I Miss Barack Obama

[babylonsister]

Oh my stars, David Brooks no less. On this we agree.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/opinion/i-miss-barack-obama.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

I Miss Barack Obama
David Brooks FEB. 9, 2016


Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times


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.

snip//

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.

[BeyondGeography]

1. Not the first time either

that he has praised Obama's integrity. He always feels the need to point out that he really doesn't approve of the President as President (without giving specifics). But he's so darn presidential. Maybe he's actually a good President? Nah.

[Dems to Win]

2. No Drama Obama

I have definitely noted, and greatly appreciated, the lack of personal scandal in this Administration.

Pres Obama is an extraordinary human being, with amazing interpersonal skills and tremendous grace and restraint and dignity in his personal demeanor.

And Michelle's pretty special, too.

[narnian60]

4. +100

[MBS]

3. ah, you beat me to it!

This column made my morning.

[brer cat]

5. Most definitely.

"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."

[greatauntoftriplets]

6. I'm going to miss him, too.

[Surya Gayatri]

7. Take that Marco Roboto, with your mechanical and maniacal

anti-Obama tirades.

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.

The contrast between BHO's genuinely decent 7+ years in office and the seedy 2016 electoral spectacle will become ever more apparent to the American public and electorate.

HE WILL BE MISSED.