New York Post
Trump has fallen for the same false Iran promises as Obama
Less than three months ago, Donald Trump was mocking the 2015 deal Barack Obama made with Iran that cleared the regime’s path to a nuclear bomb.
Right
RealClearPolitics - Homepage
Democrats Should Admire Obama Not Emulate Him
Center Right
The opening of Barack Obama's presidential library in Chicago this Friday has inspired a new round of conversations around his remarkable rise and presidency.
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6 Things We Learned From the Obama Center Opening Ceremony
The Barack Obama Presidential Center is finally open to the public. The Obamas threw themselves an invite-only launch party on Thursday with all of their celebrity friends. All the living former presidents showed up with their spouses. Joe Biden was also there. The post 6 Things We Learned From the Obama Center Opening Ceremony appeared first on .
Center Right
The New Republic
Obama’s Harsh New Takedown of Trump Points to a World After MAGA
All honor is due to whoever decided that the opening of Barack Obama’s presidential center in Chicago should come right before Donald Trump’s planned July 4 gala on the National Mall. The two events will serve as perfect touchstones for the bigger argument that our country’s 250th anniversary is prompting—the argument over American national identity.The forty-fourth president delivered an emotional speech at the Obama Presidential Center’s opening ceremony on Thursday. It offered a blistering indictment of the forty-fifth and forty-seventh president, all without mentioning the words “Donald Trump,” while offering his own ambitious rendering of the American story.Yet in so doing, the speech also sent an implicit message to Democrats: Defeating Trumpism, MAGA, and the right-wing nationalist vision of America that animates them requires something more than small-bore politics and slogans about “affordability.” It requires a bigger and better story, a positive and aspirational vision, a full-throated declaration of what we liberals think the United States is—and should be—instead.Obama has long been a spokesperson for the idea of creedal nationalism, which holds that American identity is defined by our founding ideals, versus a nationalism rooted in heritage or ethnicity or race. And so, Obama declared that the “story of America at its best” rests on “shared values that make democracy possible.” They include:a belief in the intrinsic dignity and worth of all people and that no one is above the law or beneath its protection, a belief in checks and balances in our government … a belief that our military and law enforcement owe allegiance not to any president or political party, but to the people and our Constitution.Let’s be blunt: It’s a defining fact of this moment that Trump and his movement simply do not accept any of those things. And it’s important that Obama used this moment to say so. Obama also lionized “the peaceful transfer of power” and called for a reaffirmation of “character, honesty, integrity” and “a sense of duty and honor” in public life. Guess who he was talking about?But creedal nationalism was the main event here. To reinforce the idea, Obama also declared that these values are embodied in the Declaration of Independence, which provided the “framework that allows each generation to make our union more perfect.” Implicitly targeting Trump, Obama said that when we give up on these ideals:we open the door to the most ruthless, or the most careless, or the most fearful among us, who see some groups as more equal than others, and see government as nothing more than a way to divvy up the spoils and punish enemies, and keep those who are different in their place. I do not believe that is the story of America that prevails in the end.Emphasis mine. That’s as close as I’ve seen any leading Democrat come to stating outright that Trump and MAGA fundamentally do not accept the Declaration of Independence’s promise of equality. This is where liberals should go in the battle over our 250th anniversary. Indeed, in delivering these lines, Obama likely had in mind not just Trump but also recent claims from JD Vance. The vice president—a self-imagined MAGA philosopher-king—has declared that “America is not just an idea.” Citing his own ancestors’ burial on a “mountainside in Eastern Kentucky,” Vance suggests that the “source of America’s greatness” is the “ancestral” bond Americans feel with the “homeland.” Vance mocks the “creedal nation” by insisting that its logic leads to an unacceptable conclusion: that all foreigners, everywhere, might instantly have a claim to U.S. citizenship merely by mouthing agreement with our founding ideals. Few if any prominent Democrats or liberals believe anything like that last bit. The idea, rather, is that immigrants do have a claim to becoming Americans—they are “Americans in waiting”—provided they clear certain civic hurdles, including adherence to the nation’s founding ideals. Their rates of admission, and the conditions that shape their arrival and assimilation, are agreed upon democratically by our elected representatives in Congress and subject to revision over time. But yes, in the liberal vision, the idea that immigrants do have a conditional claim to belonging is fundamental to American identity. Vance’s big claim, by contrast, is that fealty to our founding ideals cannot be the basis for American national identity. Blood and hereditary attachment to the soil are, to him, essential ingredients.True, Vance takes care to praise immigrants and is married to a daughter of them. But he has also mocked immigrant Zohran Mamdani for mildly criticizing the United States, insisting Mamdani should be thankful for his admission here and thus self-censor.
Left
Alternet.org
Former MAGA man marvels at how America went from Obama to 'crazy' Trump
Former MAGA congressman Joe Walsh spun abruptly from President Donald Trump and his MAGA crew years ago after seeing Trump’s damage, and now he is surprised the rest of the nation hasn’t managed to catch on and throw out the Trump poison. Walsh expressed even more surprise at the nation’s failure to wise up after 10 years of Trump’s toxin, particularly after former president Obama’s eloquent speech in Chicago at the opening of his presidential library and community learning center.“People have been telling me, ‘Oh my god, Joe, how the heck did we get from there to here,’” Walsh said on his “Social Contract” podcast with guest host former Chicago City councilman Edwin Eisendrath. “And I want to tell my lovable liberal elitist friends we're all there are a lot of reasons for that it's not just because Trump and half the country are bats—— crazy.”“I said, ‘Obama helped,’” said Walsh. “Sure, I helped, too, and the Tea Party helped, but Edwin, you know this because when you were active politically, you were a reformer. You were a reform minded outsider. … And Obama was part of a political establishment class that did not understand the anger that middle working-class people in this country had. And there was an elite. It's not just Obama. I mean, Hillary, they all were like this, and a lot of Republicans. And that kind of dismissiveness of the elites Led to the demagogue that Trump is.”“What a contrast, right?” Walsh complained. “And I guess before everybody hates me altogether, what I'm trying to say is … Donald Trump is in my starting five for the absolute worst human beings who's ever lived. Now, how did that guy get in the White House? And if we as a people can't honestly really reflect upon that, I mean, how did this good, great, decent country elect one of the worst human beings who's ever lived? That's a complicated answer.”Walsh admitted Obama is an intelligent man who causes longing for a president who does not speak like a demented toddler, but he said some of the Democratic Party's lagging ideals ultimately got the nation where it is."How nice is it to listen to a president speak in complete sentences and all the rest, and I get it,” said Walsh. “I appreciate that, but I don't want all these good folks to go down that same f—— elitist road and not understand why this madman's in the White House. I don't want my new party … to go down this road where we think the answer, again, is to nominate some elite establishment f——. That's not what the Democratic Party needs Because most Americans, Edwin, as you know right now, cannot stand either party.”Eisendrath pointed out that the Democratic Party is in place of transitioning, at least, and the new blood is outpacing the establishment old guard in primaries.“The Republicans are almost finished with their transformation to become simply the party of Trump. The Democrats are involved in a double transformation,” Eisendrath said. “There is the ‘let's make a deal party’ that worked for a long time versus the ‘get s—— done party.’ And the ‘get s—— done party’ is beating the ‘make a deal party in primaries.’ “And there's a generational change, too,” Eisendrath added. “And the younger guys are not interested in what are the limits on the power. We have to get things done. They're going to be tougher than that.”
Left
Alternet.org
Trump’s 'Obama envy' remains an 'enduring feature' of collapsing presidency
On Thursday, June 18, media coverage in the United States was dominated by President Donald Trump's Iran ceasefire deal and the opening celebration of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Journalist Jill Lawrence, writing for the conservative website The Bulwark, argues that between the two, Trump's "Obama envy" has been inescapable.The Chicago event featured a long list of major musicians, including Bruce Springsteen, U2 leader Bono, John Legend, rapper Common, Christina Aguilera (who performed the Louis Armsrong-associated "What a Wonderful World"), Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, and Stevie Wonder — who, now 76, sang favorites like "Higher Ground" and "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours." All the focus on former President Obama infuriated Trump, who, Lawrence observes, has been mentioning him repeatedly."Whether by fate, a devious Iranian conspiracy or a major miscalculation by Donald Trump, the U.S. surrender in his failed 112-day 'excursion' is coinciding with the triumphal opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago," Lawrence explains. "The split-screen contrast is telling, from Iran to presidential libraries. Trump's 'memorandum of understanding' to end his doomed war of choice on Iran does not fare well compared with the 2015 Obama deal that was constraining Iran's nuclear program when Trump tossed it out in 2018."Lawrence emphasizes that "Trump's Obama envy" has "been an enduring psychopolitical feature of the national landscape for what seems like forever.""He mentioned Obama's name nearly two dozen times during the three-day G7 Summit, by the New York Times' count, and repeatedly insisted that his deal was better than Obama's, despite glaring evidence to the contrary," Lawrence observes. "Cartoonist Patrick Chappatte nailed the dynamic eight years ago. 'What was so bad in that Iran deal?' asks an annoyed European Union representative. Trump's reply: 'Obama's signature.' Trump's preoccupation with his predecessor has long centered on challenging Obama's citizenship and his eligibility to even be president."Lawrence continues, "He started raising questions about Obama's birth certificate in early 2011, and his promotion of this 'birther' conspiracy theory escalated after a famous incident that year at a White House Correspondents Dinner. It was Saturday night, April 30, at the Washington Hilton."The "birther" claim that Obama wasn't really born in the U.S. is easily disproved, as his birth certificate clearly states that he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961. "Obama released a long-form copy of his birth certificate in 2016, and Trump, as president in 2017, speculated that it had been faked," Lawrence notes. "He has moved on to much grander conspiracies and lies since then, topped by his imaginary win in 2020. But he has never stopped trying to top Obama."
Left
The New Republic
Obama Warns America Is Worse Off After Everything Trump Did in Iran
Former President Barack Obama said the U.S. is worse off because of current President Trump’s war with Iran. “We’ve now fought a war, spent billions and billions of dollars, you know, put enormous strain on our military,” Obama said in an interview with NBC’s Craig Melvin.“A lot of people have died. And it feels like we’re back where we were before we started the war, except maybe a little bit worse off,” Obama continued. “I am very happy to see a ceasefire. And I’m hopeful that it holds.” The interview was conducted before the public opening of the Obama Presidential Center on Thursday, and aired Friday morning on the Today show. Obama pointed out that under the 2015 JCPOA agreement his administration negotiated with Iran, “Iran had agreed not to develop nuclear weapons.”“This administration, or a prior version of this administration, pulled out of it, which caused then Iran to develop more nuclear capacity,” Obama said, referring to Trump’s decision to withdraw from that deal in 2018, despite the agreement also involving the European Union, Russia, China, the U.K., France, and Germany. International observers also said that Iran was complying with the JCPOA at the time.Obama faced criticism from the right and his own party over the nuclear agreement, but it had the support of the international community, and it didn’t leave the U.S. in a worse position. Trump’s memorandum of understanding with Iran is under fire from virtually everyone, including Democrats, Trump’s MAGA base, Republicans in Congress, and Israeli officials, who are calling it a “surrender” and “total capitulation.” In his speech at the opening of his library Thursday, Obama emphasized principles in the Constitution that Trump has flouted throughout his time in the Oval Office, and praised protesters in Minnesota who rallied against the Trump administration’s brutal immigration effort in the state, saying, “these are the values and traditions I believe in.” What values does Trump believe in, except for acting in his own self-interest?
Left
BizPac Review
Michelle Obama declares ‘Age of ME’ in shameless GMA fluff interview
The Obama Presidential Center is opening its doors to the public on Friday after a dedication ceremony held on Thursday, and part of the media coverage included […]
Far Right
Latest Political News on Fox News
WATCH: Would-be second-term President Biden left searching for family on stage after Obama Center opening
Biden sparked an awkward moment at Obama's presidential library dedication, drifting back toward the stage and shouting for his granddaughter.
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