Obama - "I will not apologize for the Bergdahl swap"

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Danzig

my oldest and i were discussing presidents yesterday.

when was the last good one? ike?

anyone who voted for obama has to be wondering if there's a return policy, he's been one disappointment after another.

I respectfully disagree; he's governed about how anyone who follows politics closely would have expected him to govern, and perhaps a bit more successfully, especially in light of how dysfunctional Congress has become. The big thing about Obama is he doesn't knee-jerk react very often; he usually takes time before making a decision. This is very UnAmerican, as we prefer our politicians to leap up and make snap decisions, preferably before all the facts are in, and if the facts don't match what they want to do, to make them up (see: Iraq, 2003).

I'm sorry some here are angry that I brought up Iraq, but those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, or rather, the kids who signed up to serve their country are doomed because the rich and powerful are never held liable for anything. Charles Pierce has a very, very powerful op-ed in Esquire; I recommend it:

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politic...At_The_Present

And it's just not correct to claim that people were ripping Bush and Iraq the way they now shred Obama over Syria and Iraq, Phase 2. Ashely Banleigh tried to tell the truth and her career took a nosedive that she wouldn't have recovered from had she not agreed to start playing the game. The NYTimes played the game. People who questioned the invasion were accused of being terrorist supporters. I remember. And now the attitude is, "Well, that's in the past, what is the President doing NOW" but the NOW is because of this past.

Worst f*cking decision ever made by a US President was Ford pardoning Nixon. From then on, it was very clear that Presidents were above the law (unless they lied about blow jobs, because SEX), and, 30 years later that decision bears fruit in the deaths of thousands of enlisted in service to a President's and Vice President's egos, who will die old men in their beds, with all their limbs still attached to their bodies.

As for Ike, I had a Big Book of Jokes and Riddles as a child and I still remember the one in it about the "Eisenhower Doll: Wind it up and it does nothing for eight years." How Presidents are remembered right after their Presidency and how they are remembered 50 years later often have no relation to each other.

I'm going to state, for the record, that history will look back on Obama's presidency with relatively approving eyes, and not because six years after he was out of office, a well-funded bunch of commentators and pundits will make a fervent effort to rewrite his legacy, as was done with Ronald Reagan (I am also old enough to remember Reagan, and Iran Contra shaped my view of government like nothing else). Obama is not perfect, and he has made some decisions I vehemently, vehemently disagree with (signing Congress's law that protesters are not permitted in areas where Secret Service have been assigned being a big one), but he's been the best in my lifetime. Low bar, to be sure, looking at who came before, but there it is.

Feel free to come back in 100 years and tell me I was wrong, but, as C Plus Augustus once said, when asked if he thought about how he'd be viewed in 100 years, in 100 years we'll all be dead, anyway.