Gifts from Your Secret Santa

Over the next nine days, thousands of weary warriors will be walking through the front door of home. They will be home for Christmas. Their kids will hug them around the knees. Mothers and fathers will weep for joy as they hug a son or daughter. Spouses will finally know joy in hearts that have ached for so long.

Thanks, President Obama. Thanks for bringing them home and for ending one of the most disgraceful episodes in American history. Yesterday John McCain made clear this end would not have come had he been elected president. He said you would be "scorned and disdained" by history for bringing home our women and men.

Screw John McCain. And thanks, Mr. President, for all the other things you have given us.

We tend to forget. Because of the media despising good news, you've been sort of a Secret Santa. So here and now, let me count the ways:

 1. Ending the Iraq war yesterday.
 2. Ridding the world of Osama Bin Laden and 22 of his major guys.
 3. Saving us from a cataclysmic Second Great Depression.
 4. The Health Care Act. (America waited 100 years while all other presidents failed at this.)
 5. Ending "don't ask - don't tell."
 6. Getting the auto industry to agree to new standards on carbon emissions and miles-per-gallon.
 7. Saving the U.S. auto industry.
 8. Getting new regulations passed to control Wall Street and the damn banks.
 9. Helping the Libyan people get rid of a dictator without costing one American life.
10. Mending America's frayed relationships with the rest of the world.
11. Demanding  -  and getting!  -  $20 BILLION from BP for reparation to victims of the oil spill and for restoration of the Gulf Coast that will undo the environmental harm inflicted by a century of human stupidity.
12. The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
13. The Veterans Employment Act.
14. Stopping the GOP from tipping the US into debt default last summer.
15. The $250 we each got in 2009 from the feds.
16. The $3000 each family has received in lower payroll taxes at $1000 per year over the past 3 years.
17. The extended unemployment benefits over the past three years.
18. The halving of the "donut hole" RX expense seniors must bear.
19. The 26-and-under who can now stay on their parents' health insurance.
20. The lawsuit against Arizona's racist anti-immigrant laws.
21. A REALLY BIG ONE! The treaty with Russia to reduce nuclear arms.
22. Support for the Arab Spring.
23. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
24. Appointing Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State. (Who else since Lincoln has so honored his rival?)
25. Appointing the first Latina to the Supreme Court.
26. Eric Holder's announcement that the Justice Department will fight the Republican efforts to deprive one million Americans of their right to vote.
27. The delay of approval of the Canadian fuel pipeline through one of America's major aquifiers.
28. The now-in-effect end of "caps" on health insurance coverage. (A 44-year-old friend of our family died because of the insurance company caps. Obama's health care law would have saved him.)
29. Making fun of Donald Trump at that Press Club dinner. (You're the best president for humor since JFK.)
30. Your smile.

And that ain't all! There's another SIXTY Obama achievements listed at a site called 3chicspolitico. My thirty were just the ones I came up with off the top of my head. The three politico chics came up with ninety because there are three of them and only one of me.

What did I forget? Among other things, getting the middlemen lenders out of the student loan program and providing for renegotiation of a lot of those loans. That's a biggie. But there's tons of others. AND, just announced today:  an end of federal funding for any experimenting on chimps! Even the animals can be grateful to Obama.

What did you forget of all the good things Obama has done?

Plenty, I'll bet.

We owe the skinny guy a lot. Far more than can be covered with a simple "Thank you." So does the world. People everywhere have benefitted by the end of Osama bin Laden and his gang, the avoidance of a Great Depression, the Arab Spring, the nuclear arms reduction treaty, the reduction in carbon from autos.

But more than we owe Obama a big thanks, we owe ourselves his re-election. Even though he has done an amazing amount to help us as individuals and this country as a nation, we are yet in perilous times.

Do you REALLY want Mitt Romney running this country?

It's up to you, you know. As I've said before, elections depend on volunteer precinct workers. Campaign funding SHOULD also depend on us folks, yet only 13% of the 99% give anything to political campaigns. And ordinary Republicans give far more in small contributions than do we Democrats.

The best thank you to Obama and gift to ourselves is getting involved ASAP in re-electing that smiling and skinny guy.

Can we do the right thing and help Obama like he's helped us and the world? Yes, we can! It's the best Christmas present we could ever give ourselves.

Better even than See's candy!