What A President Sounds Like

Posted on by under Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Free Press Issues, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

What follows is an interview with President Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United Sates.  Listen to his words, watch him … and then compare him to the clown who is currently, as our friend Jeff says, “batshit crazy”.  Need I say more?

This, my friends, is statesmanship, this is how a president who cares about the people in his country speaks, thinks, and acts.

30 thoughts on “What A President Sounds Like”

      • Jill, that’s perfect. Yesterday, I watched that Kümmel interview and i was in tears with joy (yep, also joyful Joyce!), all the fun and depth – a well looking Obama, him being wide awake with witticisms, laughter and kimmel at his best! And now (today) I read your comment and re-find the same link 🙂 We’re thinking alike and I very much like that. Also, thank you for sending me stuff like that. I only rely on international newspapers, YT and such.

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        • My pleasure!!! Yes, I love watching and listening to Obama … it reminds me how a president … or anybody, for that matter … should speak. He has a quiet dignity and grace that is sorely lacking in our ‘leader’ today!

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  3. Apparently the video is only available in the States, but I’m assuming it’s part/whole of the 60 Minutes interview? Saw on Sunday night. Yes, this is what a President sounds like. The world is watching holding our collective breath, wondering what additional damage the idiot can do in the next several weeks and and shaking our heads at the unbelievable video of how the extreme right wingers are reacting. January cannot come soon enough! Fingers crossed.

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    • Oh, I’m so sorry … that seems to be happening a lot lately! But yes, it is a clip from the 60 Minutes interview, so you’ve already seen it.

      Therein lies the problem. He is a man without a conscience, without normal human feelings, and if he is going down, he might well be willing to take the rest of the world down with him. I hope that the saner heads would stop him from doing anything to endanger the world, but those saner heads have been remarkably silent thus far. Thanks for keeping your fingers crossed!

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  4. Jill, there is light year’s difference between the person in the White House and his predecessor, in terms of acting presidential. I did not agree with every thing Obama did, but I did not feel he defamed the office. Today, this president cannot go a day without being one of our worst angels.

    A leadership consultant I would introduce to my clients for coaching their executives would tell me on our many drives around the state, a real leader deflects credit to others and assumes blame even when it may not be due. It is not a stretch to say Donald Trump does the exact opposite of that. This coupled with his mercurial nature and untruthfulness are why Trump cannot keep people. He has the highest turn over rate of any president.

    Keith

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    • I agree with all you say, and would only add that the main difference (apart from the fact that Obama understood the job, whereas Trump has never bothered to try) is that President Obama had a conscience, whereas Trump does not. Trump, once convinced that he’s going down, may well be perfectly willing to take the rest of the world with him.

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      • Jill, I agree, but so does conservative David Brooks who said Trump “does not have sense of decency or empathy.” By the way, a very conservative writer wrote me back on my email saying he/ she wrote a piece chiding the president on firing Chris Krebs and the president’s wide spread fraud claims. I have not seen it yet. Keith

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        • Brooks is quite right … I find there is very little to even classify Trump as a human being. Interesting that even his own side sees how wrong he was to fire Krebs … but, will it stop them from supporting him? Doubtful.

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      • “but to deescalate, but it’s important for us not to let ourselves off the hook and think this is just a police problem because those shootings, that devaluation of life, is part and parcel with a legacy of discrimination and Jim Crow and segregation, that we’re all responsible for. If we’re going to actually put an end to racial bias in the criminal justice system, then we’re going to have to work on doing something about racial bias in corporate America and bias in where people can buy homes. ”
        Exactly.
        It’s also this idea that some people have that there is plenty of opportunity, and there really is not. Opportunity is hoarded, and those few exceptions who are held up has having succeeded in spite of the odds are not the norm, because so few real opportunities exist.

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        • I second your ‘Exactly’! I did not realize until the last … oh, 12 years … how racist this nation still is. I thought we had, for the most part, overcome much of it, but once President Obama took office, I began to see how even some of my friends made up derogatory names for him and criticized his every move. When Michelle was criticized for wearing a sleeveless dress, while Melania was accepted despite her past as a nude model, that spoke volumes. Obama was criticized even for wearing a tan-coloured suit! No rhyme nor reason … people just seized on anything to criticize or mock him. And that’s when I realized that … racism in this country might have been hiding under rocks, but it has never gone away. Sigh.

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          • This is something that the Black Community has been trying to say (well, I’ve been trying to say it in different ways) for years, but every mention of racism or slavery was rebuffed, even still, but it has always been frustrating (and often interesting to see how people up north or out west guard themselves once they know I’m Black).
            But an open problem is one that can eventually be solved.

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            • You are so right … a single example is the undying loyalty to the confederate flag. I used to think, “Well, it’s a part of history, not the prettiest part, but still … history. In the past decade or two, I’ve come to view it differently, as a symbol of hate that has no place displayed in town squares, government buildings, or on people’s pickup trucks. It took me a while, but I’ve learned a lot in the past decade or two. I cringe when I hear someone say, “I’m not a racist, but …” That but tells me all I need to know. Sigh. I like to think you’re right, that the problem can eventually be solved, but when you look back through history, it seems that prejudice has been a part of the human race forever, and I wonder, if we haven’t learned after all these years, will we ever?

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              • No, we will never stop having biases, but we can certainly train ourselves to prevent or at least recognize our prejudices, and stop short of acting senselessly on them.
                I think that the Quakers have a good point, when they say that ‘an unexamined life is a life half led’ or to that effect (oops, looked it up: apparently my Quaker friend got it mostly a bit differently from Socrates…): we cannot live as fully aware human beings, taking advantage of our faculties for human thought (as opposed to basic survival and fear thoughts, which are lizard-brain!) until we learn to check our knee-jerk reactions before they translate into action and then into habit (and then into a mitzvah, as the Jewish saying goes…).
                Sorry for the rant.
                Maybe I should post this sometime?

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                • Far too many people these days don’t bother with thinking, but rather rely on those knee-jerk reactions. No need to apologize for ranting, my friend … I do it all the time. I seem to be angry most of the time these days … angry and depressed. I want the world to be different, but I feel powerless to help make it so. Yes ma’am … you should definitely post it! Hugs, Shira.

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    • What is WRONG with people, my friend? Has the whole world gone off its rocker? Yes, the middle ground is definitely gone … there seems to be no compromise, no meeting of the minds, no give-and-take. How do we move forward if we cannot even listen to the other side? I’m knackered of it all (see, I’ve picked up some UK words!) … it seems pointless to try to reason, to explain, to provide facts. Sigh.

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