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Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
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Generally speaking, former presidents like to ride into the sunset, spend some down time with their family, maybe organize some papers, write a memoir or plan for your presidential library after leaving office.  Not so Barack Obama who rode back into politics two short years after the country rejected his heir-apparent and is now campaigning on behalf of Democrats running in 2018.

He kicked off the “I’m still relevant” tour with a speech at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) on Friday September 7th to a crowd of 1,300 at the college’s auditorium.  By all accounts, it was an anticipated event as some 10,000 sought tickets. Although it was a campaign rally for Democrats in general, the purported reason he was there was to receive that college’s award for…get this…ethics in government.  

Obama wasted no time lashing out at Republicans in general and President Trump in particular.  Leaving aside the lies dripping from his lips, one thing became painfully evident: Barack Obama loves him some Barack Obama.  In 64 long minutes, Obama referred to himself a reported 102 times. His favorite word is “I” which he used 87 times followed by “me,” “my,” or “mine.”  He then jetted off to California to give another speech in support of Democratic candidates there. This was, thankfully, only a 23 minute speech. Again, he referred to himself 63 times.  That’s a reference to himself every 23 seconds!

While simultaneously denigrating Republicans and Trump, he spent a lot of time patting himself on the back.  He claimed credit for everything from the state of the economy to healing racial divisions in the country. To Barack Obama, he is the knight in shining armor and voters should elect people like him in November who are gallantly fighting for all that is right.

Of course, the mainstream media swooned and they likely had tingling in their legs.  CBS News, for example, said Obama was “speaking out against threats to democracy.”  He (Obama) left out the part about how his DOJ allegedly spied on the Trump campaign in 2016.  He failed to mention how his national security team unmasked US citizens in intelligence reports.  He did not mention the unhinged antics of John Brennan.

Lashing out at Trump in defense of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Obama said the FBI and criminal justice should not be used to punish political opponents.  This is the same Obama whose AG- Eric Holder- was held in contempt of Congress, whose FBI had such sleaze as James Comey and Peter Strozk and company, and whose IRS targeted conservative groups.

Asking “what has become of the Republican Party?” for some seeking cooperation with Russia, Obama forgets his “flexibility” remark in 2012 to Putin lackey Dmitry Medveded.  Russia, being the bogeyman today, was brushed aside in 2012 as Romney was told the 1960’s wanted their foreign policy back.  On foreign policy, Obama was equally delusional saying that his policies made the world a safer place.  Yes- he took out Osama bin-Laden, but that was a no-brainer decision any President would make.  He left out the part about presiding over the rise of ISIS, sending palettes of cash to a terrorist regime in Iran, signing an agreement with Iran they had no intention of abiding by, and doing nothing as concerns North Korea.

Obama further took credit for today’s economy.  While the pace of job growth is the same as 2015, in several other important metrics, today’s economy under Trump is outperforming that of Obama.  The reason is simple: Obama’s boot is no longer on the neck of the business community.

Addressing racial division, he criticized Trump for his comments in the aftermath of Charlottesville.  Yet, it was the Trump administration that deported a real live Nazi living in New York. One guesses that Obama’s DOJ was too busy running guns to Mexican drug cartels and let that one slip through.  Regardless, this veiled accusation of racism is raw hypocrisy. Wasn’t it Barack Obama who associated with the racist Jeremiah Wright, who secretly met with Louis Farrakhan, and who gave a White House award to Linda Sarsour who just recently said no one should humanize Jews?  

He asked that Latinos “punish” their “enemies” at the ballot box.  Are these the same Latinos that the Obama administration separated from their parents at the border?  On the press, he said: “I complained plenty about Fox News, but you never heard me threaten to shut them down or call them enemies of the people.”  He’s right; he just called Fox News “destructive” and his DOJ went after reporter James Rosen.

Most importantly, Obama, the man who brought you Obamacare, is now a supporter of Medicare for All, a policy he explicitly denounced and rejected in 2009.  In other words, he tacitly admits that his signature legislative achievement and one that is referred to by using his very name was and is a failure.

To Obama, the solution is to elect Democrats to Congress because they have new ideas.  Actually, all their ideas are old. Worse, they are proven losers. Raising taxes, increasing regulations, abolishing ICE and allowing open borders and extending Medicare for all without a plan to pay for it are old ideas.  These midterms, Obama said, offer a chance to restore sanity in politics.

Sanity?  If the gibberish that comes from the mouth of Nancy Pelosi, or the antics of Maxine Waters who thinks she lives in Wakanda is sanity, then Obama needs to have a mental health check.  If the bug-eyed Adam Schiff who peddles conspiracy theory on par with Alex Jones, the senile and spittle-addled Bernie Sanders and his mini-me- Allie from the Bronx,- or a decidedly white woman who thinks she is Cherokee is the definition of sanity, we need to redefine the term.

Obama’s return to the political circuit is like a bad sequel to an already bad horror movie.  His policies and his hand-picked successor were rejected. If voters have any sense, they would reject them again in November.  Obama may just be the magic pill needed to spur Republican turnout come November.