Just Sayin' -- Obama's Tracks Led to Trump
Happy 64th birthday (Monday) to the 44th president, Barack Obama.
Effortlessly cool, the first Black president proved a soaring speaker up there with John F. Kennedy, and the bringer of the Affordable Care Act.
Also on the record: Obama never played hard against Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell and others. That flaw cost us dearly.
Everyone is upset with Joe Biden for paving a path for Trump back to the White House. But Obama left the door open for Trump to win in 2016 against his chosen Hillary Clinton.
Fair is fair; the blame for Trump is the same for Obama and Biden.
The other day, Trump babbled about Obama's "treason," which Obama's spokesman deflected as "ridiculous," which it was.
Restless, demoralized Democrats wish Obama would confront Trump himself. His august voice from high ground is support they seek, since Trump captured Congress and the Supreme Court.
"A weak attachment to democracy."
Those were Obama's weak words on Trump in June. Sorry, but that's not good enough. Not nearly, when Trump is on a revenge rampage, destroying the nation as we know it.
This brings back other times when Obama kept Trump at an elegant distance. The "birther" episode, Trump's ugly charges that Obama was not born in America, went unanswered for a long time.
More consequently, in 2016, when intelligence sources found Russian meddling in the election on Trump's behalf, then-President Obama shied away from informing the American public. He suggested a bipartisan announcement to then-Senate Majority Leader McConnell, who buried the idea.
That gave Trump a break in the race.
McConnell also beat up Obama on his Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland. Obama let Garland sink like a stone when McConnell refused to hold hearings. Think what Lyndon Johnson would have done to threaten or cajole (or both) McConnell.
No way should a president lose face to any senator. The stakes were high. So now the high court has three Trump appointees for life. Very nice.
Recall the Obama White House Greek chorus: Hillary's going to win anyway.
Then Obama's Republican FBI director, James Comey, tripped her up twice for nothing. The partisan Comey should have been gone by sundown. But Obama kept him on.
As years pass, the first president of my generation emerges as talking the talk better than he walked the walk -- against fierce foes.
Politics is a tough team sport. Obama played solo artist. He didn't campaign for Democrats who voted for the ACA, and lost the House in 2010.
Obama is inclined to be an introvert in a field full of extroverts. His writing is a lyrical banquet of images from life, memory and characters: In a "chamber of my dreams," he sees his long-lost father.
The young man in search of his father is a tale as old as Homer's Telemachus and Odysseus.
Hear me out. I admire Obama's amazing grace, literary talent and the America he heard singing.
Yet he faced a rising creek of Republican ruthlessness with Trump's name on it.
Even as a young senator lacking seasoning as a lawmaker, Obama might have made a great president in an era of reason. (JFK served nearly 14 years in Congress.) He was good.
The Senate lions who urged Obama to run -- Ted Kennedy and Tom Daschle -- loved his charisma and overlooked his inexperience.
In retrospect, Obama's presidency became a litany of what he didn't do. His small stimulus package did not end the 2009 "jobless" recession. He failed to close the Guantanamo jail. He did not regulate Big Tech, which grew unfettered on his watch. He did not end the Bush wars he opposed.
Obama lost two close votes in Congress on major bills -- immigration and gun control. Bill Clinton won close votes and relished the rough and tumble. Not Obama.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea, Obama did little to arrest his ambitions.
His signature achievements in the second term -- the Paris Agreement on climate and the Iran nuclear deal -- were carried by John Kerry, then secretary of state.
Under these instances lies an indelible flaw that arguably allowed Trump's victory. When Trump tore up those treaties, Obama lost much of his legacy.
And America got Trump -- twice.
========
The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.
----
Copyright 2025 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Comments