A couple thoughts tonight...
● Your Legacy Is Crap: Obama had been trying to tell everyone about his legacy lately. It's been pretty pathetic. We had the "no scandals" thing the other day. Obama has also been trying to tweet out his accomplishments, as if there were any. The problem is there is nothing good to say! Even the stuff he comes up with -- long period of job growth -- just feels like a technicality. His problem is that you just can't defend: "I was a lazy ahole who couldn't even work with my own party and I didn't do jack sh*znit!"
As an aside, it's interesting that no one on the left worries about him tweeting, but they whine about Trump tweeting.
● Fake News Backfire: The idea of Fake News sounded like playing with fire when it was first used. The idea was to let the MSM declare anything they didn't like Fake News and dismiss it without addressing it. It was meant to be both a way to kill inconvenient stories and to turn themselves into arbiters of who can speak the truth. But this Genie didn't stay with one master very long. Within days of the Democrats and the MSM firing it off, Matt Damon was using it against a leftist race baiter. Trump tossed the charge at CNN. The Washington Post has now been accused of pushing fake news regarding Russia. And so on. It seems that the idea of fake news almost instantly became generic to mean "got it wrong" or "people I don't trust." The problem for the media, however, is that they built this into a sort of nuclear bomb meant to wipe out the legitimacy of the party attacked... and now they are being attacked. Whoops.
● Great Moves: Trump is proving to be a PR genius. Two recent examples come to mind. First, while the GOP has gone back into turtle mode on repealing Obamacare, Trump has been out there telling them to keep blaming the Democrats. That is simply good politics. To bad the GOP doesn't get it. Obama gets it. He's pushing back that the Democrats need to blame the Republicans for the repeal. He's wrong because Obamacare is so unpopular, but both the left and Trump get it... the GOP doesn't.
The second thing is Trump taking credit for all these jobs coming back to the US. Was it him? Probably not. But by claiming credit for this, he has created a picture of a wave of jobs coming back because of him. And while many of the companies are trying to claim it wasn't because of Trump, corporate America has been so weaselly when it comes to speaking the truth over the past decade that their denials are ineffective. At the same time, the left has been so over-the-top in their attacks that their debunking just gets lost in their wailing. This let Trump create a narrative. Interesting.
● Good Luck, Chuck: The Democrats, particularly Chuck Schumer, suggested that they would block Trump from putting justices on the Supreme Court. This is a dangerous and stupid plan. When the GOP stopped Obama, there was a certain equity to it. He was in the lame duck period of his administration... he was looking to change the ideological makeup of the court... he had already gotten a good number of picks... and he didn't fight for his guy. None of that will apply to an attempt to block a Trump nominee. It's just going to be ugly politics.
Between the Democrats' attempt to block everything, including appointees, to fight to the death to save Obamacare and to block a replacement, and to undermine the democratic process itself, the Democrats are basically giving Trump a free pass to do as he pleases and blame them. It's a horrid strategy that comes from misunderstanding why the GOP was able to do what they did to Obama.
● You Betrayed Us: There are suddenly a lot of words being spent in Democratic circles to point out that Obama left the Democratic Party high and dry and never defended them (worst showing since 1928). I'm not sure yet if this is the Clinton people firing back or if this is an attempt to unlatch his crappy legacy from the party, but either way, this has the makings of a low-grade civil war on the left. Ha ha.
● Your Legacy Is Crap: Obama had been trying to tell everyone about his legacy lately. It's been pretty pathetic. We had the "no scandals" thing the other day. Obama has also been trying to tweet out his accomplishments, as if there were any. The problem is there is nothing good to say! Even the stuff he comes up with -- long period of job growth -- just feels like a technicality. His problem is that you just can't defend: "I was a lazy ahole who couldn't even work with my own party and I didn't do jack sh*znit!"
As an aside, it's interesting that no one on the left worries about him tweeting, but they whine about Trump tweeting.
● Fake News Backfire: The idea of Fake News sounded like playing with fire when it was first used. The idea was to let the MSM declare anything they didn't like Fake News and dismiss it without addressing it. It was meant to be both a way to kill inconvenient stories and to turn themselves into arbiters of who can speak the truth. But this Genie didn't stay with one master very long. Within days of the Democrats and the MSM firing it off, Matt Damon was using it against a leftist race baiter. Trump tossed the charge at CNN. The Washington Post has now been accused of pushing fake news regarding Russia. And so on. It seems that the idea of fake news almost instantly became generic to mean "got it wrong" or "people I don't trust." The problem for the media, however, is that they built this into a sort of nuclear bomb meant to wipe out the legitimacy of the party attacked... and now they are being attacked. Whoops.
● Great Moves: Trump is proving to be a PR genius. Two recent examples come to mind. First, while the GOP has gone back into turtle mode on repealing Obamacare, Trump has been out there telling them to keep blaming the Democrats. That is simply good politics. To bad the GOP doesn't get it. Obama gets it. He's pushing back that the Democrats need to blame the Republicans for the repeal. He's wrong because Obamacare is so unpopular, but both the left and Trump get it... the GOP doesn't.
The second thing is Trump taking credit for all these jobs coming back to the US. Was it him? Probably not. But by claiming credit for this, he has created a picture of a wave of jobs coming back because of him. And while many of the companies are trying to claim it wasn't because of Trump, corporate America has been so weaselly when it comes to speaking the truth over the past decade that their denials are ineffective. At the same time, the left has been so over-the-top in their attacks that their debunking just gets lost in their wailing. This let Trump create a narrative. Interesting.
● Good Luck, Chuck: The Democrats, particularly Chuck Schumer, suggested that they would block Trump from putting justices on the Supreme Court. This is a dangerous and stupid plan. When the GOP stopped Obama, there was a certain equity to it. He was in the lame duck period of his administration... he was looking to change the ideological makeup of the court... he had already gotten a good number of picks... and he didn't fight for his guy. None of that will apply to an attempt to block a Trump nominee. It's just going to be ugly politics.
Between the Democrats' attempt to block everything, including appointees, to fight to the death to save Obamacare and to block a replacement, and to undermine the democratic process itself, the Democrats are basically giving Trump a free pass to do as he pleases and blame them. It's a horrid strategy that comes from misunderstanding why the GOP was able to do what they did to Obama.
● You Betrayed Us: There are suddenly a lot of words being spent in Democratic circles to point out that Obama left the Democratic Party high and dry and never defended them (worst showing since 1928). I'm not sure yet if this is the Clinton people firing back or if this is an attempt to unlatch his crappy legacy from the party, but either way, this has the makings of a low-grade civil war on the left. Ha ha.
9 comments:
Obama's legacy:
—A more aggressive Russia; invading Crimea, causing a civil war in Ukraine, and waging an open and unhindered disinformation campaign against the US.
—Mismanaging the Arab Spring and allowing it to spill over into civil wars in Syria, Lybia, Yemen*, and Iraq resulting in a resurgence of Islamic Extremism.
—Acts of Islamic Terrorism across the globe.
—Declining confidence across the west in the post-war system of alliances and free trade. (a.k.a., NATO and Bretton Woods)
*To be fair, Yemen would probably be a basket-case anyway.
Oh, and a more aggressive China.
Kit,
China has become a paper tiger because of internal problems.
Russian has gotten more aggressive, but I'm not sure what Obama could do to stop that short of war, which wasn't going to happen.
He did botch the Arab Spring.
That said, I think Obama's real legacy is domestic:
1. He's destroyed the Democratic Party by finishing them off with whites and by saddling them with the Obamacare debacle. This could keep them out of power for decades.
2. He's encouraged blacks as a group to become much more paranoid and angry. This means increased racial tensions on their end. For their part, I think whites have stopped caring.
3. He's discredited global warming.
4. He lost gun control.
5. He might be credited with the end of gay issues, but I think that's more on the Supreme Court and I don't see gays giving Obama any credit for it.
That's the end of it really. All the rest was just for show or was temporary.
At this point, I think it's safe to say that Obama's legacy ranks him somewhere near Grover Cleveland.
The "Fake News" narrative couldn't have backfired harder if it were meant to. Seriously!? What bunch of idiots couldn't see that this alleged epithet was ready-made to be hurled back-n-forth, playground style, like "I know you are, but what am I?"
Trump is proving to be a PR genius.
I would just like to point out that this is the case I've been making since...whenever I started making it. That is to say, Trump has proven to be a PR genius. But then, that was true when he started licensing his surname. As politics go, his main PR move was to enter at a time when all the usual players' credibility is at an all-time low. When the liars call you a liar, it's a badge of honor.
Chuck-You Schumer is high if he thinks Democrats can stave off a SCOTUS appointment for four years, if not eight. On the other hand, if they pull it off, they'd win the "obstructionist" trophy for all time. No way that's gonna look bad on the resume.
The betrayal thing is interesting because it's so false. Obama campaigned hard for Hillary--in fact, he claimed his legacy depended on her victory. (Oops!) His cross-country efforts on her behalf were called unprecedented. One enamored editorialist nostalgically referred to his barnstorming as "Obama's last campaign." And, of course, Trump was called a crybaby in the press for suggesting the president should maybe do some presidenting, instead. Frankly, it was the hardest I've seen Obama work in eight years.
Though I don't remember any presidential farewell speeches (except that one that Washington gave to his troops...but I don't think he was actually President yet...but I digress), Obama will be giving his Farewell from Chicago (sans Greek columns I assume) on Jan. 10. I for one, CAN NOT WAIT! Too bad we have to wait another 10 days for it to really be a proper farewell. I wonder if he's going to invite those 4 kids who beat up and tortured the disabled fellow to be his guests or maybe to a "beer summit". Well, maybe a "Koolaid Summit" is more appropriate.
tryanmax, If history is honest, then Obama's legacy will be: "Missed opportunity for black America to normalize itself." More likely though, I think Obama will be mentioned as "first black President" and something like "X in the line of Islamic Wars Presidents," but nothing more specific.
The Fake News thing looked like a mistake to me too when it came out, and I think that's proving to be true now as it just becomes a tool to de-legitimize any media source.
You were right about Trump and you definitely called it. Trump seems to be single-handedly controlling the media, the GOP and keeping the Democrats in freak out mode.
Yeah, Schumer is a fool if he thinks this is a good idea. The best he will get is an embarrassing backdown after weakening the "obstructionist" label. Interestingly, the left is pretending to be shocked that the GOP would "hypocritically" label the Democrats obstructionists. Good luck with that.
On Obama and Clinton, I think we are witnessing an ideological war within the Democratic Party. Both groups want their people in charge and it's going to get increasingly ugly as they fight over it.
Bev, Isn't it interesting that this event doesn't bother Obama enough to mention, but one cop arresting a drunken black guy warranted a beer summit? Obama has never played race fairly and this is just another example. If heinous crimes are worthy of comment, then they are worthy of comment no matter which race is the perpetrator. You can't cherrypick crimes according to the races of the criminals and the victims without people realizing that you're a racist.
I can't wait for the end of him. I won't watch his speech though. I've heard more than enough from him for one lifetime.
So Obama called the attack in Chicago "despicable" but I couldn't help but notice that he shifted the whole discussion into a chance to talk about the “terrible toll racism, discrimination and hate takes on families and communities.”
Hence, once again, rather than hitting the issue head on, which is that these four sh*ts are monsters with no humanity, he wants to talk about the effects of racism. That's b*llshit. He didn't worry about that with police shootings or the beer summit or the South Carolina shooting. Why can't he attack racism or lack of humanity within the black community?
Let's be honest. If you want to stop Chicago from having another 700 (mainly black) people killed next year, you don't do it by fighting white racism. You do it by changing the mindset in the lower-class black community that doesn't instill humanity in their children.
You can't solve a problem if you steadfastly refuse to identify its cause.
Obama was a terrible president who came to power based on his charisma, a weak opponent who didn't command the loyalty of its party and a wildly unpopular predecessor in the other party.
Despite all the familiar talk about everlasting majorities, Trump will be the same. Hopefully for Republicans and the country his arc of descent will be a little gentler.
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