Making Obama Great Again
Boston Globe: “One American politician is currently dominating the cultural landscape, from social media to late-night television. His poll numbers look great, his Twitter posts are often among the most read in the world, and with every utterance, his impassioned base of supporters reacts with a fervor more typical for celebrities than former civil servants.”
“Meet Barack Obama.”
“The former president left office last January with favorable approval ratings, but historians, former staffers, and political observers now say his societal standing has reached a new echelon — and it’s partly due to his successor.”
Obama’s Favorite Books of 2017
As he did each year when he was president, Barack Obama shared a list of his favorite books of 2017:
- The Power by Naomi Alderman
- Grant by Ron Chernow
- Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
- Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein
- Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
- Five-Carat Soul by James McBride
- Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
- Dying: A Memoir by Cory Taylor
- A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
- Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
- Coach Wooden and Me by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
- Basketball (and Other Things) by Shea Serrano
Quote of the Day
“As we count down to the new year, we get to reflect and prepare for what’s ahead. For all the bad news that seemed to dominate our collective consciousness, there are countless stories from this year that remind us what’s best about America.”
— Barack Obama, on Twitter.
Trump Rebrands Obama’s Economic Legacy
“The White House hopes to boost President Trump’s low approval ratings by using the economy as a centerpiece of its political message in 2018, according to three White House officials, even if many of the president’s successes so far are squarely built on the legacy of former President Barack Obama,” Politico reports.
“The trends of declining unemployment, coupled with healthy gains in the stock market, began during Obama’s first term, a welcome uptick following the global economic downturn Obama inherited in 2009.”
Trump’s Lies vs. Obama’s Lies
New York Times: “After we published a list of President Trump’s lies this summer, we heard a common response from his supporters. They said, in effect: Yes, but if you made a similar list for previous presidents, it would be just as bad.”
“We’ve set out to make that list… We applied the same conservative standard to Obama and Trump, counting only demonstrably and substantially false statements. The result: Trump is unlike any other modern president. He seems virtually indifferent to reality, often saying whatever helps him make the case he’s trying to make.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“You have to tend to this garden of democracy, otherwise things can fall apart fairly quickly. And we’ve seen societies where that happens.”
— Former president Barack Obama, quoted by CNN.
Letters from a Young Obama
Associated Press: “The nine full letters, sent by Obama to his college girlfriend, Alexandra McNear, are being made public to researchers through Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library. The university has had the letters since 2014 but could only make them public now, officials said.”
“Written in the 1980s, the letters give a peek into Obama’s psyche as he sought out the path that would eventually land him in the White House as the United States’ first black president.”
Obama Hits Campaign Trail to Rally Black Voters
President Obama “will hit the campaign trail on Thursday to rally black voters behind candidates for governor in Virginia and New Jersey amid stern warnings that African Americans may not come out in force on an Election Day that is just three weeks away,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Obama’s appearances on behalf of Virginia’s lieutenant governor, Ralph S. Northam, in Richmond and the financier Philip D. Murphy in Newark — two white candidates in predominantly black cities — come as Democrats struggle to inspire African-Americans to vote this year. While Mr. Murphy appears comfortably in the lead in New Jersey, the race in Virginia is close.“
Obamas Eye New York City Apartment
New York Post: “The Obamas have been looking at 10 Gracie Square on the Upper East Side, situated between East End Avenue and East River Drive and near the mayor’s residence Gracie Mansion, according to sources who have seen the couple arriving at the building for viewings.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“It has to go down as the biggest cover-up in the history of the United States. Nobody wants to touch it.”
— Recently-pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio, quoted by the San Jose Mercury News, saying he plans on continuing a long-running investigation into Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
The First White President
Ta-Nehisi Coates: “To Trump, whiteness is neither notional nor symbolic but is the very core of his power. In this, Trump is not singular. But whereas his forebears carried whiteness like an ancestral talisman, Trump cracked the glowing amulet open, releasing its eldritch energies.”
“The repercussions are striking: Trump is the first president to have served in no public capacity before ascending to his perch. But more telling, Trump is also the first president to have publicly affirmed that his daughter is a ‘piece of ass.’ The mind seizes trying to imagine a black man extolling the virtues of sexual assault on tape (‘When you’re a star, they let you do it’), fending off multiple accusations of such assaults, immersed in multiple lawsuits for allegedly fraudulent business dealings, exhorting his followers to violence, and then strolling into the White House.”
“Trump truly is something new — the first president whose entire political existence hinges on the fact of a black president. And so it will not suffice to say that Trump is a white man like all the others who rose to become president. He must be called by his rightful honorific — America’s first white president.”
Obama Will Re-Emerge This Fall
Former President Obama “will re-emerge on the national scene this fall, though Democrats expect him to do so with caution,” The Hill reports.
“Aides will huddle with Obama in the coming weeks to plot out what shape the former president’s fall schedule will take. Advisers close to him say that while he will play an active role in helping his party rebuild, much of his work will be behind the scenes.”
“In recent months, Obama has played a larger behind the scenes role than was publicly known.”
Lynch Used an Email Alias as Attorney General
Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch used an email alias to conduct government business, the Daily Caller reports.
“Several of Lynch’s emails were included in 413 pages of DOJ documents provided to the conservative groups Judicial Watch and the American Center for Law and Justice. Both groups had filed lawsuits for records regarding Lynch’s controversial meeting with President Bill Clinton at the Phoenix airport last June 27.”
“Using the pseudonym ‘Elizabeth Carlisle,’ Lynch corresponded with DOJ press officials to hammer out talking points in response to media requests about the meeting.”
Trump Finds It Tough to Demolish Obama’s Legacy
New York Times: “Determined to dismantle his predecessor’s legacy, Mr. Trump in the space of a couple of hours Monday night reluctantly agreed to preserve President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran and failed in his effort to repeal Mr. Obama’s health care program.”
“The back-to-back events underscored the challenge for a career developer whose main goal since taking office six months ago has been to raze what he sees as the poorly constructed edifices he inherited. Mr. Trump has gone a long way toward that objective through executive action, but as Tuesday dawned, he faced the reality that Mr. Obama’s most prominent domestic and international accomplishments both remained intact.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend. I feel like we sort of choked.”
— A senior Obama administration official, quoted by the Washington Post, on mishandling the Russian hacking during the 2016 presidential election.
McCain Says U.S. Leadership was Better Under Obama
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said that U.S. leadership was better under President Barack Obama than his successor, President Trump, The Guardian reports.
McCain was responding to a question asking if America’s stance on the global stage was better during the Obama administration: “As far as American leadership is concerned, yes.”
Obama Speaks Out Against Trump Climate Decision
Barack Obama put out the follow statement on President Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement:
A year and a half ago, the world came together in Paris around the first-ever global agreement to set the world on a low-carbon course and protect the world we leave to our children.
It was steady, principled American leadership on the world stage that made that achievement possible. It was bold American ambition that encouraged dozens of other nations to set their sights higher as well. And what made that leadership and ambition possible was America’s private innovation and public investment in growing industries like wind and solar – industries that created some of the fastest new streams of good-paying jobs in recent years, and contributed to the longest streak of job creation in our history.
Simply put, the private sector already chose a low-carbon future. And for the nations that committed themselves to that future, the Paris Agreement opened the floodgates for businesses, scientists, and engineers to unleash high-tech, low-carbon investment and innovation on an unprecedented scale.
The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created. I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack. But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got.
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