Enough Obama Bashing

I never thought he was ready for office, but I am sick and tired of Obama bashing. His State of the Union address this week was one of the best I’ve seen any president deliver — but perhaps not for a good reason.

No mind-numbing laundry list of staff-manufactured legislative proposals, largely because he can’t get them passed through a GOP-controlled Congress he never learned how to leverage.

Still, it was nice to see him lean into the podium and show some skin, get personal and bring some passion to the case. Had he done that from the beginning he might be better off.

— Craig Crawford

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Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host

61 thoughts on “Enough Obama Bashing”

  1. Nice to see all of you here again! Thanks for the love and supportive comments following Toby’s death. It meant a lot to Craig and me. Jamie – thanks for being the caretaker of the blog!

  2. Craig – I also think President Obama gave a great speech. Paul Ryan and the Republicans squirmed throughout the night.

    I thought Paul Ryan might explode right there on camera during the climate change remarks.

  3. od and craig, it was a good speech… and thankfully shorter than most sotus lately.
    really liked towards the end when he said:
    “So, my fellow Americans, whatever you may believe, whether you prefer one party or no party, whether you supported my agenda or fought as hard as you could against it — our collective futures depends on your willingness to uphold your duties as a citizen. To vote. To speak out. To stand up for others, especially the weak, especially the vulnerable, knowing that each of us is only here because somebody, somewhere, stood up for us.”

    as to ryan, there was a stifled smile at one point. analysts need to analyze just how it cracked his otherwise stony façade. they may find a key to the secret of getting congress to open up and work for a change.

  4. pogo, yep, the tide rolled
    any significance that
    Nick Saban Total Pay $7,087,481 and Dabo Swinney $3,300,000

  5. Craig- I so missed your unique voice. And three cheers for Jamie for sharing her own blog while TM was down- you’re the best!

  6. Methinks the Repub. debate tonight will look even more clownish on the heels of Obama’s SOTU address. He talked about what America really stands for and hope. They will continue to talk about “be afraid… be very, very afraid”!

    I keep hoping that Donald’s hair will have had enough and just walk off his head.

    Great to see so many old friends return here…

  7. Craig
    I absolutely agree, enough with Obama bashing.. I used to be very critical of Obama and he has disappointed at times but I can’t criticise the man anymore after the treatment he has received from Republican’s. A reasonable and nice respectful man that President Obama..

  8. Renee,
    I will watch the Republican debate if i can find it online but only because i’m a political junkie, lol
    Trump, a more mean nasty man i can’t think of at the moment.. I can’t see him getting to the White House , at least i hope not..

  11. well, that didn’t work. try, try again with the old “v” substitute

    httpv://youtu.be/gSNKPj6fZUg

  13. re ryan, here’s a quote from the Colbert link above and also found at http://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/stephen-colbert-obama-dropped-the-mic-in-his-speech-but-trump-still-somehow-won-the-night/

    But he said viewers couldn’t help but notice the dour demeanor of new House Speaker Paul Ryan — who Colbert described as that “guy at the gym who is grunting so loud you can hear him through your earbuds.”
    “Ryan had to appear simultaneously enraged and engaged,” Colbert said. “I give him credit — he delivered a truly ‘engraging’ performance. Look at that discipline — he didn’t even applaud for the troops,” Colbert said. “That’s like booing apple pie or not crying during ‘Field of Dreams.’”

  14. The Other Obama Legacy
    Charles M. Blow

    ”
    A 2014 Brookings Institution survey of 162 members of the American Political Science Association’s Presidents & Executive Politics section ranked Obama as the 18th greatest.

    But Brookings points out:

    “Beneath the surface of the aggregate figures lurks evidence of significant ambivalence. For example, those who view Obama as one of the worst American presidents outnumber those who view him as one of the best by nearly a 3-1 margin. Similarly, nearly twice as many respondents view Obama as overrated than do those who consider him underrated. One area where there is significant expert consensus about the president, however, concerns how polarizing he is viewed as being — only George W. Bush was viewed as more a more polarizing president.”

  15. patd,

    I can only say I’d rather get Nick’s paycheck than Dabo’s. (And I guess I’llhve to keep working until the next PB jackpot. 🙁 btw the first Colbert link works.

    Poobah, I agree about the Obama bashing bandwidth having been exceeded. Only saw enough of the SOTU to get impressions. Obama seemed to be on his game. Ryan looked like he needs a big does of fiber.Did the ‘pugns even stand and clap for the “ask Osama Bin Laden” line?

  18. One of the reasons I am glad Trail Mix is back…Tony posts lots of interesting links…

  19. trusTED???
    from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/us/politics/ted-cruz-wall-street-loan-senate-bid-2012.html?_r=0
    A review of personal financial disclosures that Mr. Cruz filed later with the Senate does not find a liquidation of assets that would have accounted for all the money he spent on his campaign. What it does show, however, is that in the first half of 2012, Ted and Heidi Cruz obtained the low-interest loan from Goldman Sachs, as well as another one from Citibank. The loans totaled as much as $750,000 and eventually increased to a maximum of $1 million before being paid down later that year. There is no explanation of their purpose.
    Neither loan appears in reports the Ted Cruz for Senate Committee filed with the Federal Election Commission, in which candidates are required to disclose the source of money they borrow to finance their campaigns

  21. from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/01/14/david-brookss-choice-words-on-cruz-satanic-pagan-draw-fire-and-a-little-brimstone/?hpid=hp_no-name_morning-mix-story-g-duplicate%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
    Is it appropriate for one of the most respected newspaper columnists in America to describe a major presidential contender as “satanic” in his tone? For better or worse, that is the phrase David Brooks of the New York Times used to describe Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) — and the brash declaration from the typically unflappable author, an apostle of civility in politics, has kicked up an unholy ruckus Beelzebub might appreciate. So has his latest column on Cruz, “The Brutalism of Ted Cruz.”

  22. Patd, I find it pretty humorous when a right-wing albeit establishment GOP commentator refers to one of the GOP candidates as satanic in tone.

  25. boss, I registered. what now? is there more to do to get my old avatar back? zorro just isn’t me.

  26. Congrats Patd, to add your custom avatar, click Edit My Profile at your name top right.

    Just added editing and formatting options for logged-in registered users.

    We are on an entirely new server now, so everyone has to re-register, upload your custom avatar — the old site was crippled with spam bots and had to go away.

    http://trailmix.cc/home/trail-mix-registration/

  27. I’ve put up a page for tonight’s Republican Debate should you wish to use it for comment and reply until Craig can get all the links and such working here.  Will see if coded link works:   <a href=”https://jamiesplace.wordpress.com/2016/01/14/tonights-a-night/”>Tonight’s A Night</a>

  30. HRC’s campaign is running a terrific ad up here in the north-east.. runs video of Trump, Cruz talking about bombing the shit out of people and carpet bombing everyone, and Christie telling that woman to ‘sitttown and shaddup!” .. with the announcer saying, “one of these people could be president of the United States’.. it’s very very effective

  34. renee, did the login but can’t seem to manage the avatar.  how did you do it… in  kindergarten language please?

  35. I am sorry to see CanadaCruz get hit so hard this early. I had hoped that he’d still be in the mix when either willard rmoney, neil bush, or mel gibson slithers into the race. Where’s dennie hastert when the party needs him.

  37. patd…

    I clicked on the “zorro” after the Howdy (insert your user name) in the upper right hand corner.

    A pull down menu came up that showed “Edit My Profile”…. click there than scroll down and you’ll see where you can add an avatar.  Hey…  if I can do it…   anyone can do it!

  38. Here’s a repeat of what I posted over at Jamie’s site concerning campaign commercials.

     

    Speaking about bare knuckle brawls here in NH… there have been some very interesting ads popping up here on tv. One is criticizing Christie as being a terrible governor of NJ… looking up the sponsor… it’s a Rubio PAC. Another criticizes Rubio for his lack of showing up for Congressional votes on vital issues… looking up that sponsor… it’s a Jeb PAC. They are definitely eating each other for breakfast…  🙂

  40. Flatus,

    It grieves me to learn that you no longer exist. I’m sure we all wish you a swift recovery.

    X

     

  41. renee, thanks.  it’s the part after you said “where you can add an avatar” that I need help.  how? have tried to plug in the avatar cite of my image, but must be plugging into the wrong receptacle (the browse blank?), pushing the wrong buttons or something.   am at that stage of utter confusion that only a taken by the hand step 1 step 2 process will help.   aaarrrghhh.

  42. Why did Obama leave a visionary SOTU speech to the end of his presidency ?

    I’ll never understand this guy.

  44. I don’t know about Cruz being Canadian. I’ve not yet heard him say “eh” a single time, and he certainly isn’t self-effacing

  45. Craig, it is good to see that you have returned.  Sorry that it did not work with Jim Webb.  I was hoping that he would rise above the rest as I see him as the best in leadership and the best choice as ‘Commander-in-chief’ but I guess he did not have the ‘charisma’ for the run.  I also had a hard time trying to figure out his economic agenda.

  46. from http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/senate-dems-plan-to-force-vote-on-trumps-muslim-ban/ar-BBoczJQ?ocid=spartanntp

    Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) suggested Senate Republicans should have to vote on the Republican presidential frontrunner’s policies after they’ve refused to say they wouldn’t support him if he wins their party’s nomination.
    “These votes will give all Senators a chance to take a stand on the policy issues dominating the public debate – and Republicans a chance to stand with the frontrunner for their nomination,” the Democratic leader said Thursday in a statement.

  47. Nice to see old friends here. Spent the day adding some features, especially for registered users. A few more to go. One I cannot get back so far is the quote and reply buttons on each comment. But comment editing and image uploading seem to be working well.

  48. patd…

    after you hit “Edit My Profile” scroll all the way down to where it says Avatar which is bold on the left hand side.  There you will see the familiar box that says “choose file”…  drag your chosen jpeg image over to that box.  Hope this helps.

  49. Sharing one of my favorite pictures of Mom. We call this Mother Nature. Click images to enlarge.

  51. That’s a great picture.

    The timing of the Cruz money story worked out well.  Maybe that will hold him back.

    The nastiness of GOP candidates may play against Hillary.  It’s a nasty world out there; tough guy may play well with voters.

    Obama always played well to large audiences.  His trouble seemed to be with smaller groups.

  52. Pat

    I keep trying to follow the instructions that said use Gravatar to set my profile pic. It didn’t work.

    I found the other way at the bottom of the profile page. You just upload an image from your computer.

    Now lets see if I did it.

    Jack

  53. Yes whsky, I am not using gravatar, it is a spam threat. Keeping avatars on site much safer.

  56. Flatus,  if WordPress doesn’t think you exist, who are you to question?   I just hope WP is wrong… this time.

  60. I admit I tried to watch a little bit of the Republican debate last night and found it to be ridiculous. If Fox Business channel where to conduct all of their “news” as they did what little bit of the Republican debate I watched, essentially that I might as well say hello go ahead read your talking points. The whole purpose of the part of the bed that I saw was to bash Obama and to bash the “Obama Clinton” foreign policy.

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