Obama: Obamacare is more popular than Trump – @mj_lee scoop https://t.co/AEQuIz4LnH
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 28, 2017
Who could blame President Obama?
Former President Barack Obama hailed the political
resilience of his signature health care law at a private event Thursday, pointing out that Obamacare is now more popular than his successor trying to repeal it: President Donald Trump.As Republicans in Washington sputtered again this week in their efforts to undo the law, Obama noted to an audience in midtown Manhattan that “the Affordable Care Act has never been more popular — and it’s more popular than the current president,” according to a person in the room who paraphrased the comments.
Trump has recorded historically low approval ratings for a new president, while public opinion on the health care law has improved gradually amid Republican efforts to get rid of it.
Obama also predicted Thursday that it will be challenging for Trump and fellow Republicans to make any sweeping changes to a law that now provides health insurance for so many people, as he remarked how difficult it was for him to get Obamacare enacted into law in 2009…
Thursday’s event featuring Obama was closed-press and off-the-record, and hosted by the A&E network for a private audience, according to a source. Obama was interviewed by famed author and historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin, with the question-and-answer portion lasting about one hour…
(And before anyone asks: I think our last President should scoop up as much ‘tainted’ money speaking to outside groups — even Goldman Sachs! — as he’s comfortable taking. Because I have a very low opinion of the white male alt-left/punditariat whinging about how “the optics demand” that political figures, or at least Democrats, should reject such “compromising” engagements, seeing that it’s always a Black guy or a woman who’s supposed to lead the parade to make that sacrifice.)
Obama burns Trump again. https://t.co/yN58WhwNf8
— Philip Bump (@pbump) April 28, 2017
I mean, this is a verifiable fact, right? pic.twitter.com/8tA2AB5FhW
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) April 28, 2017
It depends on which poll you look at, but in polls of all Americans and Kaiser’s ACA polling, yes. https://t.co/I3oEUl2QX5
— Philip Bump (@pbump) April 28, 2017
This @sarahcwestwood exchange with Trump on healthcare is amazing and says a lot about where we are https://t.co/TUJVPq5s3X pic.twitter.com/5tXoCLUmPZ
— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) April 28, 2017
“Why can’t we prioritize all the bullet points?”
James Powell
What I’d like to read/hear from Obama: a warts & all review of the ACA from launch to now. One that includes all the inside baseball. I want to know the whole story.
debbie
Twist that knife! Now and often!
smintheus
White guys like Truman never think it’s unseemly to cash in on the presidency? Just because it’s now considered normal to take obscene sums from Wall Street doesn’t mean an ex-president who helps himself to cash on offer isn’t diminishing himself.
zhena gogolia
Obama is so handsome, so easy on the eyes, so intelligent and kind. How did we go from that to this?
Yarrow
@zhena gogolia: He really is. It’s a shock to the system to go from him to what we have now. Maybe like a dunk in a ice bath it will shock our country and bring about some change.
efgoldman
And he’s already got a permanent residence inside Mango Malignant’s head, with a lifetime lease.
Hee hee hee…..
Baud
@smintheus:
Technically it does. No one follows the Truman standard except to attack Democrats. That means it’s not a real standard anymore.
germy
@zhena gogolia:
And where do we go from here?
mb
Hear, hear!
germy
Here’s something weird (at least to me):
http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/president-obama-may-have-been-baiting-donald-trump-by-demoting-dojs-dana-boente/2503/
efgoldman
@smintheus:
Oh bullshit
It’s always the black guy or the woman.
Funny, when people complain about how much money athletes get, it’s almost always the black guy, too.
How come nobody whines about speaking fees for justices to the Federalist Society?
People’s work, even anodyne speeches at healthcare conferences, is worth whatever someone else will pay for it. It’s not up to third parties to decide.
Money is fungible; it has no morals.
It hasn’t even been a week and this is already as tiresome as the wilmerbots.
khead
I don’t think a Twitler rant will be enough of a response.
Some poor country is getting bombed this week.
John Revolta
Aw geez. Let’s not throw down any Goddamn gauntlets maybe, huh?
I actually believe that if Obama hadn’t needled Trump in public that we wouldn’t be in this mess today. Fucker’s got a thin skin and a long memory.
germy
@efgoldman: Well said.
laura
@zhena gogolia: Because Uncle Cracker, that’s why.
Mike J
@James Powell:
People have complained he got too much money for writing his book. I’d guess that stuff is going to be in the book.
germy
Villago Delenda Est
Then again, you’ve got Village vermin like Ruth Marcus clutching her fucking pearls over Obama’s speech that he’s getting a $400k payday for.
Wipe them out. All of them.
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: NAIL. HAMMER. HIT!
Thoughtful David
I remember that Ronald Reagan went on a big speaking tour in Japan almost immediately when he left office. I had to look it up–he got $2 million for a couple of speeches. In 1989 dollars. Now what could have been the difference between Reagan and Obama? There’s something there–I just can’t quite put my finger on it….
schrodingers_cat
Unless you want a command and control economy, all this railing against “Wall Street” is bullshit. Fucking Ruth Marcus is getting paid because Amazon stock is deemed a good bet by the ebil “Street”
Spider-Dan
@efgoldman: Even the most optimistic version of this bad idea is “Only Republicans should get to give speeches for money.”
The most pessimistic version is when we start insisting that taking any campaign donations more than $27 (ahem) is Inherently Corrupt, and that Democrats (and only Democrats) win elections solely on handshakes and baby kissing.
MattF
@germy:
T: So, what looks good tonight?
O: Well, just between you and me, I’d avoid the tire irons with anthrax sauce.
efgoldman
@germy:
As i said above, he has a lifetime lease of space inside Cantaloupe Canker’s head.
He didn’t even need eleventh-dimensional chess. Four or five is more than enough.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@James Powell: I believe it was Nancy Ann DeParle, one of Obama’s closest advisers on HCR, who is writing a book in which names will be named– Republicans who said they would support the bill if X was included or Y was cut out, but then voted against it anyway.. But I think most of those names are Joe Lieberman and Olympia Snowe
Spider-Dan
@John Revolta: I am unable to read this comment in a way other than “If only the President of the United States had not arrogantly defended himself against a vicious liar, then Trump would not have been forced to put Obama in his place by becoming the next President.”
Suffice it to say that I disagree with this position.
efgoldman
@Villago Delenda Est:
If for no other reason, he ought to do it every goddamned week.
I saw that excrescence elsewhere. I had to stop reading, lest I damage my monitor.
Mike J
@Thoughtful David: $2mil in 1989 is $4mil today according to bls.gov. So Reagan got ten times the amount Obama is getting.
Elizabelle
Trump will NEVER be POTUS to me.
POS, he’s got that covered. Otherwise, it’s living through a dysptopic novel.
I have no respect for the man. Some compassion, perhaps. It’s hard presidentin’ through dementia. Aside from that, he is a man who never grew out of “child.”
Suzanne
@Villago Delenda Est: The thing that kills me is that half of the people handwringing about this ARE FUCKING RICH and voted for a man who probably doesn’t pay his fucking taxes! There are plenty of good rich people and the Democrats would do better to make it clear that the party leant distrust the wealthy. As long as one is civic-minded and generous, everyone needs to STFU. The Obamas are wonderful people and I hope they live the rest of their lives enjoying every single day.
Baud
@Spider-Dan: The problem isn’t Obama. Unlike the GOP, we Dems love to talk the talk but can’t walk the walk when it comes to supporting Dems through the vote.*
* In sufficient numbers to overcome the obstacles.
germy
@Elizabelle:
To me, it’s no stranger than if Herman Cain or Leona Helmsley had become POTUS. I still wake up some mornings thinking “This can’t be….”
efgoldman
@Thoughtful David:
And he already had Alzheimer’s!
dogwood
@Thoughtful David:
The reason we remember Reagan’s Japan speaking gig is because it was reported and he was criticized. But there was no cable or internet then with opportunities for hundreds of pundits and politicians to weigh in with their “concern”.
Ruckus
What the fuck people?
Perpetual motion is not possible and neither is perfection. I use a phrase occasionally,”Perfect Enough” because “Perfect” is just not possible. And in human beings rather than an object? Not even close to possible. President Obama is “Perfect Enough.” He has influence because he is an ex-president. That’s the sum total of it. He isn’t going to run for office again, he isn’t going to become a WS tycoon, he isn’t going back to being a community organizer, he already made it to the top of the heap and was “Perfect Enough” at the job. Let him enjoy his life.
Either that or tell us how much you make doing what and let all of us decide if it’s too much, wrong and if it influences how you think and therefore causes you to prostitute yourself.
Cacti
But Obama got paid for a speech.
Betrayal. Worse than Hitler.
efgoldman
@Spider-Dan:
And good ideas. Why, you can just ask the Fucking New York Times how that works.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
Would they know a good idea if it walked up to them with one of their newspapers rolled up and smacked them upside the head?
Tokyokie
@germy: You’d think they’d have read enough Uncle Remus stories (Exhibit A in white people ripping off black culture for profit) to know better than to believe the cunning black guy pleading with them not to throw him into the briar patch. But Humpty Trumpty is about as clever as Br’er Bear.
Baud
@Ruckus: We should try it and find out.
Ruckus
@Baud:
That really was a rhetorical question.
And I’d bet the efg already knows the answer.
efgoldman
@Ruckus:
They might know it, but some editor would spike it to make room for more EMAILZ
Baud
@Ruckus: So no smacking?
efgoldman
OT, but much less than playoff-level goaltending, both sides, in Ottawa-Rangers game.
germy
Is it true if we trick Trump into saying his name backwards
he returns to his own dimension?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@smintheus: I’m sure the 24 million people with health insurance, the millions of auto workers who can now feed their families, the gays who can serve openly in the military and who can now marry, the people of Cuba and Iran, and many, many others really feel bad about a paid speech.
What he should have done is have his wife defraud a local credit union in Vermont for millions of dollars.
Major Major Major Major
Just saw the new(ish) anime Your Name. Wonderful film, I recommend it.
efgoldman
@Baud:
Neither of us actually said that.
It would have to be the Sunday paper.
Ruckus
@Baud:
Didn’t say that! Just that they seem too dense to under stand why – they wouldn’t recognize the delivery idea. As @efgoldman: says they’d fuck up the learning moment.
L Boom
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Also: Fuck fucking Bart fucking Stupak.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@smintheus: I’m sure the 24 million people with health insurance, the millions of auto workers who can now feed their families, the gays who can serve openly in the military and who can now marry, the people of Cuba and Iran, and many, many others really feel bad about a paid speech.
What he should have done is have his wife defraud a local credit union in Vermont for millions of dollars.
Mary G
What if the $400K speech consists of “Wall Street, you suck” and a recitation of Senator Professor Warren’s greatest hits?
Mike in NC
My wife recently learned that a friend just spent three weeks in the hospital for various issues, including getting a pacemaker. She’s self-employed and I have no idea how she can afford the bills. I spent one night in the hospital last month and have been inundated with bills. Most recently one from the anesthesiologist for $1650. Fortunately due to insurance I was liable for only $26 and some change.
Trumpcare will be a horror that should never see the light of day.
efgoldman
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Worked in RI in the early 1990s.
But then, we know we’re corrupt; we don’t pretend to be hippy dippy pure.
JCJ
@smintheus:
What I don’t get is why this has even come up. He has an enormous book deal for his memoirs. Why it would be assumed he would sell-out for $400k when he has that book deal already in hand is beyond me. Do you also begrudge him the book deal? $400k is not insignificant, but I hardly think it is a sum that should raise eyebrows.
Adam L Silverman
@Thoughtful David: Alzheimers.
Baud
@JCJ: Why did all of Hillary’s non-scandals come up? We have enemies.
dogwood
@Ruckus:
I taught high school for 35 years, lots of AP classes. I used to shock my students when I’d tell them that people who say “Always do your best.” are setting them up for disappointment. Those who live happy, balanced, successful lives are those who know when “best effort” is required and essential, and when “good enough is good enough” for this task at this time under existing circumstances. “Perfect Enough” is a great way to describe President Obama.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: It has been a strange game. I think Ottawa probably shouldn’t go on the power play today. It doesn’t seem to end well for them.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Friendly reminder:
The great Samantha Bee holds her alternative Nerd Prom tonight at 10 PM on TBS
No one is better at filleting the Village and the wingers.
efgoldman
@Baud:
Nah, this is leftier-than-thou purity ponies, waiting for the great socialist paradise when money will be abolished and we’ll all cheerfully be working the land together.
Pearl clutching is their best thing. Fainting couches and panty bunching, also.
I’ve really lost every speck of respect I might have had for these assholes.
So how much are you getting for your next speech?
debbie
@efgoldman:
The Twitterstorm tomorrow will be priceless!
debbie
@David koch:
I think Colbert could give her some hefty competition.
dogwood
@Mary G:
Please stop repeating the propoganda. He is not speaking to “Wall Street”; he is speaking at a healthcare conference and an investment firm is paying the speaker’s fees.
Baud
@efgoldman: I think I get a coupon for Denny’s.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman:
Glad I’m not the only one, and glad I learned that lesson a lot younger than you ;)
Adam L Silverman
@dogwood:
Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
Lundquist not at his best today, either.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: You are a prodigy.
efgoldman
@dogwood:
Cantor Fitzgerald, which is a reputable firm best known for losing hundreds of people in the WTC on 9/11.
Lizzy L
@efgoldman: Precisely.
I just posted this on my FB page.
Yarrow
Yeah, this:
efgoldman
@Major Major Major Major:
I learned it many decades ago, when the fans and writers started whining about the world ending when free agency came to sports.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: And it looks like we’re going to overtime.
dogwood
@Lizzy L:
And you just posted and spread misinformation. He is not speaking to Cantor Fitzgerald.
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman: NYR don’t deserve to win. Ottawa’s not that good, Karlsson is dinged; Rangers are mostly bigger and faster.
Major Major Major Major
@Lizzy L:
Not according to a lot of people, apparently. See, it’s shit like this that’s where the “war on success” stuff gets started.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: I bet a good percentage of the complainers are fairly financially successful themselves.
zhena gogolia
@Spider-Dan:
Well said, sir!
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: I think Ottawa is better than you give them credit for. But the Rangers haven’t played all that well. And the Senators’ power play has been terrible.
Omnes Omnibus
@Spider-Dan: “Look what you made me do.”
MomSense
@efgoldman:
Also too why the fuck does anyone care how much money Obama makes now when he is out of the White House while trump, Jared, and ivanka are using their government jobs to make money for their businesses.
Major Major Major Major
@MomSense: it’s not enough for democrats to advocate and pass the right policies, they have to live perfect lives too.
Of course, if you’ve never accomplished anything of note, living a pure life is easy.
Baud
@MomSense: Yeah, this is pissing me off more and more.
Lizzy L
@dogwood: You’re right. Fortunately, a FB post is easily corrected, and I have done that. Thank you.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
Trust me, it’s not.
Mike J
@Baud: Pay your own way to a Seattle meet up and I’ll buy you a beer in exchange for your after dinner speech.
MomSense
@Major Major Major Major:
For trues.
I hope that all this attention to his speech will result in increased coverage of the content. Aside from Obama’s clearly superior ability to speechify, we may also get a boost for our efforts to protect the ACA.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: @Baud: Baud is right.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: you have to actually try, Baud!.
MomSense
@Baud:
The stupidity of this nontroversy is especially galling considering the rampant corruption taking place by the 45 administration from within the White House.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: Why?
WaterGirl
@Baud: While they are waiting to be fed, one of my two sweet kitties who gets along famously with her brother reaches out and smacks him once as I am getting their food ready. “No smacking!” is my almost daily refrain. Funny to see it in print like that.
clay
From the same Examiner interview, Trump is bragging that he’s the first president to get a Supreme Court justice confirmed in the first 100 days since eighteen-seventy-whatever. It did not seem to occur to him, or the interviewer, that this is becuase no other president has had a SCOTUS vacancy in his first 100 days.
But let’s keep celebrating that non-complishment.
mdblanche
So is the problem that the “but her emails” crowd can’t learn or won’t learn?
dogwood
@Lizzy L:
Thanks. I shouldn’t have been so snippy, but people here have been repeating that endlessly despite multiple attempts by many to correct the record, It’s probably too late now, because the narrative is set, but I hate to see democrats do this. I think this happens a lot because people tend to read short blog posts and commentary on a subject to get information. That can be ok, but I think it’s wise for all of us to get all our facts straight before we start disseminating the incomplete and sometimes misleading information.
Yarrow
@Baud: I would offer to take you out for ice cream after your campaign speech but that might violate campaign finance rules. Can one of our resident lawyers offer guidance?
I’ll definitely take your SuperPAC out for ice cream, though!
Lizzy L
@dogwood: It was a mistake, and easily corrected. I too dislike it when people are not careful, so I’m glad you pointed out the error.
LurkerNoLonger
ACA/Kandor 2020!
Ruckus
@dogwood:
There is nothing wrong with always trying to do your best or even aim for perfection. The problem is when you don’t understand that your best may not be good enough or that perfection is not possible. Aiming high is not the problem, missing the target and blaming everyone else is. Aiming high, missing the target and thinking that aiming high is the problem is. If people didn’t aim high they can’t learn their limits. If people didn’t aim high we wouldn’t advance. Figuring out how to do new things, making things work better, making people’s lives better takes people aiming high. Even aiming high to enrich one’s self isn’t a problem, it’s not understanding the effects that is the problem.
Don’t aim high? Strive for mediocrity? Keep your head down and shut the fuck up? These are goals? OK I guess they are for some but what a shitty world that would be.
zhena gogolia
@MomSense:
yeah, in a nutshell. Let’s focus on the person in the White House who’s stealing us blind, okay? Looking at you, Michael Shear.
Duke's Archives
May I just say, as somebody that has voted for Gore, Kerry, Obama, Obama, Clinton (and I agree with at least one LGM’er) that it’s kind of sick for elites to just throw hundreds of thousands of dollars at each other for no-work jobs. There isn’t enough money for schools but hey, several hundred thousand dollars to tell us how naughty we were, no problem! Yes, it is not a new thing but that doesn’t excuse it.
The first mistake is getting angry because it’s Obama. We expect the right and their ilk to take money anytime, anywhere. It does not make me mad that Obama took money for a speech. The same thing with Clinton, the fact that she was paid for speeches to a bunch of self-important/needy execs is not something that influenced my vote. Neither was the insane e-mail horse puckey.
If you truly believe that nobody else could possibly see this as anything other than an attack on the first black president, the man that will go down in history as one of the greatest this country was fortunate enough to employ, then I don’t know where to go or what to say.
Oh and I don’t care for Wilmer and his purity-ponies either but you can trace a line to where the burn-it-all down crowd gets their jangles. The real danger lies in piegonholing anybody that might disagree just by a small margin. My folks made it a point to instill a sense of civic duty in their foolish child. I vote in the midterms and for small, local stuff and am just adding my two cents.
Again, it’s just my opinion.
Villago Delenda Est
@mdblanche: Properly placed upside the head clue by fours might help with them. Or not, but at least we get the clue by fours seasoned.
zhena gogolia
@Villago Delenda Est:
Oh, you’re so violent!
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: I am thinking more in terms of an Olympic sprinter. One generally doesn’t try to set a world record in the prelims. One works to move on to the next round. One conserves energy. Once in the finals, one goes for broke.
efgoldman
@dogwood:
I don’t think there are very many actual Democrats clutching pearls over this. It’s Wilmerbots, leftier-than-thous, and Village both siderists like Marcus.
ETA: And as always, RWNJ hypocrites
sixthdoctor
Listening to pundits contort themselves to praise Trump’s first 100 days reminds me of my younger self leaving the movie theater after seeing Phantom Menace and trying to convince myself that it wasn’t a plate of hot garbage…
liberal
@efgoldman: it’s also people who aren’t fucking moral retards.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
I’ll keep saying it. One person weaponized this line of attack against non-white male Democrats.
LosGatosCA
@zhena gogolia:
Real Life Lesson #9876543211234567890 for Democrats – when you are tempted (how-I can’t even understand) to reappoint a Republican as Fed chair or put a Clinton hating Republican in.charge of the FBI – Just.Don’t.Do.It
Pretty easy rule to follow, unless you’re an actual Democrat I guess.
nominus
RE: Obama’s walkin’ around money from Wall St
Somebody’s gotta dumb this down for me because I just do not see what the big problem is. Here’s the things that come to my feeble mind:
1. They’re giving him money to talk to them. They’re giving him money to listen to something that he has to say. They’re not giving him money for him to do some nefarious deed on their behalf, are they? If they were, then what fucking difference does it make what they put on the memo line of the check?
2. This is Obama. They guy we like, the guy we trusted, the guy we fucking revere. What’s he gonna do, go tell Wall Street “Hey, you know, you guys were right, you need to loot Main Street some more and here’s how I’d do it if I were you.” Maybe, just maybe, like HRC, he’ll be one of the ones saying “hey, maybe you’ll be more prosperous in the long run if Main Street doesn’t get wiped out by your shenanigans, here’s a few ideas about how we can work together so you avoid a tumbrel ride.” I’d much rather see Barack MF’ing Obama talking to Wall Street rather than any Republican and half the Democrats.
3. If Bernie Sanders wants to hound Obama for the transcript to his speeches to Wall Street then I might give a fuck about Bernie’s opinions, because I haven’t forgot his bullshit from last year. Wait. On further review, I’m not going to give a fuck about his or any other speech critics’ opinions on this matter.
Tazj
@Yarrow: That’s perfect. E.J. Dionne said this morning on AM Joy that the one thing 45 has been successful at during his first 100 days is turning attention away from his ties to Russia.
The media would rather focus on a person who is not even president any more. He’s not allowed to make money.Oh the clouds, the shadows, the optics! If only Democrats were truly pure then people would vote for them instead of that corrupt moron in the WH.
Thornton Heyerdahl
@Omnes Omnibus: Omnes Omnibus is right about Baud being right.
(Bad Blazing Saddles homage)
trnc
Remember, both of these things are true at the same time in TrumpWorld –
– It’s disgusting for Obama to take the cash
– Obama sucks because he’s only worth 1/10 of what Reagan got.
efgoldman
@liberal:
Do you wear sack cloth and ashes?
Do you ever watch a sporting event?
Do you ever watch TV or listen to radio?
Do you ever go to a movie?
Do you ever read a best seller, or a magazine?
Do you ever take an airplane trip? Or a cruise?
Do you get paid for working?
Do you have a retirement account of any kind?
Do you have insurance of any kind?
Do you pay for your ISP service, or do you steal it?
If your answer is “yes” to even one, you are full of shit and a hypocrite
I repeat, for those who are too dim to get it the first time: money has no morals. The great socialist paradise, where we put everybody YOU don’t like up against the wall, is still is still far away, comrade.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Omnes Omnibus: Omnes Omnibus is right about Baud being right!
(Bad Blazing Saddles homage)
FYWP and auto correct for eating the post (mods please delete the one from “Thornton Heyerdahl”)
Thor Heyerdahl
FYWP what did you do with my posts; and why do you hate Blazing Saddles, Omnes and Baud?
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@liberal: A thought-provoking arguement! Not entirely convincing, but maybe I just haven’t fully digested the subtleties of your logic…
CarolDuhart2
@dogwood: And the people attending that conference are poor? And no Cantor Fitzgerald people are going to attend that speech?
Mnemosyne
@liberal:
Still waiting for you to explain why it’s bad for Obama to speak about healthcare at a healthcare conference.
Oddly, if his fee had been paid by Pfizer or another Big Pharma company, I could understand feeling queasy, but having a non-healthcare company step in and essentially make a donation doesn’t seem like that big a deal, even if they are Evil Evil Banksters Who Have A Scary Jewish Name (But That’s Not Really Why I Hate Them So Much, I Swear!)
Old Broad in California
@clay: Not to mention that the death that created the SC vacancy occurred LAST YEAR and only wasn’t filled because of Republicans’ shameful failure to even consider Judge Garland.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Mnemosyne: Maybe it’s because by hipster logic, “selling out” is just about the worst thing you can do. Like when Bob Dylan went electric and his true, pure fans weren’t having it. Always style over substance with these folks…
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: …and wearing that POTUS suit for 8 years was already pushing it for most of these folks. Normal day-to-day presidenting just screams “sell out” from the hipster’s viewpoint.
Mnemosyne
@Duke’s Archives:
As someone who helps other people prepare their speeches and presentations to large groups as part of my job, I would like to offer you a hearty “go fuck yourself” for declaring that the kind of work that sucked up the majority of my workdays last week is a “no-work job.”
Writing speeches is a fucking job. And, yes, I’m pretty sure that Obama is writing his own speech for this, because he’s a writer, and being a writer is a fucking job.
efgoldman
@CarolDuhart2:
So. the. fuck. what.
You probably want everyone driving twenty year old Yugos, wearing rags, and living in former slave cabins like you do, right?
Oh, wait, you don’t?
Honest to fuck this shit makes me angrier than Cantaloupe Caligula, Granny Starver, and Evil Leprechaun do.
Mnemosyne
@CarolDuhart2:
This is just a weird question. Only poor people should be allowed to attend professional conferences? Doctors shouldn’t attend healthcare conferences because doctors are rich?
They might, because it’s an opportunity to hear Barack Obama speak, but they’re certainly not expecting to hear him address anything pertinent to their industry since it’s a healthcare conference where Obama will be speaking about healthcare.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Is that not a reasoned, seasoned attempt at doing your best? You do the best you need to do to move up, in each test until you get to race the best. And then you give it your all. Your best is what is necessary to advance, in whatever you are doing. If you are doing calculus in front of the class, do you do just enough to not get an F or do you do your best? Best at one thing is not the same as best in the next thing. That doesn’t mean you aren’t doing your best at whatever you are doing.
zhena gogolia
@efgoldman:
We gotta keep that pressure down. My solution is word puzzles.
zhena gogolia
@nominus:
Thank you! Hear, hear!
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
@Mnemosyne:
I could be misreading but I didn’t get the same vibe from Carol that you guys did. Didn’t sound to me that she was aiming at President Obama but at those who are questioning the speech and payment and correcting every one for all of the details.
Mnemosyne
To me, by far the most frustrating part of this story is that the NYT deliberately buried the lede and made it sound like Cantor Fitzgerald is paying Obama to give a speech to Wall Street, which is false.
The NYT reported the story in the way that would be most damaging and divisive for Democrats, and we fell for that shit. Again. Like we always do.
Since we’re only 100 days into this disaster of an administration, can we all please agree to take any story that makes a Democrat look bad with a grain of salt and maybe look into it a bit before becoming outraged? Maybe?
dogwood
@nominus:
I know everyone is sick of me on this. But please get the story straight. He is not giving a speech to Wall Street. @CarolDuhart2:
Are you serious?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Are these guys truely hard left liberals, or are they more of Putin’s paid Russian trolls?. I noticed the guys screaming the loudist about how bad Obama is I’ve never seen before.
And, does anyone remember that trying to get more 1% to be socially aware on not
CrotchKotch Brother Ryandain narcissistic scum is one of Obama’s personal projects, so it’s no surprise Obama is talking to bankers. My sister just got a job at a bank as a programmer was stunned about how much community work the bank does, as opposed to the utterly soulless worship of the dollar that HP, her previous company, was doing, so apparently for all their flaws banks are concerned about the future of the communities they do business in.efgoldman
@Mnemosyne:
Fish wrapper is for wrapping fish.
Wrapping up coffee grounds is useful, too.
jc
I’d love to see Obama troll the shit out of Trump on not releasing his taxes. Pay this bad joke of a president back for the whole birth certificate pile of crap he flogged for years.
Barbara
@efgoldman: The lack of self-awareness is stunning.
debbie
NBC’s analyzed Trump’s tweets. Aside from the fact there’s been 281 exclamation points so far, there are some interesting charts (esp. that fan-shaped one).
dogwood
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I had no idea that people at a healthcare conference were really just bankers disguising themselves as healthcare folks. That sneaky Obama fella.
Chyron HR
Face it, if Obama wanted money he should have had the NRA pay him millions of dollars to oppose gun control. Because that’s how true progressive politicians make bank.
Jake the antisoshul soshulist
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
“The worst time in your life is not when you sell out, it is when you decide to sell out and realize no one is buying.” Norman Spinrad
dogwood
@Mnemosyne:
The narrative is set and you only have to read this thread to see it won’t be changed. Even the people who are defending the man believe he giving a speech to Wall Street. We can blame the NYT for burying the lede but the story was there. If we don’t bother to get our facts straight before storming the barricades, it’s on us.
CarolDuhart2
@dogwood: I was answering [email protected]’s question.
These people think that Obama shouldn’t even talk to rich people, let alone give speeches to them. People who have the time and money to attend a $400k event aren’t even close to poor.
As I see it:
Obama is a pretty young man. He needs a lot of money for not only now, but when he gets older and less active. While he has access to the military health care system, and can have FEHB (Federal Health Care Insurance), it doesn’t pay for everything and having a pile of cash that earns interest definitely helps.
Has anyone remembered that he has a library/center to build? Where is the money going to come from for this except speeches and donations?
He’s handsome and charismatic, intelligent and entertaining. People have made a lot of money off just a couple of those traits. Someone who is like this and now an ex-President as well can write his own ticket. Should he give all his time away for nothing when people are willing to practically throw money at him for a few minutes of his time?
He has two college age daughters. He would like to pay their tuition and not have them borrow a cent. Speech and book money can do that for them.
He can follow his heart on his projects and make choices both financial and social without worrying about the bills for the large house he needs to have, and that Michelle needs to live in after him, or the girls to have a safe place to stay.
schrodingers_cat
@Chyron HR: Nope, they hang out with Putin or do his bidding, because being Ruskien stooge is what’s hot these days. Everyone is doing it from BS to JS and the Nightmare on Penn Ave.
Chyron HR
@CarolDuhart2:
I think he’d prefer to be called “handsome”.
J R in WV
@smintheus:
President Obama isn’t taking most of his income from Wall Street at all, so I guess you are talking about Mr. Trump, right?
How’s the spring weather in St. Petersburg, comrade?
dogwood
@CarolDuhart2:
Here’s my problem Carol. I don’t know who all is attending this healthcare conference. They could come from all walks of life. The organizers sought outside funding to bring the President in as a speaker. I have been to many conferences with minimal registration fees paid by my school district. And I’ve heard some great authors speak because some corporation ponied up to bring him/her in.
Mnemosyne
@CarolDuhart2:
Ah, okay. Sorry I read you wrong, then. Ruckus had it right.
@dogwood:
Yeah, that’s why my plea is to maybe slow down and get the facts before everyone goes running off to declare that Obama Sold Us Out! (Again!)
efgoldman
@Mnemosyne:
The leftiers and wilmerbots, who AREN’T DEMOCRATS, won’t even be convinced if he takes a vow of poverty and moves to a monastery.
Fuckem
Barbara
@efgoldman: A vow of poverty they would never dream of taking themselves. Basically, you must remember that a double standard exists mostly to ensure that it can never be met.
Thor Heyerdahl
FYWP that’s four comments you’ve eaten. Trying again.
SFAW
@Ruckus:
Thanks. My sentiments as well.
ellie
@Mnemosyne: Agreed. Giving speeches is hard fucking work.
SFAW
@J R in WV:
I don’t think smintheus was bashing Obama, I think he was bemoaning the double standard against which Obama is being judged (by some).
SFAW
@ellie:
Not for Shitgibbom. He gives the BEST speeches, his State of the Onion was perhaps the greatest speech by an American. EVAH! And you would agree, if you were able to decipher what the fuckShitgibbon was actually saying. Rumor has it that Caribou Barbie gave up after he told the country about his winning 547 Electoral votes, because his word salad was way beyond her.
efgoldman
@ellie:
I don’t find it so, but 20 years in radio……
Some of my colleagues actually wrote out their breaks, I never did.
But… hardest thing I ever did was write a 15 minute eulogy for a mentor. Took me three days and a lot of angst. Actually giving it to a chapel full of people wasn’t a problem.
Most of mine are for free; I get a few bucks for hosting a festival every June (about which more anon), basically expenses
J R in WV
@SFAW:
Could be, I guess. He’s new here, and some of those new folks are obviously partisan hacks… that doesn’t necessarily mean all of them are. We do want new folks to come in from the cold/hot (depending on season), so I guess I should ease up.
Sorry, smintheus… hang in there.
SFAW
@J R in WV:
Actually, he’s not. He just doesn’t have the volume of comments on a par with Baud or Major x 4.
And, smintheus: if you’re actually a she, not a he, my apologies for getting it wrong.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
You know I love ya, man, but giving a speech and talking on the radio are not the same thing.
efgoldman
@Mnemosyne:
I have done a lot of public speaking, going back to the 80s. Less now that I’m not on the air anymore.
And there’s no reason they can’t be
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
So you think that when Obama gives a 45-minute speech, he just improvises it off the top of his head like you used to do on air?
Doing radio commentary and giving a speech are areas with a lot of overlap, but they’re not the same thing.
Hellbastard
@Jake the antisoshul soshulist: Spinrad is a great author. Men in the Jungle is one of my favorite novels.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Come on. He didn’t say that.
Elie
@Mnemosyne:
Hey — you said that upstring that the backstory of Obama’s 400K speech wasn’t really being presented honestly. Can you tell me what that was? I would like to understand the facts about this best I can…
Omnes Omnibus
@Elie: Why are you worried about this? Why would you care?
smintheus
@efgoldman:
Bullshit is right. People criticized Reagan and Bush I and Bill Clinton when they cashed in.
@Baud:
No one except Carter you mean? I know of no presidents before Reagan who took obscene sums for giving speeches after their presidency.
It’s a bit tiresome seeing knee-jerk accusations of racism and sexism and double-standardism against anybody who criticizes Democratic politicians for doing things that until recently pretty much everyone agreed politicians shouldn’t do.
smintheus
@J R in WV: I think I’ve been commenting here for about a decade. You?
Gre
@smintheus: Thank you for focusing on the most important issues in front of us.
Omnes Omnibus
@smintheus: Thank you for focusing on the most important issues in front of us.
smintheus
@Omnes Omnibus: Is that a straw man, or a squirrel, that you’ve got there?
Citizen Alan
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Oh Jesus Christ I finally understand. The Wilmer supporters are all like Holden Caufield from Catcher In The Rye. Spoiled delusional brats who irrationally think everyone else in the world is a sellout or phoney which is the worst thing in the world.
AN
@smintheus: I was sincere. Criticizing Obama is so much more important than noting what the fuck the Trump people have been doing. Let’s spend a lot of time on it. It is important.
OmnesOmnibus
@smintheus: I was sincere. Criticizing Obama is so much more important than noting what the fuck the Trump people have been doing. Let’s spend a lot of time on it. It is important.
Omnes Omnibus
@smintheus: I was sincere. Criticizing Obama is so much more important than noting what the fuck the Trump people have been doing. Let’s spend a lot of time on it. It is important.
CarolDuhart2
@smintheus: A few observations about that: FDR died in office. Hoover was a businessman who had a pretty lucrative career, Wilson had a stroke, Taft became a Supreme Court judge. And given men’s lifespans, by the time a man had the opportunity to be President, it was pretty close to the end. A large amount of money was probably not needed for many of them. Grant had to write his memoirs to raise money for his family, Did he give speeches as well? The remainder were either slaveholders with some holdings to retire to, married to wealthy women who did.
The Truman example isn’t really all that good. His in-aws did okay, and he had at least a farm to live on. But he was the reason there are Presidential Pensions-so a former president wouldn’t have to beg, borrow or whatever if he wasn’t already independently wealthy. His lifestyle wasn’t really sustainable in the modern era of extra threats, longer post-Presidential lives and greater scrutiny over all.
Spider-Dan
Even saying “Reagan was criticized for it” is not a useful statement, since in the post-Reagan era, no Republican President would be seriously criticized for making money.
And let’s be clear in what we are talking about, here: the majority of people criticizing Obama are from the left. The left criticizing Republicans for being plutocrats has no purchase in the mainstream media; it is the definition of a dog-bites-man story. But the left criticizing Obama for being a plutocrat will be headline news for as long as the MSM can get quotes. The media always prefers circular firing squads to partisan crossfire.
Ian
So wait, because I am male and hold leftist opinions, my opinion that B.O, shouldn’t be taking speeches from wall street is both ‘based on optics’, and that taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from Wall Street is ‘compromising”.
Maybe, just maybe, I would find it more suiting if our ex-pres was doing something to protect the dreamers that he kept telling our country did not deserve this level of treatment. Maybe I believe that as a constitutional lawyer, he could try to defend these people.
Instead he goes and gets paid hundreds of thousands to talk to Wall Street.
Is that his right? Sure. Did all the previous presidents do it? Sure. I just expected something more.
satby
The purity ponies and wilmerites are such fucking dopes.
Berto
“I just expected something more.”
Never expect anything liberal from Obama (you’re just projecting your wishes on him), even if, occasionally, he does the liberal thing.
You get to the Presidency with the Obama you have, not the Obama you wish you had.
BTW, Jamie Dimon says “Hello”.