Discussion: Obama: I Sometimes Failed To Mobilize Public Opinion As President (VIDEO)

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Once again, Obama’s class act shows through in stark contrast to his (gag, barf) successor.

Obama honestly and openly examines his own weaknesses and shortcomings (few though they may be), and speculates where he might have acted differently for a better result, or takes responsibility for things not going as well as hoped.

The Orange Menace just spews blame and invective on everyone but himself. Especially when he himself is to blame.

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Exactly, I agree with him on this, and it’s probably my biggest criticism of him and his administration. They were great in campaign mode, but they didn’t campaign hard enough for their own issues and beliefs in the off season. They were too busy being adults in a country with the emotional age of toddlers. History will shine brightly on them. Still, it was my biggest frustration.

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Yes, while I admire and applaud Obama’s cool head in rough times, it may well have played against him in not enough visible “heart and soul” in some of his endeavors to “sell” to folks who needed a more emotional appeal.

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You did the best you could with what you had to work with Mr. President. You can’t run around the country mobilizing opinion with so much on your plate at one time. But you can soon!

trump will joy ride on Air Force One to his klan rallies a lot since he is completely incapable of doing the job, leaving the monsters to do the dirty work. Though he can’t mobilize anyone but the rabid base even now, and the more he does those rallies the bigger the hole he will dig.

I keep fantasizing that when Roberts goes to hold up the Bible for him to take the oath, it’s a pair of handcuffs instead.

Watching that beautiful ceremony for Joe Biden yesterday, I kept thinking, gosh, they’re so calm in the midst of all this this craziness. And then I thought…I remember that he was so calm and behaviorally appropriate during the Correspondence Dinner (was that the one where he dissed trump?) and later that night he gave the order to kill Bin Laden. (Was it the correspondence dinner…refresh my memory if I am mistaken) But my point is, do they know something we don’t? God, the Universe & FSM, I hope so.

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“there were big stretches, while governing, where even though we were doing the right thing, we weren’t able to mobilize public opinion firmly enough.”

Frankly, Mr. President (and you will always be Mr. President to me), you didn’t try hard enough. You were so wrapped up in policy issues that you neglected to give enough recognize how vital it is to get the American people behind you, even if it means spending precious hours telling us what we ought to know already.

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Agreed. My biggest criticism was that he didn’t listen to those of us telling him/them this while it was happening and pivot to take the initiative provided by the bully pulpit.

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His failure to use the bully pulpit effectively is going to weigh pretty heavily on history’s final assessment, IMO. I hate to say it, because I love the man but – he bears some responsibility for Trump, frankly.

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Though there were many times I wanted to see Obama angrier and more slashingly partisan, here we are, and his demeanor throughout his presidency will give him political capital as ex-president that I hope he’ll use effectively.

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I agree to a point, but it would have been preaching to the choir on one hand and pissing in the wind on the other. Just my humble opinion.

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This conclusion is 8 years too late.

The “when they go low, we go high” strategy was (and is) a strategy for political failure.

And fail he did. Massively. The Trump-led Republican government that we now have is a direct result of that failure.

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No, he doesn’t. The black man doesn’t bear some responsibility for the racist using racism to gain power. Let’s stop that right now.

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I love you, man, but this will definitely be filed under the ‘No sht, Sherlock’ file I keep.

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am so SO going to miss this man as our President. I am thrilled that he plans to get to work on the gerrymandering crisis we’ve been experiencing for some time now. As a private citizen, Barack Obama can say and do things he might feel constrained to say and do while serving in the White House. Mr. President, from the bottom of my heart, thank you and your lovely family for the last eight years … on so many issues and so many levels, you were the wise adult we needed. I wish like hell Congress had followed most of your advice during those eight years, but I fully recognize the very positive effects you’ve had on policy, court decisions and the course of discussion among the American people and the world. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

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He expected people to be rational, to know their self-interest.

He didn’t SELL the ACA hard enough. People needed to know the benefits. Every day.

FDR was a salesman. He also knew that most people are selfish fools i.e. Republicans.

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Nope…that responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of the voters. So many were unable to ‘remember’ 2008 and see the progress OR they really did believe what the GOP kept spouting that EVERYONE was getting ‘free stuff’ but them.

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He certainly didn’t push his advantage. While it’s nice in retrospect for him to admit this, it isn’t helping us in any way. Force needs to be confronted with force or you yield power.

What he does now is probably more important than what he didn’t do when he had the chance eight years ago. Unless he has some strategy now that isn’t apparent, refusing to speak out against tyranny will be a complete cop out. Just warning about the storm clouds on the horizon for our democracy is not enough. We can all see those on our own.

Class?? Class!!!
Where’s the gold trimmed Louis XVII furniture ?
No Gold Trimmed walls
No gold doors
No frescoes on the ceiling
No chandeliers
He doesn’t know the first thing about class like Donald showed us when he was on 60 Minutes
I’ll show you class

/s

Sorry, had to run and grab my wastebasket…must have been something I ate for lunch today…

Actually, on a certain level I feel sorry for the kid. With parents like those, there’s no chance he can grow up to be anything even vaguely resembling normal.

Not that he’ll care about it, if Uday and Qusay are any indication…

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