This was portrayed on the cover of Newsweek as 'Why are Obama's Critics So Dumb?' I bring that up so that the title of this rebuttal makes sense, not that I think either is productive in the least:

http://biggovernment.com/jpollak/2012/01/16/why-is-andrew-sullivan-so-dumb/

A second:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100130000/why-are-barack-obama%E2%80%99s-critics-so-smart/

By the way, realclearpolitics.com does a fairly good job of not presenting sources from just one side of the spectrum, but arguments and responses that together paint a reasonable good picture of whatever the daily political discussions are about.

read this today too, it's a good read and definitely worth your time - whatever side of the political spectrum you come from

yeah that rebuttal was pretty poor - the first one basically says "Sullivan cites these facts, but these facts I think they're not as important as these:" Which really doesnt accomplish much - I think the point of Sullivan's main argument was "consider some of these thing compared to the outlandish hyperbole coming from the right/left."

The second one is basically "Nuhuh! We're not dumb!" Well yeah I think the "Obamas critics are dumb" headline is really stupid in the first place, but it doesn't discredit Sullivan's point - however ever poor the headline was.

Bet it sold more magazines though because of it.

He blatantly twists the data to make his points sound good. Government employment has shrunk over the past 3 years, I agree, but he makes it sound like that has something to do with Obama. He states:

"In 2011 alone, 1.9 million private-sector jobs were created, while a net 280,000 government jobs were lost. Overall government employment has declined 2.6 percent over the past 3 years. (That compares with a drop of 2.2 percent during the early years of the Reagan administration.)"

City and state employment is what has shrunk and that is because they are broke. Federal employment has gone from 2.713 million in Jan 2008 to 2.840 million in Decemeber 2010 (a gain of 127,000 jobs). I couldn't quickly find data for 2011, but I'd bet it didn't drop and more than likely increased.

ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.compaeu.txt

Good article, but he still skews the view to pro-Obama. Take everything with a grain of salt.

"A third of the stimulus was tax cuts, affecting 95 percent of taxpayers; he has cut the payroll tax, and recently had to fight to keep it cut against Republican opposition."

No, he had to fight with Republicans on HOW LONG to keep it extended. Dems wanted a 2 month stop-gap, Repubs wanted the whole year.

"If George Bush had taken out bin Laden, wiped out al Qaeda’s leadership, and gathered a treasure trove of real intelligence by a daring raid, he’d be on Mount Rushmore by now."

LOL

"Politifact recently noted that of 508 specific promises, a third had been fulfilled and only two have not had some action taken on them."

Not saying I don't believe this, but I want one of you to find me the article proving it.

For you Rob:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/

Both sides were fucktarded in the payroll tax debate, so lets not go there.