My tag for this is "Obama attacked from the left."
December 3, 2020
"Barack Obama continues his rather strange mission to confront and correct young liberal activists...."
"
Wednesday morning on Peter Hamby’s Snapchat show, 'Good Luck America,' Obama said this: 'If you believe, as I do, that we should be able to reform the criminal justice system so that it’s not biased and treats everybody fairly, I guess you can use a snappy slogan like "Defund the police," but, you know, you lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes you want done.'
It was not the first time Obama had taken aim at these young activists. Last year he also took a swipe at wokeness and 'call-out culture,' saying, among other things: 'If all you’re doing is casting stones, you’re probably not going to get that far. That’s easy to do.'... [T]he politician navigates the system, while the activist defies it.
The politician builds a coalition by using middling philosophy and policies that appeal to the most and offend the fewest. The activist is driven more by purpose, morality and righteousness.... Obama is a good man and a great politician. History will always record him as such. But he is not an activist.... His presence as president was his greatest symbol of change: a smart, competent Black man, devoid of personal scandal, who brought class and professionalism to the White House.... That simple act, him doing his job well, was monumental in the quest for racial progress.
But none of that negates the legitimate cries of the activist that much more must be done, that Obama altered a racial image, for the better, but wasn’t able to alter the system of oppression.."
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Of course, the self-described community activist does not say that defunding the police is bad policy. He just thinks it's a bad idea to advocate it in such open language.
Let the healing begin.
Blow sucks.
SHHHHHHH! Hide!
How about "message triangulating from the far-far-left for his own personal ends which include demonizing police while saying he wasn't"?
Obama advanced the agenda of defunding police through Eric Holder and the DOJ by using consent decrees, which took thousands of cops off the streets and abused and demoralized and "re-educated" and cobbled the rest. He praised anti-cop terrorists. He appointed anti-cop, pro-criminal judges who let horrific murderers and felons back onto the streets. He demonized police at every opportunity. He was an ACORN agitator, ffs. He even sided with BLM and called police racist at the FUNERAL of five cops killed by a BLM terrorist -- with several of the police who were seriously wounded by that terrorist also in the audience.
Obama is just teaching the kids to lie better. It's a common communist tactic. And he is very good at it.
Obama criticized a cop for asking for I.D. when a guy was breaking into a house.
That's the smart way to do it.
Obama was the GREAT DIVIDER. He divided America by race, gender, religion and class. We got Trump BECAUSE of Obama. History will look down on this POS badly. Everything you see happening today is happening because of the hate Obama spewed. You can blame Trump, but real Americans know exactly where all the hate is coming from.....
“Obama is a good man and a great politician.”
He was a failure; total and complete.
He needs to go away. Hang out at Martha’s Vineyard.
Obama didn’t say this publicly well before the election, curiously, only well after it...
That simple act, him doing his job well, was monumental in the quest for racial progress.
Apparently it’s a standard Blow can’t achieve.
Obama is listening to you people and advising Democrats to change their behavior. That's a win win.
So the majority of the Minneapolis city council are not politicians, but "activists" who are attacking the system?
People get elected to the Minneapolis city council by paying off individuals and constituencies. They are politicians by definition.
Look at the individuals promoted to high station by the left: people like Blow, or the rancid Paul Krugman, people of moderate intellect, moderate writing ability, but who have the correct educational and demographic pedigree.
The rot is deep. Even in their most esteemed journals (like Dissent), the arguments made depend on logical fallacies, ad hominem, question-begging, and queerly twisted syntax. They really believe that it is useful to compare the crusaders to jihadists, though there have not been any crusaders for more than five hundred years and jihadism is a current global phenomenon with living names and faces.
a smart, competent Black man
Obama is not black, he's a mulatto; Blow might as well say he was white.
but wasn’t able to alter the system of oppression.
For example, this form of oppression: "Staggering' surge in violent carjackings continues across Minneapolis"
"Such attacks were up 537% compared with last November, worrying residents."
"She was completely traumatized" by mischievous "teens".
Obama didn’t say this publicly well before the election, curiously, only well after it.
A real profile in courage, he is...
...and yah, they thought it would motivate the black vote. Both sides know the long term trend is blacks and other minorities migrating to the GOP.
That's why they had to steal...
Perhaps we will moved someday to embrace Barack Obama as some of us currently embrace Glenn Greenwald, for many of the same reasons. I'm open to that possibility.
Many possible futures are available. This causes me to muse on the differences between the use of activism in service to a career and the use of a career in service to activism.
Obama launched the spying campaign on the Trump campaign, and played a key role in setting the Russia collusion hoax in motion. The vendetta against Gen. Flynn was set in motion by Obama in the Oval Office.
Less easy to prove, but probably true is that Obama directed the creation, strategy and funding of Black Lives Matter as part of his 2012 campaign strategy. So, Obama set in motion the campaign strategy of looting, rioting, arson and cop killing that the Democrats expanded exponentially in 2016 and 2020.
Obama was far more than corrupt. He intentionally poisoned the electoral system and legitimized the use of extortion and violence as a campaign strategy.
I've lived thru this anti-cop hysteria before, during the crack epidemic in NYC. It produced the same result it is producing now in our major cities... putting black gangs in charge of the streets, with a consequent reign of terror of crime and murder.
This guy is probably the most dangerous demagogue in U.S. history.
Breezy said:
Obama didn’t say this publicly well before the election, curiously, only well after it...
Yes I also noticed the uptick in Obama stories and attention. Possible reasons:
New book promotion.
Decrease in O's fear of exposure for various abuses of power against the now lame duck Trump.
Althouse style nostalgia for boring ole business as usual deep state status quo.
We are getting the band back together.
China just like rubbing our noses in it to increase humiliation and to demoralize us.
I have to add this caveat: I don't give any credence to the notion that Black Lives Matter is a spontaneous civil rights movement.
It's a Democratic Party run extortion racket... probably the most successful extortion racket in U.S. history.
And we have that wonderful President Obama to thank for that.
Tolerance is a diminished response which occurs when a drug is used repeatedly. A higher dose is needed to achieve the same affect...much more must be done
Like Obama who wasn't able to alter the system of oppression, Trump isn't able to alter the system of corruption, It's a small world after all.
NYT rocks. Give us more!
WHERE was Saint Obama when his Democrat followers were burning down the cities??? Where was he when they were attacking innocent people for wearing hats?? He is a Piece of Shit who should have come out when the shit was happening, and tried to stop it. Words from him COULD have helped, but he was SILENT. Go away...You aren't needed anymore...Go write 5 more books about yourself and how great you think you are.
My last source for "news" is the NYT (Pravda).
Funny how differently so many of us view this guy. Obama was/is a person who has that zen sort of thing about him. He appears calm, reasoned, sincere. He may be calm, and he does have reasons- always- for what he does and says. And he is sincere, in his lies and his truths. His greatest talent is to look straight out at the audience and/or camera, lie about what he's saying, and speak his lie so sincerely that at least half or more of the population believes him.
He does it on large topics and small. You can keep your doctor. The Benghazi attack was in response to a video. An obscure video. From 3 years prior. In California. We did not send money to Iran. There was no meddling on conservative groups by the IRS. Etc.
He lies large and small, and does it with a smile and charm. THIS is how Obama works. And this is why he is so dangerous. Much more dangerous that Trump who wears his every thought and motive on his forehead. Obama smiles while he tells the activists to not destroy the cities because he knows he can get done what they want to get done the long, slow, effective way: by taking over the institutions and making the laws the way they want. And he'll smile and tell you he's not doing that even as he is.
Obama as co-President.
He’s not going to let his party’s crisis go to waste.
" His presence as president was his greatest symbol of change: a smart, competent Black man, devoid of personal scandal, who brought class and professionalism to the White House..."
A person who barely paid attention, or a partisan hack, could think these things: Obama displayed a public persona which seemed professional, competent and scandal-free, but his actual decision-making was all three of these things.
If you like your police, you can keep your police
devoid of personal scandal, who brought class and professionalism to the White House
“Personal scandal”? So since he didn’t personally run guns to Mexico it’s all good? Because he didn’t personally instruct the IRS to mistreat conservative organizations then no stain reaches Black Jesus? “Class and professionalism” cracks me up, given what an asshole Barack is, but that “scandal free” horse shit is annoying given the extreme prejudice with which Obama-Biden approached their smear campaign-cum-spygate attack on Trump and his admin. What a Dick!
Interesting that Biden was elected, and Harris as VP, but it's Obama making the rounds and getting the tongue baths.
In which Barack Obama pretends at moderation while supporting the same goals as the radicals.
Althouse has a poorly named tag for that.
Obama is a good man and a great politician. History will always record him as such.
History will record that Democrats lost 1000 legislative and gubernatorial seats during his administration. He's not a great politician.
There's no evidence Obama had any widespread personal scandals.
How is he a "great politician"? The legislation he is most (only) known for, Obamacare, is still incredibly divisive.
I call BS. The birth of all of this garbage was bring a gun to a knife fight Obama.
If Charles Blow doesn't like you, then you must be doing something right.
Obama is a good man and a great politician. History will always record him as such.
History will remember Obama as the first black president. That's about it. He is a petty little man and was a mediocre president.
It was not the first time Obama had taken aim at these young activists.
Weird to use that assassin language to discuss what Obama is saying. Almost like he's describing Obama as a policeman! He's aiming at the activists.
I think maybe Obama is trying to "police" the activists, but in a good way. He's trying to help them. Not aiming at them with metaphorical weapons.
you lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes you want done.
The slogan is idiotic. And the audience you lose is not only Republicans. There are plenty of black people who think the world needs more policing, not less.
The activist is driven more by purpose, morality and righteousness....
I think activists are driven by strong emotion and if they are not careful they can leave their brains back at home. That's why mobs are dangerous and mob rule is a bad thing.
Obama is a good man and a great politician. History will always record him as such. But he is not an activist....
What Blow is suggesting is that Obama has no purpose, is not driven by morality, and has no sense of righteousness. I'd suggest that more than anything Obama is a very calm person.
I think the word "zealant" is a far better word than "activist." It gives emphasis to the emotions that are involved (and also warns us of the dangers involved). I think Obama is a zealant. He's just a very calm one, and not in any hurry.
Bob Boyd said...There's no evidence Obama had any widespread personal scandals.
+1
Blogger Howard said...
Obama is listening to you people and advising Democrats to change their behavior. That's a win win.
Howard thinks Obama is helping. Amusing. Howard is so naive. Obama listen ?
Tina Trent @ 6:15 AM: "...Obama is just teaching the kids to lie better."
Word.
The legislation he is most (only) known for, Obamacare, is still incredibly divisive.
And it failed to reduce costs, the stated goal at the time.
Defund The Police is Obama's legacy.
that “scandal free” horse shit is annoying
Every administration scandalizes the opposition, that's a given. Obama's scandals are like Roe v. Wade scandals. Big lies told to advance a particular agenda.
What Obama avoided was personal scandals, like adultery or bribery. He's neither Bill Clinton nor Joe Biden in that regard.
Interesting that the personal scandal Democrats (Clinton and Biden) are often more moderate than somebody like Obama. Clinton and Biden are corrupt (i.e. willing to be bought) and more inclined to work with the opposition.
Wouldn't surprise me if somebody on the left starts investigating Biden corruption after he's inaugurated. He's like a lame wounded duck.
When one considers that President Obama is confronting and correcting young liberal politicians and not young liberal activists the stupidity of Mr. Blow's column is obvious. Mr. Obama is instructing these politicians to act like politicians in order to incrementally achieve their goals rather than failing spectacularly. That these activists turned politician possess almost no personal, situational or organizational awareness is glaringly obvious to many and especially to a practiced politician like Mr. Obama. That no activists has previously achieved anywhere near as much power and message control as Mr. Obama should be an easy lesson to learn.
FHOTUS*
Obummer keeps on trying. It worked for him as POTUS.
*Figure Head of the United States.
"which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes you want done.'"
Sorry, Barry. Destruction is exactly what the left wants done.
"'If all you’re doing is casting stones, you’re probably not going to get that far. That’s easy to do.'"
Sorry, Barry. They are getting pretty far in winning the culture war.
"That simple act, him doing his job well, was monumental in the quest for racial progress."
Ah, yes, I almost forgot all the racial healing he brought about.
"But none of that negates the legitimate cries of the activist that much more must be done, that Obama altered a racial image, for the better, but wasn’t able to alter the system of oppression."
What makes the cries legitimate, rather than destructive? What system of oppression elected Barry prez?
It is a mark of prog hegemony that prog writers in major prog outlets can afford to write stupidly. For Blow there's no blowback.
The supposed attacks from the left look more to me like posturing than actual attacks. Kind of like those folks who post pro-socialism/pro-antifa stuff on social media but then claim they are non-partisan, or "it's not about left or right." I don't believe those kind of statements.
Charles M. Blowhard
Barack Obama’s community activism was directed at constructive things like job training, tutoring, and getting landlords to make improvements in public housing buildings. I can very easily see why he thinks of issue activists as do-nothings.
Blow is essentially adopting the right-wing criticism that Obama was just an empty suit. Commentators on the right should incorporate this column into their work.
Obama is not saying don't do it. He's saying, don't say it. That is a massive difference and hardly counts as an attack from the left.
"But none of that negates the legitimate cries of the activist that much more must be done" And that therefore we must do things that make sure that they won't be done?
Howard said...
If you like your police, you can keep your police
Well done.
"Writes Charles M. Blow in the NYT.
My tag for this is "Obama attacked from the left."
I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO not bummed about this, Heh, heh, heh.
getting landlords to make improvements in public housing buildings. I
Yes! Obama very nearly got landlords to make improvements in public housing! He very nearly got Altgeld Gardens to change! And his number one benefactor in both politics and his mortgage? A slumlord who ended up convicted!!!!
Obama had a chance with Ferguson. "Hands up don't shoot" was everywhere -- and still is treated as gold by the Dems. Yet when his own FBI investigated, they discovered that didn't happen. They put that in their report, but chose to focus instead on racism within the police department.
So Obama had the chance to nip this movement in the bud, but instead he fostered it.
Bob Boyd said...
There's no evidence Obama had any widespread personal scandals.
12/3/20, 8:11 AM
Larry Sinclair wonders if you read his book....
Then there is this.... https://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2012/08/01/obamas-signature-move-unsealing-private-records-n972537
Homicide rates are surging in blue cities.
Obama knows this.
He knows defund the police is accelerating police retirements, resignations, and transfers. Defund the police is hindering police recruitment.
Lay the surging blue homicide rates at the feet of BLM and its enablers.
Sweet the psychotic left are going to cancel Obama now
They were always going to turn on Obama. I figured it would take ten years to do so, but eventually the need to outwoke each other, combined with the attitude of "no allies to the right" would make him a target.
Back in the day, Obama seemed ticked off when they named the ACA "Obamacare"; political power and effective policy never seemed to mesh for him. Well, there was Cash for Clunkers.
Bring back Midnight Basketball
Howard: "Obama is listening to you people and advising Democrats to change their behavior. That's a win win."
LOL
Obama is LEADING their "behavior".
Obama just wants them to shut up about what they are doing and use different language to keep everyone fooled about their intentions until it is too late to stop it.
For instance Howard, you may recall some months back how the entire left spent months and months praising the courage and motivation of the antifa "protesters" right up until it was discovered that the nation was rejecting those tactics at which point the democraticals ordered their minions to immediately pretend that it all never happened and to call it a myth.
You remember that Howard, dont you? It was when you flipped your rhetoric 180 overnight, like flipping a light switch.
Everything Is fodder for a Drago rant.
Obama is in FAVOR of all of the changes the radicals have proposed.
He is just giving advice on marketing and how to sell it.
For instance, if you're proposing a law to allow for euthanasia for senior citizens, you name it 'The Death with Dignity Act,' not 'Let's Kill Grandma and Take Her Stuff.'
"But in their approach, the activists are right. I have no problem with “Defund the police.” I know that it means to reallocate funding so that social services and policing are properly weighted."
So where, exactly, does Chucky Puff live? Physically, I mean. How are his police services weighted? Has he been car-jacked recently? If not, why not? I would purchase a full-year subscription to the NYT for the privilege of reading the column Chucky Puff writes after some "teen" pistol-whips his useless Black ass and drives off in his new Prius.
Personal scandal is just a question of what people want to notice. Obama pushed net neutrality through his adminstration, with the biggest benefactor of that policy being Netflix. After he left office, Netflix gave him a production deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
@Howard:Obama is listening to you people and advising Democrats to change their behavior. That's a win win.
He's not advising them to change behavior. He's saying not to tell the voters what they plan to change. That's pretty far from win-win.
Oh, you people are so cynical.
a law to allow for euthanasia for senior citizens, you name it 'The Death with Dignity Act,' not 'Let's Kill Grandma and Take Her Stuff.'
And with his legacy of supporting Planned Parenthood, including: selective-child and cannibalized-child, Planned Parent is an equally toxic label. The Democrat governors and mayor's policies, and the press's role in denying and stigmatizing early treatments, during the pandemic only exacerbate managing "deplorables" and "burdens", which explains their resort to extreme, brazen tactics over the past 16 trimesters.
Another grim milestone today. This is the day when "scandal-free administration" finally gave way to "no personal scandals." The early version just got too ridiculous for anybody to say with a straight face. "Personal" is going to be interpreted as meaning "sexual," once people ask questions about the money Obama got after leaving office.
Obama was a competent politician: competent enough to get elected twice, admittedly with some advantages other politicians don't have. But a good politician would have figured out ways to get things done even in the face of opposition. I suspect he was more of an "activist," that is to say somebody who prides himself on taking stands and stances, than somebody who was actually that good at motivating people and getting things done.
Obama seems to shrink a little with every appearance, but he still has a way to go before he'll look as bad as some people claim he was all along.
“Obama is a good man and a great politician.
No. He is not. He's a preening, narcissistic, lecturing asshole who gets off on scolding people.
He's exactly the type of person who needed to get his ass kicked a few times growing up.
who brought class and professionalism to the White House
Remind me what Bush's lack of class and professionalism was? Obviously left wingers hated him, but I don't recall scandal. In fact Bush was the only recent President who genuinely approached governing in a bipartisan fashion. Left wingers hated him all the more for that which makes Dionne's column even more ridiculous.
Funny how Obama didn't say a peep about BLM and Defund Police for years and now he speaks up.
Or maybe it is not so funny.
Despite Ayers and Dorn, Obama grew up to be a corporatist technocrat. That's where the real money is.
"This guy is probably the most dangerous demagogue in U.S. history."
Naw, he couldn't be! Trump is always the best at everything!
Obama was not a demagogues in the least; he was a milquetoast in word and manner, and a loyal and successful servant of the American ruling class for his entire eight years. Those who see him as a wild-eyed Marxist/jihadist/destroyer of America the Empire are insane, projecting their own fevered delusions onto a blank slate. He was an enemy of the people insofar as he served the interests of the ruling elites, which is to say, he maintained the prior status quo. His predecessors and successors were/are similarly enemies of the people in their equally loyal service to the ruling elites.
"He's exactly the type of person who needed to get his ass kicked a few times growing up."
As opposed to the type of people who kicked other people's asses while growing up?
What I miss most about the Obama Administration is all the racial healing.
Cook is pretty much right. Obama talked a good progressive game, but in reality, he was beholden to the same corporate/financial interest that serve the Clinton, Bidens and Romney types.
Howard said...
Obama is listening to you people and advising Democrats to change their behavior. That's a win win.
Howard is almost right. He is advising Democrat extremists to change their observed behavior. Deep inside they’ll be the same worthless assholes they’ve always been.
Howard said...
Oh, you people are so cynical.
When it comes to Democrats it is easy to be too trusting (c.f., Althouse) and virtually impossible to be too cynical.
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