10 Things we can all learn from President Barack Obama
Radio Facts: Originally posted September 6, 2013 – Former President Barack Obama has an impressive list of accomplishments during his two-term administration, which includes passing the health care reform, signing the economic Stimulus plan, ending the war in Iraq, and eliminating Osama bin Laden. However, there are at least ten other things that we can take from his lifestyle and use as a learning lesson.
Keep (Your) God first.
Just as the country‘s Pledge of Allegiance states that we are “One nation under God,” Obama faithfully adds, “I am a devout Christian. It is because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would like to lead – being my brother’s and sister’s keepers, treating others as they would treat me.” Since becoming saved, Obama has belonged to Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and Evergreen Chapel in Camp David. He recognizes “the power of African-American religious tradition to spur social change” as being very inspirational to his life.
Make family a priority.
Whether it’s taking his daughters out for trick or treating during the midst of an intense election campaign, vacationing annually with Michelle, Sasha, and Malia on Martha’s Vineyard, and regularly attending church together, Obama always puts quality time in with his family.
You can quit smoking.
The former President, who’s failed on several attempts to quit smoking, finally was able to kick the bad habit as of 2011. He says, “The fact is, quitting smoking is hard. Tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable early deaths in this country. We also know that the best way to prevent the health problems that come with smoking is to keep young people from starting in the first place.”
Know that besides every good man stands a good ….
“And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years… the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation’s next first lady …. Michelle Obama” was how Barack Obama described his better half on the night he became president in November 2008. Michelle, also an attorney by profession and decorated with Ivy League credentials from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, epitomizes elegance, class, style, and confidence.
Since becoming First Lady, Michelle, was responsible for spearheading the Let’s Move! The campaign, an administration based initiative to combat childhood obesity and is an advocate for the LGBT community. During a fundraising event hosted by Jay-Z at the 40/40 Club, President Obama joked, “Jay knows what my life is like. We both have daughters and our wives are more popular than we are.”
Find time for recreation after a hard day.
In addition to putting long hours in at the Oval Office, Obama also finds time for pick-up games of basketball on the White House court for recreation, exercise, and just pure love for the sport. In addition to hoop, the president also enjoys watching the Chicago White Sox play, and private, romantic date nights with the First Lady.
Be enlightened by reading regularly.
Obama is an avid reader and a voracious consumer of the news. He begins each day by reading the major daily newspapers, which include the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. During the day, the president reads The Economist and The New Yorker magazines. Also very digitally savvy, Bam accesses most of this material from his iPad and logs onto Twitter and various blogs. He lists Songs of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years by Taylor Branch and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson as some of his favorite literary works.
Charity starts at home.
According to IRS income tax documents filed and signed this year at the White House, the First Family donated nearly 25% of their total income to 33 different charities, which include the Fisher House Foundation, the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and the United Negro College Fund.
Know the importance of a good education.
Barack attended the Punahou School, a private college preparatory institution from which he graduated high school. He later went onto Columbia University, where he majored in Political Science and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree.
Obama later graduated from Harvard Law School with Magna cum laude honors and a Juris Doctor. While in law school, he first served as editor and then president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. He has instilled this same principle in the raising of his daughters, as they presently attend the private and highly regarded, Sidwell Friends School in Bethesda, Maryland.
Polish your public speaking skills.
Ever since speaking at the Democratic National Convention in October 2006 and delivering a message almost as powerful as Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, then an Illinois Senator, Obama’s popularity and promise as a presidential candidate skyrocketed. During his administration, Obama has been credited as an exceptional orator, who owns his words, makes great eye contact, an effective conversationalist, and skillfully works the audience. Experts rank him as the third-best public speaking president in the modern era, only behind John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt, but comfortably ahead of both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
Own up to and correct your errors.
While in high school and college, Obama admits that he was exposed to marijuana, alcohol, and occasionally cocaine. He said, “I’ve made some bad decisions [as a teenager]. I got high for just the opposite effect, something that could just push questions of who I was out of my mind.” After moving to New York to attend Columbia, Barack put his drug experimentation days well behind him.
Let’s not forget to include the rather long list of things Obummer has F-ked up during his stint in office. But, that would be telling the WHOLE story, and I’ve come to find that this website is only interested in writing biased information.
1. Number of Americans on FoodStamps has increased by 10,000+/per day. From 32million, and today, more than 47million.
2. Number of Americans receiving federal cash handouts has grown from 94million to more than 128million today.
3. More than 145million Americans are poor, or low income.
4. Unemployment rate is the same as it was when BO entered office 7.8%. 60+% of working age Americans were employed, today, only 58+% have a job. with over 8million not in the labor force. Far exceeds ANY 4year presidential total.
5. Number of Americans collecting federal disability rose more than 18%.
6. Small business went from 11.3 per 1000 to a dismal 7.8 per 1000 under BO rule.
7. Median household income fell over $4,000/year during BO time span.
8. 50+% of college grads under age 25 are un or under employed.
9. Almost 60% of “jobs created” have been low paying, Only 25% of all jobs in America are considered good jobs.
10. Middle class is taking home a smaller share of the overall income “pie” than has ever been recorded.
11. US is losing 1/2-million jobs to China every single year.
12. US has fallen in the global economic competitiveness rankings for 4-years in a row. GDP went from 31+% to 21+%.
13. Under Clinton, drilling for US oil increased 58%, Bush increased 116%, BO decreased by 36%.
14. Gasoline rose from $1.84/gallon when BO took office, to currently $3.26/gallon.
15. America has lost more than 300,000 education jobs.
16. For the first time in history, more than 1million public school students are homeless – a 57% rise since 2006.
17. Families under the age of 30 now have a poverty rate of 37%.
18. Three times the homes sold in the year 2005 than did in 2012.
19. Electricity bills have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for 5yrs in a row.
20. Health insurance costs have risen almost 30% since BO took office.
21. 77% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck part of the time.
22. Obamacare will add 16million more Americans to Medicaid.
23. Total funds given to Americans by the feds has grown 32% since BO in office.
24. Taxpayers have spent more than 20 times as much on the presidential family’s vacations and other “perks” as British taxpayers spend on the royal family.
25. US has a budget deficit of over a trillion dollars every single year since BO in office.
26. When BO took office, US debt to GDP ratio was UNDER 70%, today = 103%.
I feel like throwing up…….and this is just a listing of economic disasters that this president has done to this country and its people.