We only have less than four weeks to enjoy President Barack Obama. Then all hell breaks loose under President Orange. So, Obama has continued to do his exit interviews, and he ended up sitting down with his friend David Axelrod for Axelrod’s podcast. The interview came out after Christmas, and there’s one part in particular that has drawn the ire of President Orange.
Though he is barred by the Constitution from a third four-year-term, President Obama believes voters would have supported him to victory against Donald Trump.
“I’m confident that if I — if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it,” Obama, 55, said during his interview on The Axe Files podcast, released Monday, with David Axelrod, his former adviser. “I know that in conversations that I’ve had with people around the country, even some people who disagreed with me, they would say the vision, the direction that you point towards is the right one.”
In his interview with Axelrod, Obama spoke highly of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, whom he stumped for during the election cycle.
“[Hillary] performed wonderfully under really tough circumstances. I’ve said this publicly, I’ll repeat it. I think there was a double standard with her,” he said. “For whatever reason, there’s been a longstanding difficulty in her relationship with the press that meant her flaws were wildly amplified relative to. If you think you’re winning, then you have a tendency, just like in sports, maybe to play it safer.”
There are a lot of “what if” scenarios that Democrats have been war-gaming over the past month and a half. It’s part of the electoral-grief process. What-if Putin hadn’t gotten involved. What-if Bernie Sanders had gotten the nomination. What-if Joe Biden had run. What-if Elizabeth Warren had run. What-if Hillary had run a different campaign. What-if Obama could run for another term. For what it’s worth, I do think Obama is right – if he was the candidate on the Dem ticket, everything would have been a lot different. And yes, he probably would have won. But not according to the Orange One. PEOTUS got into a snit about Obama’s interview, because PETTY. Christmas Petty.
President Obama said that he thinks he would have won against me. He should say that but I say NO WAY! – jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2016
The world was gloomy before I won – there was no hope. Now the market is up nearly 10% and Christmas spending is over a trillion dollars!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2016
You know what I say to this? Trump could have easily run against Obama in 2012. But Trump didn’t. Because he was too much of a coward. So spare me the what-ifs, Orange One.
#MerryChristmas pic.twitter.com/5GgDmJrGMS
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 25, 2016
Photos courtesy of WENN.
It’s only ego if it’s not a fact. This is a fact.
want to talk ego, look at the orange one.
This was a ridiculous assertion by Obama since it can’t happen by law and a ridiculous reaction from Trump because he reacted to an assertion that can’t happen by law. No one is winning in this back and forth.
So true. Men and their penises…..I mean egos. 🤔
pres obama said that if he was eligible to run again he wd have beaten trump. now trump cd have ignored it but he chose to react once again – which shows that he has a very thin skin – and i think pres obama said it on purpose to get this reaction case proven.
As opposed to? We have the narcissist of all narcissists as president-elect.
ETA: This was in response to a comment that’s no longer there.
i was about to write the same thing in response to that comment too!
Wrong, Orange one. For the first time in my life I feel very little hope for the future. Your presidency will be one that we likely won’t recover from.
I refuse to let this person let me live in fear. There is always hope. There are so many people watching him to make sure he doesn’t blow us up. After 9/11 we all said, don’t do this or that or the terrorists win. Same scenario with trump, live your life and don’t give in to him. We shall overcome him and his absurdity. Half of this country didn’t vote for him and the other half will learn why. I fear nothing especially not trumpty dumpty. FREEDOM
Actually a quarter of the voters voted for President-Elect Stupid. Half the voters stayed home. He also lost the popular vote to Hillary by close to 3 million votes.
I think he took the “no hope” thing from Michelle Obama. Except she said it feels like there’s no hope now, which is actually true.
F*ck off, Donald.
I’m ashamed to admit, I’ve felt like an ostrich sticking my head in the sand since November. I was just emotionally unable to cope. But now the end is nigh, and there’s no more ignoring it…
Stay strong everyone and keep fighting against the Republican agenda against women, P.O.C., and L.G.B.T.Q. Keep calling them out on lies and unethical behavior. We need to come together as forward thinking progressives and get people in that represent our thinking in mid term elections. There is a womens (and those who support equality) March scheduled and a city near you as well as D.C. It’s time for a new 1960s revolution to get out from behind our screens and get out with each other again! We shall overcome!
Rachel, if it’s any consolation I have started watching some really awful reality TV in order to numb myself a little bit from feeling torn down politically, from being a vigilante via comments on social media and FB, and in order to stay sane, I feel.
I’ve hung out with the kids from The Hills, Ben and Lauren and are they happily ever after?, The ladies of London and my besties at Vanderpump rules and RHOBH.
You’re right though we cant avoid it anymore.
His thin skin and pettiness + nuclear weapons terrifies me.
Why is that unethical pile of excrement still on Twitter and why are members of his own party still remaining silent about it?
And if that unethical pile of excrement that is his daughter keeps tweeting old pictures of herself and pictures of her children to divert from his latest horrible statements and blunders, I might have to start calling her out for it.
As far as his tweets go, Newt Gingrich has told us we should get used to it. Because Donald Trump still thinks he was elected King.
Well, the Republican party thinks he is king if the party’s Christmas message is to be believed.
Twitter accounts get hacked all the time. Twitter needs to shut down his account before a hacker starts World War III with fake tweets.
I’m fairly certain that hackers know to leave very well enough alone since we don’t really need to put any more dumb words in this guy’s mouth or Twitter he does a great job by himself. I feel like the trolling hackers are like, “Yeah we’ll just let this guy take care of it on his own.”
@Little Darling – Good point.
Megan – but if Trump’s Twitter account is hacked, how will we be able to tell the difference? Maybe if sensible tweets come from an Android (his staff uses iPhones) at 3am? Anything else will just sound normal for Trump.
@lightpurple- read this carefully because it’s important. The orange one IS NOT on twitter because he’s “out of control” or “obsessive”. HE IS on twitter to present himself “as the news”. He and his administration have been degrading news sources by slandering ALL MEDIA (except breitbart) as biased, even Megyn Kelly from Faux News was put down- she had death threats from trump’s team and that’s according to her own interviews. He only believes the neo nazi websites such as breitbart news- as his chief strategist and now transition director is the head of that POS white supremist online propaganda (steve bannon) So trump IS INTENTIONALLY TWEETING to set himself up AS THE NEWS. For every tweet we need to respond: “you are not the news- Media is an intermediary for a reason- to fact check your lies. Media matters. Facts matter”.
National Lampoon tweeted something like ” That’s like LaBron bragging that he could out dunk Snooki!!” …..classic
😂😂😂😂😂
Thank you for sharing that, I needed the laugh!
And damn skippy President Obama would have kicked his ass. I would have definitely voted for him a third time!
Obama might have won since he hadn’t been a right-wing smear campaign target for decades and had the benefit of being the incumbent. So the media would have to pay more attention to him than they did to Hillary, who could talk about policy and issues 24/7 and still be pushed off the news by every crazy thing The Donald was saying. Obama would just have needed to get a tiny number of more recorded votes than Hillary to win.
The numbers were so close that hand recounts should have been ordered all around, and forensic examination of machines with no paper backup. Instead Trump and state officials were blocking recounts even when money was offered to pay for them. Don’t know how close it would have been with Obama, but it was such a strange election that I don’t think we really know who won. I hope Obama works on voter suppression issues as the ex-Prez, supposedly he’s also planning to address the serious gerrymandering issue. But we really need to insist that those machines always have paper backup and normalize a hand recount as a double check. This is needed both to guard against malfunction and to help hinder corrupt fiddling with the counts both for local and national positions. Obama was wrong when he said there was no evidence for tampering with the vote, because the examination of the ballots to verify no tampering was simply not done. If you don’t look for such evidence, of course you won’t find any, so you still don’t know if it happened or not.
That is hilarious!
LOL! Perfect analogy!
I’m actually disappointed in Obama for sidestepping the FACT that the Russians amplified the fake news about Hillary by targeting the rust belt. This is according to the CIA and the FBI- and according to the final press release from OBAMA’S OWN MOUTH- I heard it myself! I am really sick of his cowardly behavior on this one to say that she had “a double standard” because no, a foreign entity interfered in the election ad infinitum. If Russia PLUS the neo nazis had taken advantage of this loop hole in the electoral college in ’08 and ’12 (rural folks getting a lot of electors- hence they are a vulnerable & effective population to manipulate) – then Russia and the neo nazi’s would have slandered Obama back in 2008 and 12, but this hadn’t occurred to those POS back then. So I’m really not with what Obama is saying here that a ‘man to man’ combat would have put him in the win. F that- it’s misogynistic, simplistic and a cowardly assessment.
He may have won narrowly because he would’ve (most likely) driven up the black vote in Philadelphia and Detroit. But he would’ve lost NC, FL and Ohio this time around. It would’ve been tight.
Hillary had something like a 250K early vote lead in FL and it was wiped out by increased rural vote. That is insane.
Let’s not forget all the cheating. Nor that she won the popular vote, and the electoral “college” failed to do its one job.
Hillary also had poor campaign management. I saw a guy saying it was Comey’s fault they lost. Yeah, dude, but it was your job to know Comey would pull something like this and counter it!
What Comey did was so unreasonable and not typical. I don’t see how it see how it could have been predicted.
I truly believe Comey tipped the scales where margins were razor thin. He should be locked away for what he did. He broke the law.
It would’ve been close but Obama had numbers hat HRC just didn’t. And apparently several people tried to get her to go out in the areas Obama carried that she was losing and she didn’t. Forget the hacking for a moment there was a lot of ground game that Obama did in both elections that HRC’s camp didn’t. Ego? Maybe. Confidence? Sure. But you cannot deny it was a mistake that she didn’t hit Michigan and the rest of the rust belt at all
There is an article in the daily beast that talked about this point.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/12/20/team-bernie-hillary-fucking-ignored-us-in-swing-states.html
A lot of voters in those states flipped from Obama to Trump and lots of Dem voters stayed home in November because they didn’t like Hillary. Those voters would have pushed Obama over the top quite easily in those states. The best campaigners in this election were the two Obamas. They and Bernie were the only ones to excite voters. Hillary couldn’t get it done.
“A lot of voters in those states flipped from Obama to Trump and lots of Dem voters stayed home in November because they didn’t like Hillary.”
I don’t know if “a lot” is entirely accurate. Hillary lost because of 80k voters spread out over 3 states, which isn’t a lot. She had 3 million more votes than Trump. We can’t forget the impact of voter suppression targeted at minorities (especially in North Carolina where the legislature made their laws to TARGET black voters).
I am baffled how someone could go from voting for Obama to voting for Trump. It really makes no sense at all unless they really knew nothing about Trump. Which is possible. People can cast their vote based on the flimsiest things. I think a major factor in favor of Trump was simply that he was familiar from his tv show. That familiarity with the name would be enough for some.
While I heartily wish he COULD have run for a third term, I also wish he had left his voice out of this particular fray-I feel like it lowers him to Trump’s level of empty, boastful pettiness.
I hear you but it’s not like he just took to social media and started bragging out of the blue as Trump tends to do. Far from it, yet the deplorables will spin it that way.
I agree. He should have been circumspect instead of sounding like he’s boasting and throwing shade at Clinton. In essence, Clinton’s vision was not that much different than his. One huge advantage he had over Clinton is that he has a p#nis. But he is not a scrapper, and up against the sociopathic Orange Abomination and GOP, Clinton would have been the better scrapper. Still, neither are nasty enough to take those suckers down.
Sadly, the failing of Obama especially now is his continuing delusion that taking the high road will defeat evil and that we should give evil a chance. The man has lived in a privileged bubble way too long and should STFU. The need for his kind of rhetoric in these dark times is over.
Yeah, Obama has an EGO. Disappointed in him. He needs to adapt to the new reality and FIGHT it, not encourage it.
+1
Wow, I didn’t get any of that — ego, shade at Clinton, encouraging the “new reality” — from his words. I have no doubt that Obama will use his platform to fight Trump and his ilk once he’s out of office. It wouldn’t be appropriate for him to openly oppose and bash him now. I think he’s handling this whole, impossible sh$%show as well as he possibly can.
That’s not what he’s saying. You guys are reading your own interpretation into it.
It comes from other things he’s said as well.
The people who should “STFU” are the ones pretending that Obama EVER advocated for giving evil a chance.
I completely agree.
Before I continue, let me say I didn’t vote for Trump. I’m a political centrist who believes in climate change, a woman’s right to choose, and LGBTQ rights. I also believe in a strong foreign policy, fiscal conservatism and enforcement of immigration laws (that still need reformation). I say this so the 1-2 posters here that can’t stand any post that isn’t filled with anti Trump vitriol don’t do their usual (wrong ) assumptions that if you see anything wrong with all things HRC or BO, then you are a KKK card carrying Trump deplorable. Which BTW referring to people using the word deplorable as a noun….well it is deplorable behavior.
Ok. Obama was wrong to say this. It’s likely true but that tells you how bad the choices of HRC and DT were. It also completely ignores the fact, Mr. President, that the last 8 years — and yes some of this must be on you — have been bad for the Democratic Party. Over the last 8 years — your tenure — democrats have lost 12 senate seats and 43 house seats. Almost 5 million people who voted for you couldn’t be bothered to go to the polls this time. No interest in the process and outcome. And some of the places who voted you in on your “hope and change ” agenda……went another direction. They lost hope and they wanted a change for your party.
You would probably win. They were that bad. But you certainly wouldn’t win as decisively. And I wouldn’t have voted for such an obnoxious statement, It slams the candidate of your party you only finally endorsed after much delay …..and the president elect you committed a smooth transition to for the American people. This comment sure isn’t “going high”.
Please save it for your memoirs. It’s not helpful to the country right now.
“democrats have lost 12 senate seats and 43 house seats”
Gerrymandering done at the state level. That is the reason for the house. Dems get MORE votes, so their winning the people, but losing seats because of gerrymandering.
@tiffany, Does gerrymandering happen? Sure….I’m in NC and im so pissed at what the republican state legislature just did to the incoming democratic governor (reduced governor authority).
But gerrymandering isn’t the only reason and it’s naive and harmful to hold that up as the sole excuse. It doesn’t explain the senate losses. It doesn’t explain the gubanatorial losses. The Democratic Party is flailing at their own doing as well. COntextually. I find that to be a flimsy excuse that doesn’t hold water when looked at in context of what has also happened at the state level. There have been significant losses in state legislatures (20% fewer democrats over last 8 years) and governorships (36% fewer over last 8 years).
THe Democratic Party won the presidency for 8 years but pretty much lost out elsewhere…..at the federal and state levels. They really must face the fact that something isn’t working for them. And it isn’t just the redrawing of districts. There is a very real loss of voter interest and votes. If they don’t ask themselves why while looking in thhe mirror — in addition to pointing blame elsewhere — this will continue and here I’ll say it….this external blame game …..It’s part of the problem.
The biggest room in the Democratic House is room for self improvement.
When gerrymandering results in unconstitutional suppression of the vote, as the federal court recently found it did in Wisconsin in 2012 and 2014 (and hey, they had the same system in place to suppress the Democrats in 2016), yes, it does make a real difference.
I stand by what I said about anyone who voted for Trump. They get the middle finger salute. And they are a basket full of deplorable. I couldn’t care less what anybody say about my deplorable behavior.
And you could bet your bottom dollar that Obama would have won because, yes, it’s true, more Dems would have come out to vote.
How does gerrymandering happen? At the state level after the census. The following midterms, Democrats received 1 MILLION more votes than Republicans, but they lost seats.
“There is a very real loss of voter interest and votes.”
That isn’t reflected by the facts. Votes are a direct reflection of popular opinion. Hillary received almost 3 million more votes than Trump, so how can one possibly argue that there has been a loss of voter interest and votes???
@ Tiffany. HRC received 3 million more than DT nationwide. But that difference is accounted for in one state — she received 4.2 million more in California which is a significant fact. As I said, she would be the undisputed president of CAlexit. But alas it’s the electorate vote that counts.
To learn more about my “Loss of voter interest and votes for democrats / HRC” comment, I recommend you google PBS article on “what does voter turnout tell us about the 2016 election”. Remember ; 4.8 million people who voted forBO didnt vote AT ALL this time around, They lost interest.
Excellent article from a media source that doesn’t slant the news with excessive commentary of bias, Voter turnout was down in key states that cost her the election.
“Remember ; 4.8 million people who voted forBO didnt vote AT ALL this time around, They lost interest.”
I don’t think jumping to “they lost interest” is accurate. As I noted before, states like North Carolina actively disenfranchised and ***targeted*** black voters (who turned out in large numbers for Obama). In so many states, they worked to reduce early voting, polling locations, etc. These restrictions directly impact democratic voters, keeping them from the polls. It does a disservice to democracy to pretend that restricting the act of voting doesn’t have an impact on election results. The act of voting is something that deserves protection.
Your “CalExit” joke might be funny to you, but it is also setting up a fallacy. Trump’s electoral win came down to less than 80k voters across 3 states. That does not support the idea that the entire nation turned against her/democrats. Millions voted for her even in states she lost by narrow margins. If CA was given proportional electoral votes, they’d have around 150…not 55. The voters of CA and other populated states are being disenfranchised.
I am not saying that the democratic strategy is without flaws. But I am saying that there were quite a few factors that led to this result.
Tiffany 🙂 Hear, hear. Many, many factors led to Trump’s win. Thanks for countering the revisionist history being spun.
@tiffany. I think the hypothesis that throws this in the face of recent voter laws may have some merit, but not enough to account for the sizesble downturn in participation . “there has not been enough data collected to determine the (voting) laws’ impact on the (2016) election”……this is according to The Brennan Center for Justice, nonpartisan law and policy institute. This was the lowest turnout in 2 decades, You simply can’t discount that Obamas messsge garnered votes in 2008. HRCS in 2016 garnered apathy, And while I agree at shenanigans that exist, it is damn hard to believe there were “the” cause of this loss for the democrats. A contributing factor? Can certainly be hypothesized — and I believe there are pockets where it is true. But it was way more than that and a refusal to look within the Democratic Party at itself is an Achilles heel if not a fatal flaw. How do you explain the dip in millennial votes? People like football player colin k and Kanye west saying they didn’t vote ! , I agree it was multi factorial….but downplaying the Democratic Party’s own part in the creation of voter apathy is s huge mistake. A bigly one, 😜
Again…the pbs coverage on the topic is factual without partisan spin. Good reads. Thanks for the respectful dialogue.
I completely disagree. Obama needed to push back against some of the nonsense coming out from the Clinton campaign, in particular, when they started to blame the WH for her loss. Hillary lost this on her own. And Obama is being nice enough to not say that Joe Biden would have won this in a landslide. Obama made a huge mistake backing Hillary as his successor. WIth her incredibly high negatives she was never going to win.
Agreed her camp is trying to blame almost everyone but themselves. From the later stories that have come out they mishandled a lot…including ignoring some of their other offices when they pointed out they were losing ground to trump.
Michelle did not have to come out for HRC. Neither did Barack but they did. That wasn’t enough and yes people stayed home instead of voting. That’s a problem. I do believe Joe would’ve been a great candidate. I get why he didn’t run
I agree with you re Biden and HRC. BIden would have beat Trump. HRC Was never going to win. For all the comments re the popular votes…….she won California HUGE ……wasn’t it by 5 million? The rest of the states she won were by much slimmer numbers, (Hey maybe she can be president of #Calexit!). And it was the wrong states anyway….her campaign strategy was flawed.
It’s no secret Obama and the Clintons didn’t have much love lost, He delayed backing her out of his distaste for her. Finally Valerie and Michelle sternly pushed him into it …..And he hated it.
I think these blame conversations are becoming endless and futile. It is over. We all need to focus on fighting what is coming at us because it is going to be devastating and horrible instead of arguing who did what to whom and how so and so should have done whatever differently six months ago. (and no, Bernie would not have won against Trump either.) On January 20, Trump takes office and he has already done damage to our relationship with China and our relationships with other nations and the UN and he and those unethical clones he spawned are just raring to rip this country off for their own financial gains.
My philosophy is this : The conversations are only futile if change doesn’t come from them once the issues are appropriately explored. But first we must seek to understand. Try and not be blind to the truth we may not like and let go of unsubstantiated preconceptions. Fight for policy change on matters you disagree with, advocate for issues of importance, stay focused, use our individual voices wisely and productively.
(Shrugs). But that’s just me, Your mileage will vary.
Even his Merry Christmas tweet sounds threatening. What a horrible nightmare.
He should never, ever make a fist again if he wants to convince us that he doesn’t have tiny hands.
My gosh, that’s the tiniest fist I’ve ever seen on a male of any species.
Right, like Lil Kevin from ASIP, he’s got the little hand. Lil Donald’s more mixed up than a milkshake.
wrong spot. sorry
The orange one will be tiny fist bumping Putin. We are in trouble.
Shambs: bwaaa haa haaa! You know he’s bragging at parties, “Do you guys want to see a bigly trick? I can fit my whole fist in my mouth!”
Of course Trump and the deplorables are seizing on Obama’s comment. Pettiness, defensiveness and straight up lying seem to be the only form of “discourse” these people are capable of. I’m numb.
And that Merry Christmas photo of Trump with his fist raised…what the actual f$%k?
And a fourth term, and a fifth term, and….
And, oh yeah, fvck you, trump. Lying conman, thief, racist, (acused)rapist, abuser, POS. Drop dead.
Obama was baiting him. He’s trying to keep us from normalizing him by reminding us that all it takes is one comment to set him in a tizzy.
Everything this side of worship is baiting in the Orange Abomination’s world.
They planned This together.they don’t want Israel and China to know about their good cop bad cop arrangement. Too tin foil?
You guys, I seriously cannot stomach the sight of Trump. Every time I see his knock-off Birkin bag of a face, I just feel this rage rising in my throat and I want to hit something. I’m almost hoping he gets us nuked because then at least I won’t have to look at him anymore.
I think this is the pic that should be used all the time because all I see is his baby fist. Was the rattle airbrushed out?
Knock-off Birkin bag…😆😆😆
I keep hoping for the inevitable impeachment.
I don’t think the Republicans would ever impeach one of their own. They’ll probably give him the chance to step down “graciously,” and he’ll claim he did what he set out to do just by winning (which I still believe was the only goal of EVERYONE working on his campaign, or else they would’ve studied up on what being president actually entailed) and let Mike Pence take over.
I’m guessing that it’s the GOP’s plan. Unless he gets a clue, grabs the money and runs. Still. Pence. Terrifying. There’s gotta be good dirt on him.
Pence’s policies are truly awful, but I would take him 1000 times over Trump. I don’t fear Pence will start a war because the leader of China said something mean about him.
Me too … but I worry the spineless Republican Congress is going to take forever to finally reach the point where they say enough, and choose to act.
They are not spineless. Paul Ryan plans to use Trump as a cover and a diversion. Ryan will do exactly as he wants unhindered while the media and public are distracted by Trump’s antics. Ryan will tear apart everything that makes this country great and nobody will release what he has done until it is too late because everyone will have been distracted by Trump. To Ryan, Trump is a useful idiot but he made have overplayed his hand internationally, because Putin is more skilled and experienced at being a puppetmaster than Ryan is.
Ryan and other Congressional leaders KNOW how dangerous Trump is, how he is fundamentally unfit for the office, and they still refuse to act. They are spineless because they are putting the Republican party and it’s policies before the good of the country. Tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% are more important than starting a nuclear war.
@lightpurple, i said the same thing, he thinks Putin is his friend. Putin has no friends, and Trump and America will soon find that out
@Cynthia, and I think that is one major reason why the lead Republicans do not want the Russian hack investigated. McConnell knows it will take him down. Ryan is still too smart for his own and our good. He thinks he can handle Putin; he cannot. And if Trump starts a war with China, Putin can just sit back and watch us destroy one another and reap the benefits and Ryan won’t be able to do anything to prevent it. Ryan could have blocked Trump before the convention with a rules change but decided against it because he thought he could use him and he still will use him to rip apart all our social programs but he totally ignored the international relations aspect of the presidency, which is where Trump will get us killed.
The republicans will never impeach him. They don’t even want to investigate Russia’s involvement in the election, nor do they seem to care about his multiple conflicts of interest. Republicans only care that their party is in power, and beyond that, their only concern is maintaining power at all costs (see: North Carolina).
And as hmmm noted, even if they did impeach him, Pence is just as bad (albeit not as unstable).
Well, if Russia’s involvement were investigated, Mitch McConnell could very well be facing charges of treason. He knew, he did nothing to stop it, he personally benefited.
I think they will. They’re probably waiting a bit but I don’t think he will survive his term. He’s too unpredictable and unsteady. Pence is easier to control and will fall in line with whatever the GOP want to do. The only problem is that Trump is a clown and knows how to get attention, so while he’s making an ass of himself on Twitter and at rallies they can be doing God knows what and the media fall for it every time. They don’t want to speak up or investigate any allegations because if they are true then that brings forth a lot of problems for them and they lose all this power that fell into their laps.
What are the odds against Trump surviving his term of office?
I think if the republicans don’t push him out to save their own jobs, then the CIA will take care of him.
He is too unstable and rich people like things to be stable.
I’m thinking some very very wealthy Chinese businessmen might… Too much House of Cards?
Very low. He’s not going to want to do any work or make any tough decisions, and I think the GOP would like to bump him out of the way for Pence. Who is also very, very scary, but probably not as likely to start WWIII.
Trump is an idiot. Obamacare – such a disaster, over 20 million Americans were able to get insurance coverage! ISIS – the groundwork for them was laid by GW Bush and his ill-advised war against Iraq. Market up 10% – you’re not even POTUS yet, so I think Obama gets to take credit for that one.
All things considered, Obama has been a great president. He has held the office with grace and dignity and, had it not been for the obstructionist Republican Congress, we would be much better off than we already are (the ACA likely would have included a public option, we’d probably have paid maternity leave, higher minimum wage, universal gov’t subsidized preschool, gun control, etc. etc.).
It’s amusing to me that Trump thinks he brings hope when he is already increasing the threat of nuclear war and he’s not even in office yet. And he and his Republican buddies want to privatize medicare and Social Security, stop medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood, increase taxes for single moms/the middle class while slashing them for the wealthy and corporations, privatize education, and give huge tax incentives to companies like Carrier, who will use those tax incentives to automate and eliminate jobs in the U.S. – just to name a few of their horrific plans for this country. The only people who are “hopeful” at the idea of a Trump presidency are the wealthy/corporations (but if they were smart, even they wouldn’t be. We’ll all be dead if Trump starts a nuclear war).
They filed a bill two weeks ago that would pretty much eliminate Social Security and they want to do more than just stop Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood, they want to eliminate Medicaid entirely. Ryan has spelled this all out repeatedly and right now, there is very little to stop him from tearing down all social services programs.
I hope all those seniors that voted Trump enjoy their new reality.
They’ll probably be grandfathered in. It is those coming up, the people age 50-65 who won’t have enough time to make up the losses through their own investments who will suffer.
LP – I doubt that the grandfathering will last. It is too unlikely that they would keep the old systems open for a steadily decreasing number of oldsters as we head into our seventies, eighties, and nineties and need more and more medical care and have zero opportunities to earn more money. We will be screwed along with the younger ones if Ryan has his way. He’s going to drive many senior citizens into poverty with his plans to trash Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. And we’ll see more and more smaller hospitals close when ACA is trashed, which means people will die during the ambulance ride more often and people will have trouble getting to hospitals for tests even if they have money to pay for them. Loss of the ACA will outright kill people who rely on it now for expensive medication and other treatment that keeps them alive.
Julp – that was my thought exactly. He picked things that would have worked very much in Obama’s favor. Especially the ACA – which is actually quite popular even though it has a huge gap in the middle (people not poor enough for subsidies, not rich enough to pay full price). The big problem with ACA is no public option so it relies on the same crooks who have been jacking up premiums and deductibles routinely long before the ACA. A surprising number of Trump voters are unhappy to find out that 1) he really does want to trash the ACA that they need or 2) what they thought was a state plan (that they need…) is actually Obamacare under a different local name.
I don’t think Trump has figured out yet that he’s reading the charts wrong and unemployment is actually at a record low and Obama saved/created millions of jobs. Thanks, Obama. Meanwhile, the Trumps continue to outsource labor and materials to China and Vietnam for their clothing lines, and continue to import cheap labor from Eastern Europe for their resorts and such.
Trump also hasn’t paid attention to non-fake news about ISIS, which has been pushed into a much smaller territory recently. I don’t think that counts as a failure.
I am dissapointed that Obama is not using his Veto against the anti Israel Resolution of theUNO.
Netanjahu can be too much sometimes, but Israel is the only stable Partner of the USA in the middle east.
Before anyone here starts with, poor Palestinians, please people, Fatah reigning were the jewish settlements are, and they are not killing each other all the time.
In the Gaza Zone, the Killers of HAMAS enjoying the enourmous amounts of Money they get every year from the UNO.
In Gaza all settlements are gone, but hamas is still killing.
I didn’t want Obama to veto the resolution. I think it takes an incredible amount of arrogance to behave the way Netanyahu has, and then think that this administration would come to his aid. Not to mention that the resolution serves to condemn settlements. Settlements are an enemy of progress as well as an illegal land grab and should be condemned.
Why is my reply gone?
The settlements are unfair to the settlers, also. Whenever the political wind shifts, they risk losing not only their homes but also their entire community. It has happened before. They’re being used as pawns by the Israeli government.
100% disagree. Netanhyu is not just a “little too much sometimes”, he is a criminal. The “poor Palestinians” are not just an after-thought, they are a group of individuals being bullied, murdered and suppressed by a country which has for far too long, enjoyed unquestionable support and money from the US. Settlements absolutely must be condemned and I can only hope Obama continues with his plan to not veto. For once the US abstaining, will allow the UN to action the stopping of illegal settlements, an action wich should have been taken years ago.
Dear Sarah what are you going to say to Palestinians that work in these settlements for
these evil bad Jews, they earn better money there, than in every surrounding, good not-jewish Country.
These held down tortured Palestinians in the West Jordan Land, were the settlements are even got more rights there, than in every surrounding not-jewish Country.
But yes, how wrong for these evil jews to give work for this innocent Palestinians.
How bad of these evil jews to allow every different kind of muslim believe to live in evil Israel.
How bad from these evil Israel Jews that they give Refuge for homosexuells of muslim belief, that would be killed in their own perfect, good not-jewish Country.
How dare these evil Israelis.
Regardless of what one thinks of the Palestine/Israel conflict, the UN is there for a REASON. The US has no business holding the will of the international community hostage by continually vetoing resolutions that express it, in the service of a single nation that is violating international law. (Britain also does this, so it’s not just the US: it’s my country too). It’s an abuse of permanent member status on the Security Council. There are 192 member nations. What gives the US the right to override 190 of them?
Same goes for the Orange One, who responded to news of the abstention by tweeting one of his veiled threats to the UN. Yet another stain on the international reputation of the United States. Trump is not bigger or more important than the UN, thankyouverymuch. For all its imperfections, it’s there for a REASON.
Personally, I’m a supporter of the right of Israel to exist. I’m also a supporter of Palestinian rights and especially the right to self-determination. I’m against the current Israeli administration just as I’ll be against the forthcoming US administration – because both have viciously right wing ideologies and I’m a card carrying leftie. Nothing to do with Palestine.
The US has the nominal right to divert the will of all other member states because the UN is a product of war, the permanent members of the Security Council being the victors of WWII. Yeah, it’s bizarre and self-sabotaging, much like the UN itself, the result of pretty American mix of self-service and idealism, where one does not contradict the other, because “America is destiny” and so on.
Every time I try to read more about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict I get a short term headache and a long lasting heartache. It’s clear though these relations are untenable and past justification.
Exactly. It’s all very manifest destiny (and I include Britain in that). We are not allowing the UN to evolve as an institution but rather holding it hostage to power orders, and then we all moan that it’s toothless!
I pray I am sleeping and having the worst nightmare of my life (where the Orange one is actually the president of USA . Then I wake up and Barack Obama is still president and will be for 8 more years.
Pence may be worse or better than trump but I don’t think he’s the same at all. Abortion rights is his main issue, right? So that’s ONE thing. But most things that people can’t stand about trump don’t apply to pence at all. Temperament, tax, businesses, bankruptcy, personal, alledged sexual assault, Twitter, flippant comments about immigrants… These are the major things people see as disqualifying right?
Pence is a reasonably stable personality, although incredibly ignorant about science and not the brightest bulb on the tree. He is a Creationist and believes the Earth is 6000 years old, and put many Creationists into the educational ssystem as governor here Indiana. He has done so much damage to the state on so many issues that the Republican running for governor (as well as others) never even mentioned him, he would have been a liability.
Pence will be a major problem in many ways, but he is not so likely to blow up the planet as Trump. That’s good enough for me. We have to survive before we can fight him and the Ryan Republicans on other issues.
Just wanted to thank you (and many others, including lightpurple) for educative comments hereabouts, jwoolman. It’s giving this Britisher a better understanding of the predicament you guys find yourselves in.
Obama would have won, and I’m sure Orange Turd knows it or he would have run against him in 2012. Obama’s approval rating is over 50%, which is pretty good for a President.
I loathe Trump. Loathe. But I gotta say I am not so certain Obama could have beat him. Trump has his followers convinced Obama has ruined America. It’s completely untrue, but I think it could’ve helped Trump against Obama. It wouldn’t have been a sure Dem victory.
Also, can we talk about the nuclear arms race Agent Orange wants to start? Terrifying.
He’s going to start a war with China, knocking both countries out, to Putin’s delight.
Yeah. I think his aim is to drive a wedge between China and Russia. Given all that OBOR/New Silk Road Eurasian integration stuff making them natural allies, it actually makes sense. Much as I’d rather not give the Orange One any credit.
The thing is, if you’re going to drive the wedge by putting us all at risk of obliteration by nuke, the nugget of sense behind it disintegrates.
I don’t really think Obama was trying to say “ME, my person,can beat him”. I think he was saying what the people wanted, based on his judgment, wassomeone to stand behind and he seemed to, during his term, unify more people than not.
BHO was a beautiful child and he never lost it.
http://laughingsquid.com/barack-obama-as-a-pirate/
I’d have voted for Barack in a heartbeat. Instead we have President Elect Camacho….I mean Trump.
On a separate note – I’m for a Johnson, Biden 2020 Run…yeah…If only…..
While I absolutely loathe Trump, I think there are many unfortunate elements that led to his election and the seeming demise of our Democratic stronghold. The rise of populism is EVERYWHERE (not just the US) and while HRC’s gender and familial/personal history didn’t help things, I kinda feel that whoever was running, a republican/poseur republican/populist was going to win.
What I think BO should be talking about is how to reconnect the Democratic Party with Middle America. Because somehow the dems have been painted as those liberal rich over educated big city coastal people. (Please don’t attack, I don’t agree with this, just what I’m hearing/reading. I’m a die hard coastal over educated liberal too! Lol)
Part of the problem is that the new left have abandoned the working class and have become too focused on identity politics and glass ceilings. While these are worthy causes working class people are more concerned about jobs and putting food on the table. When the issue of working class unemployment comes up middle class liberals often shrug their shoulders and say “ah well, the economy is in transition,” which is a privileged position to take when you have a job and financial security.
It’s hard to gauge how anyone else would’ve gone against Trump because it was an unpredictable election that defied a lot of expectations.
Oh hey dad! Didn’t know you were into this site
The Orange moron posted a tweet this evening with the word “recieved.” Somebody didn’t learn the “i before e except after c” rule in the fancy schools he attended. He deleted it.
Obama has a 57% approval rating, Trump is 43%.
Even some republicans are happy with the job Obama has done. Just about everything got better under Obama after getting worse under Bush.
Let us take a few moments to meditate on the last eight years.
•The U.S. is still bogged down in Iraq.
•The U.S. military is still protecting poppy fields in Afghanistan. It’s been America’s longest poppy field protection operation. And its longest war.
•The first black president expanded AFRICOM and the shadow wars and classified drone operations in Africa.
•He also destroyed Libya, the most prosperous, developed nation in North Africa. As expected, his justification for doing so was later revealed to be massive baloney bullshit.
•He “created a secret drones program to kill terrorist suspects worldwide without public acknowledgement or due process. Under his watch, the US has expanded the field of battle in the “war on terrorism” to a dozen countries and constructed institutions and routines of surveillance and assassination – such as the so-called ‘disposition matrix’ and ‘Terror Tuesdays’ that will have serious consequences beyond his presidency.”
•Then there’s Ukraine. Don’t even get us started.
•The “Asia pivot” is also working out great. So glad that we’re now provoking the Chinese in an ocean called the South China Sea.
•And of course, there’s Syria. The Obama administration’s greatest, most moderate success.
•In general, everything is terrible.
Half full, half empty … there are pros and cons to everything. But let’s do get you started on the Ukraine where Putin’s puppet, Trump, has plans to help Putin retain Crimea and freely expand some territories Russia lost post WW2.
How Crimea happened has similarities to how p*ssygrabbing conman Trump won Florida by a margin. Trump was corrupted by Russia years ago through financial dealings, particularly in Florida. The same American who helped a pro-Russian president win in the Ukraine prior to Russia taking Crimea also helped Trump in his early campaign. Russia is salivating waiting for Trump to become their golden goose and ticket to a new world order. Russia couldn’t be happier about Brexit and the American Republican pasties who will help comrade Trump’s disruption of Western alliances and democracies. The fact that Comey, as part of the FBI, had a hand in helping Trump win shows he and Trump both should be charged with treason.
I’ve often thought we had a military coup many years ago but nobody told us… It seems with every President, stuff like this goes on. The Democrats do seem less inclined in recent decades to get us into big wars, but they have some trouble getting us out of them and the warlets continue. And Guantanamo remains open, even though many years ago the Pentagon itself admitted most of the people there (at least 80% to 90%) were just rounded up by bounty hunters after the bounty and really hadn’t done anything. It all seems to have a life of its own, no matter who is President.
Now with Trump having his finger on the nuclear button, though, the idea of a military coup isn’t quite as uncomfortable. Better that than the kind of damage The Tweeter can do.
First Melania copied Michelle, and now Trump???
use your brains and come out with your own thoughts Trumps!