Barack Obama has been a harmful president

Rebuttals: "Just because he says one offhand remark that is not correct (although in some cases could be right), does that give you the right to label him stupid and discredit his amazing accomplishments? I don"t think so." One offhand remark? He said people go into prison strait and come out gay. Being gay isn't a choice. You are born that way. Yes, his accomplishments are quite something, but that doesn't detract from his political views. "He is the FIRST person ever to separate conjoined twins at the head successfully, and you call him STUPID?" A source would be nice. "Wow. Great rebuttal. Discredit whatever someone says just because of their political affiliation. Those are some quality debating skills there." You mean to tell me that a Republican in politics WOULDN'T try to discredit Obama? Since day 1 of his presidency, the Republicans have been opposed to whatever he wanted, even if it was originally a Republican idea to begin with. Obamacare's a perfect example of this. "Romneycare," I suppose you could call it, was used by Governor Mitt Romney in Massachusetts. It's one of the reasons Obamacare was created. http://www.politico.com... "Do you think the world is a better, safer place now towards the end of Obama"s presidency than before he took office?" Sure, not everything's perfect. We are, however, winning the fight against ISIS. We've kicked them out of Tikrit, killed one of their top leaders, and they've lost 25% of their overall territory. http://www.cnn.com... "disregarded the Constitution" What are you talking about? In his 2015 State of the Union, he said he wanted to work with the Republican congress to pass progressive bills. I can tell you didn't watch it. "You have repeatedly avoided discussing his Illegal Executive orders." I highly doubt a single one of his Executive Orders were illegal. He IS allowed to make Executive Orders after all. Even if they WERE illegal, he wouldn't be the first president to break the law *cough* Nixon *cough*. "His foolish withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan." He hasn't completely pulled out of Afghanistan. http://www.nytimes.com... "You have failed to address his failed foreign policy actions like the Iraq/Iran pullout." 1: He never pulled out of Iran. 2: Yes, pulling out of Iraq was bad, but that's one of the things he campaigned for in 2008. If he DIDN'T pull out of Iraq, I can guarantee every Republican would be calling him a liar. 3: What Foreign Policy failure are you talking about? If you look in my last argument, you'd see how his foreign policies are have improved U.S. reputation. YOU'RE the one who's failed to talk about any of my arguments about Foreign Policy. "He has expanded Big Government ," Wrong. Flat out wrong. Fewer people work for the Federal Government under Obama than under Bush. http://www.pewresearch.org... "doubled the national debt" True. However, he also removed more than $1 TRILLION from the national deficit, and it's getting smaller everyday. So in the long run if we keep his policies, we'll end up with a surplus and be able to pay off that debt. http://www.washingtonpost.com... "and his awful economy." I'm sorry, but how is this economy awful? If you mean the statistics you put in Round 3, but the link you put only shows a site with a pop-up ad and cherry-picked topics. One of the comments put on that very page said, "Nice cherry picking; just ignore the first 3 months (3 extra million) also under Obama which had NOTHING to do with policies of Obama, in fact his policies clearly show the point of inclination back towards gaining jobs once enacted (know how to read a chart?). Also way to blame the democrats in Congress for the debt under bush when most of the debt was run up before 2006 midterm elections. Two Wars, Med Part D, tax cuts, all the big ticket items were GOP initiatives that cost 6 trillion in JUST those items, you blow hard. Cordially..." -Navid Rosham Conclusions: I personally feel that Obama has benefited the U.S. more than he's harmed it. The economy is booming for starters. Examples: The U.S. economy grew 2.4% in 2014, which is the strongest Corporate profits have skyrocketed. Look at the U.S. economy under Obama compared to under Bush. It's usually much better to understand the scale of a president's accomplishments when it's compared to the previous. http://ourfuture.org...... More than 11million jobs have been added in the last 58 months. Since 2010, more people have been put back to work than every other advanced economy combined. Since February 2010, American manufacturing has added 786,00 jobs, the fastest pace of job growth since the 1990's. The unemployment rate is below 6%, and this is the fastest economic growth in a decade. "2014 was the best year of job creation in this century." http://www.nationalmemo.com...... I recommend people read the entire article. "Signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which has created 2.1 million jobs as of 12/31/09" "Helped reverse a downwards spiral of the stock market. On January 19, 2009, the last day of President Bush's presidency, the Dow closed at 8,218.22. In February 2010, the Dow closed at 10,309.24" "Protected 300,000 education jobs, such as teachers, principals, librarians, and counselors through the Recovery Act that would have otherwise been lost." http://pleasecutthecrap.com...... I recommend people read the entire list to truly comprehend what has happened since 2008. He didn't just help the economy, he basically SAVED it. Thanks to his Stimulus Package, the Great Recession ended in just 2 years. 2 years! that's hardly anytime at all compared to its equivalent, the Great Depression, which lasted 11 years. http://useconomy.about.com...... He's done more than just help the economy. Examples: Teen pregnancy and abortion rates are at an all time low thanks to his Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative. http://www.siecus.org... The crime rate and incarceration rate came down together. The national deficit went from 9.8% in 2009 to below 3% in 2014. Take it from the man himself: https://youtu.be......... "Cracked down on companies that deny sick pay, vacation and health insurance to workers by abusing the employee classification of independent contractor." "Provided the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) with more than $1.4 billion to improve services to America's Veterans" "Signed the Children's Health Insurance Reauthorization Act on February 4, 2009, which provides quality health care to 11 million kids - 4 million who were previously uninsured." "Increased, for the first time in more than a decade, the fuel economy standards for Model Year 2011 for cars and trucks so they get better mileage." "Managed several natural disasters successfully, including severe winter ice storms and flooding in several states." http://pleasecutthecrap.com... Relations with China, the EU, and Southeast Asia have improved dramatically. Reopening relations with Cuba is a huge step forward. http://www.newrepublic.com... He's killed one of the U.S.'s biggest enemies, Osama bin Laden. The New York Times sums up Obama's Foreign Policy pretty well, "On June 23, the last of Syria"s chemical weapons stockpile was loaded onto a Danish freighter to be destroyed. The following day, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia asked his Parliament to rescind the permission that it had given him to send troops into Ukraine. Meanwhile, there is still cautious optimism that a nuclear deal with Iran is within reach." http://www.nytimes.com... Liberia is now Ebola free, which is great considering how it once had the most cases of Ebola out of all afflicted nations. http://www.who.int... U.S. doctors and treatments assured the safety of Liberian citizens, and U.S. soldiers maintained order in the region. Now to my opponent: "They were hurting Iran"s quest for nuclear weapons. So what did Obama do in the deal? He gave them what they wanted! And what did he get in return? That"s right, nothing [4]." That's funny, I don't seem to recall ever hearing about this. Yes, relieving sanction is in the peace deal, but that hasn't been fully flushed out yet. We only have the framework. He has failed to rebut a single one of my arguments on Foreign Policy along with several of my other arguments. "When the balance of the world seems to stand on the edge of a knife, where is our President?" You sound like you're quoting Bill O'Reilly. Now then, given all of this information, we can conjecture that President Obama has not been as harmful as my opponent would make him out to be. If anything, he's been very beneficial to the U.S. You say he's abandoning Israel, when it's not quite the case. Obama's trying to make a peace deal with Iran and Netanyahu's trying to increase tensions. Don't know why you'd want to support a racist. http://www.salon.com... "He has wrecked our relations with Israel, his blatant disregard for Benjamin Netanyahu is evidence of that" You seem to revere the guy, but Netanyahu basically tried to make Congress commit treason. http://www.salon.com... I recommend people read the entire article. Thank you, too, for the debate. I found it quite fun and interesting.