right is getting a free speech free ride on 1200 radio stations.

today and for the last 25 years stink tanks observe what issues are going progressively to threaten the wealth and power of their billionaires and use high paid PR pros to design propaganda ops to obstruct them. in a normal democracy this wouldn't be a big deal because all sides would have relatively equal opportunities to push and discuss and refute the propaganda. that's still generally the case in all but one media segment- political talk radio.

since reagan killed the fairness doctrine in 1986 the left has been at a major disadvantage and doesn't know it and are getting their asses kicked by 1200 UNCHALLENGED AND IGNORED radio stations that cover the country with that stink tank bullshit and can distort any national or local discussion of any major issue.

because the left ignores rw radio activists are much less efficient. the dem party and the progressive groups are wasting volunteer time and money by ignoring the right's most important propaganda operation.

[Jamaal510]

12. This is a good list,

but I have to nit-pick about one small part. I'm not sure if I agree with the part where it says Obama's social policies are to the right of some of his predecessors. If I'm correct, social policies include things such as gay rights, women's rights, and other matters of discrimination. He was the first sitting president to endorse gay rights, he has pushed for equality for women and raised funding for the VOWA, and expanded the hate crime law in the U.S. to include sexual orientation. Knowing this, one could argue that his social policies are actually to the left of many of his predecessors (except for maybe JFK).
Other than that, the list is spot on, especially the parts about the deficit and how safe America has been under this administration. The Republicans are clearly mad that Obama has upstaged them when it comes to foreign policy, and he makes them look like the real out-of-control spenders, as the deficit has lowered under his watch while skyrocketing under Bush ll and Reagan.

[Skidmore]

13. That one gave me pause for sure

but I believe it was the only one that reflected the bias of whoever created the list. I do think we need to shove back hard on the BS this election season.

[steve2470]

19. k&r nt