Obama the 2008 candidate came off as likeable, but that was clearly an act. Obama the 44th President and Obama post-presidency is an insufferable jerk who doesn’t know when to leave the stage.
My colleague Nick Arama said it perfectly,
“I have to admit that one of the great things about the Trump Administration is that Barack Obama is no longer president.
“Now while it’s fair that as a Democrat, he would have policy that I would likely disagree with and yes, want to fight against, often what was most infuriating about Obama was his utter pretense and gall, claiming to be against division while completely cutting people up or siccing his administration on them behind the scenes.
“He was always praised by media for being so smooth. But they mistook ‘smooth’ for caring, rather than simply being smooth, deceitful and huge narcissist.”
Big time. It doesn’t help that the Democrat Party keeps calling him back, like a talisman. Obama could refuse, but narcissist that he is, he can’t ignore the siren song of attention. It’s not like he and Michelle aren’t busy making left-leaning, poorly produced Netflix fodder. In fact, he made a big deal that he wanted to stay out of this election (yeah, right). But… <sigh> the party… and Joe Biden needed him, so he made the ultimate sacrifice <sigh> and came back on the stage.
As my colleague, Scott Hounsell, says, “Excuse me while I call BS.”
Obama loves to pontificate and will take any opportunity given to do so. Because he was the leader of the free world for 8 years, he will always be given a stage to do just that. Today’s stage was Charlamagne tha God’s Breakfast Club morning show.
Obama was with “his people”, so he put on his best “black voice”, and spouted his usual bromides and platitudes from 2008-2016 about a “better day” for Americans and Black people. Same Hopey, Changey, mish-mash that is about as deep as a mud puddle and has just as much clarity.
As during his presidency, he talked in generalities without diving deeply into connecting those generalities to real-life or real-world experience. Apparently, his book is 768 pages—obviously, Bill Ayers did not write this one for him—so Obama’s penchant for bloviating spills over into this bloated written work.
Charlamagne tha God asked what did Obama do for Black people while he was in office. Obama claimed,
“Poverty dropped faster than everyone else, Black income went up faster than everyone else. We didn’t advertise that.
“A lot of my policies were targeted toward people most in need, those people were disproportionately African-American.”
“At the end of the day, there is no way in 8 years to make up for 200 years.”
Is that the President’s job, even the first Black Bi-Racial one? I don’t think so. Increasing food stamp distribution and spouting about how Trayvon Martin could have been your son, are not policy prescriptions that helped anyone, especially Black people. But do sound off about all the difficulties you had during your presidency in “helping” Black folks.
Yeah, Rowdy is feeling me.
Because I have ignored Obama since he left the presidential stage, I had forgotten how demeaning he could be to people he dislikes or doesn’t understand. He attempts to sound reasonable, but his contempt bleeds through like a leaky pen on white silk.
In his discussion on the Senate run-off in Georgia, he went on a tangent about how the rest of the country doesn’t think like “us” urbane city dwellers:
“But listen, it’s hard winning in Georgia. Just like it’s hard winning in Iowa. Just like it’s hard winning in a lot of the country.
He would know because he won both. He had the goodwill and votes of white people, religious people, gay people, straight people, people of all stripes across the country. Yet, he shows his appreciation by continuing to insult them.
“One thing I hope the book also reminds us of; those of us who live in D.C., or New York, or L.A., sometimes we do not have a good enough sense of how big this country is and how a lot of folks do not accept at all things that we, who are living in Urban, Metropolitan areas just take for granted.”
Like, what, Arugula? Obama makes no bones that he considers the rest of the country that is not a major metropolitan center, hicks and rubes, reminiscent of his Bitter-Clinger comment during the 2008 election.
Then, his distaste for Black people who are not like him peeks through. “I deeply believe that people should be treated equally, under the law, regardless of sexual orientation. […] But we all, I mean, I think there’s huge chunks of my community where that’s still controversial.”
And who doesn’t? I’ve traveled quite a bit, and there are thriving Gay communities in rural areas as well as urban areas. And who is “my community”? Rich DC elitist? Or the Hollywood set with too much money and too little sense? Obama makes it appear that Gays are hated outside of urban areas and in the Republican Party. Ever heard of Richard Grenell? Ricky Rebel? There was and is prominent support of Trump in the Gay community, but the narcissist that Obama is, he assumes because Obergefell v. Hodges happened during this presidency, that he has a handle of what matters to the Gay community.
He’s an idiot.
As is his wont, Obama droned on, and this is the comment that got the most steam:
“People were surprised about a lot of Hispanic folks who voted for Trump. But, there are a lot of evangelical Hispanics who, the fact that Trump says racist things about Mexicans or puts detainees, undocumented workers in cages, they think that’s less important than the fact that he supports their views on gay marriage and abortion.”
Of course, his fan club at The Breakfast Club didn’t even challenge him on the fact that “children in cages” was instituted on his watch. So, in this entire ramble, he insults people of faith and maligns an entire ethnic group because they do not support killing babies.
If this type of crap had come out of anyone else’s mouth, you’d hear an outcry. But 44 gets away with it and it’s considered erudite.
Give me a break.
He goes on to claim Republicans create a false message about Democrats like they want to take your guns away. This is the President who won the 2009 “Gun Seller of the Year” award because of the spike in sales of guns and ammunition after he was elected. The same President who politicized the tragedy of Sandy Hook in order to try to institute national gun control.
But yeah, Democrats wanting to take your guns away is a Republican trope.
Uh-huh…
Allie Beth Stuckey coins a perfect phrase for who Obama really is: