The democrat convention was a shameless litany of lies. And Obama's were worst of all. From Breitbart:
The lies began even before President Barack Obama started speaking. The introductory video claimed that Obama had been affected--and roused to action--by “watching [his] mother die.” Obama, while very emotive about his mother, neglected to visit her before she died of cancer--a mistake he admitted and regretted. Yet he has repeatedly lied about her in his speeches, including the lie that she died without health insurance.In the speech itself, Obama told the nation that he ran for President because he “saw that basic bargain slipping away,” that “by 2008 we had seen nearly a decade in which families struggled with costs that kept rising but paychecks that didn’t.” In fact, until the last few months of 2008, Americans had enjoyed a rising and widely-shared prosperity that contrasts sharply with the high unemployment and low paychecks of Obama’s term.
Obama continued with the half-truth that he has “cut taxes for those who need it,” but he has also raised taxes on the middle class, including the taxes in Obamacare. He then lied flagrantly about the proposals of his opponents, suggesting that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan had proposed “firing teachers” and “kicking students off financial aid.” There is no basis for that claim; in fact their policies would do, and have done, the opposite.
The President then repeated a claim that has been a refrain throughout this convention: that he “reinvented a dying auto industry that’s back on top of the world.” But GM is in trouble; Chrysler is foreign-owned; and the “reinvented” green cars that Obama pushed have failed to sell. Contrary to his repeated claims, tonight and elsewhere, Obama did not save the industry from bankruptcy but sent it there after looting it for his cronies.
As for what fuels those cars--with gas prices soaring across the country to levels vastly higher than at his inauguration in 2009--Obama said that his strategy had “opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration.” But he also blocked new exploration--often in defiance of the courts, and basic scientific sense, and the expansion that occurred in shale and gas happened in spite of President Obama, not because of him.
Obama made several outlandish claims about education, once again mischaracterizing his opponent’s policies (“gut education,” “crowded classroom,” “crumbling school”) while exaggerating his own achievements. He touted the federal government’s takeover of the student loan market, pretending that he had solved the problems of “a system that wasted billions of taxpayer dollars” instead of ensuring that those problems worsen.
From then, it was on to foreign policy. Obama once again lied about his predecessor’s policy, implied that George W. Bush did not care to pursue “the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11.” And for all the talk this week about how Romney should have said more about the troops, Obama displayed callous indifference to rising U.S. casualties when he declared, falsely, that he had “blunted the Taliban’s momentum in Afghanistan.”
Obama lied about key elements of his foreign policy agenda, asserting that “we have advanced the rights and dignity of all human beings” when in fact his administration has shunted human rights aside in favor of reconciliation with hostile regimes. He also said that the U.S. had “reasserted our power across the Pacific and stood up to China on behalf of our workers,” rather than allowing U.S. power to decline as China rises.
On the deficit, Obama cited “experts” who said that his policies “would cut our deficits by $4 trillion”--this after his own administration projected deficits and debt rising to infinity in what economists euphemistically call the “out” years. President Obama’s surrogates had suggested he would tackle entitlement reform tonight, but he said nothing specific about what he would do--after accusing his opponents of not presenting any new ideas.
The President barely mentioned his most important domestic achievement, referring to Obamacare only by accusing his opponents (again, falsely) of wanting to “eliminate health insurance for millions of Americans who are poor, elderly, or disabled--all so those with the most can pay less.” Repealing Obamacare would do none of the above--in fact, Obamacare will burden many public health services to the breaking point.
“We don’t think government can solve all our problems,” Obama said--and he has said that before, many times, prior to taking office, but his singular focus has been to expand the range of issues into which government intrudes. In an attempt to echo Kennedy, he said: “America is not about what can be done for us...the election four years ago wasn’t about me. It was about you.” This from the man who has built a virtual personality cult.
Obama tried to make up for his “you didn’t build that” gaffe--which was repeated over and over last week at the Republican National Convention--by telling his audience they had been responsible for creating the “change” in his administration: “You did that,” he said. He warned that “change will not happen” if he loses--but change always happens. His opponents simply believe change should be driven by individuals, not the state.
Towards the end of his address, Obama attempted a gesture at humility, saying that he knew he didn’t “have all the answers.” Yet the repeated pattern in Obama’s governance is to ignore the sincere suggestions of others--in his own party and the opposition--who have different answers from his. He quoted Jeremiah 29:11 indirectly, citing its promise of a “future filled with hope,” leaving out the context: a warning against false prophets.
His soaring conclusion ended with a thud: “I never said this journey would be easy.” But he did, of course. His nomination in 2008 was the moment, he told us, when the planet would begin to heal. He also promised, in his victory speech that November, to end the “partisanship and pettiness” in American politics. Tonight’s weak address, with its paper-thin promises and falsehoods, was unworthy of the commitments he made that night.
Obama's text, as prepared for delivery:
Read the full text here: CHANGE YOU CAN'T BELIEVE IN |
