Obama Rebukes Obama

Vincent J. Curtis

29 July 2016

The climax of Wednesday night of the Democratic National Convention was the speech by U.S. president Barack Obama.  Here’s the thing you have to understand about Barack Obama:  Bill Clinton was the first black president of the United States, and Barack Obama is the first black Clinton.

Obama entered the American political scene at the 2004 Democrat Convention as a state senator from Illinois.  He wowed the crowd with a speech that called for an end to racial divisions in America, “There is no black America, there is no white America, there is only the United States of America!” he shouted to the crowd over great cheering.  Here was a man for the future, a black man who was articulate, “clean”, devoid of the ghetto patois accent, and seemed to be the one who could end racial division in the United States once and for all.

By 2008, and only two years a US senator, Obama won the Democrat nomination by defeating Hillary Clinton and then won the general election by defeating John McCain, despite growing doubts about his authenticity and person record, to say nothing of his actual intentions as president.

Little need be said here about his record in office, except that it betrayed his promise and most of what he said.  Racial divisions have gotten worse, the economy has failed to recover adequately, respect for law and order has fallen in large part from his example and his leadership.  International terrorism has gotten worse due to his ill-advised policy choices in Iraq, Syria, and Libya.  He has exacerbated civilized political discourse due to his habits of rhetoric and laziness in thinking.  He is president to the 52 % who voted for him, and king to the 48 % who didn’t.  His signature Obamacare law has disrupted medical economics without improving care or access to care, and is expected to collapse by 2018 due to the faulty economics upon which it was deceitfully pushed through.  Deceit was also employed throughout his Administration to attain policy goals, and some even boasted about the deceit.  Obama is an extreme ideologue with little tolerance for opposition.  This is not the hope and change America was expecting from that man of 2004.  The signs were there, however, for those with eyes to see and ears to hear as early as 2007.

On Wednesday, Obama lionized Hillary Clinton as the person most qualified ever for the office of president.  So, why did he run against her in 2008?

He spoke of how great America was in 2016, after eight years of complaining about what was wrong with America.  His 2008 promise to “fundamentally transform America” was based upon the belief that there was something fundamentally wrong with America that needed radical change to fix.  And thus his program of action.  Now, however, everything is great in spite of the fact that, if America has changed, it has been for the worse.

Perhaps the most galling thing to Obama is the knowledge that he is responsible for the phenomenon of Donald Trump.

In his desperation to avoid a Trump take-over, he is praising Hillary as he never did in 2008, and is saying things about America that he never did between 2008 and July 26, 2016.

The man of 2004, the man of Hope and Change, the man of the Audacity of Hope, the man of Dreams of My Father, came back Wednesday night to praise Hillary Clinton in 2016 as he never would when his ambition was on the line.  His ambition now is to halt the Trump Train.

The Obama of 2004 came back, and to stop the Trump Train he rebuked the Obama of 2008 – 2016.

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