Has President Obama Made Things Better or Worse in the Last Five Years? [167*81]

THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA has made things worse since he assumed office. Are they telling you the truth or lying to you? The one fact they can point to is that at the moment President Obama took office, the unemployment rate was 7.8% and now it is 8.2% (now 7% in 2013). Beyond that, they don't have much else to offer. Obama supporters, however, might fight back with the following:

1. President stopped an economy heading into a certain depression (as the latest research shows) and kept it at the major recession level.
2. One month after beginning the implementation of his stimulus program and continuing the implementation of President Bush's TARP program, against the wishes of Conservatives, the stock market hit its low point and began its recovery
3. One month after beginning the implementation of his stimulus program and continuing the implementation of President Bush's TARP program, against the wishes of Conservatives, the negative growth in GDP stopped getting worse and within three months began positive growth, which it has maintained since
4. At the time President Obama took office, the unemployment rate was increasing at a rate of 0.25% per month; nine months later it is decreasing at a rate of 0.05% a month.
5. At the time President Obama took office, first time unemployment claims were 700,000 per month and growing, now there are 400,000 per month, slightly below the historic average.
6. At the time President Obama took office, the Big Three automakers were facing total bankruptcy and probable permanent closure for some or all of them; something Conservative counselled to let happen. Today, they are all profitable because he didn't follow the Conservative's advice.
7. Before President Obama took office the War on Terrorism took a back seat to the War in Iraq, which America was losing. After he took office Obama ended the War in Iraq on reasonable terms using gains made in the last days of the Bush administration, restarted the covert War on Terrorism, killing Osama bin Laden and most of the al Qaida leadership, and refocused attention on the forgotten, but true War in Afghanistan where a degree of success is being seen,
8. Millions of previously uninsured Americans now have health insurance since President Obama took office.
9. In the last years of the Bush administration the economy shrunk by -4.6% from its high in 2007; under the Obama administration the economy has grown by +6.7% to a new record high.
10. Four years ago, gays had to hide who they naturally were in order to serve their country, today they don't.
11. Four years ago, people with dibilitating conditions who might find a cure via stem cell therapy couldn't because federally funded research was banned. Today, that is no longer true and these people have new hope.
12. Four years ago America had lost the respect of the world, Obama has regained that back for us.
13. Three years ago, before Obamacare, heathcare costs had been increasing near double-digit rates for the last 50 years! In the last two years, since Obamacare, they have risen only 4% a year!!
14. Since Obama took office, he has lowered the tax burden on the middle class an average of $3600 per family
15. Since Obama took office, he has cut taxes for small business, true small business, 18 times.
16. In 2013, Obama set the stage for taking chemical weapons out of the hands of the Syrian government
17. In 2013, Obama negotiated the first ever reduction in Iranian nuclear warfare capability
18. In 2013, Obama called his opponents bluff to blackmail the Presidency into compliance with the threat, and then reality of a government shutdown thereby taking that unAmerican tactic out of the minorities arsenal.
19. At the end of 2013, Obama oversaw and then signed into law the first compromise budget once the opposition saw their bully, "my way or the highway" strategy fail/
20. From Oct - Dec 2013, Obama worked through the slings and arrows of a cheering opposition and disappointed population when the Affordable Care Act website failed to perform beginning Oct 2013 and finally truly came on-line in Dec 2013

Yes, the Conservatives are right, unemployment is a bit higher now than when it was rapidly increasing as Obama assumed the presidency (not true anymore, obviously); I guess that is the only variable they need in their calculus in determining failure or success.