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babylonsister

(171,663 posts)
Tue Feb 9, 2016, 07:19 AM Feb 2016

I Miss Barack Obama

Oh my stars, David Brooks no less. On this we agree.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/opinion/i-miss-barack-obama.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

I Miss Barack Obama
David Brooks FEB. 9, 2016


Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times


As this primary season has gone along, a strange sensation has come over me: I miss Barack Obama. Now, obviously I disagree with a lot of Obama’s policy decisions. I’ve been disappointed by aspects of his presidency. I hope the next presidency is a philosophic departure.

But over the course of this campaign it feels as if there’s been a decline in behavioral standards across the board. Many of the traits of character and leadership that Obama possesses, and that maybe we have taken too much for granted, have suddenly gone missing or are in short supply.

The first and most important of these is basic integrity. The Obama administration has been remarkably scandal-free. Think of the way Iran-contra or the Lewinsky scandals swallowed years from Reagan and Clinton.

We’ve had very little of that from Obama. He and his staff have generally behaved with basic rectitude. Hillary Clinton is constantly having to hold these defensive press conferences when she’s trying to explain away some vaguely shady shortcut she’s taken, or decision she has made, but Obama has not had to do that.

He and his wife have not only displayed superior integrity themselves, they have mostly attracted and hired people with high personal standards. There are all sorts of unsightly characters floating around politics, including in the Clinton camp and in Gov. Chris Christie’s administration. This sort has been blocked from team Obama.

snip//

Obama radiates an ethos of integrity, humanity, good manners and elegance that I’m beginning to miss, and that I suspect we will all miss a bit, regardless of who replaces him.

7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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I Miss Barack Obama (Original Post) babylonsister Feb 2016 OP
Not the first time either BeyondGeography Feb 2016 #1
No Drama Obama Dems to Win Feb 2016 #2
+100 narnian60 Feb 2016 #4
ah, you beat me to it! MBS Feb 2016 #3
Most definitely. brer cat Feb 2016 #5
I'm going to miss him, too. greatauntoftriplets Feb 2016 #6
Take that Marco Roboto, with your mechanical and maniacal Surya Gayatri Feb 2016 #7

BeyondGeography

(40,056 posts)
1. Not the first time either
Tue Feb 9, 2016, 07:25 AM
Feb 2016

that he has praised Obama's integrity. He always feels the need to point out that he really doesn't approve of the President as President (without giving specifics). But he's so darn presidential. Maybe he's actually a good President? Nah.

 

Dems to Win

(2,161 posts)
2. No Drama Obama
Tue Feb 9, 2016, 07:33 AM
Feb 2016

I have definitely noted, and greatly appreciated, the lack of personal scandal in this Administration.

Pres Obama is an extraordinary human being, with amazing interpersonal skills and tremendous grace and restraint and dignity in his personal demeanor.

And Michelle's pretty special, too.

brer cat

(26,411 posts)
5. Most definitely.
Tue Feb 9, 2016, 08:26 AM
Feb 2016
"Obama radiates an ethos of integrity, humanity, good manners and elegance that I’m beginning to miss, and that I suspect we will all miss a bit, regardless of who replaces him."
 

Surya Gayatri

(15,445 posts)
7. Take that Marco Roboto, with your mechanical and maniacal
Tue Feb 9, 2016, 01:21 PM
Feb 2016

anti-Obama tirades.

Obama radiates an ethos of integrity, humanity, good manners and elegance that I’m beginning to miss, and that I suspect we will all miss a bit, regardless of who replaces him.


The contrast between BHO's genuinely decent 7+ years in office and the seedy 2016 electoral spectacle will become ever more apparent to the American public and electorate.

HE WILL BE MISSED.
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