The Obamas left the White House almost two years ago. Can you believe it? But they don't want you to forget how awesome they were. Excuse me, are.
Well, with Michelle's current rock star-like book tour, the pair's global speech and their deep ties to Hollywood celebs, they are hard to avoid.
Tuesday night, Barack Obama visited the Baker Institute at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and he came off as a man who is obsessed with himself and obsessed with taking credit for another guy's (Trump's) success. Here’s just some of what he said:
“And by the way, American energy production, you wouldn't always know it but, you know, it went up every year when I was president. And you know that whole, suddenly America is like the biggest oil producer and the biggest -- that was me, people. I just want you to… Sometimes you go to Wall Street and folks would be grumbling about anti-business. I said have you checked where your stocks were when I came into office and where they are now. What are you talking -- what are you complaining about? Just say thank you please.”
No, thank you. Obama's efforts at legacy building notwithstanding the difference between the two president's economic records are stark.
Now Andy Puzder, former fast food exec and one-time Trump labor secretary nominee wrote a fantastic piece in Tuesday's "Wall Street Journal."
He compared the end of the Obama economy with the beginning of the Trump economy. Check these fascinating statistic out from his op-ed:
"GDP growth staggered along at 1.5 percent in Mr. Obama's final six full quarters in office. But growth doubled to 3 percent during Mr. Trump's first six full quarters. … The increase in job openings over Mr. Trump's first 21 months has averaged an impressive 75,000 a month. But over Mr. Obama's last 20 months in office, the number of job openings increased an average of 900 a month. Well, during Mr. Obama's last 21 months, the number of employed Americans increased -- not bad -- an average of 157,000 a month. But under Mr. Trump, the increase has accelerated to 214,000 a month. A whopping 36 percent improvement.”
Unbelievable.
Well, on top of that, we all know other facts, right? There has been record low African-American, Latino unemployment. A credible rise in small business applications, and totally jacked up consumer confidence. You get the point.
Obama's pathetic attempt to take credit for the fruits of his successor’s policies while Obama criticizes most of those very same policies is just patently ridiculous. And that's not the only thing by the way that doesn't wash in Obama land.
Here’s more from what the former president said on Tuesday in Texas:
“Michelle and I and our girls, we came out intact.-- And what I mean by that is that the core values that we brought into the office, pretty homespun values of, you know, tell the truth and try to see the other person's point of view and treat people kindly and with respect.”
With respect? Excuse me if I laugh. Like all the respect his administration and he himself showed for any Obama critic? Here’s what he said on February 25, 2010:
“Let me just make this point, John, because we are not campaigning anymore. The election is over.”
And this from January 14, 2013:
“They had suspicions about whether government should make sure that kids in poverty are getting enough to eat.”
And on October 8, 2015:
“Think of how much better off our country would be if Republican politicians hadn't spent years precisely trying to scare voters.”
Oh, that's all Republicans did. And that was the nice stuff he said by the way. And as far as his “homespun values” that he bragged about on Tuesday night, values like, I don't know, telling the truth, remember this statement from our 44th president?
“If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. … If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period.”
And Solyndra is going to be a really good investment -- $500 million down the tube.
Well, Obama is spending his non-retirement pining away, let's face it, for the bygone era when liberals dominated all media platforms. Here’s this gem:
“Whether it was Cronkite or Brinkley or what have you, there was a common set of facts, a baseline around which both parties had to adapt and respond to. And by the time I take office, what you increasingly have is a media environment in which if you are a Fox News viewer, you have an entirely different reality than if you are a New York Times reader.”
Oh yes, it is entirely different. We see the world as it is, while The New York Times and certain other networks sell their own version of reality. And oftentimes that version of reality is one where all those flyover people in the middle of the country, they kind of just fade away to be replaced by hip or cool or progressives and maybe some socialist urbanites.
Well, some of us on talk radio -- and the former president despises talk radio -- we actually speak with the so-called deplorables every day.
We actually saw Trump's victory coming while the so-called erudite set, who live and die by every headline and the old gray lady, were confident right up until the end that Hillary Clinton was going to win.
But the real reason Obama detests Fox, talk radio, pretty much any conservative website, is because he prefers life kind of the way it was or is today on college campuses. You know, where diversity of thought is largely nonexistent and where violators of vague community standards are punished or shunned.
And meanwhile, where sycophants and toadies, certain liberal ideals or people, enjoy special privileges and nonstop accolades from professors for their “courage” and their insight.
Well, guess what? Millions of Americans were actually glad either they even didn't go to university or they are glad that they live now in something called the real world. They actually graduated. And they prefer news sources and commentary where their own values are not under constant assault and ridicule by the so-called elites.
But Barack Obama kind of has contempt for a lot of those values, at least in a lot of the values you and I hold dear. And he doesn't have all that much respect for any American who doesn't think like he does.
Now, this line on Tuesday night made it clear he hasn't learned much of anything since his snide, “bitter clinger” comments.
“That quickly enough to the fact that there were people being left behind and that frustrations were going to flare up. … In those environments, you then start getting a different kind of politics. …
You start getting the politics based on a nationalism that's not pride in country but hatred for somebody on the other side of the border.”
OK, so let me just get this straight. Anyone who supported Donald Trump -- especially his immigration policy, border enforcement and the like -- is basically a racist, xenophobic bigot or maybe you are just a run of the mill stupid hick.
He has an interesting way of kind of saying -- he doesn't come out and say it, but that's, you know, you don't have to be Einstein to read between the lines there. At bottom, it's a negative and cynical view of about half of the American population currently.
You know when you think about the dark, cynical view of America, do you know what it reminds me of? Remember this from Pastor Jeremiah Wright, of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago?
“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and they want us to say God bless America. No, no, no. Not God bless America. God damn America. It's in the Bible. They are killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human.”
Now, President Obama said this on March 2, 2008: “I don't think that my church is actually particularly controversial, it’s a member of the United Church of Christ.”
No, no, none of it's controversial.
Well, I guess you can take the man out of Reverend Wright's church but you can't take Jeremiah Wright's mind-set, sometimes, out of the man. Beneath all the polished and the smooth talk and kind of side jokes, Obama still can't see that there are substantive reasons why not everyone loves him. Maybe not as much as people like Beyonce and Jay-Z do.
Adapted from Laura Ingraham's monologue on "The Ingraham Angle" on November 28, 2018.
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