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It's the new Andrew Sullivan column.
In one respect, it seems to me, the presidency of Donald Trump has been remarkably successful. In 17 months, he has effectively erased Barack Obama’s two-term legacy....
If Trump has destroyed Obama’s substantive legacy at home and abroad, the left has gutted Obama’s post-racial cultural vision. And those of us who saw him as an integrative bridge to the future, who still cling to the bare bones of a gradually more inclusive liberal order, find ourselves on a fast-eroding peninsula, as cultural and political climate change erases the very environment we once called hope.
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175 comments:
And don't it feel good!
Pen and phone, meet White-Out.
"Obama’s post-racial cultural vision"
Is that a joke? Race seemed like much less an issue before his presidency. Or perhaps this is referring specifically to his internal thoughts? If so, those thoughts certainly weren't pursued by the DNC.
"And don't it feel good!"
It feels good to be back to trillion dollar deficits? Good to know.
Diversity leverage.
Hrmmmmmm
Maybe we should put a system in place whereby rules and laws are made by large bodies and cannot be repealed except by that same large body.
We could call it a legislature.
And maybe as a check and balance we could have an executive chime in as well.
Wait. You mean a back-bench senator with no legislative accomplishments - elected solely because of the color of his skin - wasn't the one we were waiting for after all?
Wow.
Do Democrats care more about the judgment of history than do Republicans? I remember as Bill Clinton left office, one commenter said, "In 100 years, he'll be remembered as the guy who was president between the two Bushes." Ouch (I thought). But as things played out I became more and more convinced that the whole Hillary for President thing was Bill's plan to write a different legacy for himself.
"Obama’s substantive legacy at home and abroad"
Which substantive legacy was that, especially abroad?
He may have had his legacy wiped out, but Obama still has two things for which he can hang his hat (literally), the styrofoam columns and the Peace Prize.
"Obama’s studied sense of fiscal responsibility"
Bwahahahaha! I realize Trump is certainly not fiscally responsible, but how quickly we forget.
Don't forget his claim to Godhood.... that merely by nominating him, the world would be healed. Only God claims that kind of power.... and Obama, apparently.
“Nothing could be further from the left’s current vision, which is that the very concept of post-racial integration is an illusion designed to mask the reality of an eternal “white supremacy.” Today’s left-liberal consensus is that Obama, however revered he may still be as president, was and is absurdly naïve in this respect: that there is no recovery from the original sin, no possible redemption, and certainly no space for the concept of an individual citizenship that transcends race and can unite Americans. There is no freedom here. There is just oppression. The question is merely about who oppresses whom.”
He certainly gets this right. If you love freedom you can’t put these people in power.
Tissue paper never lasts long.
* * *
Alternate squib:
Someone left his cake out in the rain.
Considering even Obama didn't buy into Obama's post racial vision (quite the opposite), is it any wonder it didn't survive him?
Sigivald said...
"Obama’s substantive legacy at home and abroad"
Which substantive legacy was that, especially abroad?
He turned the middle east into a dumpster fire.
He sold us out to the Russians with his new found flexibility.
He stabbed as many of our allies in the back as possible.
Red Lines.
Killed Ghadafi after he denuclearized.
the left has gutted Obama’s post-racial cultural vision.
I love all the racial healing.
the left has gutted Obama’s post-racial cultural vision.
This is not Obama's vision, it's Sullivan wishcasting it onto Obama. Obama has the same race-centric Balkanization vision as the overwhelming majority of the academic left.
Keep pining for the fiscal responsibility of the Obama era, Mike!
How substantive could accomplishments be if they could be gone in 17 months?
Meanwhile in Trumpland...if he gets that signature on the Israeli-Palestinian issue...
"find ourselves on a fast-eroding peninsula"
which is about to become an island on its way to being covered in water,
especially abroad?
Pallets of cash in Tehran?
Well, luckily for Sullivan, his shockingly obsequious coverage of Obama in '08 helped him get the kid glove treatment when he got busted for pot possession in a national park.
I don't think I disagree with the quoted section from Andrew Sullivan.
Trump is succeeding, more or less, in destroying much of Obama's policy legacy. (And yes, Obama's social legacy was always in doubt.)
And perhaps, Trump's legacy will be, "destroyer of Obama legacies." As I have said many times, Trump has very successfully vandalized much of Obamacare. (Less than some might think so far, but maybe we'll see more destruction in the future, per groundwork now laid by Trump.) Of course, Trump campaigned on wonderful new healthcare proposals. All of which were blue-sky lies. Trump has no knowledge of, no interest in, and no leadership in regard to, healthcare reform. He's shown nothing. He's done nothing. What he has done, is wreckage of many components of Obamacare. That is the Trump legacy.
Obama's legacy is of no importance.
What is really being destroyed is the Globalist influence of the United States. Obama was merely a globalist tool.
Obama tried to tribalize our politics and bring the United States back down to the rest of the world. He purposely grouped everyone by race and ostracized the individual. Standard methods of controlling the masses.
We elected the person that said "Make America Great Again" and "Americans First."
Borders and culture are what this is about.
"Obama’s studied sense of fiscal responsibility"
Holy shit where did that come from?
Can we find one Obama economic initiative which doesn't shovel money to a left wing constituency while sticking the bill with people the left hates?
His major initiatives:
1. Stimulus package: fund teachers and NGO workers, bill (future) taxpayers. Check.
2. Obamacare: fund low income and under the table workers, bill taxpayers, successful consultants, and small business employees. Check.
3. Higher education loan forgiveness: fund government employees and bill private sector employees. Check.
Maybe this is is Sullivan's idea of responsibility but that just shows how incapable of analysis he is.
Since his long hiatus from the keyboard, I find Andrew to be much less excitable these days.
That's a good thing.
Obama’s legacy has not been destroyed. I would say that he and his legacy have been remarkably constant. He was, is and will probably always will be an empty suit.
Nothing in modern fiscal history can match Trump’s recklessness — neither Reagan’s leap of faith nor George W. Bush’s profligacy — and it’s telling that the Democrats and the liberal intelligentsia have accommodated so swiftly to it.
Sullivan seems to believe - amusingly - that the left establishment had to change to stop worrying about deficits and debt. Sullivan notes that Obama's opposition to gay marriage was bullshit but for some reason he can't skepticism to this circumstance. Not only was Obama's fiscal responsibility bullshit but so was the entire left's.
A dozen cops in Dallas, Baton Rouge and Philadelphia were unavailable for comment on Obama's post racial cultural vision
Substantive? I don’t think that word means what he thinks it means.
The greatest thing Trump has done is clarifying who is who in US politics.
Republican voters actually have someone running the party that wants what they want. The cuck wing of the republican party voted for Hillary and have had their masks removed.
And we are picking up millions of disaffected democrat voters who realized the democrat party was screwing them too.
Both parties have been tools used to lie to different segments of the US population.
Now we have a president who represents us.
It's kinda funny when liberals suddenly express concern about debt and deficits. History is endlessly starting anew.
Poor little Andy actually confused Shakespear's Richard III with the historical one to besmirch President Trump. the column is just one more hagiography celebrating O.
It was a false hope. With apologies to Shelley:
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Obamandias, king of kings;
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Describes Obama perfectly, to the life.
That's the design that they REALLY should be using for the Obama Library in Chicago.
The sooner Obama fades away, the better. And Andrew Sullivan is still a ditzy, "yanni" sort of guy living in a world of pure delusion. He is more interesting as a clinical example than as a thinker.
The Obama legacy will be one of an administration that was one of the most corrupt in American history, & how that fact was carefully hidden by a cadre of cultural enablers from the voters.
Obama was a horrible manager. He gave no guidance, & punished no malcontents, & so his second & third tier appointees ran riot with their own agendas at the various agencies.
"Cuck said: Of course, Trump campaigned on wonderful new healthcare proposals. All of which were blue-sky lies. Trump has no knowledge of, no interest in, and no leadership in regard to, healthcare reform. He's shown nothing. He's done nothing. What he has done, is wreckage of many components of Obamacare. That is the Trump legacy."
You eunuch brethren talked repeal and replace for seven years. Trump's got a pen waiting asshole.
Aha! There it is. Regarding Sullivan's use of "substantive" to describe Obama's legacy.
You see the always cast Obama as Jackie Robinson when in fact he is actually Choo Choo Coleman.
Reagan came to be known as "The Great Communicator".
Will Trump come to be known as "The Great Corrector"?
Neither Bush II nor Obama did anything substantive AND Good. Lets see:
Obamacare, the Iraq war, massive increase in illegal immigration, bad trade deals,
Campaign finance reform, trillion dollar debts, 2008 Housing/Financial Rip-off, and a recession.
Obama "erased" Bush II legacy without much effort -and Trump is doing the same to Obama.
There wasn't much to erase.
These are interesting a really uninformed quotes, "....has effectively erased Barack Obama’s two-term legacy...." My friends, Barack Obama did it all by himself, people pointing out Obama's actions and the subsequent undoing of such actions should have known. Wait until the IG's report comes out. This report will point directly at the top 3 Intelligent Officials of the Obama Administration: Clapper; Brennan; and Comey should all be investigated and put into jail. The disclosure of some of their actions is astounding and seriously threatens our Democracy. Nevertheless, most people forget Barack Obama was a former Chicago politician before being anointed as a savior to race relations in the USA. Wow - what a failure in that area. But I point out that even the University of Illinois - Chicago now stated and I paraphrase, that Chicago is the most corrupt city in the USA. Obama hails from Chicago! Therefore, no one should be surprised at the corruption coming out of DC during the 8 years of Obama's Presidency.
Obama saved us from McCain in 2008. Too bad Romney didn't win in 2012, but Mitt was always a loser.
All you need to know about Sullivan is the following quote from his article "Obama’s studied sense of fiscal responsibility". Other than gutting the military, there was no spending that Obama wanted to restrain. The rest of his article is one falsehood followed by another.
Did Obama help race relations?
I always thought the opposite.
We all know that when Liberals/Dems start wanking about the deficits or talking about Big bad Corporations screwing us over, its all bullshit.
They always do this when the R's are in power. When they get in power, they never talk about balancing the budget and they do nothing to rein in Corporate power
Words are wind.
Claiming that Obama had a "studied sense of fiscal responsibility" is like saying an arsonist has a studied sense of fire safety.
Now comes the leftie crowd whining about debt. The exact same people who mocked the tea party, crassly called them tea baggers, Child killers, haters,and the old reliable, racists. What a surprise they they really give not one shit about the debt.
Obama like Dinkins before him proved you just can't have a black guy in charge. They always screw it up.
"Obama’s slow winnowing of the deficit"
" Obama’s studied sense of fiscal responsibility. "
i KNEW i should have been paying more attention to the last 8 years! 'cause all i remember was O'Bama Doubling the national debt in a few short years
Obama is discovering: Live by the Executive Order, die by the Executive Order. It's something Trump allies should realize as well.
The point is, Obama's legacy was not "substantive". Whether DACA , the Iran agreement, or any other of a number of executive orders, Obama didn't bother to get the imprimatur of Congress because in most cases their approval would not have been forthcoming. Confounded by representative government and the Constitution, Obama relied on unilateral actions. What can be done by executive order can be undone by executive order. Substantive? A better word is "evanescent".
Andrew Sullivan: bitter clinger and ace gynecological detective.
Not to worry, the white left/ tribalist left will keep the black man down with threats and intimidation.
Birkel: "Andrew Sullivan: bitter clinger and ace gynecological detective."
Andrew Sullivan :: gynecological detective
LLR Chuck :: Successful Republican Outcomes
The Legacy.
Poor Sullivan. He lived in the hope that given a chance men are good. When it turns out that given no other choice, men are good.
Andrew Sullivan, drama queen till the last curtain falls.
There wasn't much to erase.
Oh no??? I'd say race relations right now are worse than they've been since before the passage of the Voting Rights Act. That's pretty significant. Substantive, no. Significant, yes.
Post racial? Delusional.
Sullivan called McCain vile and despicable.
hstad: The Chicago Politician explanation is very interesting. The thing about Chicago is that there is never a comeuppance, the Democrats rule eternally. Whoops, that's not true nationally. Time to replace Sessions and start indicting people. And why not, the press and the Democrats are already as loud and shrill as they can get. Erase Obama's legacy like they did to Nixon.
"Obama’s post-racial cultural vision." Projection.
"And those of us who saw him as an integrative bridge to the future" Those of you were laughably wrong.
O was all about O. He couldn't be bothered to lift his lazy ass to be a bridge or bring Americans together or do any other heavy lifting.
"who still cling to the bare bones of a gradually more inclusive liberal order, find ourselves on a fast-eroding peninsula" But Andy, my man, be specific: what exactly is Trump doing to erode the peninsula and harm the "liberal order"?
He's cutting back on regulation by unaccountable administrators; he's nominating mostly originalist judges; he is putting pressure on illiberal regimes; he is undoing lawless executive moves that circumvented immigration law, and he included a group of people in the polity who had been excluded by the very identity politics Andy claims to dislike.
"Obama's legacy has already been destroyed." All around the world, Red Diapers are being flown at half-mast in mourning.
Sullivan's puppydog devotion to Barack Obama is so pathetic and makes for terrible writing. He's a great writer, don't get me wrong. But it's like he loses all perspective and skepticism when it comes to Obama. Obama "studiously" winnowed away at the budget deficit? Really? He did that by passing a gargantuan entitlement program and a trillion dollar "stimulus" package? I guess if you front-load all that spending, and then lose Congress to the GOP who restrain your worst impulses, your partisan supporters can claim with a straight face that you're all about fiscal discipline.
The truth is divided government stymies the growth of government better than one-party government. The best combination seems to be a Democratic POTUS and a Republican Congress.
Obama's accomplishments have been wiped from memory because his good deeds were few an far between - and Trump now is spending more time and money goofing off on the golf course than Barry ever could imagine. Of course, Obamer didn't have hotels and golf courses that needed additional revenues.
The Empty Chair's lasting legacy is a little more than $8 trillion in additional debt.
Chuck,
Do you think the House and Senate (McConnel, Ryan) have some blame re healthcare reform?
Gadfly (Mr. Hands clean)
Is that your own observation?
Confounded by representative government and the Constitution, Obama relied on unilateral actions.
Yet Trump is the great danger to democracy.
"if you take the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change seriously, even Obama’s energy legacy was insufficient to the scale of the task.
He as obviously not read the IPCC reports very carefully.
What is or was Obama's legacy? Business as usual? Keep feeding the fatcats? Obama created no legacy other than Promise them the world and give them nothing!
("Them" being those whose votes put him in office, those who trusted him to usher in needed change, only to see him maintain the status quo. Of course, it was obvious this would be his course of action even before he was elected, to anyone paying attention.)
I'm astounded Sullivan still thinks Obama had a "post-racial cultural vision". I mean, seriously, the guy cynically exploited racial divisions for his own benefit for eight years.
Also, Obama's real legacy is the ACA, which I don't see going anywhere.
Obama’s substantive legacy
Who could ever forget Cash for Clunkers?
Obama had a legacy? Who knew?
Remarkable. It is like the ability to goven relies on the consent of the governed. That absent constant Executive Oversight (and threat of puntative retaliation) ( pay some frigging attention, Chuck), UNPOPULAR LEGISLATION GOES AWAY.
To wit,however much it tickled Chuck's Socialist Fancy, Obamacare was hated by 50-60% of the electorate.
So Chucks tears over it's demise is a matter of celebration for the majority of society.
Because the only ones who loved it were welfare queens, Chuck, Democrat Socialists, Chuck, those who had cushy government or mega corporation jobs, Chuck, the ridiculously wealthy, the mentally disabled and Chuck.
Bob Loblaw: "I'm astounded Sullivan still thinks Obama had a "post-racial cultural vision"."
In Sullivan's defense, wasn't "Anna Navarro republican" Chuck's beloved obambi given a trophy or 2 for being a "Post-Racial Cultural Vision" "participant"?
Turning the Nobel into a participation trophy is part of his legacy.
Obama's legacy of making federal government cool is very much alive.
Tony Blair might have done it first with "Cool Brittania", but Obama did it better. Government of, by, and for the beautiful people ensures that politicians and journalists can BE celebrities, hanging around with the beautiful people of Entertainment and Sports.
Heck, even Republicans got into the act, electing Donald Trump! That is a little problematic, as every Cool-ocracy needs an outgroup to sneer at, and Democrats were kinda hoping the Republicans would step up to that role. But hey, we can all still laugh at the Libertarians!
"Trump is succeeding, more or less, in destroying much of Obama's policy legacy."
Obama's big policy change that was meant to last beyond a budget -- his only domestic policy change -- was insurance changes with preexisting conditions.
My recollection of Obama's legacy was:
1, he passed a big-ass "stimulus" package (i.e., govt boondoggle)
2. he rammed Obamacare down our throats
3. In 2010, he lost 63 seats in the House
4. Nothing else legislatively passed
5. He issued a buncha Executive Orders
Am I missing anything? Cash for clunkers? Red-lines in Syria?
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/?s=all+the+racial+healing
If your legacy vanishes that easily and quickly, it couldn't have been much to begin with.
Obama my have preached a post-racial cultural vision, but he practiced politics by division at every turn.
If he had a choice to unite or divide he chose divide. That had to be intentional.
And if his legacy can be "wiped out" in 17 months, it wasn't very meaty now, was it?
"Am I missing anything? Cash for clunkers? Red-lines in Syria?"
I recall a newspaper article about a meeting Obama had shortly after his election with, I could be wrong, but with one of the Murdochs. I remember being surprised that he was talking with him. Anyways, the discussion was about how Presidents have the capitol for 1 big thing. He needed to decide what 1 big thing he was going to throw his weight behind early in his term. Because Presidents don't get to do anything besides foreign policy after their first year.
Reporter said Obama decided health care.
When historians look back, they'll ask, "Did Obama change the insurance system in the USA?" Does the insurance system change back to what it was before Obama was elected? What were the legal changes with insurance and preexisting conditions?
If Obama's post-racial cultural vision had a son it would look like ...
I mean his domestic policies like Cash for Clunkers ate being acknowledged as failures. His two biggest policies were failures by his own metrics. I don't see how his legacy can get more destroyed. He was a below average President history may revise up in time.
What is or was Obama's legacy? Business as usual? Keep feeding the fatcats? Obama created no legacy other than Promise them the world and give them nothing!
Other than Obamacare, which is one of the biggest wealth transfers in history. Where if you made over $120k you’re rich. We’ve come a long way,baby, from Peanut
declaring $25k was rich in the late 70’s.
He was going to weatherstrip the whole country. From the first SOTU. Your first SOTU speech, you’re supposed to go big and you go for that.
He could have accepted the results of the congressional election, but like a petulant child he... wait a minute! He has a legacy!
I've always been on the lower end of the monetary curve, and since I knew that fact, I was outrage with the dud Obama and his cash for clunkers program, which left citizens below my lowly life no alternative to buy a vehicle to drive to a job site for work, and yes, I'm talking about black people. Loser Obama.
If you ain't down here, you'll never understand. You know who I'm talking about.
Chris Matthews: "I Felt This Thrill Going Up My Legacy."
The key is to establish as much in law now so that what gets accomplished over the next six years can be sustained.
"If Trump has destroyed Obama’s substantive legacy at home and abroad, the left has gutted Obama’s post-racial cultural vision."
Donald Trump and increased racial discord ARE Obama's legacy.
You’re right Bob
If I remember correctly, in Orwell's 1984, there was the Newspeak term "blackwhite", which describes Sullivan's article to a T. Not only does he say that black is white because the Party says so, but he believes it with every fiber of his being. I give the article four Tomaskeys.
The TDS is strong within this one:
And this is indeed the kernel of what I fear: that if Mueller at any point presents a real conflict between the rule of law and Trump’s ego, the ego will win. If Trump has to fire his attorney general, and anyone else, he will. If he has to initiate a catastrophic conflict to save face, he will. If he has to delegitimize the Department of Justice, empty the State Department, and turn law enforcement against itself, he will. If he has to unleash unspeakable racial demons to save himself from political oblivion, he will not hesitate to do so. If he has to separate children from parents, describe humans as animals, and turn Christians into pagans, he will not blink.
The bit that I've bolded above is the tell that Sullivan doesn't actually believe any of this. Sullivan knows very well that the stories saying Trump referred to illegal immigrants as animals are lies (he was specifically referring to members of the notorious MS-13 gang), yet he puts that in there. You don't put obvious lies into a sincere column. They're the red meat you put into propaganda meant to reinvigorate your own side.
And they do need reinvigorating. The polls have Trump's approval rating slowly increasing and Democrat hopes of a November blue wave fading. After a year, Mueller's only significant accomplishment is that he's inadvertently exposed the Obama/Clinton corruption at the top of the Justice Department, FBI and CIA. And the IG still hasn't dropped the other shoe yet.
AllenS said...
I've always been on the lower end of the monetary curve, and since I knew that fact, I was outrage with the dud Obama and his cash for clunkers program, which left citizens below my lowly life no alternative to buy a vehicle to drive to a job site for work, and yes, I'm talking about black people."
Not only blacks. My 19 year old nephew was unable to find a cheap used car he could afford after Cash for Clunkers. When I was his age, I bought an old Buick LeSabre for $500 and drove it for 3 years before trading it in for another used car.
He moaned a lot about having to take the bus to school, but since he voted for Obama twice, I didn't feel that sorry for him.
Anyways, the discussion was about how Presidents have the capitol for 1 big thing. He needed to decide what 1 big thing he was going to throw his weight behind early in his term. Because Presidents don't get to do anything besides foreign policy after their first year.
Health care was a pretty easy decision because the system was so broken. It's still broken, but whether he made it better or worse depends on how old you are and how healthy.
What can Andrew Sullivan be talking about?
Obama's legacy is intact. The Obama Center was approved by the Chicago Plan Commission yesterday. It will be an eyesore occupying an ever-increasing share of formerly public land in historic Jackson Park. It will dwarf all nearby buildings, and it has no apparent practical purpose. It will not be a repository of records of the Obama Administration. It will not be a museum. It will house conference facilities. Hundreds of people spoke at the Commission hearing yesterday, most of whom were concerned that their little group get a share of the construction contract boodle.
So we have an ugly, useless facility sited on land taken from public use and converted to a private meeting space dedicated to the proposition that rewards should be split up along racial lines as redistributive justice. That sounds like Obama to me.
And Trump had nothing to do with it. (Although if you asked him, he'd tell you he could get it built twice as fast and would throw in gilded toilets.)
Crush your enemies, drive them before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.
"Health care was a pretty easy decision because the system was so broken. It's still broken, but whether he made it better or worse depends on how old you are and how healthy."
Legacies aren't about good/bad so much as they're about historical change.
The first question is, "Did the leader change the anything?" Did Trump change it all back? If the answer is No then there's a legacy. But...
Second question is, "Was the legacy a good legacy or a bad legacy?"
I guess this is one of those posts that people presume is less stupid than both what Sullivan originally wrote as well as the comments that follow in the thread itself.
Obama’s post-racial cultural vision
The gent who recently won the lottery, quit his job, then dumped several tons of bull manure on his ex-boss' front lawn couldn't have done better than the author of these five words.
(Eaglebeak)
I'm afraid the last thing Obama had was a post-racial cultural vision, from his Rev. Wright to his bitter clingers, from his incessant attacks on cops of every color, to Eric Holder's conversations about race--as Instapundit might say, it was racial polarization all the way down.
I read as much as I could stand. A couple of quickies: TPP was DOA. Hillary would not have tried to get it through the Senate, hell she campaigned against it; insurance premiums under Obamacare are driving even those in the middle class out of the insurance markets - and Sullivan considers this a good thing.
Obama achieved nothing of substance domestically beyond Obamacare. While he was President, Democrats and Republicans grossly overstated his accomplishments -- Democrats for obvious reasons, and Republicans because Obama was a Muslim Communist destroying Our American Way of Life. There is a tendency on all sides of American politics to view the President as some kind of king, when in fact the President's domestic power is quite limited under the Constitution (foreign affairs is a different matter).
I'm sure if Hillary had won the election we'd be missing good ol' Obama about now.
I looked at the US debt clock and one of the interesting numbers that was there was that the deficit to GDP gap has shrunk to minus 3.75% in 2018 from 9.33% in 2010 and Obama was "Mr.Fiscally Responsible"? KMA!
Sullivan bleakly overstates things on Obama, but his discussion of Richard III and Trump is interesting. One of his better efforts to get a handle on Trump and his followers.
The Obama period halted if not reversed the trajectory of racial healing made before him. I expect and already see that Trump will do more to bring races together than anyone in a long time. The reason? He changes the focus for open-minded people. It's not about race for him or most of the rest of us. It's about the things we have been blaming on race that were not race at all, but other issues wept under the easy excuse. Trump is shining a light on these issues as they really are. For example: MS-13 ARE animals. Not becuase they are Hispanic, but because they act like animals, only worse. The fact that he does not shudder and back away from such a statement forces people to face it down for what it is.
Sure the left will go all racist bullshit about it, but he will not accept that. He will stand on what he meant, and not let them redefine his point for him into something it never was. That's what you do when you apologize for what someone else claims you said, when you know damned well what you meant, becuase you say what you mean. You don't need to avoid the direct language to appease the PC police in advance. This is something that's new in politics and many usually cynical people see it as honesty and welcome it. It's what Kanye West and a lot of other minorities see and respect in Trump. They can see that he's not the racist portrayed by his enemies, so these "terrible things" he says can only be uncomfortable truths that they know themselves to be true, and have grown tired of hearing covered up like a crazy aunt in the basement.
All racial groups have smart people who who see this, and they are respected people in those communities that have always been truth tellers, so when you win them over you win over those who respect them. This will change the demographics of opinion. in other words, it will bring open-minded people of all races together - together in accepting and speaking truths long hidden under lies.
bagoh20 said...
The Obama period halted if not reversed the trajectory of racial healing made before him.
This is bullshit, of course. Obama upset a subset of the population who have reacted strongly but that is to be expected. Only the naive did not expect a backlash. Obama lead the country more competently than his predecessor and looks to have the advantage on his successor, based on results to date. That has an impact on the minds of younger people, although admittedly not so much on the old.
Sullivan falls for the Shakespearean description of Richard III, which is wrong.
"Born prematurely, his back hunched in a coil, his arm withered, he sees himself, from the very beginning of his life, as alone, unloved, unlovable, spurned even by his mother."
Richard III was not a hunchback as analysis of his skeleton has shown.
Per usual, that incorrect assessment represents the most accurate part of Sullivans mental meanderings.
Then again, it's publish or perish so duh.
No wonder ARM is so enamored of his article. It reinforces so many of the lefts myths...but in a good way....(wink wink)
ARM: "This is bullshit, of course."
Actually, its absolutely true.
And your assessment is BS, of course.
And why would your latest assessment be any different from any of your earlier assessments?
Spoiler: It shouldn't be, and it isn't.
You are in a minority, most people have a favorable view of Obama. Your view is your view of course and perfectly valid, but it is a minority view.
ARM: "You are in a minority,"
That would matter most to you.
Most democrats believe, desperately, Trump colluded with Russians.
I don't.
See where this is going?....
Not to worry ARM.
You'll always "have Paris" with LLR Chuck.
What a whiny bitch.
Big Mike wrote: Substantive? I don’t think that word means what he thinks it means.
Depends on the substance, doesn't it? Like the substance cow pastures are notorious for having lots of.
Obama’s slow winnowing of the deficit. Obama’s studied sense of fiscal responsibility.
...to the tune of $7+ trillion dollars of added debt. Funny, Sullivan says this and I think he honestly believes what he writes. I once read a study of dieters that found despite what they ate being rigorously monitored they would still lie about what they ate, even able to pass a polygraph. They honestly believed what they were saying was true. The same human fault must be at play here.
You are in a minority, most people have a favorable view of Obama.
That's because it used to be uncool and dangerous to openly dislike Obama, but the cool boat is like the Titanic — vast, flashy, hard to steer, and prone to sinking unexpectedly.
ARM and his kind have run out of ammo.
Our view of Obama as a petulant child who was unable to work with the Congress that the people of the United States sent him, and therefore found it impossible to secure a lasting legacy (Iran deal as a ratified treaty would have been far harder to abrogate at the stroke of a pen, for example) may be a minority view, but it is in fact factually correct. It’s true that most people get their news from sources that protect and defend Obama, and so are ignorant of the above.
FYI, even Richard III society has given up on the trope that the last of the Plantagenet kings was not a hunchback. I guess there are those who argue that it cannot be conclusively proven that it is Richard III, just like there are people who think Shakespeare wasn’t real.
Richard III was portrayed by Shakespeare as having a hunched back and the skeleton has a striking curvature to its spine. This was caused by scoliosis, a condition which experts say in this case developed in adolescence. Rather than giving him a stoop, it would have made one shoulder higher than the other. Highlighted are the facing sides of the 10th and 11th thoracic vertebrae, showing uneven growth as the spine ben. - BBC
Quaestor said...
it used to be ... dangerous to openly dislike Obama
This is ridiculous, of course. Most of FOX news and all of Trump disliked Obama. They seem to have done fine.
It was more like $9 trillion of added debt. But what's two trillion amongst friends?
The deficit was made to look better by spending off the balance sheet, which necessitated the avoidance of passing a budget.
Opinions matter more to ARM than do facts. Stated intentions more than actual results.
So long as more power accrues to Leftist Collectivists, Leftists are pleased.
Ronald Reagan faced a hostile Democratic Congress.
They still got legislation passed.
Bush I was despised by the Hippie Leadership of the Democrats. HE got legislation passed.
Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich hated each other. THEY still got legislation passed.
GWB was disdained, despised, and derided by the Left and faced Democratic majorities at the end of his term, lead by Tom Dash-hole (Who lost his seat as a result. Hard to sell one's centrist bone fides when one carries water for every Lefty in America). THEY got some large legislation passed.
Barack Hussain Obama...um...um...um...
That is some leadership, ARM.
This is ridiculous,
A certain rodeo clown would like to speak, but he is still in hiding.
"You are in a minority, most people have a favorable view of Obama."
-- Obama the person is a mixed bag. Obama the politician? He failed in every domestic policy he put forward -- and his two biggest ones (ACA/Stimulus), I measure his failing using his own metrics. The economy was worse after the stimulus than he said it would be without it, and the ACA met practically zero of its own benchmarks.
Foreign policy... well, he failed his own red line, screwed over the Arab Spring when they needed American allies, let Russia get away with whatever they did during the election, despite knowing it was happening in hopes, per his own administration, that Clinton could clean it up afterwards -- and that's before we get to the terrible Iran deal and the mess with encouraging other nations not to cooperate with America by going after Gaddahfi. He was inconsistent, mercurial, and wishy washy on the foreign stage. Luckily, he didn't do too much to weaken our ties to Europe. But, by allowing gun runners to arm Mexican cartels, he did little to help our neighbors or South America in general.
He did get bin Laden though. So, kudos there.
I got tired reading the comments (my fault, not theirs), so perhaps this has already been covered:
1Whether you love or hate Sullivan (or Trump) it is a mistake to celebrate the headline "Obama legacy dies" without actually reading the article. The article makes the point(s) that Obama years had a lot of progress that Trump has stopped: especially on trade, economic growth, and redistribution. So if Sullivan is 100 right, Trump is pretty ad.
Mind you: Obama did great on foreign policy early on, when he hewed fairly close to the established foreign policy that most presidents kept to. The longer he was around, and the more he put his own stamp on it, and stepped away from Bush and previous administrations, the worse it got. Obama was, tragically, a big idea guy, who often lacked foresight ("who knew there'd be no shovel ready jobs?") and never properly planned for things ("what do you mean the websites aren't ready?") and was relatively uninformed about how his administration ran or operated ("I learned about that failure the same way America did: in the news.")
He was, by all accounts, a terrible manager.
"pretty bad" not "pretty ad"
So. Much. Damn. Winning!!!
Of course: We could see how badly Obama would be at being a compromiser from the McCain/Obama campaign. McCain stuck to his promise to obey campaign limits; Obama did not. Despite this, McCain, with his extremely limited funds, cut an ad congratulating Obama. Obama, instead, cut an ad insulting McCain's physical inability to use a computer. A disability incurred by McCain's suffering actual torture.
So, you can see why I say Obama, as a person, is kind of a mixed bag. He's a dirty political fighter, but I honestly think he just sees that as "business," and never assumed anything done to someone politically "counted" as being an asshole. Even insulting their physical disabilities.
> So if Sullivan is 100 right
If.
He was, by all accounts, a terrible manager.
It helps to have, you know, run something -- anything -- before.
"Earnest Prole said...
Obama is discovering: Live by the Executive Order, die by the Executive Order. It's something Trump allies should realize as well."
We have to shrink the Federal government's responsibilities because they have become too big to be handled. I listened to Paul Ryan giving some talks in Wisconsin since he decided to leave off being Speaker after the election. He says that the House drafted and passed legislation but legislation couldn't get through the Senate because of the supermajority rule. If government is important and impotent, paralyzed and ruling by decree - then put various areas back to the states. Dismantle some departments such as education. Tell Congress if you don't pass a real budget, if you have supermajority paralysis, then the department of education is going back piece by piece to the states. The Federal government can't hold onto something so important as education when Congress can't legislate. Then next year, if no real budget, transportation goes back. Then labor. How can you defend the Feds running things when Congress can't pass laws? It's too big. Start sending it back by saying that that states write the regulations that interpret what the laws are. Sanctuary for homeschoolers, for phonics, for arabic mathematics, (no to Common Core roman number addition).
Matthew Sablan said...
He was, by all accounts, a terrible manager.
Won two elections handily, didn't leak and no convictions. By prevailing standards not so bad.
So Trump has slowed economic growth? Really?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/economic-growth-under-trump-has-been-strongest-in-13-years/ar-AAuBVYc
Redistribution? Not sad!
Trade? Obama gave away the store, so all of those things go to accomplishments for Trump and losses for Obama.
and no convictions
LOL! Scandal goalie attorney generals made damn sure of that.
BTW, rising wages under Trump is the kind of redistribution nobody minds. The kind Obama liked was taking from one group and giving it to another. Less than zero sum, since it lowers investment.
But I’ll have what Molly’s smoking.
For better or worse, Obama's vision was never more than a vision, and his legacy was only built on sand. He and they were never rooted, and now they have blown away.
Problem is that Obama was not about racial healing or inclusiveness.
Fast and furious, war against the tea party, through the irs osha justice turning the latter into his own Mau Mau squad against police department.
Won two elections handily, didn't leak and no convictions. By prevailing standards not so bad.
You mean Axelrod? Yes he did well. The leaks will come now that the lid is coming off.
The only reason there were no convictions was the Holder and Lynch refused to do their job. In any reasonable administration Lois Lerner would have been indicted.
Not to mention Hillary. I challenge any Democrat to just go ahead and wipe his computer when the DOJ wants to see it for a criminal investigation.
We may see some convictions this administration - James Comey, for instance, or James Clapper.
Or maybe we can stop pretending it's illegal to lie to Congress? I'm okay either way.
@Molly, economic growth under Obama? Really? We had -- it's a matter of historical fact -- the worst recovery from a recession in the history of this country. The. Worst.
And under Obama "redistribution" meant take from the middle class and give to the poor and to the filthy rich. Do you think that that's right?
Blogger Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said..
Won two elections handily, didn't leak and no convictions. By prevailing standards not so bad.
--
Voting otherwise was "raaaacist".
There are perks to being in a protected class and in the party of the MSM.
One of his better efforts to get a handle on Trump and his followers.
Let me highlight your mistake: and his followers
I'm not a follower, I'm a voter. At times I've been a contributor to campaigns, but not Trump's. I think you're confusing conservatives with liberals. We are grown-ups. We don't need or want someone to lead us, unlike linguine-spined progressives who want a boss, a community organizer or a leader to follow.
But of course he is a leader. Trump is definitely leading the country, and that's what we needed. Instead of a preening sophisticate who fancied himself too important for the droll task of actually governing. Organizations need leaders, which is something conservatives understand. And now we've got a guy who is steering this country toward growth. He's got his job and I've got mine.
Followers? You really don't have any clue how the rest of us think at all.
Sullivan thinks he's playing Shakespeare to Trumps Richard III when he's actually playing the Queen (Elizabeth, that is, or her propagandist)
Obama already had destroyed his own legacy in real time by flouting the limitations of government as designed by the constitution.
"Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
Won two elections handily, didn't leak and no convictions. By prevailing standards not so bad."
LOL
IRS-Tea Party
Benghazi
Hillary Email
Fast and Furious
Monitoring multiple journalists
Increased Cell "tapping"
Solyndra
and now all this Trump
I'm sure I'm forgetting other things that "he learned about in the papers."
And AG's willing to do what ever he tells them, and no critical press.
He was wall to wall scandal, corrupt worse than Nixon.
More legacy destruction:
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2016/03/31/how-barack-obama-destroyed-the-republican-party/
The picture, combined with what we know now, is precious.
@Mike, well said, sir.
“We stand for truth for evidence and facts,” she told the ballroom full of female members of Congress, activists and candidates. “What an incredible thing…We have kind of an affection for evidence.”. - HRC
Yes, she loves it so much that she destroys it rather than letting anybody else see it. Hillary is a jealous lover of evidence. She keeps it hidden away.
She is either certifiably insane, or she has brass balls the size of softballs.
A legitimate legacy should not be so easily dismantled in mere months. True legacy stands the test of time. Obama’s legacy was a house of cards, built with executive orders and puffed up media coverage.
"The only reason there were no convictions was the Holder and Lynch refused to do their job."
-- Well, and Obama early on fired an IG investigating him and smeared the man as senile, then killed his investigation, while also stomping on whistleblower protections. Who was going to investigate the guy after watching an IG lose his career, dignity and reputation?
"...it used to be uncool and dangerous to openly dislike Obama...."
Nonsense. The people who liked Obama really liked him. They were fooled into thinking the image and the reality were in sync. They were gullible. Just as those who like Trump are gullible. Each cohort believes their man cares about them and is trying to meet their needs; neither does and neither is.
the left has gutted Obama’s post-racial cultural vision
What "post-racial" cultural vision? The one which says there is "white privilege"? The one which enabled Marjorie Stoneman Douglas by 'race-equalizing' schoolyard criminality?
What bullshit!!
Before Obama came along with his Chicago Way, who among us was lectured and hectored about “white privilege”? Which political party said with a straight face that all lives do not matter — that the only correct answer is “black lives matter”?
Obama was a sex fantasy for people like Sullivan and he was an imaginary boyfriend for many women. Those same people are frustrated by the current POTUS.
Barack Obama is like a lot of the pols in his generation. A mile wide and a foot deep. Take away the TelePrompTer and the sharp creased pants and you’ve got a Chicago race hustler. He got elected because a lot of people wanted to have a cool black friend without actually .... you know .... knowing a black person.
Maybe next time when you want a treaty, send it to congress. And if you want to reform immigration, pass a bill.
If you like your legacy, you can keep your legacy, period!
@Langford Peel:
I'm not sure if you're a bigot or a provocateur, but far more white guys have fucked things up than blacks have. Historically speaking.
"who still cling to the bare bones of a gradually more inclusive liberal order, find ourselves on a fast-eroding peninsula, as cultural and political climate change erases the very environment we once called hope."
Andrew, get an editor. The sooner the better.
Obama NEVER had a post-racial vision. He used identity politics, including overt racism, from pre-election association with Rev. Wright to his first public presidential idiocy (the beer summit with the police officer he maligned as racist). He never stopped. Trayvon Martin, thug, who was very justifiably shot while pounding his assault victim's head into concrete, was someone Obama visualized as a potential son of his own. Obama's opponents such as McCain and Romney were racists merely for being white, as is everyone white in the US, after two terms of his post-racial "healing." Bullshit on stilts. Obama fostered racism at every opportunity.
So the white supremicists could not tolerate a black man in the White House and sent in one of their own to disinfect it
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