Seven Years Ago Today: Hope and Change

Thanks to Obama, Americans are once again secure enough to act insane again.

What’s next for Obama?

Could Obama — a former president of the Harvard Law Review who will be 55 years old as he starts his post-White House life — be tempted by the high court?

“I think being a justice is a little bit too monastic for me,” he told The New Yorker in October 2014. “Particularly after having spent six years and what will be eight years in this bubble, I think I need to get outside a little bit more.”

The example of the two Democratic presidents before him — Carter and Clinton, who both launched foundations that are respected beyond America’s borders — could serve as a guide for Obama.

Persistent rumors also suggest he could be interested in teaching courses at Columbia University in New York, where he studied in the early 1980s.

“I love teaching. I miss the classroom and engaging with students,” he told The New Yorker.

What a great day that was. I’ll never forget the thrill I got for months afterward whenever I heard the words “the President”, and remembered that they referred to Obama, and no longer to….well, you know.

Even went to an inaugural ball to which I somehow got an invite, with eedad and another couple.

@Hungry Joe:

I still laugh at Cheney in the wheelchair on Obama’s Inauguration Day. I still think it was a classic narcissist’s cry of, Why aren’t they paying attention to MMMMEEEEEE???!

I’m also still convinced it was my Chicago peeps who started the “Na Na Hey Hey” singing as Bush’s helicopter flew away since White Sox fans have been using that song forever.

Also inaugurated again the next day, just in case, as the Chief Justice flubbed the wording of the oath on Jan. 20.

So going to miss him. Ninth and finest president in my lifetime.

I was all the way back by the Washington Monument. I had driven from Toronto to Delaware and taken an Inauguration special chartered Amtrak in from Wilmington. The Na Na Hey Hey singing was great.

As soon as Biden finished his oath of office and Cheney was no longer VP someone yelled out, “Now watch for a fucking spaceship to come down and pick up Cheney!”

@Baud:

That’s exactly how I feel. When the country was in a true crisis in 2008, he was the only adult. He knew exactly what he was getting if he got elected, conveyed the smarts and temperament to calm a nation, and that’s why he won in a landslide. He’s been nothing but reviled since. He’s a great great man, and I don’t want to see him go.

@David *Born in the USA* Koch:

Thank you for this! It’s really truly remarkable. Also, anyone who hasn’t read Michael Grunwald’s deep dive about the stuff done by regulation – the green energy stuff, in particular, should.

The Nation He Built

Greatest chart ever.

He’s a very good president, but the hero worship makes me nervous. He’s responsible for the deaths, in Pakistan alone, of between 168 and 200 children. I’m not sure that any other President could have done better. But this is a terrible thing.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....54825.html

@jackmac

12th for me.

40th for efgoldman. :)

He`ll always be the president who got health reform done after decades of other people calling for it and trying for it and failing. He did it.

He will be the president who reopened U.S. embassy in Havana after being shut for more than 50 years. He`ll be the president that allowed gay people to serve openly in the military, who saw the legalization of same sex marriage nationwide. He will always be the president who got bin Laden. He`ll always be the president who got Syria to give up its huge arsenal of chemical weapons.

He`s the president who brought the country back from the brink of a second Great Depression. Barack Obama will go down in history as the president who signed Wall Street reform and credit card reform and student loan reform. He will always be the president who rescued the U.S. auto industry when it was on the brink of extinction.

We know a lot of the things that will be on the list for this president. But now today, as he starts his last 500 days in office as of today, another one of those big pieces fell into place. If the Iranian nuclear deal works, it will end the long standing global fear of an Iranian nuclear bomb without having to go to war to stop it.

Forget how hard it was to negotiate that deal in Vienna, it was really hard to negotiate that deal within our own political system with a Republican-led Congress that did everything they could to try to throw the deal out.

This is one of those things that the pundit class said couldn`t be done. This was seen as an impossible political task in Washington. But it`s done.

And looking at this huge political lift, this political accomplishment, the success against all odds, if you were president, what would that make you want to do next? Is there something about the way this improbable victory has been achieved by the Obama administration that clears the path or at least shows the path to what else could be done in the last 500 days of this very, very consequential presidency.

Rachel Maddow

Btw if y’all read Ross Douthat’s column today, it’s like…it’s like he finally realizes it’s over, and the barbarians have won. Kathleen Parker and Michael Gerson are in similar states of shock, denial, acceptance.

(and this is on top of David Brooks calling for someone…ANYone…to unite for sensible conservatism and fend off Trump and Cruz!)

David, we don’t really want you, but come on over to the sensible, quite middle-of-the-road side.

Perhaps it was a bit of hyperbole, but one writer we admire said, “This a week that historians will write books about.” When an African American president sang Amazing Grace as the country buried the Confederate battle flag. It was a week in which the left/right ideological struggle swung sharply in favor of progressives, as Americans came to look at three issues in a different way in rapid order.

The Confederate flag came to be seen by most, not just some, as a reminder of hate, not heritage. Healthcare reform, seen now as a right, not a privilege. And same-sex marriage became law of the land. It was also a week that cemented President Obama’s legacy. Here he is, celebrating that Supreme Court’s healthcare decision with his chief of staff, Denis McDonough. And Friday night, the White House was bathed in rainbow colors, in honor of the marriage ruling, capping the most sweeping period of social transformation since the 1960s. It was a week of dramatic social change inextricably linked to the age of Obama.

Chuck Todd

When he started out, I figured he’d be good, but not necessarily “consequential”. He’s been both.

@NotMax:

40th for efgoldman. :)

Let’s face it, it’s been all downhill since Little Jemmy.

He is the greatest president of my lifetime, and also responsible for the death of 500-1000 civilians in Pakistan, including 200 children. I’m not saying anyone could’ve done better, but the hero worship makes me nervous.

@Wag: Something got mangled in that link.

I remember the day very clearly, and sharing it with my kids. The only thing that had been more emotional up to that point was election night.

I was never so proud of my country, never so full of feelings that anything was possible. And although things haven’t been perfect, good gravy, but am I proud of our president. I feel privileged to have existed at this time during history, and to have contributed, no matter in what small ways, to having his presidency become a reality.

And even when things suck, and dog knows our political environment sucks balls, this happened. A difference was made. Differences were made small and large. I am confident that Obama has done the best he was able, and a lot of times, that was pretty fucking able.

Obama has been one of the greats, and I doubt I’ll see his like again in my lifetime.

Now, if we can just keep the emo progs from turning everything back by nominating George McGovern for a second time.

@Cacti:

Now, if we can just keep the emo progs from turning everything back by nominating George McGovern for a second time.

I don’t think you need to worry much about that.

@David *Born in the USA* Koch: That’s an amazing list. I’m going to save it to show to people who claim Obama disappointed them and did nothing.

Since this is an open thread, caucuses are Feb 1 at 7 pm. My town has scheduled a vote on a school millage for Feb 2. How does that make sense? People will have been up late politicking the night before and their political energy will be spent. Only old people will vote, and the millage will be defeated.

@David *Born in the USA* Koch: I’m sure glad about that, too. Even though the fight against al Queda is peanuts when compared to the WWII, I -still- think we should try to acknowledge that even Great Men–or maybe especially Great Men–often have the blood of innocents on their hands. That doesn’t discount all the good that they do, or the fact that they’re a lot Greater than I’d ever be. But that’s a lot of dead children. Trying to remember them isn’t all bad.

@gwangung: I agree. I think he’s a very good man, and one whom we should emulate in this respect.

@JPL: i’m laughing

@JPL:

Kids. From now on there are three ways of doing things: the right way, the wrong way, and the Max Power Bush family way.

Bart Simpson: Isn’t that just the wrong way?

Yes, but faster.

Full confession: Although I knew may people high up with Team Hillary, I joined the Obama campaign early in 2007. So yes, January 2009 was pretty amazing.

@gwangung:

Even if they do, it’s a relatively minor problem. The much bigger challenge is getting people to the polls, especially those who aren’t normally inclined to vote.

Nate Silver is getting old.

I remember seeing Obama’s keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention and thinking to myself:

“That man could be the first black President of the United States.”

It just came a bit sooner than I expected.

Also can’t believe how Sasha and Malia have grown from kids into young women during that span of time.

This is a very nice tribute to a most deserving President Obama. Thank you for posting it.

@David *Born in the USA* Koch:
Chuck Tawd wrote that?

Obama’s Charleston eulogy is the most moving speech-sermon-testimony I will ever witness.

@Mnemosyne:

I still laugh at Cheney in the wheelchair on Obama’s Inauguration Day. I still think it was a classic narcissist’s cry of, Why aren’t they paying attention to MMMMEEEEEE???!

It was partly that, I’m sure, but even more I think it was Cheney’s way of saying “Fuck you, I’m not standing up for a ni-clang.” It was a vaguely plausible excuse for being totally disrespectful.

I cried. The inauguration was one of the best days of my life, and I’m forever glad I lived to see it. It was the United States that I’d always believed in. Simple as that.

Bill Clinton speech in Concord today. Note the scoreboard in the high school gym.

@trollhattan: Am only slightly relieved to know Lizard will never have a political career.
Please to be touching piece of wood near you. As glad as I was to see her fall on her face, I wouldn’t count her out in the future. Wyoming is blood red and (I imagine given its size and media markets) a cheap race for a candidate who would have more or less limitless resources. And both her grandfathers is Satan.

@trollhattan: Am only slightly relieved to know Lizard will never have a political career.

Please to be touching piece of wood near you. As glad as I was to see her fall on her face, I wouldn’t count her out in the future. Wyoming is blood red and (I imagine given its size and media markets) a cheap race for a candidate who would have more or less limitless resources. And both her grandfathers is Satan.

@Betty Cracker:

My husband is really worried that something might go wrong with Bill, and that will throw Hillary off.

I’m trying not to worry about anything. I’m ready for a woman president (D). I didn’t realize it until recently.

@gogol’s wife: The Village would claim Hillary did something to Bill for sympathy votes.

@Mike J:

Scoreboard is genius. I wonder whether it originated with someone at the high school, or with the campaign itself. There must be a fair number of h.s. and college gyms as venues for Bill over the next few months — they could, and should, do this every time.

@SiubhanDuinne: They should have run up the score a bit.

@David *Born in the USA* Koch:

Saved Yazidis and Benghazi from genocide

LOL. The second part of that, at least, has been shown to be propaganda. What he and Hillary really accomplished was the overthrow of a secular dictator, who was replaced by a bunch of religious nutjobs. Great work!

@efgoldman: I don’t know about the band thing. My son was in college by the time we moved here, so I’ve never been closely involved with the schools. Except to vote for millages, of course. They’re an automatic yes for me.

@HRA: Agree. Also remember seeing him at 2004 convention, and thinking, wow.

@Matt McIrvin: Count on it.

@Cacti:

I don’t think the two are comparable, unless you are suggesting that nearly the entire Democratic establishment will conspire to undermine the nominee’s campaign, should they win the nomination. Because that’s what happened to McGovern.

@BillinGlendaleCA: That Jan 2001 Onion headline:
“Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is over,”

I hope 2017 does not bring a repeat.

Cried election night, cried during the speech. A family friend was in DC and brought back souvenirs for me (and my uncle in Chicago made sure to get me a button). I was glued to CSPAN the whole day. And I was glad that Ted Kennedy got to see it, although he got sick at the luncheon. I’m not sure I’ll see as good a president in my lifetime and I’m grateful I got to see it and live it and contributed in some small way to getting him elected.

I watched the inauguration in the office on an old TV with no cable. To this day, my memory tells me it was snowing heavily.

Here is one more reason, as if we needed one, to love this man.

@Thor Heyerdahl: I was back by the Washington Monument too! I don’t remember seeing you. What I do remember is how cold I was. And how much I didn’t care. And that I thought I would cry when he took the oath of office but instead I started laughing, and hugging everyone around me. And then I cried. A great, great day.

@David *Born in the USA* Koch:

Damn, what a list of accomplishments!

@liberal: Upset emo alert!