Tags
Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Farewell Address, Inaugural Address, President Obama, President-elect Trump
I had a professor in college who continually taught that “It is not what you say but what you do that counts.” That standard, he believed, could be applied to judging how you treat your mother, how a leader leads his country, or to how a nation acts in the international world.
President Obama’s two terms as President ends tomorrow, and while it will take time to fairly judge how well or poorly he lead the nation, in his Farewell Address he has given his version of what he believes he has done and what he has learned in the process.
I had not listened to nor seen Pres. Obama’s Farewell Address until yesterday. If you have not seen nor heard it, it is worth the 51:25 minutes it takes to listen to and watch it:
President Obama’s Farewell Address
Now we have both his words and his deeds by which to begin to judge what kind of President he has been.
Tomorrow, President-elect Trump’s will be sworn into office. He has already surprised everyone with his victories over the other 16 Republican presidential candidates and with his electoral victory over Hillary Clinton. What he will do as President, not what he says, is now what will be most important.
In some ways he has already begun his Presidency with his choices of those who will help him run the country – his Vice President, his Cabinet officers, and his White House staff. Now his Inaugural Address will give us a further idea of what kind of President he plans to be, what he says he will do, and perhaps how he will do it.
Let’s listen to his Inaugural Address and then focus on what he does and not on what he says.
Joseph Chamberlin said:
True. One can only hope he has a change of heart and his work words ad deeds follow. To date the fear his words and actons have generated remain.
Steve Rafferty said:
There are a lot of things I didn’t like about the Obama administration. His failure to rein in the financial industry when it was in trouble and he had some leverage is one of them. I don’t pretend that it was an easy call to make but basically, in search of stability rather than justice, he sided with capital rather than with the people.
Two other things that I think are more morally clear as failures: his expanded war making in Libya, the Middle East and east Africa — including his expansion of the drone assassination program. If we could truly do surgical strikes on some actors, it might be defensible if still morally questionable. As it is, multiple people become collateral damage with each strike. This is not only morally wrong it is counterproductive if we want to reduce the incidence of terrorist activity.
As for the incoming president, his campaign and his behavior during the transition period, including the egregious bordering on ridiculous cabinet choices, don’t make me very optimistic. I sincerely doubt that decency will suddenly bloom within Trump.
On the other hand, this quote from Goethe’s Faust inspires a spark of hope:
I am part of that power
which eternally wills evil
and eternally works good
Carrie said:
Fair article.
Anon-2 said:
Agreed
Land Wayland said:
If we are going to judge Trump by what he says, that is hopeless. He doesn’t know what he is going to do because no one has told him. His political promises are like his decisions to build hotels. If he likes the idea, says yes and lets others do the entire project and what he does is watch and decide whether he likes what is going on. if he doesn’t, he says so and offers only the most general of reasons why.
All he EVER does is talk in terms of goals but he is NEVER specific until someone else has created the plans. 98% of his campaign promises were vague because they had no substance and had not been thought about in detail by anyone.
That is why he has decided to start with one of the few specific ideas he has talked about…..the WALL (which was not discussed with any one before he said it during one of his rallies and was so impressed at the crowd’s response, he made it a keynote of his campaign).
He couldn’t start with Repeal Obamacare because that was far too broad a target and the most that Congress is going to do is what is done with ALL big new programs; enact it and see what works and try to fix the rest, a process that can take years. But that is not repealing it.
So when WAll does not get approved (not as a physical wall), he will be 0 for 2 and one more failure and he will be finished doing anything difficult with this four-party Congress. (Dem, Rep, Tea Party and Trumpers) since the leadership of the Republican Party unable to control the last two.
Anon-2 said:
I am not a Trump supporter, but I as a conservative, I am grateful of one Obama accomplishment. The gutting of the dem. party. Four more years of Obama, and we’d have 80 repuplican senators and 350 congresspersons……
Jim Kilby said:
Obama and Trump have the same problem. They both feel they are so smart, they don’t need to listen to “other voices”. Obama mistake was he was too dismissive of Republicans and Trump doesn’t listen to anything but the sound of his own voice.
Even if Obamacare wasn’t perfect, it actually got congress to finely do something about health care.
The sad moment was when Trump use a Lincon bible, for his swearing in. The words “With Malice toward none, and charity for all”, never quite made it, to Trump’s idea of stepping on everyone, who doesn’t agree with him.
Jim Kilby said:
Yes, I know Licon is spelled Lincoln. Too early in the morning. Trying to relax, read the paper, and watch a little news on TV. Every channel had the incessant babblings of Lord Donald and it fried my brain.