Where Is Barack Obama? The “audacity of hope” presidency has given way to the fierce lethargy of semi-retirement, @markleibovich.bsky.social writes.
— The Atlantic (@theatlantic.com) June 8, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Way I see it, it would nice if President Obama would step up to lead the resistance, but that’s not his way, and it’s certainly no longer his job. But when ‘elite’ white boys survey the wreckage they’ve made, their first impulse is to demand someone else clean it up… and they don’t think their moms want to deal with the current Oval Office Occupation. Lebovich has a reputation as a point man for the ‘vibes’ political media, so… [gift link]
… Trump has begun his second term with a continuous spree of democracy-shaking, economy-quaking, norm-obliterating action. And Obama, true to form, has remained carefully above it all. He picks his spots, which seldom involve Trump. In March, he celebrated the anniversary of the Affordable Care Act and posted his annual NCAA basketball brackets. In April, he sent out an Easter message and mourned the death of the pope. In May, he welcomed His Holiness Pope Leo XIV (“a fellow Chicagoan”) and sent prayers to Joe Biden following his prostate-cancer diagnosis.
No matter how brazen Trump becomes, the most effective communicator in the Democratic Party continues to opt for minimal communication. His “audacity of hope” presidency has given way to the fierce lethargy of semi-retirement.
Obama occasionally dips into politics with brief and unmemorable statements, or sporadic fundraising emails (subject: “Barack Obama wants to meet you. Yes you.”). He praised his law-school alma mater, Harvard, for “rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt” by the White House “to stifle academic freedom.” He criticized a Republican bill that would threaten health care for millions. He touted a liberal judge who was running for a crucial seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. When called upon, he can still deliver a top-notch campaign spiel, donor pitch, convention speech, or eulogy…
In normal times, no one would deny Obama these diversions. He performed the world’s most stressful job for eight years, served his country, made his history, and deserved to kick back and do the usual ex-president things: start a foundation, build a library, make unspeakable amounts of money.
But the inevitable Trump-era counterpoint is that these are not normal times. And Obama’s detachment feels jarringly incongruous with the desperation of his longtime admirers—even more so given Trump’s assaults on what Obama achieved in office. It would be one thing if Obama had disappeared after leaving the White House, maybe taking up painting like George W. Bush. The problem is that Obama still very much has a public profile—one that screams comfort and nonchalance at a time when so many other Americans are terrified…
Obama’s aides also say that he is loath to overshadow the next generation of Democratic leaders. They emphasize that he spends a great deal of time speaking privately with candidates and officials who seek his advice. But unfortunately for Democrats, they have not found their next fresh generational sensation since Obama was elected 17 years ago (Joe Biden obviously doesn’t count). Until a new leader emerges, Obama could certainly take on a more vocal role without “regularizing” himself in the lowlands of Trump-era politics…
Obama’s conspicuous scarcity while Trump inflicts such damage isn’t just a bad look. It’s a dereliction of the message that he built his career on. When Obama first ran for president in 2008, his former life as a community organizer was central to his message. His campaign was not merely for him, but for civic action itself—the idea of Americans being invested in their own change. Throughout his time in the White House, he emphasized that “citizen” was his most important title. After he left office in 2017, Obama said that he would work to inspire and develop the next cohort of leaders, which is essentially the mission of his foundation. It would seem a contradiction for him to say that he’s devoting much of his post-presidency to promoting civic engagement when he himself seems so disengaged…
But this might be one of those times for Obama to take a break from the long arc of the moral universe and tend to the immediate crisis. Several Democrats I’ve spoken with said they wish that Obama would stop worrying so much about the “dilution factor.” While Democrats struggle to find their next phenom, Obama could be their interim boss. He could engage regularly, pointing out Trump’s latest abuses. He did so earlier this spring, during an onstage conversation at Hamilton College. He was thoughtful, funny, and sounded genuinely aghast, even angry.
He could do these public dialogues much more often, and even make them thematic. Focus on Trump’s serial violations of the Constitution one week (recall that Obama once taught constitutional law), the latest instance of Trump’s naked corruption the next. Blast out the most scathing lines on social media. Yes, it might trigger Trump, and create more attention than Obama evidently wants. But Trump has shown that ubiquity can be a superpower, just as Biden showed that obscurity can be ruinous. People would notice…
Be interesting to see if this trial balloon attracts any other DC journamalists.
Fighting for Justice in Pennsylvania
trollhattan
This guy?
https://youtu.be/TqZ_MeOQefQ?si=5gYE_6OicHwex1AV
WTFGhost
How dare someone decide not to be shit on, so that a whiny columnist could pen a column asking why “SOMEONE, WHO ISN’T ME should do something – WHY AREN’T THEY?!?!?”
Old Man Shadow
Barack, Michelle, Hillary, Biden, and Harris owe us nothing.
America told them to go fuck themselves.
Steve LaBonne
Remember the Onion headline when Obama was elected- “Black Man Given America’s Worst Job”.
Chetan Murthy
@Old Man Shadow: Goddamn right. At a completely different and lower level than Michelle and the rest of their family, we spent EIGHT YEARS scared to death that he’d be assassinated. With luck and work on his and his security team’s part, he made it out alive. He gave us so much, and he should be able to have a nice life, free from the fear of assassination.
@Steve LaBonne: I thought of this immediately.
Baud
Glad to see there was nothing more important to write about.
ETA: Referring to the article, not to the post. I appreciate AL documenting the atrocities.
Another Scott
@trollhattan: +1
Ctrl-F Harris Not Found.
Obama campaigned strongly and fiercely for Harris/Walz. The author not mentioning that while decrying him not doing anything to save us shows he’s got an ax to grind and crap to stir.
(Just today I got an e-mail under Obama’s name asking for more support for the party. I wonder how many fundraising e-mails W has sent under his name…)
Too many of these writers these days have a formula – pick a topic that Democrats are worried about, pick a famous Democrat – in or out of office – that “isn’t doing enough” leader-y stuff, hit Publish, and wait for the rage memes to take over and drive traffic.
It’s lazy, and ultimately dangerous when too much of the press is captive of driving “engagement” this way.
Grr…
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
WTFGhost
Minor life update:
After a lot of scary stuff, I got my Paxlovid without going to the ER. I’m achy, tired, and feeling wiped out, a little lightheaded, and completely unwilling to do anything I don’t have to do. I have a stuffy nose, minor fever, and concomitant sweats and chills.
I’m sure Covid-19 has caused my stuffy nose, my fever (when it shows) and some of the sweat/chills. The rest could be normal CFS, including the sweats and chills. I may have once mentioned that I never notice any ill effect from vaccines – the rest of my symptoms are bad enough that a “minor” uptick isn’t really noticed.
My wife has some lung infiltration – so far, mine seem clear. I’m hoping that with my family’s immune system (mama ghost raised ’em tough), we’ll scare Covid-19 so badly it retreats from her, just in case she’s got my immune system, as well as my name. (Did you notice me whistling past the graveyard just a bit?)
The world’s become a far less caring place once medicine was taken over by the big money boyz. Urgent care used to be where you went when you were sick; now, it’s “don’t you dare show up for an appointment if you’re covid+!” I could show up to get bloodwork drawn, however, so they only care about the doctors, not the administrative workers, phlebotomists, OTHER PATIENTS, etc..
I was truly appalled to learn they wanted a blood draw, and I could get it done onsite, when my visit had to be virtual. Rather than lecture the doctor about the wrongfulness of exposing other people to risks one’s clinic refuses to expose its doctors to, I agreed to the blood draw, but I seriously thought they were saying I needed the ER visit for a blood draw, after paying my copay and everything.
At least they believed me on the positive test.
ronno2018
what a stupid way to cover current politics. when has a former president ever had much influence eight years after leaving office?
kindness
I certainly would like Barack and Michelle to get more involved but this seems a tad to close to blaming Joe Biden for being old and for Kamala losing to Trump. Democrats, and especially progressives should treat their past leaders with more dignity instead of complaining. Especially now. We can paint the picture the media picks up and runs with. I mean, we understand what narrative the MSM loves to use if left to their own devices.
ronno2018
@WTFGhost:
get well!
Baud
@WTFGhost:
Preaching truth despite illness. Get well.
Steve LaBonne
@WTFGhost: Ugh, I hope you both recover soon.
Elizabelle
Maybe Barack is rooting for injuries. Why pull them back from the brink when going over or falling apart is the only thing that will reach some of the dumba$$ party?
Lebovich is a Villager, through and through.
brantl
I hope Obama does whatever he most wants to do he volunteered to pay dues that nobody else did. He paid them did the job well and he’s entitled to do whatever the fuck he wants now. Period.
it isn’t his fault that the world went to hell off of his watch. I didn’t think Obama was perfect. I don’t think any of them are perfect but I thought he was damn good and he did his bit, in good conscience and it isn’t anybody else’s business what the hell he does now
TONYG
Barack Obama has been a private citizen for more than 8 years. This is like expecting Kareem Abdul Jabbar to suit up and lead the Lakers to an NBA championship.
George
The author of the piece should have asked “Where the hell is George W. Bush?” The fact that Democrats are opposed to the shenanigans of FFOTUS is no secret. There is, however, no GOP leader who has the spine to stand up to FFOTUS.
The problem now is not a matter of Democrat vs. Republican. It is a matter of democracy vs. fascism. In that regard, any and all Republicans who believe in democracy should be chirping their opposition to FFOTUS. The fact that there are no elected Republicans doing so, and only small handful of former elected Republicans who have spoken out, is something under-reported in the mainstream media and therefore under-recognized by normies and liberals alike.
Baud
@George:
The problem with your theory is that only Dems have agency.
Raoul Paste
@Old Man Shadow: Also, Al Gore.
Elizabelle
What does Touchwood in the blogpost title mean?
Another Scott
Something something we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
Lowkell at BlueVirginia.US:
Click over and read the whole thing. Then come back!
This politics stuff is important. Engagement with politics, as opposed to engagement with whatever algorithms push on our phones, is important. We have to keep working to make things better, even when we’re disillusioned, tired, disgusted, and want to do other more pleasant things. Our future needs us.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Spanky
@Steve LaBonne:
That was the first thing that came to mind.
I swear to fsm, these fuckers …
schrodingers_cat
I hate these whiny fuckers. Shorter Mark L. Boy, clean up the mess we have made.
Baud
@Another Scott:
And read the OP article again. Our voters are told time and again that we need a phenom, a savior, a superstar, a generational talent to be successful. Since there is no one that fits the bill, why bother? Citizenship has given way to inspiration paralysis.
Elizabelle
@Another Scott: David Rothkopf is terrific. Honorary jackal, fer sure.
Melancholy Jaques
There are times when I feel like Obama’s presidency was something that happened a long time ago in a different country far far away.
At the risk of being slammed for complaining about Democrats, we continue to suffer from the fact that we do not have an answer to the question: What do Democrats say we should do about immigration? That asshole can do shit like he is doing because far more people support what he is doing than truly oppose it. They might say something else in polls, but at the ballot box, they’ve been anti-immigrant for the last 20 years.
Splitting Image
If Obama isn’t doing anything, the pundits can’t talk about how he is doing it wrong.
Butch
I remember all the attention Mark L.’s “This Town” book got when it came out. It’s the only book in my life that I’ve ever left at one of those “take a book, leave a book” stands. I thought he made his point in the first 20 pages; the rest was repetition and blather.
H.E.Wolf
It’s illuminating that some white, male, privileged-enough-to-write-for-The-Atlantic dude just assumes that he can call on a Black person for janitorial duty.
(I know that’s reductive… but come ON.)
It’s an old, gold, standard to sit on the sidelines and complain that no one is stepping up; instead of stepping up, oneself.
dww44
@Old Man Shadow: I disagree. If they value our democracy over and above their personal comforts and pocketbooks ( I think they all personally profited from their years in the political spotlight) then they should be leading the way. With a few notable exceptions, elites across our society have been far too timid in their responses to our constitutional crisises. If more of them had been seen pushing back earlier, then perhaps we would have already cowed Trump and his minions.
It really is all about the money and once again we are the only ones who can save our democracy. Be visible and unafraid, everyone!
rikyrah
@Old Man Shadow:
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
rikyrah
@WTFGhost: 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
Josie
@George:
I’m with you. It is George W. Bush’s party that is being taken over and ruined. Where is the article asking him to step up?
Baud
@Melancholy Jaques:
We don’t have consensus on a lot of important topics.
Splitting Image
@Melancholy Jaques:
The answer is that there is nothing, and I mean nothing, that the Democrats can say to these people as long as what they want to hear is a pat, simple answer that involves people they don’t like being sent back home.
Immigration is complicated. Solutions to what they are complaining about are complicated. If a voter wants to hear a pat, simple answer, then they are not reachable, period.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
Gets on my nerves too
Dorothy A. Winsor
OT but interesting (to me, anyway). Mr DAW has the NASCAR race on. They’re at Michigan International this week and they just sang both the US and Canadian national anthems. I don’t think they usually sing the Canadian one unless they’re in Canada. I wondered why they did it toda
I just found this. Apparently not everyone has adopted Trump’s lunacy about Canada, not even NASCAR
Steve LaBonne
@Splitting Image: Center-left parties around the world don’t have positions on immigration that can be expressed in a soundbite and that’s a problem for virtually all of them. As in so many things America is not as exceptional as some like to think.
Heidi Mom
I’d say that we have found our next fresh generational leader, and it’s Pete. Maybe AOC as well.
Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride
@Melancholy Jaques: What do you think a good Democratic answer would look like? (My own preference would be “open borders” — that’s how my family got in, after all. But no Democrat will ever run on that.) We can explain until we’re blue in the face that being undocumented doesn’t make you a criminal, but people will still say they shouldn’t be here because they’re “cutting in line” or they “did it the wrong way.” And if that’s true, then why shouldn’t they be deported?
Steve LaBonne
@Josie: Murc’s Law: only Democrats have agency.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: If we ignore most white men, I bet we’d find plenty of consensus.
Kinda like those maps that show “if only white people could vote” and “if only Black people could vote” etc. etc.
Take white men out of the equation and everyone else is pretty good about accommodating each other.
oldgold
I agree that Obama has no duty to step forward and lead the Resistance. And, frankly, I do not think he is particularly well suited for the job.
That expressed, we do need a leader. To think otherwise is to ignore the history of successful resistance movements.
Eunicecycle
@Splitting Image: but isn’t that what the author is saying? He’s doing it wrong by not doing anything? Damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.
Professor Bigfoot
Fixt.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
To dream… the impossible dream…
Steve LaBonne
@Professor Bigfoot: White men should be deprived of the franchise for a couple of generations. I would be more than willing to make that sacrifice for the common good.
Baud
@Josie:
Coming up right after the article about how Trump is too old.
Westyny
The gall . . .
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: LOL, I know, I know; and I wouldn’t want to be part of any such scheme… but I do like to point out the demographic aspects of our current situation and how we got here.
stinger
He owes us nothing.
AWOL
@Old Man Shadow:
Horsefuckingshit.
Millions voted for them. They’re citizens with influence in some of the last remaining pockets of world sanity. To become a public figure, enact policy, and think it ends with a $6M memoir advance is absurd, and to excuse this detachment of responsibility is absurd.
If you’re not fighting, you’re collaborating.
rikyrah
@stinger:
Not a damn thing.
OWES.US.NOTHING.
Another Scott
@Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride: The framing sets the parameters of the debate and sets the parameters of the solutions.
ReaganLibrary.org (from 1981):
There are ways to do the framing that enables solutions. It’s been done in the past.
There was a bill negotiated by Biden and the Senate that would have had similar “controlled and orderly” parameters. As we know, it was demagogued and ultimately didn’t pass because the GQP wanted to run on the Immigration Crisis instead.
The problem, as always, is the GQP. They do what they want, independent of what the country wants. There’s no public outcry for tax cut for billionaires or giant cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, but they’re trying to do it anyway. Immigration policy is just one of many, many issues like that.
Grr…
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
AWOL
@rikyrah:
And you’ll continue to get nothing.
Public service does not end at the end of a term. It ends at the end of a life.
suzanne
@brantl:
Repeated for emphasis.
I love him. His time has passed, and he knows it, and others need to pick up this ball and run with it now. Let them do so.
Old School
Why won’t Obama stay in politics?!!
Also, why did Hillary Clinton keep hanging around politics and not disappear completely?!?!!
Oh yeah, one more thing – why did Biden keep focusing on politics to the point that he decided to run for a second term?!?!!
No, there are no moving goalposts. What are you talking about?
Professor Bigfoot
@Steve LaBonne: Nah, really, they’re Americans however the history of white supremacy has directed the culture, society, and laws of the United States.
For a SIGNIFICANT fraction of those white men, if they ever took the time and energy to actually think about some of their unconscious and subconscious decisions and beliefs; and how whiteness influences that, I think would reject supremacy.
I’d like to think that they’re smart enough to understand that white supremacy also brings harm to them and their children too, and would reject it on those grounds, if for no other reason.
But, as a wise* man once said, “you go to war with the army you have,” and likewise with the enemy you have.**
(*Not really; but you know, stopped clocks…)
(**Not enemies at this point, but opposition and adversaries, and not to be trusted.)
PS— understand I’m not in the least bit happy about this analysis; I FULLY understand the hostile reaction, I used to say “not all men!” too but I came to understand it was too goddamn many of us…
Splitting Image
@AWOL:
Public service is not a jail sentence buddy.
Professor Bigfoot
@AWOL: I love the way you guys demand that the Black guy DO SOMETHING.
When most of you voted for Trump in the first fucking place.
The sheer fucking chutzpah.
Steve LaBonne
@Splitting Image: When will the “journalists” ever START performing a public service?
Steve LaBonne
@AWOL: 😄
Professor Bigfoot
@Steve LaBonne: Right?
They have a vital Constitutional duty and they refuse to do it; but do any of these… fine gentlemen ever address that?
Oh no, because ONLY DEMOCRATS HAVE AGENCY, amirite? <eyeroll emoji>
trollhattan
More Ukraine hidden drone hijinks in Rooosha. Concealed in rail grain car, they hatch and destroy the train along with 13 tanks and 100+ armored vehicles. What if those were scheduled for Trump’s Big Parade of Stuff?
https://bsky.app/profile/igorsushko.bsky.social/post/3lr27qkdt322x
Chetan Murthy
Not to put too fine a point on it, but … -this-. Try to come up with a policy position that the Dems could adopt, and you’ll find pretty quickly that there isn’t one that won’t get enormous pushback. The G(r)OPers have the advantage here: they can -lie-. The Dems can’t lie like that.
And despite all that, Biden -did- have a policy. That addressed the -complexity- and -intractability- of the problem. But nobody remembers that.
Citizen_X
Me: “But what about Kamal…”
Him: “I didn’t mean a GIRL, obviously…”
This is erasing Harris, and her hairs’-breadth loss to Trump after only a few months of campaigning. In doing so, he’s accepting Trump’s framing of that election as a “landslide.” Get lost!
Chetan Murthy
@trollhattan: Sadly it looks like maybe this is an Igor Sushko special (he’s been known to fabricate stuff in his zeal):
https://bsky.app/profile/vreij.bsky.social/post/3lr3ukxbjbk2f
satby
@Splitting Image: @Professor Bigfoot: amazing how easy it is to sit on the sidelines and complain about everyone else doing it wrong, isn’t it?
How dare anyone complain about any person or issue other than the fascists creating the problems. But that might put a target on the writer’s back.
Captain C
@TONYG:
Or, “Why won’t Kareem come coach the Lakers the way I want him to and win a string of championships [and give me credit]?!?”
NaijaGal
I think the writer should have noted that fascism affects all Americans and as others have pointed out, the person he is calling out did his best to get a non-fascist elected last November.
I’d like Leibovich to focus on getting Jill Stein (Green Party presidential nominee) and Chase Oliver (Libertarian Party presidential nominee) to rally their supporters to the cause of defeating fascism because these two clearly needed the threat to become real to wake the hell up. As people have previously pointed out, if enough Greens and Libertarians had voted for Kamala, she would have won the popular vote (not sure about the electoral college). They refused to see the danger but they have the opportunity to now make like Melenchon voters and support Macron over LePen – i.e., pick country over party and speak out forcefully against what’s happening now. Why are you laughing?
Captain C
@George:
Watching baseball and painting self-portraits of himself on the toilet, where he ought to be.
Jeffro
110%. Thank you.
Captain C
@Baud:
And the one about how his foot Parkinson’s has spread to his head and is causing dementia.
rk
Obama doesn’t need to do anything. The better question is why do white men and women never do anything? We have a white republican Congress and Senate which is allowing the country to be destroyed and you want a black ex president with no power to rescue you?? With what? Strong speeches? So that non whites put their lives on the line? Because white men and women are too cowardly to use the power that they have and do their jobs?
Juju
@NaijaGal: I’m laughing because Jill Stein is a dipshit, and I don’t know much about Chase Oliver except that he’s a Libertarian, so I’m going with dipshit again.
Jeffro
@Another Scott: I’m confused as to why Lowkell ran with this ‘take’. There is no Dem primary for Gov; Spanberger locked that shit up close to a year ago.
Expecting people to get fired up about primaries for Lt Gov (who has nearly no duties) or AG? Almost all of whom have very low statewide profiles? C’mon.
And it probably hurts turnout on both sides that the entire VA GOP slate is a bunch of nutcases. Rs are depressed and Ds are like, “we’ve got this, see ya in November”.
Professor Bigfoot
@rk: The demand for a Magic Negro never ends.
Captain C
That’s not what they’re getting paid to do.
Captain C
@Professor Bigfoot: And they conveniently forget they could have voted for and supported one last November.
satby
@NaijaGal: @Juju: Jill Stein is a Russian asset.
Planetjanet
@Melancholy Jaques: We have a message. Harris campaigned loudly for Dreamers. It didn’t carry us. Immigration is an immensely complex system. It doesn’t lend itself to easy soundbites. When it does (as with Dreamers) we were loud. Biden was quietly walking the walk on hiring more immigration judges to clear the backlog. Putting in place policies for Dreamers, trying to reunite families torn apart in Trump’s first term and streamlining processes for immigrant spouses of citizens. All while under fire from the right. Messages aren’t going to save us either. We all need to reach those around us to generate interest and shoot down looking for perfection in other human beings.
Melancholy Jaques
@Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride:
I am but one Democrat among millions, so I can only give you my view – and many maybe most disagree.
We Democrats need to take the position that people who have been living here peaceably for many years ought to be allowed to say here. It’s not the easiest argument, but it is the easiest and best solution. And we can sell that story to a majority with a sustained campaign.
With respect to current incoming, we have to make the case that the problem isn’t an invasion, it’s an understaffed and overwhelmed system.
Lyrebird
@Steve LaBonne: So true.
They called the next election, too, or I mean the 2016 one, something about White Hot Ball of Rage wins Republican nomination or somethiing like that?
@Old Man Shadow: they certainly don’t owe the opinion writer a darned thing, after giving so much of their lives to better every American’s situation.
Besides, every time Forever POTUS Obama talks, three columnists start another thing about how Dems are too elitist, bc Obama has the nerve to be so smart! Yeah I exaggerate, but still…
Anyhow, I’d say Reps. Crockett and Moskowitz might be the most effective Dem communicators just now!
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Baud: correct. additionally too many voters only seem to pay attention to politics for the presidency. They don’t learn what the far right/book banning assholes did. Local elections matter, school boards, board of aldermen and town councils, state senate races. And when they do show up for presidential races they whine that no one “inspires “ them. Apparently brains, plans and competence are not enough to get up and go vote for….
Planetjanet
@Melancholy Jaques: That approach is called a path to citizenship. It has been in every democratic push for immigration since at least the Bush administration. It is not motivating votes in Congress or voters on the street, even though it is the right thing to do. Democrats are still fighting. Not doing nothing. The battle line has shifted from pursuing good goals to reinforcing basic rule of law.
Melancholy Jaques
@Planetjanet:
No she didn’t. The Biden/Harris program was the jumbled together Republican Lite bill that they knew Republicans would not vote for. It was a cynical ploy to try to dull the impact of the issue. Nobody bought it.
And there were no TV ads – we needed like three to be shown over and over and over – that said plainly “Trump and the Republicans are lying to you about immigration.” To this day people repeat the lies that “Biden opened the border” and “18 million illegals came in under Biden.” Both are just lies, but they weren’t called that. Republicans screamed about INVASION and false videos were all over social media. Nobody in authority was calling it them liars.
When I said a sustained campaign in my earlier comment, I meant sustained month after month, year after year. Just like the Republican demonization campaigns.
David Collier-Brown
@trollhattan: I can’t find this on my usual Ukrainian news site.
This is the message from 2:03 PM EDT (9:30 in Kiev)
https://mailchi.mp/kyivindependent/welcome-to-the-ukraine-daily-newsletter-17589640?e=594a6605ab
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
Agreed. But we don’t have to sit and wait for a consensus to emerge. We can do the work to forge a consensus around practical and moral policies. I don’t expect any policy to carry us to victory in the short run, but for the last 20 years or so, we have completely ceded the issue to racist demagogues and it has cost us elections.
pajaro
On immigration: Our answer should be “we can do this.” We didn’t have open borders under Biden, and immigrants weren’t eating dogs and cats. We can have an immigration system that follows the law, and allows for legal immigration. If we don’t like the balance, Congress can do what they refused to do on Trump’s orders, which is to pass a bill that makes improvements. In the meantime, there is nothing that we need to do that couldn’t be done if the system was adequately funded, so that we have the personnel to reduce the current backlogs.
If we need another leader now, it should be Harris, not Obama. She was VP, we nominated her less than a year ago to be our Pres., and she ran a fine campaign. But we would need to ask her, and set her up with a communications platform that made it worth her and our while to undertake the job.
NaijaGal
@pajaro: I agree. I’ve heard many say that the next Democratic presidential nominee should be a white man because “look what happened to Kamala.” I say after 4 years of Trump, Kamala would win just like Obama did after 8 years of Bush. When Republicans have created a catastrophe, Americans are willing to overlook race (and possibly misogyny) to have a Democrat fix the mess. She did a good job in 3 months against someone who campaigned nonstop from 2021 to 2024. That takes talent but we aren’t allowed to acknowledge anything good about her because she lost.
Archon
Obama and the Democratic party offered America a soft landing from the inevitable end of the unipolar world.
America decided to go with the crash landing and crash landing is what we are going to get.
Melancholy Jaques
@pajaro:
That’s the spirit.
strange visitor (from another planet)
well, fuck that guy.
he can nope right out of here with that shit.
lowtechcyclist
@WTFGhost:
Exactly. If he sees the need for a leader, maybe he should step up and be the leader he’s looking for. After all, he’s already got a platform to speak to the masses from. So he’s welcome to lead the way. Nobody’s standing in his way.
chrome agnomen
@Old Man Shadow: they owe to the country as public servants.
bbleh
@Baud: Murc’s Law, no? Came immediately to mind. Fkin villagers…
lowtechcyclist
@TONYG:
Far from it: Kareem was born in 1947, he’s 78 years old, just months younger than Mango Mussolini. You don’t play in the NBA when you’re 48, let alone 78.
Obama was born in 1961. He’s 63 years old, which is in the prime of life for a politician. (And 15 years younger than Cheeto Benito.) If he felt he had game, he could still get out there and play.
But it’s up to him. Nobody else, including this Leibovich guy, has the right to expect anything from him. Like I said, if Leibovich is looking for a leader, he can step up and try to be the leader he’s looking for. Or he can STFU.
Juju
@satby: That only enhances the dipshit status.
Gloria DryGarden
@WTFGhost: hope you come through it ok. Nasty stuff, Covid. The paxlovid was annoying, but the weird taste it leaves goes away the next day after you complete the 5 days.
Planetjanet
@Melancholy Jaques:
Social media outreach
Town hall response
The messages were there. The heartfelt compassion was there. If now you are fussing about a bill that did not go far enough, that is on Congress for what they would vote on. If there aren’t enough votes because of Republican opposition, it does NOTHING. A perfect bill that does not pass is NOTHING. Our Democrats are fighting. But to get legislation that fixes things, we need more of them. How do we do that if we keep denigrating our leaders for not working miracles. Progress comes step by step in the fight. No one has a magic wand.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Another Scott: Yeah I remember him and Michelle both campaigning for Harris hard. That was my first moment of doubt that she wasn’t going to win. When the Obamas were campaigning for Hillary it felt like trying to run up the score until election night. When they called them out again in ’24 I was like shit maybe this election isn’t in the bag if they have to bring those two out to campaign again. Still thought Harris would win up to election night but then hitting the campaign trail gave me some ’16 vibes.
Given that I’m not sure what this writer thinks Obama can do about our current situation. Anything he does or says would seem to be about as effective as what he did and said on the campaign trail. So it might help a little on the margins but isn’t going to turn things around.
Ohio Mom
@Gloria DryGarden: The first time I had Covid and took Paxlovid, I got better for a few days, then got worse, a great disappointment.
The second time I had Covid, a year later, the Paxlovid worked liked magic. I would certainly take my chances with it again, if/when I get Covid fur a third time.
CindyH
@NaijaGal: I’d like to believe it, but I don’t think a woman can get elected for at least a decade. From what I’m hearing from my daughter who just graduated from college, Trump’s election has brought misogyny, bigotry to the forefront. She and her friends tell me it is remarkable how boys her age are now proud and loud to say things they’d have been shunned for just a year ago.
Socolofi
Lots of people view immigrants as both getting services they shouldn’t (e.g. stealing tax dollars), and taking jobs / working for less, thus stealing taxpayer’s salaries. We can show stats and whatnot that this isn’t the case, but that’s a losing war. And when we say, “they’re not illegals, they’re undocumented” we just look like douchebags who won’t even acknowledge a problem.
I’d love to see a flip where we call out the bad things and propose solutions that FEEL good as well as being good. I know there’s a lot of nuance, but the broad brush needs to be simple, and TBH if we can’t frame it as such, we’re probably doing the wrong thing.
Something like, “Democrats are tough on exploiters.” Yup, goes to the heart of the issue where people feel businesses are paying for cheap undocumented labor, and frames the bad guy properly – the business, not the immigrant. Then, do a guest worker program, and tack on both a payroll or other business tax, and then have people in said guest worker program also pay a tax (say a higher % income tax or something).
So now immigrants are paying in (and yes, they were already, but this is not nuanced nor exploitative), paying more (so they aren’t getting a better deal), and businesses aren’t as incentivized to hire people under the table.
Jacel
@Splitting Image: Whatever Democrats might do or say about immigration, all many people will hear from their media is the ever-consistent message never spoken by an actual Democrat: “Democrats want Open Borders”.
Matt McIrvin
@Socolofi:
Yeah, but now they’re applying the term “illegals” to people who are DOCUMENTED, have legit visas, but got them revoked on the say-so of ICE agents on the spot: their crime was speaking Spanish in the vicinity of an ICE raid, or having a suspicious tattoo, or engaging in Constitutionally protected political speech that advocated for the rights of Palestinians or criticized the Trump administration on social media. Miller’s deportation mania really gives the lie to the old claim that “it’s only ILLEGAL immigration we hate”– if “illegal” means “we don’t like your face”, the term is meaningless.
moonbat
Frankly, I think this wanking over how Obama should lead the resistance plays into the exact dynamic that 45 wants to create. White vs Black. His hatred for Obama is well documented and is at the root of a lot of the dumb shit he’s been doing since taking office the second time. The attacks on Harvard in particular reek of ‘How dare you even admit a black man to the nation’s most prestigious school, let alone make him editor of the law journal!” And truth to tell plenty in the media would love to see an O vs T matchup. Can you imagine the clicks?!!
45, Miller, all of bed sheet wearing members of this administration would love to make Obama the face of the opposition because in their tiny minds the presidency that ended eight years ago – the one we all remember fondly – should never have happened. That it did, and was a successful one, drives them nuckin futz. They want to erase it from the history books by having their white savior defeat the nation’s black one. IOW, they’re insane racists.
The farther away from them Obama stays the better. He doesn’t owe us anything.
NaijaGal
@CindyH: I understand about young men (see also the South Korea voting breakdown where young men mostly voted for the conservative, even though the liberal won). In the US, there are more registered women voters than men. Yes, some of the misogyny is coming from women who can’t bring themselves to vote for one of their own. Today we have a brain dead woman in Georgia forced to carry a baby to term and Texas has a risk of maternal death that’s 155% higher than California’s because of their abortion ban. It’s only going to get worse during this administration. I hope that by 2028 the financial and other crises will move enough apathetic people, including women, to act, the way crises did in 2008 and 2020.
I think that if Obama had run against Bush in 2004, after 9-11 and the start of the Iraq war, he would have lost (his middle name would have been enough to sink him). It would have then been a shame for him to decide not to run again in 2008. Timing matters, even for once-in-a-generation talent.
dww44
@AWOL: Thank you. While none of the former Presidents and Presidential candidates owe us nothing , they do owe our democracy their visible support. That’s what’s been largely visibly missing.
TerryC
@Professor Bigfoot: Take men out of the equation and the odds get even better.
They Call Me Noni
@AWOL: Mr. and Mrs. Obama are private citizens. They worked damned hard to make this country better while raising two beautiful daughters. How about we demand more from our current elected leaders and ourselves? It is not their place to fix what is fucked up now. We have a whole Republican party you can shake your finger at, please leave the black hero alone. He shouldn’t be expected to put on his cape every time pure evil rears its ugly head.
BellyCat
Not giving Obama a pass here. Sorry.
Trump RAN for President as a result of Obama’s quip at the WH Press Corpse dinner.
Obama should ABSOLUTELY do more to replace his divet. Even Hillary has done more, with less of a bully pulpit. Honestly, I feel increasingly ashamed in how much I believed in him in direct proportion to his apparent “hands off” retirement.
Obama was not and is not “W”. Stop fucking “painting” all day. A tweet or two every few weeks might just save that which you asked us to help you save. FFS…
Odie Hugh Manatee
I see that the presstitutes just can’t quit attacking Democrats, even when they’re not in control of anything in the Federal government. They’re just doing what they sold their souls for, as their masters demand.
There is no Democrat friendly big media, NONE. The few Democrats that are in big media are there for Alan Colmes reasons; the token Democratic voice.
NaijaGal
@BellyCat: Yes, it’s Obama’s fault that Trump ran as a white supremacist and won. So it’s Obama’s responsibility to single-handedly defeat white supremacy. Keep waiting, he’ll defeat it any day now.
planetjanet
@BellyCat: This is the stupidest thing I have read on the internet today. You need to go outside and touch some grass, take a deep breath.
BellyCat
Yes. Let’s give Obama more of a pass than Hillary.
Progressives United! //
Other MJS
@Elizabelle: I saw “Torchwood” and wondered what this had to do with the Whoniverse
Betsy
This is such a bad take.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@BellyCat: so, no, that’s bullshit. if anything, groper cleveland was nudged to run by his russian friends. he had an aborted attempt in 2000 on the reform party line and (iirc) had been hinting about jumping back into the fray for years.
blaming obama (“the nasty black man was mean to me.”) is just convenient propaganda for him and others.
George
@BellyCat:
Claiming that T ran for president because of Obama’s comment is an idiotic statement on its face. T was going to run for president, full stop. Anything that Obama, or Clinton, or anyone else–aside from Putin, perhaps–said had no effect on that decision.
Blaming Obama for the fact that Trump ran, and won, is foolish, but unfortunately is consistent with the halfwitted extreme left or discord-sowing trolls.
No One You Know
@Professor Bigfoot: Hear, hear.
But white women have things to answer for themselves. I continue to be astonished at how many white women voted for… That Guy. And that my Trump- loving sister-in-law FORBADE am exploratory discussion about why so rudely, and at such length, that to this day I am blamed for the relationship being over due to my politics. It’s my fault for giving Vicki a chance to prove me wrong, after 30 years of comfortable conversation and sisterly support, but not a chance to talk. Civilly. As we always had.
The wound won’t scab over.
My nephew, her son, died suddenly very recently. Even then the conversation lasted all of 4 seconds. We have nothing left for each other.
How do we make the world’s Vickis talk about why they vote the way they do? When they think they cannot be accountable to anyone, let alone something as big and vague as “democracy?”
BellyCat
I do not blame Obama for Trump “winning”. There is a whole lot of blame to be spread widely for Trump 1.0
You can be pretty damn sure that to this day Obama regrets the tenor and tone of his “comment” (read: taunt) to Trump at that press corpse dinner.
Justify Obama’s silence any way you like, including fabricating some bullshit claim of racism, but to this fervent supporter it is deafening and disheartening.
Paul in KY
@WTFGhost: Glad to hear you got the drugs. Best wishes on speedy recovery.