Via persistent commentor JPL. It seems to have gone over well with the audience…
‘Four more years!’: MPs chant they want @BarackObama to serve another term as president https://t.co/E8Y7FUm1MA
— Globalnews.ca (@globalnews) June 29, 2016
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redshirt
It’s funny (not!) how the entire world loves Barack Obama more than the USA does.
Betty Cracker
@redshirt: He’d win another term if he could run.
Mike J
Bernie and Trump have both said a Clinton presidency would be four more years of Obama. I’ll take it.
redshirt
@Betty Cracker: No doubt.
What about Barack’s next job (some years from now) as UN Sec-General?
Chip Daniels
@redshirt:
I’m holding out hope for SCOTUS Justice Obama.
Kropadope
Well, isn’t populism a belief in the right of people to have a say over their government? Trump could just be a different breed of populist.
While Obama wants to empower people to make a better living for themselves, Trump wants to empower people to disempower others whom they would prefer not to think of as people.
Emma
I am so proud that he is our President. I am amazed at his fortitude and his intellect, his graciousness, and even at that perfectly controlled snap of temper. He’s dragged us to a better place in spite of all the idiots and racists. I can’t say we deserve him, but we sure got lucky we got him.
Kristine Smith
His approval rating keeps going up.
“Don’t it always seem to go/that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone”
Suzanne
I’m not ready for him to be gone. I’m sure he is soooooo fucking sick of the job. But he is just the greatest.
rikyrah
There is no shade like Presidential shade.
rikyrah
@Emma:
We don’t deserve him.
Thank goodness. ….sometimes, you get more than you deserve.
Major Major Major Major
Yeah, I think he’ll just be Daughter Spoiler In Chief after this.
Nah, I’ll bet he does the tough love thing. But not too much.
patrick II
George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, FDR, Barack Obama. This country has been so lucky in times of crisis to have such great men for our president.
Suzanne
@Major Major Major Major: I hope he spends about a year doing NOTHING of anything other than relax, travel, catch up on Game of Thrones, read trashy romance novels, spoil his lovely wife, etc.
starscream
There is a 0% chance Obama ever serves on the Supreme Court. I don’t know why people keep bringing it up.
And I think he would top 60% if he could run against that shitbag Trump.
dogwood
@Chip Daniels:
Well he’s been on record dozens of time asserting he has never had any interest in serving on the Court. I’d take him at his word. He might be the only president of the Harvard Law Review who ever turned down a clerkship.
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: Ain’t it the truth.
greennotGreen
A.L., you should remove that clip of the MPs chanting “four more years.” Next thing you know, Trump will be sending them all fund raising emails.
dogwood
@starscream:
People bring it up because Obama and other politicians are more like fictional characters to them than real people. The president has said that he has too restless a nature to ever be happy in the narrow world of the judiciary.
JustRuss
@Emma: Well said, and ditto. Even his rants are thoughtful.
I can’t see him on the Supreme Court, he’s more of a roll up his sleeves and get shit done guy. Can’t wait to see what his next act is.
dogwood
@greennotGreen:
Trump can’t raise any money at home so what’s a poor grifter to do. Maybe he should tap Carson for Veep. At least the guy has email lists of actual Americans who cough up real cash.
Suzanne
There is a monsoon storm going on right now that is shaking my house.
The contractor who is building my project is supposed to pour the second floor deck in under six hours. We’ll see.
Betty Cracker
Re: the “rant,” PBO is right about Trump not having grounds to claim to the “populist” title and Sanders being a legit claimant. I also liked the subtle way he pointed out the downside of populism, i.e., the insistence on simple answers to complex issues.
Betty Cracker
@JustRuss: I hope he’ll choose to get involved in voting rights and civic participation. He’ll leave office relatively young for a president and as an enormously popular figure. If we could increase voter turnout just a few percentage points and improve midterm participation, it could make such a difference. A guy like PBO could move the needle, IMO.
Mnemosyne
It always sucks to have a really good neighbor move away, doesn’t it?
RadioOne
@starscream: I agree, Obama will never be a Supreme Court justice. On the other hand, his nomination to the Court would make Sean Hannity really, really angry…
Kropadope
Anyone interested in the speech that the Canadian MPs were applauding may find it here.
redshirt
@RadioOne: I could maybe see him taking on the SC gig at 65 or so. Committing himself to a retirement as a Supreme Court Judge, until he dies.
Splitting Image
@JustRuss:
He’s going to step into Jimmy Carter’s shoes and ask himself “What is out there that needs doing that I, as a former President of the U.S., can do when nobody else can?” That’s pretty much what Carter asked himself and after years of work, the Guinea Worm is close to going bye-bye. That’s on top of his many other achievements. Sadly, Carter is near the end of the line and somebody is going to have to pick up the torch.
So I don’t think we’ll see Obama on the Supreme Court. He’ll say that there are other Sotomayors out there who deserve the chance. He might campaign to make voting a Constitutional right, in the U.S. and elsewhere. He may work on race relations. There are plenty of countries besides the U.S. that need it. I could see him becoming the face of Doctors Without Borders, or something similar, and pushing for access to health care around the world. Basically he can write his own ticket. (After a well deserved rest, of course.)
Linnaeus
@Kropadope:
Populism is more of a political style than a discrete ideology and hence can take both right- and left-wing forms. There’s a variety of definitions of the term, but the central aspect of populism is its suspicion of, and opposition to, elites who are viewed as divorced from “the people” and hold excessive and illegitimate power over them.
Case in point: the People’s (Populist) Party in the US in the late 19th century. The Populists’ central message was that elites (particularly business elites) were oppressing the mass of the American population, particularly farmers and workers, and hence they advocated a pretty radical restructuring of the economic structures of the US to remedy the problem. We tend to think of populism in the US as leftist in nature because populist sentiment in the US has often had a left-wing slant to it, but you can see elements of right-wing populism in the New Right conservatism that emerged out of the 1960s.
Brachiator
@redshirt: William Howard Taft, former president, was Chief Justice upon his appointment to the Court. This might be an unofficial precedent which Obama would be expected to follow if he were to be appointed.
Assuming, of course, he was interested in the job.
redshirt
@Brachiator: Yeah, and while Obama would have a HUGE influence on the world to come by a seat on the SC, I agree that he won’t take it if offered. He certainly won’t seek it.
Villago Delenda Est
@Chip Daniels: Over Michelle’s dead body, I think. She has veto power over certain career choices that might entice B Barry Bamz.
Splitting Image
@Kropadope:
It would be more accurate to say that populism is a belief in the right of the majority of the people to have a say over their government. In principle, that is how democracy is supposed to work, but populism usually involves carving a demographic group out of the whole and arguing that as a majority, this particular group should have more say in how the government is run than any minority group. In the U.S. for example, populism generally involves promoting the interests of white Christians (i.e. “real Americans”).
On a smaller scale, look at the House of Representatives. The House is supposed to operate on the principle of majority rule (democracy), but the Republicans are imposing the Hastert Rule to block anything from getting done. The point of the Hastert Rule is that as the majority in the chamber, the Republican caucus ought to have special privileges relative to the Democrats and the leaders refuse to vote on bills unless they are supported by a majority of the majority. That’s populism.
If you listen closely to Trump and a lot of the other Republicans (particularly Ted Cruz), the basis of their political philosophy is that the whole country should be governed by the Hastert Rule. Nothing should be done unless a majority of straight white Christian males supports it, so among other things there can never be a legitimate Democratic President. Christianity should be understood to mean whatever white evangelicals say it does, since there are more of them than there are mainline Protestants or black Protestants or Catholics. As Obama pointed out in the video, this sort of “populism” has a way of turning to nativism really fast. After all, what are the most obvious ways of dividing up the body politic? Race, ethnic background, and religion. (Not to mention sex, but women are a majority in most countries, and populists generally discount their votes to get the answer they want.) So Trump goes after the votes of white evangelical men and they call him a populist.
Kropadope
@Linnaeus:
Hard to be more elite than Trump, eh?
ETA: @Splitting Image:
For Republicans it’s all about pushing the advantage. Hell, they even push the disadvantage.
redshirt
I want Obama to take a SC seat solely because I trust him with power and with that power I hope he crushes Republicans. Fairly.
Villago Delenda Est
@Splitting Image: Dominionists (and Rafael is one) think that they and they alone can rule the world, because their invisible sky buddy gives them direct instructions on how to do it.
This is totally opposite of the principles on which this country was founded. The founders had no use for Divine Right of Kings.
If people like Cruz will not voluntarily crawl back under the rocks from which they emerged, they must be compelled to.
dogwood
@redshirt:
You might see him taking the job at 65, but he’s always been clear that he’s never been and never will be interested.
dogwood
@Kropadope:
Plenty of elites go the populist route. It’s a natural fit for charletans.
slag
I’m starting to think those Canadians have good taste.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
It’s pretty amazing: rescuing the auto industry only had a meager 17% approval rating with the public.
And he doesn’t get credit for it. When you bring it up, people will blow it off and say it was an easy. Really. How many elected officials will take a course that is so unpopular?
Elizabelle
Looking at how much Obama has been thwarted, again and again:
it’s appalling that one man, Rupert Murdoch, has such power for evil, all for filthy lucre. On both sides of the Atlantic.
We should do something about that, here in the US. Obama would have had such a more even playing field without Murdoch and his filthy lying news network for profit. People die because we allow Rupert Murdoch to use and degrade the public airwaves.
[Are cable channels public airwaves?]
Is there anything we can do?
nellcote
for context, that first video took place at a press conference this morning. PBO is calling out the MEDIA for their careless use of the word.
gene108
Canadian government tries to subvert U.S. Conatitution!!!!
This means War!!!!!!
jl
Great ‘rant’ by Obama. Except it was not a rant, but something that needed, I guess, to be explained to the savvy clueless dorks and brown nosers in the media.
piratedan
and yet, it has been proven over and over again… voters like Democrat ideas, in policy and governance, yet the refuse to elect Democrats to enact them….. Cripes if we could figure out how to get over that kind of messaging hump, then mayhap we could finally be in a better place.
Our side needs to do a better job of sharing the message and not let the other side continually frame the issues.
hueyplong
Just as “literally” has been redefined to mean “not really, but close to the same,” populism has a specific definition now, and it’s something like “campaigning on an appeal to something other than the better angels of our nature.” If you aren’t white, you’d argue that it was always thus and that “populism” has always been a term with negative connotations.
I like the way Obama paused a lot during his apparent ad lib on populism, giving the impression that he was almost reluctantly going to share his real thoughts on something important. It’s easy to imagine the listeners leaning forward and hanging on his words, I liked his attempt to claim the word for “our side,” and I like the problem Trump will have if the media, deprived of populism upon reflection, has to choose another word. It won’t be a flattering one to middle of the roaders (I hope). Finally, I agree with Patrick II about the makeup of a for-real Mt Rushmore (Washington, Lincoln, FDR and Obama).
Jeff Spender
It makes me proud to have voted for him twice. The first president I ever voted for. And I don’t think that the chances are great there will be another like him in my lifetime.
Elizabelle
@hueyplong: I’d still put Teddy Roosevelt on Mt. Rushmore.
But, yeah.
Elizabelle
PS: The “Horse He Rode in On” thread about Bernie’s opinion piece in the NYTimes is very close to 600 comments. Have at it!
Barb2
Obama grew up in Hawaii – the multinational culture has an enormous influence on the kids. Hoale is the minority – so Obama’s multi ethnicity is the majority. One doesn’t even think about race, we learned to see the individual first. (Missionary boys club is the exception – nasty history there.)
I knew the Hawaii Obama came from. I was a kid in Hawaii when he was born there.
So typical of the white GOP – they see his multinatiomal strength as a weakness. The rest of the world sees the multi culturalism as a strength.
My complaint is that Obama in NOT a feminist. He has no concept of what that means. So no I do not want to see him in office for four more years. Has his wife ever called herself a feminist? Pay equality for female staff? He was lacking in his awareness of including female staff in guys only strategy meetings etc.
Right now we need a feminist President and VP or we will backtrack further into the bad old days.
Hawaii was a fantastic place to grow up. Hawaii is part of Obama’s soul. Obama has grown into the job of Presdenting, much better than GW Bush did.
magurakurin
@Elizabelle: why? Obama showed us the way. Pure class. A day after Sanders threw shade on the whole party, Obama gives Bernie props. Obama’s the man. If he wants Clinton to win, that’s more than enough endorsement for me. None other matters.
AxelFoley
@Barb2:
Are you serious with this bullshit?
Lurker Extraordinaire
Um, Lily Ledbetter? Are we in Bizarro World?
Cat48
I’m going to miss this president and his family. His temperment is similar to mine, but he is so much smarter
Oh, I trust the job he’s been doing. Four More Years, indeed.
NorthLeft12
Yeah, us Canadians will be sorry to see him go. It’s not that Pres. Obama treated Canada better than most other US governments [he is US Pres. and looks out for your interests, not ours] but its that we felt better about the direction your country was headed in every way. And frankly, it is important to Canada for you guys to be prosperous, stable, and sane. Pres. Obama is an intelligent, thoughtful, empathetic, and calm leader……just the kind your/any country needs in troubled times.
Elizabelle
@Barb2: Great comment on Hawaii’s multiculturalism, but you lost me in claiming President Obama is not a feminist.
Um, no. He is married to a strong woman, is raising two strong daughters (with the help of his strong mother in law), and seems to respect women just fine.
I don’t get your comment. At all.
Barb2
No sorry Obama is not a feminist – pay equality did not happen with his staff. I wish the record was different. He is a typical liberal male who talks but has no concept of treating women as equals.
The first inside look about his presidency – the confidence men – was quite clear that Obama was a guy’s guy. He did sign a few showy bills but he didn’t lead by example. Women staffers were mostly left out.
Sorry that the truth hurts. I watched and waited for some awareness after that book came out. His basketball games are still a guy thing – in spite of having women on staff who knew the game. Full equality – now Justin Trudeau is a feminist. Compare the two – appointments to cabinet positions etc etc. Trudeau is the feminist.
At the state of women whatever conference – Obama refused to acknowledge that abortion is vital to women’s equality. He has no more elections to win and he is still alergic to the subject
In spite of the fact that he isn’t perfect he will go down in history as a great president, but not a feminist.
Sorry guys – facts are facts.
Guys will probably never understand. Unless you are Justin Trudeau.
Aussie Sheila
@Elizabelle: t
That F$&@ker renounced his Australain citizenship in order to be a Usain and make money from stuffing up another polity, in addition to stuffing up the UK. The batty old barking billionaire needs to be taken out to the woodshed and put down like a mangy dog.
All venting aside, the real vengeance against the old feral goat is to work to produce electoral outcomes that he personally has campaigned against, since a lot of his power rests with the idea that he is a power in his own right as a result of his ownership of many sewer pipes spewing shite all over the Anglo sphere, ( as his spokespersons are won’t to describe English speaking countries).
He truly is noxious, and I reckon three sheets to dementia. In any other person that state would be a matter for empathy, In his case the empathy needs to be reserved for the polities that are forced to suffer his unhinged views.
Unfortunately given his genetic inheritance we may be stuck with the old buzzard until he hits his early century. Sad.
Barb2
Elizabeth – Justin Trudeau is the feminIst. Obama is trying to be, but he is not yet there.
Mrs Obama refused to identify as a feminist – unless she changed recently. Yes she is a strong woman and a great mom. But what exactly did she do for women? As compared to first Lady Hillary Clinton? What did Mrs Obama accomplish? Betty Ford had a better pro woman record than Mrs Obama. I was hoping for more. She does have good taste in clothes. She has learned the skill of understated elegance.
Joel
@Barb2: citation needed?
As for Trudeau, he’s got the best party tricks.
Hill Dweller
@Barb2: WTF? PBO has appointed nine women to cabinet level positions, the most of any President in history. Valarie Jarrett is PBO’s most trusted political advisor. Hell, the wing nuts claim she runs the government. PBO has nominated more women judges than any President in history. I could list even more women who are vital to PBO in sub-cabinet level positions. Furthermore, just last week PBO said women have a constitutional right to abortion. To suggest Obama’s WH or political career was a boys’ club isn’t just wrong, it’s bizarre.
Emma
@Barb2: You are one of those people that needs words more than actions. Mrs. Obama, the “non-feminist” has created a world-wide program to promote educating young women. Obama has, as others have pointed out, promoted women’s issues all throughout his presidency. So because they don’t walk around screaming that they’re feminists they have failed us? Spare me.
Barb2
Last week his says this but not earlier – like 7 years ago?
Google Justin Trudeau – it is amazing how most Americans are unaware of Canadian politics.
Huff Po had an article about Justin Trudeau counseling men how to be feminists. Listen to what women are saying. Most men fail – men over talk and interrupt women. Sunday morning political talk shows – men being men and not listening to women.
No one is perfect, that includes Obama. Clinton isn’t perfect either, but compared to Trump she is sensationally perfect. Obama compared to Trump is the greatest President ever. But he has room for improvement. Men really don’t listen to women. The old cranky guy interrupted Clinton during their debates and he didn’t look at her while she was talking. Little clues show the typical male attitude – like Clinton needs a male VP. Why?
If you don’t know that Justin Trudeau is an authentic feminist (great example from his mom) then do some reading. I happen to know a lot of Canadians, plus International politics interests me.
Right after the election there were several profiles on Justin Trudeau. I forwarded these to Canadian friends. Trudeau in spite of being the son of a Canadian Premier, also worked with the common folk. He worked as a bouncer at a club. He won a boxing match, details were facinating. As my Canadian friends tell me – he isn’t perfect. He has faults, has made a few wrong choices. He has room to improve. However, these same Canadians think Obama is perfect. (The links to the Trudeau articles reside in my broken laptop computer.)
Reference about Obama’s boys club is in the book – Confidence men. He is not perfect – but he is a zillion times better than Mittens Romney.
father pussbucket
I enjoyed the allusion to “no fucks left to give”; I wonder if he’s aware of the meme?
Hill Dweller
@Barb2: Do you remember Obama going to Notre Dame in 2009 and giving a speech(in part) about a woman’s right to choose? I’m starting to think you don’t have the first clue about Obama.
ruemara
@Barb2: you, madame, are ridiculous. Fuck right off with that not a feminist crap.
Chris
@dogwood:
Obama is wrapping up after eight mostly successful seasons, the series finale will almost certainly end things on a high note, and if the story continues, it’ll be on the Hillary Clinton spin-off. But the lead character on the original show was so popular that fans are clamoring for it to continue, maybe as a movie or maybe by getting its own expanded universe. Until that happens, they’re just going to keep writing fanfic.
Miss Bianca
@Barb2: Well, that’s wonderful that’s you’ve appointed Justin Trudeau a “real feminist” who counsels other men how to be feminist. It means so much more when it comes from a cute guy, amirite?
Seriously…if your beef with PBO and FLOTUS is that they don’t *call* themselves feminists, or say the right magic feminist words…considering the shit and opprobrium people heap on that word and that concept after all these years…on top of all the shit they go thru’ just by being the Black Family in the White House…if you can’t look at their actions and judge from them, well…I dunno what’s going to convince you. I mean, if appointing women to Cabinet positions, appointing female SCJs, the Lily Ledbetter Act, and a commitment to the right to choose means nothing to you.
Fellatio Alger
Y’all. Please don’t fall for the troll du jour. This one is just another ratfucker.
Barb2
I get it that you love da guy
But he does not reward his female staffers fairly. Money Money Money. Pay discrimination by the guy you love.
The guy is a good guy – he just doesn’t respect female workers.
Justin Trudeau was counseling MEN. Because we know men (and some women) will never ever listen to a woman. Obama has surrounded himself with men hating women. That jerk from Harvard Larry Summers who is a misogynistic pig – for example.
I use Justin Trudeau as an example – because he gets it. I don’t care what either of the guys look like. I READ all my news and NEVER listen to politicians. Obama sounds like a preacher – I avoid listening to all preachers and anyone who sounds like a preacher. Growing up in a religious misogynistic cult can do that to a person. Obama is the good guy – no debate. He is not a feminist. He did not deal with many of women’s issues – feminist issues because he is like most male liberals – he doesn’t listen to women. He is a show horse when it comes to women’s issue not a work horse.
You love him – good for you. I see his faults – he could have been better. Now is the time to move on and elect a real feminist who isn’t afraid to identify as a feminist.
Biden is the same way. Thanks to his management of the sexual predator Clarence Thomas we have a total jerk sitting on the Supreme Court. There were other women ready to testify against Thomas. Biden has tried to make up for his stupidity.
As a retired President with two daughters perhaps Obama can use his clout to help right the inequity between men and women and help to get the ERA passed. Perhaps Mrs Obama can work to get the ERA passed. Help make a better world for her daughters, rather than forcing her food biases on others. Betty Ford was a better first Lady.
Perhaps as a retired rich guy he will pay his female employees as well as he pays his male employees. Show women that he understands – money speaks.
Nobody is perfect. Obama is not a saint, he was part of the Chicago political machine. But he distanced himself from the corruption. He grew into the job – that’s the nature of the Presidency.
He can claim to be whatever he wants. I do not accept his claim to be called a feminist.
Justin Trudeau is a role model for MEN. Because men will listen to another man.
You don’t know me – to claim I am swayed by a pretty face shows ignorance of how I judge people. And you are insulting Trudeau. He will grow old and get ugly but his empathic character will still be in that old body.
I was hoping that Obama would BE a feminist for real. The facts tell a different story.
Facts
Pay equality remains entrenched in Obama White House.
Title of article – male female pay gap remains entrenched at white house.
A true feminist would not allow this to happen.
Copy and paste the Washington Post link and remove the spaces – my tablet doesn’t do links well.
Barb2
Link to pay discrimination article
Barb2
Now the truth comes out – feminist crap???
When a male calls himself a feminist – I say prove it.
Then I watch male heads explode.
Pay inequity in the white house. Fact. Pay inequality is everywhere. So why not in the white house.
Bernie brats played the same game.
Besides the pay inequality Obama is the good guy. He had to deal with a depression – he did well.
Pay inequality – this is still a major issue in America.
Oh forget it. You have your saint who pays male and females equally well. I give up.
pluky
@Major Major Major Major: I get the impression that between Michelle and Mrs. Robinson there is very little daughter spoiling going on chez Obama.
AxelFoley
@Barb2:
How the fuck do you know there is pay inequity in this White House?
And how does this President prove to you, who obviously doesn’t pay attention to shit, he’s a feminist? Because if you actually DID pay attention, you’d see he’s done more to advance feminism, among many other interests, than any other president.
Emma
@Barb2:
So you pulled that out of your arse. No facts, no figures.
We used to call people like you Republicans.
liberal
@Mike J: would that it were so. I’m not a big Obama fan, but I think that after Hillary takes the reins ill look back on these years nostalgicly.
cain
Wow, Barb2, you’ve managed to unite men and women against you. :-) Well done! Equality at last. Perhaps you should run as Clinton’s running mate?
Obama is our greatest export. As someone and many others have said, I don’t think I will see his like in my lifetime. He was what we needed for the times, a balm against 8 years of George Bush. We all owe him our gratitude for his service, his decency, and his cunning.