The most telling hot-mic moment of Barack Obama’s presidency came in March 2012 when he told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev: “This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.”
The topic then was missile defense, but America and the world now see the full ramifications. Whether it’s dusting off an obscure provision to block oil drilling or using the United Nations to betray Israel, this is what maximum flexibility looks like. This is Obama being Obama.
Liberated from the pretense of respecting public consent and no longer forced to calculate the impact on Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Obama is rushing to settle scores and tie Donald Trump’s hands. It is an infuriating exit.
It is also a revealing one. The last-ditch actions help explain not only why Trump won, but also why a course correction was absolutely necessary for the nation. Obama’s cynical schemes are variations of “you can keep your doctor,” and Americans were right to show Democrats the door.
It’s also worth remembering that Obama promised to have Israel’s back, and that’s where he put the knife.
The silver lining in his fire sale, which also includes trying to make it more difficult for Trump to vet Muslim refugees, is that it offers a moment of clarity about the dangers of unrestrained power. Ultimately, it only serves itself.
And with Clinton promising to expand Obama’s executive overreach and with the likelihood that a Dem-packed Supreme Court always would say amen, our system of checks and balances would have been null and void if she had won.
http://nypost.com/2016/12/27/obama-is-doing-everything-he-can-to-make-things-hard-for-trump/
The topic then was missile defense, but America and the world now see the full ramifications. Whether it’s dusting off an obscure provision to block oil drilling or using the United Nations to betray Israel, this is what maximum flexibility looks like. This is Obama being Obama.
Liberated from the pretense of respecting public consent and no longer forced to calculate the impact on Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Obama is rushing to settle scores and tie Donald Trump’s hands. It is an infuriating exit.
It is also a revealing one. The last-ditch actions help explain not only why Trump won, but also why a course correction was absolutely necessary for the nation. Obama’s cynical schemes are variations of “you can keep your doctor,” and Americans were right to show Democrats the door.
It’s also worth remembering that Obama promised to have Israel’s back, and that’s where he put the knife.
The silver lining in his fire sale, which also includes trying to make it more difficult for Trump to vet Muslim refugees, is that it offers a moment of clarity about the dangers of unrestrained power. Ultimately, it only serves itself.
And with Clinton promising to expand Obama’s executive overreach and with the likelihood that a Dem-packed Supreme Court always would say amen, our system of checks and balances would have been null and void if she had won.
http://nypost.com/2016/12/27/obama-is-doing-everything-he-can-to-make-things-hard-for-trump/
