Barack Obama: The pandemic tore back the curtain that people in charge are competent

Michael Buble honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

When you graduated from high school, did you feel like that was your entrance into adulthood? As I watched Barack Obama’s 2020 commencement address, I asked myself that. He’s obviously speaking to an entirely new generation, but when I was 17 years old, I didn’t know sh-t. I still think that the bigger “rite of passage” for me was getting my driver’s license and getting a part-time job the next week. But yeah… I didn’t feel like an adult when I graduated high school. Nor did I feel very adult-y when I graduated college, but whatever. Anyway, Obama’s commencement was well-received, and of course he threw some well-deserved shade on Donald Bigly.

Without the springtime rituals of traditional graduation ceremonies, former President Barack Obama delivered two virtual commencement addresses on Saturday, urging millions of high school and college graduates to fearlessly carve a path and “to seize the initiative” at a time when he says the nation’s leaders have fumbled the response to the coronavirus pandemic. The speeches, aired hours apart, combined the inspirational advice given to graduates — build community, do what is right, be a leader — with pointed criticism of the handling of an outbreak that has killed more than 87,000 Americans and crippled much of the economy.

“More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing,” Mr. Obama said in his first address, directed at graduates of historically black colleges and universities. “A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”

Although Mr. Obama did not mention President Trump by name, some saw his comments as criticism of his successor.

In speeches that spoke to social inequities, Mr. Obama said the pandemic was a wake-up call for young adults, showing them the importance of good leadership and that “the old ways of doing things just don’t work.”

“Doing what feels good, what’s convenient, what’s easy — that’s how little kids think,” he said during a prime time special for high school seniors. “Unfortunately, a lot of so-called grown-ups, including some with fancy titles and important jobs, still think that way — which is why things are so screwed up. I hope that instead, you decide to ground yourself in values that last, like honesty, hard work, responsibility, fairness, generosity, respect for others.”

[From The New York Times]

“A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge…” Yeah. It was about Trump, but more about the Republican party as a whole. The GOP spent decades running for public office by mocking the government, then once they became a part of the government, they dismantled it for the American oligarchy. Sorry to all the youths – this country is f–ked and it will take more than a generation to fix it.

Meanwhile:

You can see Obama’s commencement below:

Andrew Gillum Campaigns with Former US President Barack Obama

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

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58 Responses to “Barack Obama: The pandemic tore back the curtain that people in charge are competent”

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  1. Lightpurple says:

    Obama was the President we needed but don’t deserve Saturday night.

    • Traveler says:

      Hear, hear!

    • Lucky says:

      My daughter is a 2020 graduate. We watched as a family and all cried. It’s hard to imagine how different this would all be if we had an actual president, let alone if we had President Obama. 💗

  2. Chica1971 says:

    Anybody know the ratings for this commencement?

    Will we ever get another real president? I feel like November is too far away and will be a nightmare ofveoic proportions. The criminality that will take place if Trump loses …

    • Darla says:

      Yeah me too. I don’t actually feel there’s a way out of this. I hope I’m wrong.

    • tempest prognosticator says:

      It won’t be easy and it won’t be quick, but we will recover from Trump’s reign of darkness.

    • Lightpurple says:

      The ratings were very high.

    • whatWHAT? says:

      you KNOW the ratings were sky-freakin’-high, and that’s going to KILL the orange thing that sits in the WH. If I were a nastier person, I’d say that I hope he strokes out when he sees the numbers.

    • Lady D says:

      “The criminality that will take place if Trump loses…” I was fully expecting to read the word wins, not loses. I think sadly, we’re both right.

  3. KellyRyan says:

    I grew slowly into adulthood, very slowly. Knowledge, coupled with experience = time. President Dodo couldn’t resist going before a microphone making a negative comment about Obama and quickly strutting his bulbous body away.

  4. Darla says:

    I loved watching him, and I watched the entire thing, but mostly to see Obama. I did think it was all enjoyable though. It gives me great satisfaction to see President Obama keep talking. I felt like I was having a brain hemorrhage when Mitch McConnell said he should keep his mouth shut. Can you imagine! First of all, it’s not actually true that former presidents haven’t criticized subsequent presidents. But most importantly, name me the president who referred to his predecessor as “human scum” and a criminal?

    They really think this animal can do and say and smear whatever and whomever he wants and everyone else has to follow precedent. And that’s how we got here. By applying different rules to trump.

    • Esmom says:

      Yes. I read an interesting article in the New Yorker about the rise of Trump among the super wealthy in Greenwich CT and elsewhere. It points out how at some point, they were able to set any semblance of morality aside (using the college admissions scandal as one example) and therefore no matter what disgusting things Trump says or does, it really doesn’t matter to them as long as they get their tax cuts and deregulation. Those are apparently the things they care about most, not the SCOTUS as many people think.

      • Darla says:

        I missed that article, and I usually read it every week. I wish I had read it, this feels very correct to me.

      • aang says:

        I read that. It was disgusting but not surprising. Economists working with scarcity models from Malthus, Ricardo, and Marx, to today’s Piketty and Hanauer predict this. Capitalism will spiral out of control. The decades of growth and relative low income disparity we saw between 1945-1975 was an aberration not the rule and was caused by world wars and the depression. Usually the rate of return on capital outpaces the rate of growth on output. That puts all the wealth in the hands of a few. Capitalism needs strong regulation or it can not be compatible with democracy.

      • Darla says:

        oh thank you! awesome

      • SamC says:

        Sad to say my parents voted for Trump. They are not wealthy or elites in any way. They also live in NJ, in a NY suburb, so know how awful a businessman Trump was/is as well as his attitude towards women, etc. but it all came down to economics and continuing to make sure they would remain financially comfortable in retirement. Both saw their parents struggle financially in their older age, so I understand the financial worries, but I still can’t get past that they both swallowed the morals they taught us to actually pulled the lever for him.

      • Traveler says:

        @SamC……….unless your parents are affluent enough where they do not rely on Social Security and Medicare as part of their retirement plan, they are fooling themselves. Most retirees rely on both to supplement other savings and/or a monthly pension in retirement. It has long been a republican hot flash to defund both and this group is doing its vile best to advance that agenda. This will leave a great majority of average income earners even more insecure once they reach retirement; let alone those already in retirement who currently count on these programs.
        I will never understand how people can vote against their own best interests. Unfortunately, I feel your pain. Most of my extended family are drumpf supporters. I have all but cut them out of my life. Growing up, I really had no idea these people were so hard-hearted.

      • TeamAwesome says:

        I used to teach at a church in the wealthiest suburb in my state. After the election one of the kids said that her mom had voted for Trump even though Trump was a bully. It doesn’t matter how much social justice and love your neighbor they had been a part of thru the church’s teachings, nothing is as important as that investment portfolio.

      • pottymouth pup says:

        @TeamAwesome at first I thought it was just about their financial portfolios but the following statement from that article makes it abundantly clear, it’s not just about staying rich “Of course it was a big, fat mistake,” he told himself. “He says everything I think.” Most people try to add a caveat about not agreeing with the social conservatism but feeling they had to vote Republican, even Trump, for the BS ideal of fiscal conservatism (which just means making everyone but the rich pay the bills, and making sure the rich stay rich) but that guy didn’t include a caveat. In short, it sounds like those nose-in-the-air uber rich are perfectly fine with Trump’s racism and tearing down the civil rights racial/religious minorities and LGTBQIA; they’re also OK with the misogyny because they’ll still be able to afford contraception/abortions for their wives/mistresses/daughters

    • notpretentious says:

      He called Obama human scum, really?! Wow, that is a serious hate on he has for the man. I’ve ranted so hard about dump since his reign of terror, I began to have heart palpitations. We never get a break from his antics, do we? What world is this?!

      • Darla says:

        He said ” the people in that administration” are human scum.

      • holly hobby says:

        He’s one step from using the N word and if he does, will anyone care – except us of course?

  5. Andrew’s Nemesis says:

    Oh, how I revere this man.

  6. manda says:

    I was very worried about being an adult and did not think I was ready, and really wasn’t ready to take over all those responsibilities. And honestly, I still worry about the next level of maturity. Figuring out retirement stuff is hard. I constantly worry I’m not doing enough or started too late.
    I don’t understand how medicare works at all. Growing up, no matter what your age, can be scary and challenging

    • Esmom says:

      I remember the first night I slept in my first apartment after college (college never felt like true independence to me, more of a temporary break from my parents) and feeling so wigged out that I no longer had my parents right there, that I never would again.

      I’ve posted it before but after a few years of working and slowly making my way up the ranks, I figured out that so many people who I’d thought of as older, wiser, more experienced were just making it up as they went along and I could do the same. And then I felt more comfortable making decisions.

      My high school and college graduations didn’t feel super momentous to me, I think mostly because I was ready to move on to the next chapter each time. I felt like the events were more for my parents than for me.

  7. Ange says:

    Ah well. This time next year we’ll be in Biden’s safe hands as he steers the country back in the right direction.

  8. Esmom says:

    He was a welcome sight but holy hell the trashing he took on Twitter yesterday just made my heart hurt. I feel sick just thinking about it again. We have so many utterly deluded, hateful people among us.

    • Lucy2 says:

      Twitter is a cesspool.
      Anytime I look at it, it makes me angry, upset, and depressed. I’m done with it.

      • Esmom says:

        I hear you. I only joined in 2016 after Trump was elected — not to follow him but to follow the people covering him. I used to think the good outweighed the bad but now, not so much. The trolls have really taken over (Don Junior himself included) and it feels like goodness and truth will never prevail.

      • Valerie says:

        yeah, I’m spending less time there now too. It’s just too whacked-out for me. You CAN curate your feed so that you have less of a chance of bumping into a covidiot, but they’re pretty much everywhere now… And because I’m followed by and am following a lot of resisters from before, I still see a lot of that stuff in their threads. I’ve blocked some keywords, but it still gives you the option to click and see the tweet. which I sometimes do.

    • aang says:

      He should take strength from the haters. It means he is continuing to succeed at being the most popular, successful, intelligent, compassionate, well spoken leader we have had in my lifetime. And he is doing all those things while being black. The racists can’t stand it.

    • Tiffany :) says:

      I saw a lot of positive coverage on Twitter. #ObamaWasBetterAtEverything was trending the highest the next morning.

  9. SamC says:

    It’s silly, but I felt like an adult when I bought a washer/dryer. A car wasn’t a big deal, but appliances were such a grown up purchase.

    And can’t remember where I read it, but somewhere over the weekend was a story about Trump being excluded from the Former President’s club when he’s out of office. It cracked me up cause you know he wants to be part of the popular group SO badly, no matter what he Tweets otherwise.

    • TIFFANY says:

      Mine was furniture. When my entire college existence was hand me downs and Goodwill purchases.

      Buying a new bed and furniture when I left my college apt to my ‘adult’ apt was when I knew this was it.

    • Esmom says:

      That’s not silly to me at all. You can buy a car even as you’re still living with your parents but buying appliances signals that you are really on your own.

      Trump quickly burned the bridge to the Former President’s club, so sad. He could never be a part of anything like that, which requires humility and grace and gravitas.

    • Jerusha says:

      It’s in the new book Team of Five. There’s no I in Team.

  10. shanaynay says:

    Love Obama!!!! The Republicans and DUMP supporters all have their heads up their a**es, and their lips glued to DUMP’S A**!!!!!!!

  11. Rapunzel says:

    Cue the new national anthem

    https://youtu.be/ZkPSbp3zTfo

  12. ooshpick says:

    Canadian here. Truth chills! This is real talk and presidents rarely do that. Great job Obama.

    • pineapple says:

      Canadian here also. So happy Obama spoke up … I love when people of power speak honestly about Trump. It seems so wrong, the absolute corruption of that office under Trump. Perhaps Obama just had enough.

    • Jaded says:

      Another Canadian here – Obama clearly isn’t afraid of bigly bad Donnie and probably laughs his head off when he spews out childish Twitter vitriol about him. It just makes him look more and more foolish.

  13. KBeth says:

    I really miss having a president who isn’t an absolute embarrassment.

  14. bettyrose says:

    Even objectively, it was an amazing speech (I expected nothing less) because he didn’t lecture kids about voting and taking responsibility. He praised them for beautifully handling their abrupt transition into adulthood and told them they have the right to make this their country. I think that’s the right way to get them fired up for November. Thoughts from those of you who watched this with your teens?

    • Onemoretime says:

      I have a college graduate who is meh on the whole graduation ceremony, just glad they are done with school. She stated as I felt she missed Barack so very much. I shed a tear because we are living in the Twilight Zone meets Outer Limits currently.
      And a high school graduate who said virtual graduation ceremonies are unacceptable for them & did not want to watch anyone’s commencement including their own. Lol

      • Bettyrose says:

        Thanks for sharing. I’m glad your kids are handling it well. When I graduated in the very different early 90s, our high school principal gave an awful speech warning us that we can’t slow down..stay competitive or we’d fall behind, so I love that Obama was like “I promise you high school graduation ceremonies are forgettable.” LOL.

  15. Busyann says:

    I’ve been pretty….meh….with politics and the coronavirus stuff. I’m trying to not get bogged down in it. Not watch cable news obsessively. Not think about what is happening. It’s scary and deep down I am scared out of my mind that he will be re-elected. I honestly dont think we can make it another 4 years.

  16. Kyre says:

    Don’t you mean ‘incompetent’ in the title?

  17. Sean says:

    OBAMAGATE! It’s been going on for a long time. Terrible things happened. You know what the crime is. The crime is very obvious to everyone. All you have to do is watch Youtube.

    April 30th, 2011. NEVER FORGET!

    https://youtu.be/HCkTzqIW-qw

  18. Regina Falangie says:

    I didn’t feel like an adult then and I don’t feel like an adult now. It’s so strange. As a kid I thought I would feel like I have everything figured out by this age. I don’t. I’m winging it day by day!!!

  19. Sara says:

    This!!! I so miss this man! Barack thank you.