How Obama will take on Trump

[Rustyeye77]

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/donald-trump-barack-obama-234414


Barack Obama and his aides expected to take on President Donald Trump at some point, but they didn’t think it would happen this quickly.

Now they’re trying to find the right balance on issues that demand a response, and how to use Obama to deliver the selective pushback. Obama and his team are monitoring what’s happening at the White House, and not ruling out the possibility that Obama will challenge Trump more forcefully in the coming months, according to people who’ve been in contact with the former president.

It depends on Trump. It also depends, the people close to the former president said Monday, on whether speaking out would just set him up to have no effect and be dismissed, and result in empowering Trump more, which is a very real worry for them.

From his vacation spot in the Caribbean, Obama has been keeping up with news from Washington and the protests around the country. Friends and former aides have been emailing and talking to him. His staff at his post-presidential office, still unpacking its boxes, told him about the reporters who kept asking, even in Trump’s first week as president, whether enough had happened already to meet his threshold to speak up.

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He's still my President

[3catwoman3]

1. President Obama must be...

...even more heartsick than the rest of us.

[Peacetrain]

2. Dammit it is not President Obamas job to take on Trump.. it is ours!

I know you are just posting a link..but I got so freaking tired of people sitting with their arms crossed expecting President Obama to do everything for them.. and not even getting out to vote.. The man gave us 8 years of his life.. It is up to us, and currently elected officials and future officials to get our acts together and stop looking for a magician or Jesus who can make it all better in a heartbeat.. and for once support the person who actually in there and slugging it out to get it done..

[Rustyeye77]

3. Didnt say it was his job..

just a great leader.

[crazycatlady]

4. Start by calling your Senators

And telling them to oppose Sessions

[Lil Missy]

5. I think Obama has more influence in the country (world) than anyone else. Nevertheless,

we shouldn't be allowing lead to collect in our butts in the meantime. (What you said)

[Rustyeye77]

6. Obamas America Rises Again

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/01/obamas-america-rises-again.html

But the events of the last two weeks, both of which have seen massive nationwide protests against the new presidency, suggest a different conclusion. It is Trump who does not understand this country. And it is Obama’s vision of the country that will ultimately win out.


The election has provided ample reasons for alarm. But it is important to have some clarity about what we ought to fear. The federal government is in the hands of an extremist claque. It will probably carry out enormous amounts of terrible policy, and the tail risks of permanent disasters arising from misgovernance — new Katrinas, new Iraq Wars, or worse — are terrifyingly high.

On the other hand, there is no reason to believe Trump is actually good at politics. He has the largest popular-vote deficit of any president ever elected and comes into office with historically low approval ratings. The only things he has done well are to gauge correctly the fecklessness of his Republican rivals, who he understood would fall in line behind him even after he smeared and bullied them mercilessly, and to beat up on Hillary Clinton while James Comey, Vladimir Putin, and the national media pinned her arms behind her.

Some liberal journalists have greeted each new Trump action by solemnly insisting that we “take him literally” and that he will do what he says. But what exactly should we take literally? His promise to provide terrific health insurance that covers everybody, at lower cost? Forcing Mexico to pay for the wall? Resuscitating the declining coal industry? The complete eradication of Islamic terrorism? The most competent president would not achieve these goals. And Trump is a political amateur who has surrounded himself with other political amateurs. He will wreak a fearful toll on this country before he is finished, but the assumption that Trump will “do” what he promises extends him credit he does not deserve.