Not So

Some of you may think my previous post was a bit harsh, not so. In fact I pulled my punch out of regard for my more sensitive readers. Let's go deeper, shall we.

I never drank the Obama Kool-aid, in reality I drink no politicians Kool-aid. I view them all with a healthy skepticism and then hope that they might live up to their rhetoric and rise to statesman like decorum. They rarely do and Barack Obama is no exception.

When Obama originally announced he was running for the Democratic nomination for President I wrote that maybe in the future when he had seasoning and an established national record but not now. No sooner had he been elected to the U.S. Senate then bam, he's running for President. He had no record of substance and his brief time in the Senate was less than stellar. I was not impressed by him. Throughout the campaign and debates, the one candidate who stood out and distinguished himself was Joe Biden but the media wasn't interested in old Joe, nice guy but they were never going to give him the focus he deserved. The three major candidates became Hillary Clinton, the unknown Barack Obama and John Edwards. It was in that unknown that something was happening among voters. They wanted someone with no baggage who represented "hope and change". I wrote then that every election is about hope and change by the very definition of the process but Obama sensed something else, America was hungry for an unknown quantity who promised a major change in politics. It was a heavy promise and laden with pitfalls if unsuccessful. Obama is a formidable and highly skilled politician when he is in campaign mode for himself but his skills do not translate to helping other candidates and more importantly navigating the complexities of Washington, D.C. when dealing with the opposition. His ability to draw large crowds was a sign of a growing movement based on him, sound familiar? He and especially his staff had a disdain for Hillary Clinton that they could not contain. It was as though they were offended by the mere notion that she had the audacity to believe she could, would or should be President, as though her historic run as a woman was of less value than Obama's historic run as an African-American. More importantly they simply despised the power of the Clintons in the Democratic Party.

From the moment those big three cleared the field Obama all but ignored Edwards, he knew Clinton was his true opponent. He beat Clinton over the head with her Iraq War vote, repeatedly stating he had been against the war from the beginning, so was I and Obama's view had the same weight as mine, none, because neither of us held an office to cast a vote. To prove he was as tough as Clinton he delivered a speech on his willingness to invade Pakistan if there was actionable intelligence, an interesting notion considering Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.

Both Clinton and Edwards had a healthcare plan and both said there would have to be a mandate to buy insurance or it wouldn't work. Obama voraciously argued that was wrong. Under him there would be no mandate because if health insurance was cheap enough everyone would buy it and there would be a public option.

We all know the history, Obama got the nomination and went on to win the Presidency. In what was arguably his greatest legislative victory the Affordable Care Act was passed but his campaign promises evaporated. There was a mandate and he quickly walked away from the public option.

The Affordable Care Act (repetition) is the conservative Republican plan for healthcare. It was written by conservatives for conservatives. The health insurance industry, big pharmaceutical and hospital corporations helped craft it and signed off on it. They did so because they were given a blank check. No regulations or cost controls of any kind and no public option. Obama was so focused on being the Presdent that finally passed healthcare reform, he allowed a 2,700 page turd to drop. All of the good things in the A.C.A. could have been accomplished in a Patient Bill of Rights with teeth to back it up. After birthing the turd, the President and his team did a lousy job of selling it and explaining it to the American people. Their campaign has been so bad that many Americans think the A.C.A. and Obamacare are two different things.

Barack Obama was dealt a bad hand. He inherited a country on the verge of depression and then successfully navigated us through it but because of his too cool for school attitude he didn't explain what he had done.

The Republicans in Congress did everything they could to thwart him. One of the stupidest things a politician has ever said was when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would do everything he could to make Obama a one term President. It's true that the loyal opposition has a duty to hinder the President but you don't say it and they were anything but the loyal opposition in practice. That said, Obama made it worse with his Mount Olympus Zeus attitude. He made no effort to turn his enemies into friends or at a minimum to make it hard on them to block him. He should have made many trips to the Hill and everyday he was in Washington should have been filled with lunches, dinners and cocktail hours with both Republicans and Democrats. That's right, even his fellow Democrats found him cold and aloof. A lot can get done over bourbon and cigars if you have the will to make it so.

In the end Obama is a mixed bag. I believe that he is a fundementally good and decent human being who certainly worked hard but he should have come off his mountain more often.

On the issue of Donald Trump and those unsubstantiated rumors about being compromised in Russia. No news outlet should have reported it. By doing so Trump has been given all the ammunition he needs to legitimately attack the media. If you think Trump is stupid, think again, he is far from it. He thouroughly understands media and our celebrity culture and how to exploit it. C.N.N. may be on his shit list today but they will make up and like a horny dog they will gleefully hump his leg when allowed. Donald Trump did not win biggly. Hillary Clinton creamed him by nearly three million votes. Trump won by 175,000 votes in four States through an archaic and failed electoral system. He knows it but will not admit it. Handing him a legitimate reason to assault the press is stupid and shortsighted. Unless you can prove he fucked a goat, shut up and focus on the issues that matter to the health and security of the country.