Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Second rate reporter says what?

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

People are complicated. Love is not.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Long Read: “A Post-presidency Like No Other”

Long Read: “A Post-presidency Like No Other”

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Krissah Thompson and Juliet Eilperin, in the Washington Post:

… So far, Obama is trying to approach his post-presidency in the same way as his cocktail-hosting duties — keeping things low-key, despite clamoring from Democrats for him to do more. “He is enjoying a lower profile where he can relax, reflect and enjoy his family and friends,” said his former senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.

But the unprecedented nature of this particular post-presidency means his respite could be brief. Even while taking downtime at a luxurious resort in the South Pacific last week, Obama put out a statement urging Republicans not to unilaterally dismantle his signature health-care law.

Not only are the Obamas still young and unusually popular for a post-White House couple, but their decision to stay in Washington while their younger daughter finishes high school has also combined with the compulsion of the new Trump administration to keep pulling them back into the spotlight…

He has attempted to stay above the fray, watching from the sidelines as Republicans have pressed to unravel a slew of his initiatives — and emphasizing the need for a new generation of political leaders to step up in his place.

And yet, while other recent ex-presidents have devoted their retirement years to apolitical, do-gooder causes, Obama is gearing up to throw himself into the wonky and highly partisan issue of redistricting, with the goal of reversing the electoral declines Democrats experienced under his watch…

For now, Obama is delegating political work to associates — notably former attorney general Eric Holder, whom he has tapped to lead the redistricting project that aims to help Democrats redraw legislative maps that many see as tilted toward the GOP. He also endorsed Tom Perez, his former secretary of labor, in a successful bid to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee. His first major speech as a private citizen will come in May, when he will be awarded a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award as part of a celebration of Kennedy’s centennial.

Michelle Obama, who has a team of four staffers in the office, is spending more time than her husband in Washington, working on her own post-White House book while remaining focused on the home front.

“She’s got one daughter to get off to college, another is a [sophomore] in high school. All of that comes first,” said Tina Tchen, her White House chief of staff. “Now she will also be working on the book and still keeping up her engagement with the community as she always has.”…

Reader Interactions

75Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Enjoy your time off, Mr. President.

    OT. Hahahaha

    @KeithEllison

    Disappointed many of my libertarian colleagues won’t stand for Internet privacy. Sad day.

  3. 3.

    Ben Cisco

    He’s earned a rest, and then some.

    He did his job, not enough of the citizenry did theirs.

    Even with all that, he’s still going to do work to reverse the evil of gerrymandering.

    #StillMyPresident

  5. 5.

    Woodrow/Asim

    emphasizing the need for a new generation of political leaders to step up in his place.

    THIS. We can “do it ourselves”. We don’t need a Chosen One. We don’t need the Right Gal or Guy.

    In working the Obama campaign in the ’07 timeframe, there wasn’t a time we met with Obama staff, that they didn’t emphasize that we were to take what we were learning and doing, and go apply out outside the campaign. And as much as I sincerely wish Obama had done a much better job of supporting that once he was elected, that was the key reason I supported him, and still do.

  6. 6.

    Woodrow/Asim

    @TenguPhule: Well, it’s working if you’re out to kill people, or the world environment, or spread prejudice, or rip off the economy while everyone else suffers, or…

  8. 8.

    Mnemosyne

    @Woodrow/Asim:

    That’s why I thought it was so powerful at the DNC to have Obama be introduced by a lady in her 60s who he had encouraged to run for office for the first time — and she won!

  9. 9.

    TenguPhule

    @Woodrow/Asim:

    Well, it’s working if you’re out to kill people,

    No, that’s definitely a sign government is not working if I have to kill people,

  12. 12.

    jl

    The article seems like a long tease to me. If Obama plans to work on reforming redistricting effectively, he won’t be able to jump into whatever partisan battle is raging in DC during a given month, no matter how wonky and hyper-partisan the topic is.

    And I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t have a problem with hoping that we can do better on candidates than HRC and S*****s. We need to encourage new leadership for big state and national elections.

    I read that Arnold wants to do a big push for redistricting reform too. I have no idea if there is connection.

  13. 13.

    cain

    Man, my respect for Obama especially in these times is at an absolute high. He really kept things together. This entire nation owes him a debt of gratitude. I’m hoping that he can once again lead Americans (of all stripes) out of this dark hell we’ve found ourselves. He’s the water for the parched throat.. I can’t imagine the pressure he probably is getting from everyone who is projecting their need for a hero on him.

  14. 14.

    humboldtblue

    I read this piece yesterday and then spent about two hours watching Obama compilation videos on you tube.

    Don’t do that, just take it from me. Don’t do that.

  16. 16.

    jl

    @cain:

    ” I can’t imagine the pressure he probably is getting from everyone who is projecting their need for a hero on him. ”

    I hope Obama has the self-discipline to feel no pressure and tell those people to go out and organize. I suppose Michelle will be encouraging him in that direction. Given what I have read about her attitude towards electoral politics after 9+ years of various shades of the presidenting game, maybe she has some garrotes lying around the house?

  19. 19.

    Joyce H

    @Baud:

    @KeithEllison

    Disappointed many of my libertarian colleagues won’t stand for Internet privacy. Sad day.

    A modest suggestion. This looks like a good assignment for Media Matters or Move On or some such group. Step one is to discover the ISP for the homes of every Congressman and Senator who voted for this bill. Step two is to purchase the browsing history for every one of them, since they voted to make this legal after all. And step three is to publish those histories in the newspapers. Full page ads in the Washington Post and the New York Times. Just do a few at a time, and start with the most embarrassing and easily mockable browsing records. I suspect this new law would be overturned in record time.

  24. 24.

    Major Major Major Major

    Speaking of 2020, my favorite songwriter has a new change.org petition.

    Petitioning Senator Al Franken: Give Spiders All the Help They Need to Eat Every Human on Earth Within One Year

    It’s reported today by the Washington Post that spiders could eat every human on earth within one year. While we, the undersigned, are certain the spiders are doing the best they can, it’s clear that they could use some help. We call on the United States government to utilize whatever resources it deems necessary and effective to help the spiders in their noble cause. We’re sending our petition to Sen. Al Franken because he’s one of the few people in Washington who we sort of half-trust to not initiate surveillance on us or flag our tax returns for signing such a petition.
    Spider/Spider 2020! In our hearts, we know the time has come!

  26. 26.

    Baud

    I hope every TV and movie president for the next four years is black. It’ll piss Trump off.

  27. 27.

    efgoldman

    @Baud:

    I don’t like looking backward.

    Without even meaning to, both Obamas have also been living in what’s left of Amber Asswipe’s brain.
    That’s what ACHA was all about (even though it was Granny Starver’s “initiative”) and what today’s reversal of environmental EOs was about. Sure. Apricot Abomination is all about the grift, but every reversal kind of thing he does is also a purposeful slap at the ni[clang]

  29. 29.

    aliasofwestgate

    @Baud: Hatshepsut. I think that was her. They tried to erase her name from history, didn’t work. She’s part of history books now, and we know her name.

  30. 30.

    efgoldman

    @Joyce H:

    A modest suggestion.

    According to my daughter, who’s attuned to these things, The Cards Against Humanity team is trying it, as are a couple others

  31. 31.

    Turgidson

    @Ben Cisco:

    He did his job, not enough of the citizenry did theirs.

    He really did deserve a better country to govern. He was as sincere and genuine a person as this country’s cesspool of a political system is likely to ever elevate to the presidency. Particularly post-CU. And one of the smartest presidents we’ve ever had, too. He made his mistakes, like everyone does. And unlike his predecessor or his successor, he was a big enough man to take ownership when he did and try to do better.

    Wish I could have given him a high-five when word came down on Friday that Hair Furor and the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver had faceplanted into a pile of rhino shit.

  35. 35.

    piratedan

    @Joyce H: that is so deliciously quid pro quo… hey, not only them, lets see what the spouse is looking up and the kids too!, They won’t mind, after all, just think of all of those targeted ads that they are being innundated with to make their lives easier!

  43. 43.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Major Major Major Major: It is a math thing, a stat mech thing. It leads to a binomial distribution. You can visualize it by thinking of a drunk staggering towards a lamppost. Drunk person, say Mr. B, can take one step at a time but it could be either to the right or left since Mr B cannot walk in a straight line.

  45. 45.

    ThresherK

    @Joyce H: Can’t we get Julian Assange and Wikileaks todprnjasdfhpbjifeprtjfdklhasbllttt!

    Sorry. I couldn’t even finish typing that without convulsive fits of laughter.

  46. 46.

    cain

    @Baud:

    @efgoldman: It reminds me of ancient Egypt when the pharaohs tried to erase the memory of Nefertiti or some other lady pharaoh.

    That happened? Wow..

  48. 48.

    cain

    @Major Major Major Major: can we start with republicans.. I would be more willing to go after I see them wrapped in web and getting sucked. After that, I’ll smoke some Sessions strength marijuana and meet my destiny.

    ETA: fixed stop to start

  49. 49.

    jl

    @cain: A couple of pharaohs and queens got on some shit list and later regimes tried to erase them. They didn’t have airbrushes back then, so took a lot more work.

  51. 51.

    efgoldman

    @jl:

    They didn’t have airbrushes back then, so took a lot more work.

    The Soviets had plenty airbrushes; didn’t work so well for them, either.

  52. 52.

    cain

    @jl:

    @cain: A couple of pharaohs and queens got on some shit list and later regimes tried to erase them. They didn’t have airbrushes back then, so took a lot more work.

    No doubt.. seems illogical considering that their history is written all over their tombs.

  53. 53.

    hovercraft

    @Adam L Silverman:

    And a post non-Presidency as well:

    But e-mails, Benghazi, tarmac, Goldman Sachs, corruption, liar!!
    We needed an honest outsider who couldn’t be corrupted and wouldn’t use the presidency to enrich themselves.
    And so we got an incompetent id who exemplifies all the characteristics we claimed to hate about Hillary, with none of her experience and competence. But he does have a p.e.n.i.s. so it’s all good. Well done America, well done.

  55. 55.

    hovercraft

    @humboldtblue:
    I have the Fareed Zakaria retrospective, The Obama Years, Michelle’s goodbye with Oprah and Obama’s farewell address on my DVR. I haven’t gone back and watched the again yet, but if the shitgibbon gets to be too much for me, I have them in reserve.
    Like many others, he’s still my president, the current buffoon is president now, but he’s not mine, he’s the president of the United States, Obama was my choice, he got me interested and involved in politics like never before. I am part of his legacy, I am woke, and I’ll never be asleep again, I will work every election to help elect the best possible people.

  56. 56.

    EBT

    @cain: Amenhotep IV decided that the old religion was dumb and everyone should worship his new god the Aten, or sungodthing (It was original an aspect or Ra), Nefertiti was married to him.He changed his name to Akhenaten and ruled the new monotheistic Egypt for 17 Years. After Akhenaten died Either Nefertiti or their daughter Meritaten ruled until Akhenaten and Nefertiti’s sun Ankhesenpaaten (Later called Tutankhamun) ascended the throne. He died and everyone collectively decided that Aten was fucking moronic so they went around destroying all his cartouches, and the evidence of his immediate family back to Amenhotep IV.

  57. 57.

    jl

    @cain: I vaguely remember reading or watching something about records of Akhenaten being destroyed or altered. He was the guy who only worshiped the sun god. I think Nefertiti was his queen.

    So, no air brushes, but they smashed and defaced things, scratched out inscriptions, wrecked temples. House GOP is probably envious. All they can do is keep blaming the black guy and hope it works with enough people (it won’t).

    @EBT: thanks. I guess I remembered something of it right.

  58. 58.

    Roger Moore

    @cain:

    No doubt.. seems illogical considering that their history is written all over their tombs.

    IIRC, some of this was because it was easier to take over somebody else’s tomb, including rewriting all their history, than it was to build your own tomb (and create your own history). Rewriting history was easier back then, because the old ruler’s tomb might well be the only place the history was written.

  59. 59.

    hovercraft

    @efgoldman:
    This always makes me smile. Obama lives in Twitlers head, he keeps trying to one up him and keeps failing spectacularly. No matter the metric Obama’s still beating him and it’s driving him insane. The fact that Obama is enjoying life and just chillin’ is also driving him nuts. Who knew that being president was so much work? Obama suckered him again, he made it look cool and easy, I guess the prematurely gray hair wasn’t a big enough clue.

  60. 60.

    Smiling Mortician

    @Adam L Silverman: She looks and sounds great. Like she’s done good things for herself in the past few months and she’s ready to speak again. Also, the black leather jacket.

  61. 61.

    Joyce H

    Hatshepsut was also erased from the records – she was the Queen who slapped on a beard and declared herself Pharaoh. Had a surprisingly long and peaceful and prosperous reign, having deposed and disposed of a few princelings that got in her way. Her successor tried to have her erased. For some reason, rather than destroy a couple of her giant obelisks, he had them bricked over. So of course, after hundreds of years, the bricks eventually deteriorated and there were the obelisks as pristine as the day they were made.

  62. 62.

    No Drought No More

    I’d chip in to buy Obama an hour of prime time, in order to hear him explain to the country and the world why Donald Trump must be impeached. And one day of these days, I just might.

  65. 65.

    Joyce H

    @hovercraft:

    Obama lives in Twitlers head, he keeps trying to one up him and keeps failing spectacularly. No matter the metric Obama’s still beating him and it’s driving him insane.

    That amuses me as well. I can almost imagine Trump’s thought process, remembering that he is both profoundly stupid and profoundly narcissistic. He gets into a p!ssing contest with Obama, and Obama always comes out of it looking classy, all oozing with gravitas and popularity while Trump is a joke. Well… it can’t be genuine worth, because who could possibly be better than Trump, right? I know – it’s because Obama has all the STUFF! He’s got the Resolute desk and the Marine band, and the press briefing room and can send military off on daring raids and good stuff like that. So if Trump could just take that stuff AWAY from Obama, then HE would have the gravitas and the popularity, too! Yeah, that the ticket, that’s what he’ll do.

    So now he’s GOT the Resolute desk and the Marine band and all the fancy presidential stuff – but somehow Obama took all the gravitas and popularity with him when he left, and Trump is still a joke! IT’S NOT FAIR!!!

  66. 66.

    cain

    @hovercraft: Seriously, I can see him blaming Obama for even running for President and then figuring out that it was hard as shit. Obama made it look easy, and this guy can’t stand it. More than that, Obama enjoys all the adulation that he craves.. leaving the presidency with a high approval rate. He wants to be Obama.

  67. 67.

    cain

    I see I must abandon this thread as a new post has been put! I am determined to be the last person to post on this thread!! :D (j/k)

  73. 73.

    J R in WV

    @aliasofwestgate:

    @Baud: Hatshepsut. I think that was her. They tried to erase her name from history, didn’t work. She’s part of history books now, and we know her name.

    Hatshepsut came to the throne of Egypt in 1478 BC… so 3494 years ago, or thereabout. And we still know about her in some detail, her husband, children, things she had built. Amazing, aren’t we?

    One would hope that most of what we know about Trump will be lost to human memory very soon after he walks into the wings.

  75. 75.

    feckless

    The entire Democratic leadership, especially Obama should hide their heads in shame, we don’t need anymore leadership of the kind he gave us. Under Obama the democratic party lost the congress, the senate and a near supermajority of the state legislatures/governorships. This is beyond feckless incompetence, and verges on political malpractice.

    Obama should have been on the campaign trail to elect his successor in 2015, instead he stayed cool, and now his successors will strip everything good done in the last 7 years, wasting more of my tax money.

    Thanks for nothing.

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