Here's your explanation.

A conservative has asked people to explain why over 40% of Americans still believe in Obama.

You can read her blog here.

I feel she deserves an answer.  I will strive to be polite as I can.

1) She wants to understand why he speaks in short phrases  First of all, I understand why you cringe - it sounds like he is trying to talk to fools.   He talks in short phrases because because that's what all political advisers say to do.  Conservatives, Republicans, and other liberals do it to - he just does it better.

It's a technique to deal with the media so all politicians do it.  You have perhaps heard the phrase "Drill Baby, Drill."   Also "Read my lips, no new taxes." and  "Tear down this wall." On the liberal side, there was "I feel your pain."  The idea is not that you are too dumb to understand - but to explain something quickly enough to get broadcast by the news media.  They want sound bites and can't put up long, intelligent answers.

All politicians do it, including Romney and all the other failed Republican nominees - remember "Nine Nine nine?"

But he doesn't truly speak like that all the time.  Not among his friends, and not even in most politial speeches.  His state of the Union was full of many long sentences.  But you probably don't listen to his full speeches.  All you catch are the short sound bites on the news, and have foolishly believed you know what he sounds like.  If you do listen to his speeches, then you simply ignore the parts you don't agree with and only remember the short, pithy phrases.   It's a common problem - everyone tends to either forget or ignore good points made by their opponents, but remember the bad ones.

2) You are correct (and every single person in the US agrees with you) that his skin color would not end bigotry.  Liberals totally agree with that statement.   We never disagreed with that. There are still bigots in the world.  They still exist - and that means they still talk.  And their words are inflammatory - so it gets on the news.  Can you name one?  I'll give you a hint- because they hate black men, they don't like Obama.   So they say bad things about him.   If you can't name a single bigot that has said bad things about Obama that doesn't mean you haven't heard them - it means you failed to recognize that they are bigots.  You've heard their words and accepted them as an ally.   It is real easy to recognize a bigot if he is saying things you disagree with, but it is much harder to recognize him if he is agreeing with you.

Liberals like Obama's skin color in part because it proves to ourselves we are not bigots.   It's not why we vote for him - we would never vote for Cain.  But we are proud of electing the first black president.  We also recognize that there are some people in the world that will never vote for a black president - not Obama, not Herman Cain. Those people do exist and ARE participating in the election, working to help Romney defeat Obama.  They are your allies.  If you don't know who they are, well, perhaps you need to take another look at your allies.

3)  Liberals don't think being a Christian man with a deep faith in God matters when we pick our president.  This country has freedom of religion. There is no requirement, expectation or even a benefit that the President be Christian.   Just as a black man is allowed to be President, so is a Jewish man.  We even believe that an ATHIEST can be a good president.    But that really doesn't matter because...

Obama went to church for most of his life.  He had to leave a chuch because his pastor cared more about politics than religion.  You clearly have fallen for the lies that say he is a Muslim - or at least not a good christian.  We consider this to be outright political lies told by conservatives.   Most Liberals believe  President Obama is a good christian with a deep faith in god.   Yes, his father was muslim.  His mother was christian.  You do know that Jesus himself had a jewish mother?  We believe there is no real evidence whatsoever that Obama is anything but a good christian.

Maybe we are wrong.  Did you personally see or hear him say otherwise?  Have you seen or heard him break any of the ten commandments?  Or are you believing rumors spread by other people?  Keep in mind that even excluding the bigots, politicians spread lies about each other. I've heard liberals say that false things about Romney, and you need to recognize that conservatives have spread false things about Obama.  Making up lies about religion is easy to do.  But if some liar says you only prayed EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND as part of a con job, then there's not much you can do to disprove something that ridiculous. 

4)  Why do we still approve of this president?  Because we compare him to the last one.  Compared to George W Bush, Obama is fantastic.   Bush destroyed Bill Clinton's phenomenal economy and got us into two very expensive long drawn out wars, failed to win either of the wars, cut taxes while trying pay for those expensive wars.  

In that same time, Obama has given us healthcare - yes, based on a republican health care plan - but no other president since Nixon has done that.  Then he killed Osama Bin Laden.   He did a whole bunch of other good stuff - all of which you refuse to give him credit for or believe they are bad  when we think they are good.  Yes Obama may have finished off jobs that Bush started - but Bush had 8 years to finish and failed to do that.  We like the direction Obama has been leading us - better healthcare, less wars. No he's not perfect, but he's doing a reasonably good job - mainly because he is doing the things we want him to do.  You may dislike them, but elections have consequences and WE WON the last one.

5)   We don't demand document on Obama's life prior to 2008 because he has already supplied it to us.  We have seen the evidence - from birth certificates to books he wrote, to senate records, to his history as a college professor.   Yes, I understand you disbelieve our evidence and have your own stuff.  We look at yours and think "this stuff is junk'.   It's exactly the kind of thing that partisan politicians would spread - even if none of them are bigots.

We don't want ten years of Obama's tax records because he never told the SEC that he was doing one thing, while claiming to us that he wasn't.  He never 'retroactively retired'.  When we catch someone trying to pull obviously false claims, we demand proof.  Romeny is a man that constantly flip-flops (check his abortion record), so when he makes a claim, we demand he prove it.

6)  As for golf, campaigning, and photo ops we don't think they take priority on the president's agenda.  At least not more than any other presidential campaign.  We remember George Bush standing behind a "Mission Accomplished" banner.  We know what is unusual activity and none of the junk you talk about is different than any other president.  Every single president in history has gone golfing, campaigned, taken photo ops.  Obama has not done that more than other presidents. 

7)   You have never been so angry in your life - that's mainly because your side has lost.    I have news for you:  The anger that you feel now?   It is exactly the same way most liberals felt when George Bush was in power.   We could not believe the lies and outright evil actions he got away with.  Members of his government committed treason and exposed CIA agents (at least Libby went to jail for that - oh wait, President Bush commuted his sentence so the traitor did not spend a day in prison despite being convicted of perjury). Members of his government illegally hired and fired DOJ lawyers based on political beliefs (Monica Goodling received immunity in exchange for testifying).


Feeling so angry is not a symptom of the country 'going the wrong way', but a symptom of you personally disagreeing with how the majority of Americans think.  I know it hurts to find out that so many people think you are wrong.  We felt the same way while you do when you were getting your way and trampling on our constitutional rights.

8) How did a small minority of gays convince the president to accept gay marriage?   Very simply - those gays went out and told their stories.  People heard them and said "HOLY CRAP! are we really being so evil?"  They told stories of how gays were forbidden from adopting children.  How gays were forbidden from being at the bedside of their loved ones when they were dying of cancer.   How their long term companions of ten years were kicked out of the country because they weren't married.   How they were kicked out of the military.  How their loved ones died because their employer would not give them health insurance.  How they were willing to pay MORE in taxes (marriage penalty), to get these rights but were rejected.

The gays convinced us that they are good people being mistreated by prejudiced.  That's how 5% of gays convinced all the liberals to demand the president grant them marriage rights.  They told us a tale, we looked into it and found it to be true.  In response, the conservatives responded with references to the bible (not relevant for politics), and unsubstantiated lies about how evil the gays were.

9)  You think the liberal population of NYC cancels out all the conservative votes.  Well that's not true.   We don't.  The liberals of the entire country cancelled out the conservatives.   Obama won in 2008 because of:  Hawaii, Washington State, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, Virgina, Pennsylvania, New York, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusets, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington DC.  Or, if you prefer, 28 out of 50 states - plus he got half of Nebraska's proportional votes. 28 1/2 vs 21 and 1/2 states.

He didn't just get NYC he got the majority of voting American citizens.    Specifically, he got the entire west coast, the entire north east, the entire great lakes area.  Plus Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, and Iowa.  He got 69.5 million votes as compared to a 59.9 million votes, that's about 54% - or a ration of almost 7 of us to 6 of you.


That is a majority - in both the population votes and the electoral college.  

 More importantly, most states were not blow outs.  That is - even in a solid Republican state like Texas where Obama lost in 2008, Obama still got 43.6% of the vote.


We are not all in New York, we are spread out all over the country.  We live right next to you.  Your neighbors voted for us. The checkout guy at your grocery store?  He voted for us.   Your own children?  They voted for us.
 
The majority of this country thinks you are outright wrong.  Not about just a few things, but about most political idea you have.   More importantly, we not only disagree with your conclusions and facts, but we find the facts you think are important are relatively worthless.  We think you are picking a car based on how flashy it is, rather than horsepower and price.