Obama’s key line last night: “We don’t look to be ruled”

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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:

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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

We found the Democratic speakers made a few false and misleading claims on opening night.

Summary

PHILADELPHIA — The 2016 Democratic National Convention is underway, and the factual inaccuracies on the first night focused on income, college tuition and something the Republican ticket had said or done.

* Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey said Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump “would cut taxes for the richest Americans at the expense of the middle class.” But all income levels would get some tax relief under Trump’s plan.
* Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy wrongly claimed that Mike Pence, the GOP vice presidential nominee, “signed a law that would have forced women to hold funerals for fetuses.” The law said aborted or miscarried fetuses “must be cremated or interred” by the hospital or abortion facility.
* Sen. Bernie Sanders said Hillary Clinton “will guarantee” free tuition at public colleges or universities for families with annual incomes of $125,000 or less. But free tuition is not guaranteed. States must put up matching funds for the students to receive free tuition.
* Sens. Casey and Kirsten Gillibrand both claimed that Trump had said that wages are “too high.” Trump was specifically talking about a $15 minimum wage when he made that comment, not wages overall.
* Sanders said the “top one-tenth of 1 percent now owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent,” a statistic that has been questioned by economists at the Federal Reserve Board.
* Sanders also said the “top 1 percent in recent years has earned 85 percent of all new income,” but economists whose work Sanders has cited put the figure at 52 percent for 1993 to 2015.
* Rep. Joe Kennedy III said Americans’ wages “have not budged in 40 years,” and Sen. Elizabeth Warren said wages were “flat.” Wages plunged in the 1970s and 1980s, and more recently have showed strong growth.


FactChecking Day 2 of the DNC

Misleading claims at the convention touched on health care, approval ratings and incarceration.

Summary

PHILADELPHIA — On a night headlined by President Bill Clinton’s admiration for his wife — the now official Democratic nominee — there was a less-than-glowing treatment of some facts.

* Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean claimed that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s “whole” health care plan was to replace the Affordable Care Act with “quote, ‘Something so much better.’” In fact, Trump has released a seven-point health care plan
* Bill Clinton said that the United States’ approval rating soared 20 percentage points during the time that Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. But analyses of the U.S.’s global ratings don’t support such a claim.
* Former Attorney General Eric Holder said “1 in 3 black men will be incarcerated in their lifetimes,” an outdated projection based on the incarceration rate for black males as of 2001. That rate has declined since then.
* Bill Clinton said that Arkansas schools went from “worst” when he started as governor to one of two “most improved,” and he gave Hillary Clinton much of the credit. The record is mixed: An expert did say in 1992 that the state had made progress, but the New York Times reported then that the state was “still near the bottom in most national ratings.”
* Sen. Barbara Boxer repeated a convention talking point, claiming that Trump said that “wages are too high.” He was talking about a $15 minimum wage being too high.
* Dean said that GOP vice presidential candidate Mike Pence “voted to end Medicare as we know it.” Pence did vote for a budget plan that called for a major change to Medicare, but it would have retained a health insurance system for seniors.

Video: FactCheck and PBS NewsHour

The president and other top Democrats stretch the facts on budgets, energy and foreign policy.

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