But there's this meme that the new President is not normal, adverted to by Obama:
There’s a difference between that normal functioning of politics and certain issues or certain moments where I think our core values may be at stake.Bush, like his father, adhered to an absolute principle. Obama respects the principle by cushioning it with a malleable escape clause: where core** values may be at stake. And what a wide door that is! Not only is the concept "core values" subject to infinite debate, but — whatever these values are — they don't have to be severely threatened, only "at stake." And they don't even need to be at stake. It's enough that they "may" be at stake. Well, then there's really no one-President-at-a-time principle of withdrawal at all.
Obama gives 4 examples of what would override the principle of withdrawal:
1. "Systematic discrimination being ratified in some fashion."
2. "Explicit or functional obstacles to people being able to vote, to exercise their franchise."
3. "Institutional efforts to silence dissent or the press."
4. "Efforts to round up kids who have grown up here and for all practical purposes are American kids, and send them someplace else, when they love this country."
Is #4 restricted to "kids"? Younger than 18? Is he serious about the condition "when they love this country?" When has Obama shown an interest in limiting immigration to those who actually love America? That sounds like a condition Trump would set.
The 4 examples of what Obama will consider not to be the "normal functioning of politics" suggests that he's ready to exert his influence whenever he wants. We'll see what he wants. The threat that he can drop back in might work as a check on President Trump: Don't stir the sleeping Obama. But we all know Trump has figured out how to leverage opposition. A reactivated Obama would offer a springboard for Trump's antic attacks on Obama. Any deviation from the principle of presidential withdrawal would put at stake the core value of the Dignity of the American Ex-President. And, frankly, it would threaten the the core value of the dignity of the current President.
________________________
* Pronounced corpse?
Some of those press corpsmen must feel they are dying, with the withdrawal of life-giving presence of the President We Loved and the arrival of President who tells them to their face they are garbage.
** Pronounced corps.
पोस्ट्स
८८ टिप्पण्या:
Ha!
I noticed this yesterday with Obama. I've also noticed how many pundits really seem to hope Obama is able to explain to Trump how important all of Obama's legacy items are. They really seem to believe that what Obama put in place (Iran deal, ACA, illegal immigration stuff) just needs to be explained better to Trump and then he will love it. Which, now that I think of it, is what Obama thinks too.
There are a lot of people in politics who really don't get that you can know and understand someone's positions, and yet completely and honestly disagree with them.
#5 - If the sun comes up.
The funniest thing was when Obama was looking forward to not hearing himself talk. Talk about faux humility!
"** Pronounced corps."
Bernie Sanders pronounces it "cops", as in,
"I was on my way to Trumps inauguration when I tripped ova Hillary's cops."
Explicit or functional obstacles to people being able to vote, to exercise their franchise.
Obstacles like...oh, I dunno...citizenship?
Given he chose to rant about this on the way out the door, of all the things he could have ranted about on the way out the door, I'm convinced lefties believe they can't win without the illegal vote.
Rule: I will gracefully withdraw from politics.
Exception: Where 4,large and vague values are at stake
Real world application: I will not gracefully withdraw from politics.
Trump might hit all four by Friday afternoon.
There's only one President Emeritus at a time.
We will never hear "that's not who we are" from Obama in the White House again.
A former President who remains in politics is "not who we are."
A promise to be the worst ex-president ever.
Wouldn't it be more effective to go along with past-presidential withdrawal from politics but then to speak out when he thinks something egregious has happened?
Does he realize he could be setting a new precedent for the next past-president?
Lost in this is whether Obama could do anything about those issues even if he wanted to. If he couldn't accomplish it while president, why would he be more able to do so when he's out of office?
Besides, his political talents seem to be limited to promoting himself but not so much promoting others or promoting ideas. He seems to lead from behind.
#1 is the really special one. No president ever practiced systematic discrimination like Obama. *coffcoffIRScoff*
Obama the boyfriend becomes Obama the stalker.
That's not whom we are.
I'm sure he'll find all sorts of reasons to flap his gums.
Above all, it's about him.
First principles must be above argument....
If it is ridiculous to attack first principles, it is more ridiculous to defend them against these same attacks.
- Lautreamont
I'm thinking he'll be like Carter. No real power or influence over his party or events, but the press will be all too happy to quote his scolding and second guessing. He's served his symbolic role. The people who've promoted him over the years have got what they've wanted. He's of no further practical use. I don't think he knows it yet. We'll see.
Obama promises to continue to work his magic for his party and the nation.
Obama is going after his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend.
The don't call it a country for nothing.
Norma Desmond: [to newsreel camera]
"And I promise you I'll never desert you again because after 'Salome' we'll make another picture and another picture. You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, and the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!... All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."
I am Laslo.
"you can know and understand someone's positions, and yet completely and honestly disagree with them."
What a deplorable thing to do.
I once ran across the phrase, "If you tell an honestly mistaken man the truth, he will then either no longer be mistaken or no longer be honest", which aside from being a pernicious and evil doctrine seems like a pretty apt summation of the thought processes of your average political and/or religious ideologue, for whom truth comes with a capital T. Disagreement is ignorance or it is evil; take your pick.
WE are so sick of you Obama. Go away, liar.
Some core values are more core values than other core values. Respect for the flag isn't a core value. When you stop to think about it, respect for the flag is kind of fascistic. You most truly honor core American values when you disrespect the flag. Waving the Mexican flag is a sign of ethnic pride. Waving the American flag flag is a microaggression.......Can you name someone in the Democratic Party who can unequivocally and unreservedly criticize Kaepernick for taking the knee during the national anthem? Isn't respect for the national anthem a core value?
I'm sure that many....maybe most...in the Democratic Party wish Obama would just shut up and go away. Sadly eight years of crying "racist" to any and all that oppose him have handcuffed them. And the rest of us aren't listening. The carnage will continue in the 2018 mid-terms.
They really seem to believe that what Obama put in place (Iran deal, ACA, illegal immigration stuff) just needs to be explained better to Trump and then he will love it. Which, now that I think of it, is what Obama thinks too.
Back a few years, someone in the administration, perhaps Ben Rhodes, said that terrorism was a problem in communication. I've forgotten the exact words but these people think that all of life is made up of symbols. He said that they just needed to explain to people that this was normal. Not a problem if terrorists blow things up once in a while.
Lawyers and newspaper and TV people are all about talk and symbols. Nothing is really real. "You didn't build that."
Trump builds things. Real things.
I suspect that he will stay around to declaim sonorously and (probably) frequently, because he will be well paid for it.
Mr Steyer for one, having spent $87million on politics last year, has declared he will spend even more this year, lack of elections notwithstanding. There are others out to protect their interests also.
Mr. Obama will continue to make a good living as a political tool, as he has always been.
We can all see that one of his enduring problems is is his bad grammar.
Why doesn't Obama just put on a sackcloth robe and walk up and down Pennsylvania Avenue with a sign that says "The End Is Near!"
He sure seemed to consume a good bit of the products of journalism during his presidency, what with all of the events he learned about by reading about them in the news.
I dont think there actually are many Democrats who want Obama to go away. He was and is useful to them, because he speaks well when given good lines, is charismatic (tastes vary of course), and is black.
He was moreover always simply a hired man, not someone with inconvenient opinions or interests or agendas. A tool, not a wielder of tools.
His conditions amount to not having Trump as president, so while I found this laughably funny, it also struck me as almost demented. In essence, he's saying the Trump presidency is abnormal and threatens the US. But Trump won the election, and Trump is gaining, not losing, in popularity. Trying to fight the country is just as stupid as it gets. You have to let the country have this experiment, and then you can talk.
It may earn Obama a LOT of press in the interim, but it risks his reputation as president.
It also hurts the Democratic party badly - if Obama becomes the "media leader", then who will emerge from the grass roots, making an effective case against the Trump administration's policy errors, hopefully to form 2018/2020 opposition planks? Sadly - I am sure it was not Obama's intention - various aspects of the Obama presidency have become a disaster for the Democratic party. I think this happened because of Obama's unofficial unquestionable status (What - you disagree? You RACIST!) which led to an encroaching, obfuscated takeover of the Democratic leadership by a small ingroup as nothing could be challenged in the public press. We are so, so tragically far from Howard Dean's 50-state strategy!!!
But if Obama tries to lead the opposition, won't the same dynamic hold? The Dems need new leadership, and that leadership should naturally (if unpredictably) arise out of the opposition to Trump. Obama is not going to be running, and if he can't convince himself to shuffle off into the shadows, it will be impossible for new leaders to emerge from those shadows.
Obama: I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Trump: Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?
President Obama already seems to have a bit of trouble with President Ash Carter's hearing.
Obama and Clinton sucked the oxygen from any possible new Democratic leadership, nothing has been learned.
You have to let the country have this experiment, and then you can talk.
From where I sit we had the talk in November and we're ending the experiment tomorrow.
I can only hope that Obama doesn't really mean what he says here - otherwise 2018 will be ugly for Dems. I am afraid that Obama does mean it, because Obama truly does believe that the narrative forms the reality.
However, this past election shows that approach IS NOT WORKING. Trying to tell voters that the economy is great when for many, it is declining, was a catastrophic electoral error.
Whatever Obama says or does, you can confidently assume that it wasn't his idea. This business, his "conditions" and etc., no less than anything he did or said in office, is part of a messaging strategy initiated and controlled by others.
Some village is missing its organizer.
@Althouse, you still missing him already?
@Ferdinande, Hyde Park in Chicago, to NT precise.
I suspect he will kibitz with annoying frequency, but if Trump is having success Obama's interventions will only seek to damage the Democrat party even further. So many people have asserted what a great speaker he is, but, honestly, what has he ever been able to sell except himself Be it the Olympics, Hillary, or for that matter, Obamacare, he has never been able to move the needle in his chosen direction. Much like Hillary, Obama has fared best when he is off stage. Not a great orator. Hell, Churchill convinced the British people to follow him even though he promised nothing more than blood, toil, sweat, and tears. Obama promised unicorns and skittles and only managed to stay afloat on the bodies of all the Democrat officeholders from the Senate to State Houses.
There was a comedian whose name escapes who used to a routine about Hawaii and Hawaiian shirts. The premise being no one would or could wear one except in Hawaii, and even though you may wear it onto the plane at some point in the return to the states you will experience an epiphany about how godawful they are. He extrapolated this to the pilot getting into the cockpit and at some point looking down and reacting "What the hell". He suggested that you should always wait it for and when the plane swerved you would know the pilot had just realized he was still wearing the Hawaiian shirt. I think historians should experience a similar awakening at some point in the future regarding the Obama Presidency, but I suspect they will continue to leave in "Hawaii" even though it's most famous son has long since moved on.
I think MaxedOutMama's analysis of the situation is spot on. However, assuming Trump is able to get the economy growing again in a way that benefits his supporters, and reduces illegal immigration to a manageable level (those two issues are linked by the way,) its going to take at least one, if not two, presidential election cycles before the Democrat party even begins to be viable nationally.
Their leadership are all hard leftists who reflexively dislike successful people outside of government and academia. And many of them are scolds. Just catch a few minutes of Warren asking questions at the confirmation hearings. If that is the face of your party then you have a problem.
The Democrat party's best hope is a situation like what happened after Reagan. The party reverts back to the National Chamber of Commerce's tool to advance their interests and screw the rest of the country.
The Republican Party reverts I mean.
"I look forward to being an active consumer of your work..."
President Obaloney is at it again. If one were to believe him (why would we?), he gets most of his bad news from reading it in the press. Here is a partial list of things Obaloney said he first heard about on the news:
--Hillary's personal email address;
--the Fast and Furious gun-running fiasco;
--the NSA spying on foreign leaders;
--the Petraeus sex scandal;
--the IRS targeting of conservative groups;
--Justice's wiretapping of Fox News and AP reporters;
--The VA waiting list scandal; and
--the Air Force one photo-op fiasco.
Do you think he could be kidding us? He seems like such a lovely man.
Oh, and a scolding from groups you already don't trust telling you that you need to have faith and trust in them because they are so awesome is also not a viable political strategy.
Obama will feel relevant because the people inside of his bubble will faun over all he says. Outside of his bubble E.G. the United States, his stature is sure to shrink.
If he had thought ahead and wanted to remain important, he should not have taken a 2nd term. Then the threat of coming back would be there and donations to his foundation (he would have one) would be abundant. He will do fine with his writing and speechifying and will be rich, but only GWB rich, not a real plutocrat like Gore or Clinton or Kerry.
DJT should just keep referencing Washington's final address and how classy W was during Obama's tenure.
"Bad show" is still a useful phrase.
Ron - it is clear that Trump is truly going to try to reboot the economy, and as many pundits and commentators have remarked, one feature of the Obama administration is that there are a lot of executive actions which can easily be set aside. Plus, Trump has the Republican majority in both houses of Congress, so he does have scope.
But what should be waking up the Democrats is that Trump is not, in fact, a conservative, but a moderate, and he is certain to rebuke some of the overreach from the "True Conservative" group in Congress, which will cause the American public to place a high value on Trump's leadership. Trump is almost unique in this type of revolution-election in that he is not at all revolutionary. Trump's policies are probably closer to JFK's, Truman's, and Eisenhower's than Reagan's. Trump doesn't want to fundamentally reform the country, he just wants to shake it out of its ossification so that it works better.
So it is a very high priority for the Dems to shuck the pajamas, put on their big-boy pants, and develop a real set of initiatives for the country. They have got to dump their aged leadership and they have got to dump their narrative to adopt one that's closer to the voters' experience.
Obama has been the anti-FDR - instead of delivering a new, solid Democratic majority, he's come close to killing off his party (with the active and enthused collaboration of certain small groups prominent in American life) and potentially generating a Republican party majority with legs.
I hope they do it, because Trump has the best chance of success if the Dems can rebound. Otherwise, the vested interests will just buy off the Republican leadership in Congress.
Obama barely had the energy to go through the motions of performing his duties as President. Without a powerful, ideologically motivated staff to direct him, I doubt he's going to have much passion for politics going forward. He's primarily interested in monetizing his fame and continuing to enjoy the luxuries that went with the Presidency. And there's a gigantic cash cow of White liberals out there, just begging for Barack and Michele to milk them.
Michael K:
Reverend JJ was at the Berlin Wall and said the same thing. Failure to communicate.
As a Cold War baby, I thought the Soviets communicated quite well.
I hope he does "speak up."
No longer being clad in the imperial purple, his essential shallowness should be apparent to all.
They have got to dump their aged leadership and they have got to dump their narrative to adopt one that's closer to the voters' experience.
The trouble is, have you looked at the "new leadership?"
Kamala Harris, who is what the Democrats in California think is the new Democrat.
She is, like Obama, part black and nice looking. She spent the hearings quizzing the new EPA head on global warming. She is a typical California airhead.
Her credentials:
Harris was elected California's Attorney General in 2010 and re-elected in 2014.[2][3] Harris was the first woman,[4] the first Jamaican-American, the first Asian-American and the first Indian American attorney general in California.
She and Cory Booker are about it.
@MaxedOutMama, what will stun Democrats is their slowly dawning realization that Trump isn't a Republican at all -- he's a lifelong Democrat who, like Nanny Bloomberg in New York City, won by running as a Republican. This should be a message to the establishments of both parties, but right now neither is listening.
"To be precise. Damned autocorrect.
I hope obama is out there loud and clear. I hope he preaches to the mountains tops. After a year of being abused and slapped down by the trump twitter feed and being called out for his numerous failures and Sad! He will slink away to whatever posh life he has.
He isn't up against Romney this time.
Stealing the idea from Dr. Seuss and Art Buchwald:
Barack Hussein Obama will you please go now!
One of the best things that could happen to President Trump is for ex-President Obama to criticize him for doing exactly what he was elected to do.
Lost in this is whether Obama could do anything about those issues even if he wanted to. If he couldn't accomplish it while president, why would he be more able to do so when he's out of office?
Besides, his political talents seem to be limited to promoting himself but not so much promoting others or promoting ideas. He seems to lead from behind.
Thank you Brando. This is exactly what I came here to say.
MaxedOutMama:
"Trump's policies are probably closer to JFK's, ...."
A politician who said "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" would be labelled a Tea Party candidate these days. Asking people to stop acting like a victim and reject government dependency is the antithesis of the Democratic party's central principles.
Kamala Harris got to where she is by being Willie Brown's girlfriend. Who got her all her jobs.
She either has copied Willie's rolodex or still has Willie use it for her, as he still knows where the bodies are buried.
MaxedOutMama:
Excellent comments today. (Not to imply that you don't always have comments worth reading.)
Are we seeing the beginning of a progressive/regressive "Government in Exile"?
"We'll see what he wants." Not so hard: he wants attention, power, and money, not necessarily in that order. He wants a $1B foundation and a $100M family fortune, at least -- bigger than the Clintons', if at all possible. He'll hit the lecture circuit, internationally. Michelle will start making noises about running for office. The MSM will consult him on how to shape their narrative. He will exploit the Dem vacuum, partly created by O himself, to remain the go-to guy on the left. He will morph the not-Bush, first-black-prez adulation that propelled him initially into becoming the anti-Trump. Bush family principles are for the birds -- the left doesn't play by those rules, or any rules that obstruct the pursuit of power.
re: 1. "Systematic discrimination being ratified in some fashion."
If there is going to be immigration reform, the best reason I can think of in defense of an across-the-board moratorium (pause, time-out) on all further immigration into the United States until we can assimilate and integrate the 70 million or so first- and second-generation immigrants (including 11 million undocumented) who are already here, the vast majority from societies with no, or very weak, democratic traditions.
And in the meantime we might investigate whether immigration helps or hurts the development of the poor countries from which most immigrants come. My hunch is that if would be better for them if the flow of immigration (and of human capital) ran the other way. Assuming of course that the goal is to maximize global economic and social well-being.
Am I alone in this sentiment?
Will Hillary be competing with Obama for money and attention ? Will it be 2008 all over again ? Will this put a lid on any potential up-and-comers in the Democratic Party ? Stay tuned....
Maybe he could move back to Chicago, become a tow truck operator trying to run a small business, raise a family, and make small,
positive impacts in the 'community.'
You know...organize.
I absolutely love this part.
Harris was the first woman,[4] the first Jamaican-American, the first Asian-American and the first Indian American attorney general in California.
Identity politics, its whats for dinner.
Wonder why Indian American isn't hyphenated.
Am I alone in this sentiment?
Nope. It used to be leftist dogma that siphoning off the best and brightest from less developed countries was stealing human capital and was immoral.
In his last days and hours in office, Pres. Obama seems to be getting in touch with his inner radical, the revolutionary zeal that guided his actions before he had to live within the limits of electoral politics.
It's as though he's been imprisoned within those constitutional checks and balances that provide all-too-real limits on the power of the executive and, now, he doesn't have to pretend any more.
He's far too polite to start shouting "burn it down!" with the black bloc, but, perhaps that's where he's headed? Now that he no longer needs to pretend he's always been firmly within the orbit defined by Liberal-left electoral politics?
This all brings me back to my exchange yesterday with Meade concerning the lovely/unlovely man/president dichotomy.
It confirms and clarifies me in my view that Obama is not only an unlovely president but also an unlovely man. A real son-of-a-bitch. But I knew that even before he became an Illinois senator. Case in point: membership and regular attendance in the Goddamn America church, and then lying about what it meant to him, and then throwing Rev. Wright under the bus when it became inconvenient to be associated with him.
I could cite many other examples.
On the other hand I don't find Trump to be an unlovely man. I think he's blunt and sometimes crude but that doesn't offend me; people have said the same about me on occasion. He strikes me as actually a pretty good guy. Also, I think he's funny. I think he has a sense of humor about himself and about the world in general. I'd like to hang out with him.
I don't want to hang out with Obama. I think he's a stiff. Not a man's man, lacking the common touch. I don't think Obama has a sense of humor. He fakes it, and it's obvious to me he's faking. He an angry, arrogant man. An unlovely man. A son-of-a-bitch.
Big Mike said...
@Althouse, you still missing him already?
1/19/17, 8:18 AM
How can she miss him if he won't go away? Like Macbeth, nothing will become his presidency like the leaving of it.
OpenID chrisnavin.com said...
Maybe he could move back to Chicago, become a tow truck operator trying to run a small business, raise a family, and make small,
positive impacts in the 'community.'
You know...organize.
1/19/17, 10:24 AM
Can you imagine him trying to do anything useful with his hands? Barackobama as tow truck operator yeah that would be novel. The thought of the Secret Service extricating him from the winch makes me happy.
I hope he continues to help the Democratic party in exactly the way he's helped it during his terms. Go Obama, go!
Obama truly does believe that the narrative forms the reality.
However, this past election shows that approach IS NOT WORKING. Trying to tell voters that the economy is great when for many, it is declining, was a catastrophic electoral error.
When he and Pelosi and Reid were pushing through healthcare reform in a sleazy underhanded way, one of the Demoratic Congressmen told him he was hearing from his constituents just how unpopular it was, and that it was going to hurt them. Obama told him, "This time you have me." I can't remember who the Congressman was, but the Democrats have been losing elections an awful lot since then. Wonder if that guy still has his job?
Obama "tells" US Navy Corpsman that they are "garbage" because he mispronounced the word Corpsman? That's a nasty stretch.
As for President Obama staying engaged in politics, one can only hope. Who knows, maybe he'll end up in the Senate again. His 60% approval rating buys him a lot of capital in the political realm.
Michael K - but that's why they have to dump the narrative!! These "new leaders" being promoted by their leadership are not going to take back Pennsylvania, or Georgia, for that matter. They're deliberately pushing fringe players. Not a one of them has legs for a national base!
There are plenty of Democrats out there in the sticks and even in many of the cities who are solid people with some practical experience in actually trying to better the lives of those they represent. What about the governors? A Cynthia McKinney can win locally in GA, but a governor has to appeal to a much wider range of constituents! Why couldn't we have had a real choice?
DC Dems need to get in touch with those Dems.
And we all know that the DC GOP isn't much better - without a strong opposition to hold their putatively conservative feet to the flames, they are likely to simply sell the country to a different set of oligarchs. It's very profitable to be a Congress Critter nowadays, and somehow the average citizen suspects that EpiPens selling for under $150 in Canada and $600 in the States might account for some of that crazy free cash that just falls into the laps of those with a vote to sell in Congress. Also perhaps 8 million dollar contracts for books that no one reads.
Trump got elected because no one else could muster up the simple honesty to talk about what everyone knows.
President Carter speaks out whenever he wants to - as does Bill Clinton. George W. Bush was extremely unpopular when he left. I think that's a big reason that he hasn't said much.
Obama can do whatever he wants. It's just another check on Presidential overreach. Threats of insults from Trump are useless. (That's all that Trump knows how to do, apparently.) Obama will speak out when Trump goes too far - and that probably won't take long...
January 19, 2017
Just got totally distracted into the subject of songs about magazines.
Ann, I wonder if this makes you more sympathetic to President Trump on account of his alleged short attention span. You are pretty distractible, TBH.
Sunsong: 1) insults will probably work very well on Obama 2) if Trump were the monster you make him out to be, why wouldn't he have Obama killed?
Reagan, HW, and W retired. Carter has been a superficial moralist. Clinton has been ok. He's been a spokesman and profiteer of globalism. He'll probably retire now. Obama will be a combination of Carter and Clinton, with some Obamaesque bloviating tossed in. DC will be his home base the rest of his life. He's not going back to Chicago or Hawaii.
Obama will speak out when Trump goes too far - and that probably won't take long...
Maybe when Trump moves the EPA headquarters to Detroit.. I can hardly wait.
I just figured he had let slip we had a zombie army. Just don't seem like the kind of mistake a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law would make.
MackM said...
"Obama "tells" US Navy Corpsman that they are "garbage" because he mispronounced the word Corpsman? That's a nasty stretch.
As for President Obama staying engaged in politics, one can only hope. Who knows, maybe he'll end up in the Senate again. His 60% approval rating buys him a lot of capital in the political realm."
The administration of Obama is over, but the Obama personality cult lives on.
MayBee: There are a lot of people in politics who really don't get that you can know and understand someone's positions, and yet completely and honestly disagree with them.
Great stuff. I'm increasingly convinced that Obama will be remembered for not living up to the inspirational speeches of 2008. Both his rhetoric and this thoughts are pedestrian. He promised to understand two opposing views on an issue, and somehow find common ground, and maybe push both sides to change. Instead he quickly concludes that anyone who disagrees with him (and other like-minded people) has something wrong with them.
Breakthrough with Cuba: how pathetic is that. Everything that could actually be accomplished, could be done by John Kerry visiting Cuba. Flying in Air Force One so Raul Castro could embarrass the President of the United States? Not good. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article67353852.html
#3 "Institutional efforts to silence dissent or the press." That's got to take a lot of hubris: Obama has surely lent his support to an admittedly vague attempt to silence the anti-Hillary alternative media; and no president has done more to prosecute both whistle-blowers and the reporters they talk to than Obama. http://althouse.blogspot.ca/2016/12/if-donald-j-trump-decides-as-president.html
#1, #2, and #4 all seem to align with Cory Booker: if you stick to due process for all, rather than striving for substantive justice in the sense of roughly equal outcomes for previously disadvantaged groups, especially if you are a white male, you are a racist etc. Doesn't seem like a promising way to score points against Trump, and I would think identity politics is a swamp which, once you're in, is difficult to get out of.
I don't like Obama's promise to speak out against the rounding up children for deportation. That's sort of like saying he will speak out against Israel if they resume their practice of cutting the throats of Christian children to make matzohs. Obama says some things that inspire hatred against Republicans and he says such things in the most modulated and tolerant way.
RHH,
I think it's "it's not who we are"
Let's put it this way. Obama is not half the gentleman that George W. Bush is. And Obama never will be---he's too entranced with himself.
Can you imagine listening to Hillary for 20 minutes?
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