| MLLG Inauguration Day Special Posting: The Legacy of Barack Hussein Obama |
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Special Posting: The Obama Presidency
By: George Noga – January 20, 2017
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This retrospective covers the eight years of the Obama presidency and is based on the public record which loquitur pro se, speaks for itself, to wit:
1. “For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country.” (Michelle Obama) Never has any leader or spouse uttered such a sentiment. Obama went on to disavow American exceptionalism and describe America (historically) as a force for evil. With Obama leaving, Michelle now avers America “is entering a time of hopelessness“.
2. Obama had an historic opportunity to unite the nation; instead, he became the great divider. Not only did he fail to soothe racial tensions, he exacerbated them and caused race relations in America to deteriorate to the worst point in living memory.
3. Obama’s global apology tour included Europe (arrogance), Muslims (imperfect), western hemisphere (dictate terms), G-20 (restore standing), War on Terror (off course), Guantanamo (sacrificing values), Turkey (dark periods of our history) and CIA (we make mistakes). Recent apologies include Hiroshima, Cuba and Argentina.
4. He appointed a special prosecutor for the CIA, a petty, vindictive action that set the tone for a hyper-partisan presidency. After a disruptive, divisive investigation, no CIA wrongdoing was found. Graciously, Trump will not do the same to Hillary Clinton.
5. Obama abused the rule of law with 45 czars, phony recess appointments, executive orders, executive memoranda, dear colleague letters, use of reconciliation to pass bills, changing long-established filibuster rules and regulatory overreach rejected by courts. He refused to submit treaties to the Senate, falsely calling them executive agreements.
6. He blamed Bush (and others) publicly over 20 times, continuing up to the present.
7. Obama’s signature domestic achievement (Obamacare) is an abject failure.
8. Obama’s signature foreign policy achievement (Iran) is an abject failure. The Iran deal was to prevent Iran from getting the bomb; Obama’s deal guarantees Iran the bomb. Meanwhile, the mullahs egregiously violate the agreement with impunity.
9. His economic policy failed. Economic growth after the recession was the worst in history. There was not one year with 3% growth; the $900 billion stimulus was totally wasted; national debt increased nearly $10 trillion – doubling under Obama’s watch.
10. His tax policy failed. Taxes skyrocketed; he refused to lower corporate tax rates forcing US jobs to flee abroad via tax inversions. He left trillions of dollars languishing abroad instead of repatriating them for new investments and job creation in America.
11. Obama’s policies were particularly noxious to blacks. He dismantled school choice, condemning poor kids to failed government schools. Black youth unemployment surged due to union-mandated minimum wage hikes. He restricted payday loans, imposed punitive overtime rules and presided over a surge in inner city violent crime.
12. The world is much more dangerous. Syria and Libya are humanitarian disasters and spawned the refugee crisis. The entire Middle East is unraveling. A revanchist Russia took Crimea and part of the Ukraine and threatens the Balkans. By ignoring red lines, he destroyed America’s credibility and permitted Assad to use chemical weapons. Leading from behind, Obama would rather be loved than feared; he is neither.
13. Obama treated friends as enemies and enemies as friends; he forced Netanyahu to enter The White House via the kitchen. He favored Iran over our Arab allies. He supported socialists in Venezuela, Cuba, Honduras and throughout Latin and South America. He sent delegates to Castro’s and Chavez’s funerals, but not to Thatcher’s.
14. Obama violated long standing rules and common sense against paying ransoms. The Bowe Bergdahl affair (rose garden ceremony) was particularly sordid. He paid a plane load of cash to Iran to return our sailors who had been publicly humiliated.
15. He neutered the military, debilitated our nuclear deterrent and released dangerous and recidivist terrorists from Guantanamo. He thrashed the police.
16. He has been a disaster for Democrats who have lost over 1,000 offices which include 69 house seats, 13 senate seats, 910 state legislative positions, 12 governors and 30 state legislative chambers. They are in the worst position in nearly 100 years.
17. Voters repudiated Obama’s policies and methods of governance. Amidst all the war and things unraveling around him, he found time to play golf well over 300 times.
18. His disastrous energy policy wasted billions on Solyndra and the green chimera. His baseless rejection of the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines was shameful.
19. He dwelled in a fantasy world of political correctness, refusing to utter “radical Islamic terrorism“. He mocked religion. He was incivil, rude and ill-mannered.
20. He politicized the DOJ, IRS, EPA, NLRB and indeed the entire government to unprecedented heights. His every action was hyper-partisan. He abused and trampled the Constitution on over 50 different occasions. He disrespected federalism.
21. Obama’s actions will be quickly undone because he did not pass laws, opting instead for easily reversible executive orders and memoranda, reconciliation, watered down filibuster rules, faulty regulations and executive agreements instead of treaties.
22. The very few successes during Obama’s reign (for which he shamelessly took full credit) were due to George W. Bush’s policies that he strongly opposed. The Bush surge in Iraq permitted troop withdrawals; Bush interrogation protocols were responsible for locating Osama bin Laden; Bush policies brought us low energy prices, energy independence, and reduced carbon emissions attributable to fracking.
23. He used the full force of his office for punitive and ideological crusades such as forcing young girls to share bathrooms with transgender men. He used the IRS to punish enemies. He attacked the Little Sisters of the Poor along with many others.
24. He also was the worst lame duck president. Between the election and inauguration, he forced billions of dollars of destructive regulations down the gullets of Americans who had just voted to repudiate such policies. He trashed our ally, Israel, in the United Nations in a hissy fit of vindictiveness toward Netanyahu. He strove to delegitimize his successor. He did not cooperate during the transition and actually worked to impede it. He continued this petty and hostile train of abuses up until his final day in office.
25. Obama also will to be the worst ex-president ever – beating out the hapless Jimmy Carter. He declared he would not honor the long established and respected American tradition of refusing to criticize his successor and, in fact, both he and Michelle already have. He will be a narcissistic, divisive, and graceless ex-president.
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Based on the above record, Obama’s place in history is secure. He was the worst president of all time, the worst lame duck president and is on a path to be the worst ex-president. Moreover, it is an ignominy he will maintain even if our beloved republic lasts 1,000 years. In researching this post, I looked at the five worst US presidents and the five worst Roman emperors; Obama has them all beat hands down! If you believe I have been unduly harsh, go back and reread the 25 points listed supra.
Obama is a solipsist and narcissist. Psychologists list ten traits that determine narcissist personality disorder; Obama clearly manifests nine and possibly all ten. Narcissist that he is, Obama will believe it was America that failed him. He is fond of comparing himself to Lincoln, who was humble. But comparison to Wilson is more apt. Wilson was cerebral and flaunted his intellect (smartest person in the room) and moral purity. Wilson’s reputation is in tatters and he was succeeded by Harding.
Obama got elected and governed by personal charisma; crowds swooned deliriously, believing he would halt the rising of the oceans and heal the planet. He cast a powerful spell on all of liberaldom. Charisma is like that; people project their needs onto an imagined redeemer. Like all such messianic figures, once the spell has been broken, they stand alone, naked and exposed. Obama’s spell lasted longer than most.
To close this tawdry and noisome chapter of our history, we recall President Ford’s words (about Nixon) at his inauguration: “Our long national nightmare is over!“
Our next post in a few days (January 22) puts us back on our regular schedule.
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