Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Obama Reminds Republicans Why They Can't Stand Him



There’s an odd phenomenon when it comes to politicians who leave office. Typically, due to their exiting of the spotlight, even the most reviled figures end up becoming liked by a large majority of the population. Of course, that depends on the politician deciding to hold up their part of the bargain by fading away gracefully. George W. Bush, once routinely compared to Hitler by the left-wing during his two terms as president, is an example of someone who’s largely done it right and has seen his reputation rebound.

But Barack Obama is taking a different path, apparently deciding that he wants to remind everyone who once opposed him exactly why they can’t stand him. That happened in the context of a campaign rally for Joe Biden this morning in Florida.

Here are some of the highlights.

Obama’s delivery is as jarring and annoying as ever. He always comes across like a schoolmarm, chastising those who would dare to disappoint him, and that attitude existed in spades during this speech. But what’s most noteworthy here is just how transparent of a liar he is.

Both stories he references here have been proven false (see That Bombshell Russian Bounty Story Was Just Officially Shown to Be Garbage). There is no actual intelligence, and the Pentagon has actually come to the opposite conclusion, that the Russians were paying bounties for the deaths of American troops in Afghanistan. The story itself never made any sense anyway, as the Taliban didn’t require motivation to try to kill Americans. Yet, Obama repeats that fake news story without even a hint of care that what he’s saying is blatantly false.

The second lie is perhaps worse though (see The Media Vomit Up Another Anonymous Trump Hit Piece, and It’s Obviously Garbage). No less than 19 on the record sources came out to refute the idea that Trump called military members “suckers and losers” while in France some years ago. Even John Bolton, who has now made his mark as an anti-Trump figure, said it simply did not happen. To this day, not a single source has gone on record to corroborate the ridiculous smear even though anyone who did would instantly be held up as a media hero. To put it succinctly, the story is not true, and here’s Barack Obama repeating it as if it is despite him obviously knowing better.

He kept going though. Obama also brought up the Chinese bank account smear, another out of context, nonsense story that went nowhere.

No, Trump does not have a “secret” Chinese bank account (see NYTs Tries Desperate Anti-Trump Hit to Distract From Hunter Biden, Makes Things Worse). One of his businesses had a bank account that was claimed on tax returns, hence not secret, which was never used and only existed in theory to conduct local business expenses. There was nothing at all unusual about the setup, but The New York Times was so desperate after Trump’s tax returns fell flat that they ran with the story anyway.

Obama isn’t dumb. He knows what he’s saying are lies in this instance, and he also knows not a single media “fact-checker” will dare call him out for them. Thus are the perks of being a Democrat. One thing is for though. Barack Obama made sure to remind every Republican exactly why they so opposed him for eight years.