It is true that the economic performance is much better than most media outlets report. They are resorting to scare tactics without acknowledging ignoring one of the most important statistics of an economy: the GDP.
Still, the unemployment rates you cite are a bit misleading. The unemployment rate has recently reached a 4 year high of 5.7%. We must be cautious about saddling unemployment rates with particular presidents. It is particularly useful to look at the trend of the rate to see what type of impact that President had.
For example, Clinton entered the Oval Office with an unemployment rate of 7.3% and over his two terms, the unemployment rate dropped almost every single month until he left the office with a rate of 3.9%. In Bush's first month, the unemployment rate was 4.2%. This rose significantly towards the end of 2003, reaching a high of 6.3% in June of 2003. Of course, we all know Bush had already made an effort to improve the situation, and unemployment dropped month over month until the end of 2007. Since then, the unemployment rate has increased and is now the highest it has been since pre-Iraq occupation.
Aside from what I have outlined above, you are fundamentally incorrect in a very key aspect. You associate Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan as threats to the US, without acknowledging the far greater threat the US poses to these small developing countries. You believe that the US ideology should conquer all who oppose it, which is the very reason that their is such opposition between the Western world and everywhere else. The US badly needs to adapt its interventionist policies for the long-term good of the country, as repeated and sustained deployments in low-to-moderate risk countries without sufficient legal backing are deterrents to sustainable growth. The GDP boom of the "War on Terror" (which, by the way, is a ridiculous concept in and of itself) is not a long-term solution.
However, we also have to make it clear that there is no link between GDP growth and success of the people of the country. The GDP per capita can increase without the lower and middle classes making a penny more, and that's what is happening in the US right now. If that is your idea of equality, then I can see you'll fit in well with the rest of the Republicans who believe that Jesus' teaching of love and compassion form an excellent moral base, but shouldn't be practiced on the impoverished because they're lazy.
I don't mean to deride all Republicans, because there are truly some excellent people who just happen to be a member of that party (much like the useless Democrats), but the way the Republican party functions is archaic and illogical.
