President Obama: What's next?

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Inanna
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Re: President Obama: What's next?

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I didn't understand that, Faramond.
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Re: President Obama: What's next?

Post by Primula Baggins »

Justices are supposed to recuse themselves from cases in which they were personally involved before being on the Court. For Obama this would include just about every public action of his administration that might be part of a case before the Court, including Obamacare and any federal regulations he expanded. He would be recusing himself from a lot of cases = a recuse-fest = recusapalooza (which is a great joke!).
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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Re: President Obama: What's next?

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

It actually probably would be no more (and maybe less) of an issue than it was with Justice Kagan, who was the Solicitor General before being appointed to the Court and thus argued or (supervised the argument) of all cases involving the federal government. And if Obama ever were nominated it probably it most likely would not be for a decade or more (despite the fact that it came up with Clinton) and recusal would be virtually a non-issue.
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Re: President Obama: What's next?

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

A rather surprising column today from frequent Obama critic David Brooks of the New York Times:
I Miss Barack Obama

As this primary season has gone along, a strange sensation has come over me: I miss Barack Obama. Now, obviously I disagree with a lot of Obama’s policy decisions. I’ve been disappointed by aspects of his presidency. I hope the next presidency is a philosophic departure.

But over the course of this campaign it feels as if there’s been a decline in behavioral standards across the board. Many of the traits of character and leadership that Obama possesses, and that maybe we have taken too much for granted, have suddenly gone missing or are in short supply.

The first and most important of these is basic integrity. The Obama administration has been remarkably scandal-free. Think of the way Iran-contra or the Lewinsky scandals swallowed years from Reagan and Clinton.

We’ve had very little of that from Obama. He and his staff have generally behaved with basic rectitude. Hillary Clinton is constantly having to hold these defensive press conferences when she’s trying to explain away some vaguely shady shortcut she’s taken, or decision she has made, but Obama has not had to do that.

He and his wife have not only displayed superior integrity themselves, they have mostly attracted and hired people with high personal standards. There are all sorts of unsightly characters floating around politics, including in the Clinton camp and in Gov. Chris Christie’s administration. This sort has been blocked from team Obama.

Second, a sense of basic humanity. Donald Trump has spent much of this campaign vowing to block Muslim immigration. You can only say that if you treat Muslim Americans as an abstraction. President Obama, meanwhile, went to a mosque, looked into people’s eyes and gave a wonderful speech reasserting their place as Americans.

He’s exuded this basic care and respect for the dignity of others time and time again. Let’s put it this way: Imagine if Barack and Michelle Obama joined the board of a charity you’re involved in. You’d be happy to have such people in your community. Could you say that comfortably about Ted Cruz? The quality of a president’s humanity flows out in the unexpected but important moments.

Third, a soundness in his decision-making process. Over the years I have spoken to many members of this administration who were disappointed that the president didn’t take their advice. But those disappointed staffers almost always felt that their views had been considered in depth.

Obama’s basic approach is to promote his values as much as he can within the limits of the situation. Bernie Sanders, by contrast, has been so blinded by his values that the reality of the situation does not seem to penetrate his mind.

Take health care. Passing Obamacare was a mighty lift that led to two gigantic midterm election defeats. As Megan McArdle pointed out in her Bloomberg View column, Obamacare took coverage away from only a small minority of Americans. Sanderscare would take employer coverage away from tens of millions of satisfied customers, destroy the health insurance business and levy massive new tax hikes. This is epic social disruption.

To think you could pass Sanderscare through a polarized Washington and in a country deeply suspicious of government is to live in intellectual fairyland. President Obama may have been too cautious, especially in the Middle East, but at least he’s able to grasp the reality of the situation.

Fourth, grace under pressure. I happen to find it charming that Marco Rubio gets nervous on the big occasions — that he grabs for the bottle of water, breaks out in a sweat and went robotic in the last debate. It shows Rubio is a normal person. And I happen to think overconfidence is one of Obama’s great flaws. But a president has to maintain equipoise under enormous pressure. Obama has done that, especially amid the financial crisis. After Saturday night, this is now an open question about Rubio.

Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, The Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world.

Fifth, a resilient sense of optimism. To hear Sanders or Trump, Cruz and Ben Carson campaign is to wallow in the pornography of pessimism, to conclude that this country is on the verge of complete collapse. That’s simply not true. We have problems, but they are less serious than those faced by just about any other nation on earth.

People are motivated to make wise choices more by hope and opportunity than by fear, cynicism, hatred and despair. Unlike many current candidates, Obama has not appealed to those passions.

No, Obama has not been temperamentally perfect. Too often he’s been disdainful, aloof, resentful and insular. But there is a tone of ugliness creeping across the world, as democracies retreat, as tribalism mounts, as suspiciousness and authoritarianism take center stage.

Obama radiates an ethos of integrity, humanity, good manners and elegance that I’m beginning to miss, and that I suspect we will all miss a bit, regardless of who replaces him.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/opini ... pe=article
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Primula Baggins
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Re: President Obama: What's next?

Post by Primula Baggins »

Thanks for sharing that, Voronwë. I think Brooks may be right—for some people, anyway.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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Re: President Obama: What's next?

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If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

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Re: President Obama: What's next?

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I think the "What's next?" for SCOTUS part of this discussion remain here.
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Re: President Obama: What's next?

Post by Cenedril_Gildinaur »

Dave_LF wrote:Here's an interesting possibility. Hilary Clinton was recently asked whether, should she become President, she would consider (wait for it) nominating Barack Obama to the Supreme Court. Her response was that she'd never considered it, but that it sounded like a great idea. I reacted the same way.
As President, Obama put forward the theory that the president can authorize the execution of US citizens without any involvement of the judicial branch. Trail, presentation of evidence, judgement, sentencing, all of that is unnecessary. The president has the authority to try, convict, and sentence all on his own.

I don't what that ideology in the supreme court.

Of course, should Hillary become president, her rather extreme military hawkishness would no doubt find that attitude very pleasing.

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yovargas
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Re: President Obama: What's next?

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Thank you for sharing that, CG. I had been aware of some of this but had not read through the full story. It is deeply disappointing and disturbing.
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Re: President Obama: What's next?

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The prelude to Stephen Colbert's interview with President Obama:



:D
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Inanna
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Re: President Obama: What's next?

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Haha! Awesome.

There have been so many jokes about Obama’s pauses and how they would come out in the audio book.
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Re: President Obama: What's next?

Post by Túrin Turambar »

I read the book and liked it a lot - looking forward to the next volume.

Spoiler alert - well, not really, given we're talking about things which actually happened pretty recently - Obama finishes the book with the raid to kill Osama bin Laden and his roasting of Trump at the Correspondents' Dinner. If they made it into a movie (which they probably will) it'd make the perfect cliffhanger ending.
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Re: President Obama: What's next?

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That's the problem with history - you can finish your story on a high note, and then the next few years roll around and...
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

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Re: President Obama: What's next?

Post by Túrin Turambar »

On that note, Mark Hamill tweeted this after the election:
Mark Hamill Tweet.jpg
Mark Hamill Tweet.jpg (30.26 KiB) Viewed 9759 times
Speaking earlier of films about Barack Obama, did anyone see Barry on Netflix? I found it a bit flat, but it was worth watching for American-Australian actor Devon Terrell's uncannily good impression of the former president. Or rather, what he must have sounded like at twenty:

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Re: President Obama: What's next?

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Apparently also believing that his book is going to be made into a movie (or at least that some movie is going to be made), Barack Obama Approves Drake to Play Him in Possible Biopic
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
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