Barack Obama: In the End...just another Status Quo Politician

I’m disappointed. I’m let down. The Bernie Sanders candidacy has made
me realize how few true leaders this country produces. It has reset the bar, and now I am left
feeling a bit betrayed.

I like Barack Obama. I respect him in many ways. I voted for him twice and I will miss him on a personal level.
I will miss his grace and his charm. I will miss Michelle…how could we have ever asked for a more
dignified First Family?

Unfortunately, for me, Bernie Sanders, and the last year of the campaign process has left me
feeling like Barack Obama fell way short of greatness. Yes, the economy is better than it was
under W. in many ways but there are many things that have gotten worse, or have
not improved.

Yes, The Affordable Care Act has given 20 million more Americans health care. But, we are still a full 35 million Americans away from having what virtually all of Western Europe affords their
citizens….we stopped at 90% and there is no plan to close that gap.

Income inequality has gotten worse since Obama took office…I think it is accurate to
say that Obama has made NO attempt to address income inequality…he never
mentions it. He mentions gun violence almost every time he gets up to a microphone but never income inequality. How come Bernie Sanders has stamped
that issue onto his forehead. When you think of Sanders you think of Income inequality…the billionaire class,
$15/hr. minimum wage, and tuition free college, an end to Wall Street corruption.

Barack Obama has not mentioned any of those meaty issues…not a whisper. 23% of children under 18 live in poverty...that is second highest among the 35 developed countries. Fully 16% of Americans live in poverty. In 8 years, has Obama reversed those numbers...or even talked about them? You can keep your "gun loophole" rhetoric.

Where did Barack Obama drive his stake in the ground? Immigration reform and universal (90%) health care. To his credit he has been a positive force for same sex marriage but the LGBT
community should get almost all of the credit for that crusade. The LGBT community doesn't sit around waiting for "incremental" change, for sloth-full "top down" leadership from politicians.

In 8 years in the White House the pickings are pretty slim…sure the Republican
Congress was blocking everything he was thinking about but that didn’t stop him
from advancing immigration reform and Obamacare. It didn’t stop him from pounding for gun reform laws….

Barack Obama, in my opinion, will not be remembered as a transformative
President. That label has to be earned. Go ask FDR. Will Obama’s legacy inspire others to
go into public service, the way JFK did, or now, Bernie Sanders?.... I think not.

There is no question thathordes of progressives will now be inspired to run for office on Bernie Sanders
very clear and consistent, and unwavering, and apolitical message. Sanders has defined the battlegrounds,
and he has ignited an entire generation. He is not a "top down" leader as is the rest of the political status quo class in America, though he sees no problem in inspiring true progressives to enter politics. Will Hillary Clinton inspire anyone? and on what basis? She might inspire someone who wants to become rich by being a politician. She might inspire women to run for office, and that is great, but she won’t inspire
anyone based on ideology because she has none. That is why her rallies were more like lines to get your flu
shots. To this day I have no idea what a Hillary Presidency means.

Where Obama has left me the coldest is the role he played to con us into choosing
Hillary over Bernie. Obama was a downright hypocrite.

Back in 2008 when Obama was running against Hillary he said “America deserved more
than triangulating and poll-driven positions, the same old Washington texbook
campaign”, or “trying to sound or vote like Republicans, when it comes to
national security issues”, in clear reference to her “yes” vote for war with
Iraq (and now Libya and Syria).

Wait a minute…isn’t that the Bernie Sanders complaint about Hillary?

And, when Hillary thought that Obama was promising too much hope and optimism,
Hillary shot him down. “We don’t need to be raising the false hope of our
country”. Bill Clinton said, “this whole thing is the biggerst fairy tale I’ve ever seen”.

Here is one of Obama’s campaign ads:
“Hillary Clinton. She’ll say anything and change nothing. It’s time to turn the page”.

Wow…so what changed Obama?….when Bernie was using those same types of attacks against
the efficacy of a Hillary Presidency where were you?…..when Hillary was calling
Bernie’s ideas of tuition free college “pie in the sky”, where were you to cite her “soulless” narrative.? You
didn’t say “Yes we can”. You said “No we can’t”

Maureen Dowd said today in the NY Times “The same Obama who sparked a revolution has
now made it his mission to preserve the establishment for Hillary. He told Rutger’s school paper in May
that Sanders supporters need to stop searching for silver bullets and
recognize “we have to make incremental changes where we can, and every once in
a while you’ll get a breakthrough and make the kind of big changes that are
necessary?”

To which Dowd remarked “Yes We Can-----incrementally!”

Obama’s remarks were in May….well before the primaries were over. He abandoned the high minded and just reforms of Bernie Sanders for someone who is scandal ridden, has no progressive
agenda, and who has fought for regime change foreign policy in Iraq, Libya, and
Syria.

Obama gives great speeches …he is an incredible human being in many ways…but he has
left the failing working class on the curb…and he has done absolutely nothing
for education improvement in this country…

What "Hope" has he given the 99%? What can the working class look to and say "he has improved my life and my prospects for the future".

He chose gun loophole restrictions , health care, and immigration…in 8 years that
is all we got…

Bernie, in one year as a candidate has changed the debate in this country…he has jump
started an engine that Obama let stall and freeze…Sanders is trying to reverse a trend that has
been steadily on the rise since 1985….income inequality has been getting worse
and worse for 31 years now…and it is at it’s most disproportionate (now) than at
any time since 1928. The rich have gotten even richer under Obama, and worse yet…he hasn’t even framed it as a problem…

Yet, he will give an impassioned press conference any time someone is shot by a gun
in this country….does he plan on eliminating murder, mental illness, rage?

Try solving ever increasing income inequality and you might eliminate a lot of the
other three….

“In the end, Obama didn’t overthrow the Clinton machine. He enabled it.”
It turns out, who we choose is not really about our souls. It’s just politics, man” – Maureen Dowd