Not all opinions are created equal. Some are ill-informed and don't consider new information or the full body of tested data available. Others harbour bias, or are based in prejudice. Still others may have been formed under social conditions, social traditions or social mores that are no longer relevant and thus the opinion may seem outdated.

Not all facts are created equal. Some facts are the result of poor scholarship or dubious reporting. Many facts are preliminary or impermanent and subject to change. For example, science has whole fields of study built upon the facts as we know them today which can be laid waste as new facts emerge.

It is possible -- perhaps even expected -- that two individuals can look at the same set of facts and draw different conclusions. But for an opinion to be valid argument, it should be immersed in the facts and constructed on more than just feelings.

Poor scholarship and dubious reporting; neither produces facts.

I would agree, save that in our interconnected age the bitter fruits of those labours gain currency in the marketplace as established facts before they can be disproven and countered. (There is a wide gulf between "facts" and truth.)

For example, we produce a drug study and report a finding. A later study calls into question the methodology of our initial study and produces a different finding. Our original finding was a fact until challenged by the subsequent study, and remains a fact (albeit disputed) while under challenge. Our first study may be vindicated and its findings emerge as a tested fact. Or it may be disproven entirely. Or we may have competing findings and the facts are unclear.

The right wing corporate media tries to re-write history constantly, but I think all of us were alive and can remember the 90s - they weren't that long ago - and things were AWESOME economically in the late 90s, so...

If Obama gives us more of that, who's complainin'?? Oh, yeah. Republicans.

Why do you hate America, Republicans???

It almost seems like Democrats want to be proven right, even if they have to wait too long for it to happen to give them necessary traction, and Republicans want to win the argument immediately, even if they have to be wrong to accomplish it. 

Sadly, so far the Republican method appears to be more effective. 

Those horrible 90s.  Budget surplus.  Booming economy.  Relative peace.  Yes, let's not go back to that.