Tag Archives: Barack Obama

Democrats do their job … on both fronts

July 28, 2016 kanelis2012

Presidential nominating conventions historically aim to do two things.

They seek to paint their nominee as more qualified than the other party’s nominee and they seek to illustrate why the other guy is the wrong choice for the country.

It must be said: The Democratic National Convention — to my ears — as accomplished its mission.

The Democrats brought out the all-stars Wednesday night to do their job.

Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, is unfit for the job he seeks. You heard it time and time and time again from the big hitters in the heart of the Democrats’ lineup.

Former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta said Trump has no plan to make us safe; Vice President Joe Biden reminded listeners that Trump has always put himself first; vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine wondered out loud whether Trump is hiding anything by refusing to release his tax returns.

Perhaps the big surprise was that former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a self-described independent and billionaire businessman, told us how Trump parlayed his inheritance into a business that has resulted in repeated failure.

Then came the cleanup hitter, President Barack Obama, who well might have given the speech of his political career as he tore into Trump, reminding voters that Americans comprise a nation of people who don’t want to be “ruled.” The country is a family of achievers, believers and optimists, he said. The darkness and dystopia painted by Trump and the Republicans have no basis in reality.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/winners-and-losers-from-the-third-night-of-the-democratic-convention/ar-BBuYgTk?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

Oh, and then the big hitters turned their love toward Hillary Clinton.

And it was Obama who told the cheering crowd that no candidate ever has been more qualified to serve as president than the party’s newest presidential nominee. Her husband, the 42nd president, cheered right along with the rest of them.

Political conventions often in recent times have turned in snooze fests. Not this year. Both of them generated their share of excitement, unpredictability and tension.

Trump got a decent bounce out of his GOP convention. It’s Clinton’s turn now to wait to see how the public responds to her event.

Her task tonight, though, is h-u-u-u-g-e.

She’s got to follow the president of the United States.

national news, political news

FLOTUS gives ’em some tough love at DNC

July 26, 2016 kanelis2012

Did you hear what I heard first lady Michelle Obama say to the Democratic National Convention delegates?

I’m pretty sure I heard her deliver a tough-love lecture to the Bernie Sanders supporters who earlier in the day were booing the sound of the name “Hillary Clinton.”

The first lady had the courage to inform them that Clinton did not walk away and sulk after losing the Democratic presidential primary in 2008 to Sen. Barack Obama. She informed them that Clinton joined the team that helped elect the young senator as president.

My hunch as I listened to her speech tonight was that the message was not lost on the Sanders legions who stood in front of her on the convention floor — let alone those at home who might be feeling a bit down and out.

Her message? Get over it.

political news

Getting by in a ‘hostile environment’

July 24, 2016 kanelis2012 2 Comments

My friends on both sides of the political divide ask me on occasion: How do you cope with living in an area where you are part of a distinct political minority?

It’s easy. I am comfortable in my own skin.

My wife and I moved here in 1995 understanding that we were about to take up residence in what one might consider hostile territory. I knew of the Texas Panhandle’s John Birch Society heritage and of the ardently conservative politics that drove the region upon our arrival and which continues to this very day.

I knew immediately I wasn’t about to change anyone’s mind.

I trust my neighbors understood as well they weren’t about to change mine.

With all that laid out there, I remain perplexed, to say the least, at the “anger” of many Americans at the direction the country is heading.

A blog post notes that the writer of the essay is offering thanks to President Obama “on behalf of an ungrateful nation” for the job he has done for nearly eight years. Here’s the post:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/decodedc/mr-president-on-behalf-of-an-ungrateful-nation-thank-you

That’s what I’m feeling today as I watch individuals such as Donald J. Trump painting this dark and forbidding picture of the state of play these days.

Perhaps the most fascinating public opinion survey statistic out there is that so-called “right track/wrong track” question pollsters keep asking Americans. They get a 70 percent “wrong track” response.

What does that mean?

I keep wondering if it includes those who think the country hasn’t veered far enough to the left along with those who want it to lean hard in the other direction.

We keep hearing those on the right — now led by GOP presidential nominee Trump — repeating the mantra that America is hurtling along on the “wrong track.”

Let me be as clear as I can be: I don’t believe it.

I remember as clearly as everyone else where we were headed when Barack Obama took office in 2009. He decided to take some bold steps to end the economic free fall.

Spoiler alert: They worked!

Have they worked as well as everyone would want? No. Those on the fringes of the spectrum say (a) too many Americans aren’t yet earning enough money or (b) the national debt has ballooned too rapidly.

Yes, we live in a dangerous world. It’s always been a dangerous world.

I’ll continue to see this world through my own prism. It’s different than the one used by so many of my neighbors here in the Heart of Republicanism. I get it.

Just as my neighbors are comfortable in their own skin, though, I am comfortable in mine.

As the essayist writes in the blog attached to this message, thank you, Mr. President, for doing your job well.

national news, political news

Trump’s campaign machinery is broken

July 20, 2016 kanelis2012

Donald J. Trump keeps telling us about his business acumen, his ability to craft “great deals,” his no-nonsense approach to just about everything he has ever done in his entire life.

If he is a man of his word, then he’s got to fire someone — or several someones — over the embarrassment they have brought to his campaign and to his wife, Melania.

The Republican presidential nominee’s wife gave what had been hailed initially as a fine campaign speech on behalf of her husband.

Then came news of an entirely different kind. Melania Trump lifted passages of her speech from a 2008 speech delivered by none other than Michelle Obama, the wife of the man every Republican in the Cleveland convention seems to hate.

Now comes the quarrel over whether she plagiarized Michelle Obama’s speech. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said she didn’t, that “93 percent” of Trump’s speech was her own. Others have quibbled over Barack Obama’s lifting of remarks from then-Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s speech.

Look, Mrs. Trump got embarrassed. So did her husband, whose campaign has shrugged off the criticism. That’s the campaign’s call to make.

But it does reveal a fundamental flaw in the Trump campaign apparatus, which is that no one looked over nominee’s wife’s shoulder to protect her and her husband from the kind of gaffe that occurred.

Melania Trump in many ways is an accomplished individual. She speaks several languages. She is not, however, a polished political spouse.

I have zero clues as to how this situation developed. I have a better idea, though, about how it could have been prevented. That responsibility belonged to the individuals in charge of Donald Trump’s campaign.

They let him and his wife down.

Donald Trump will boast all he wants about how he plans to win this election. It starts, though, with building a campaign organization run by people who know what they’re doing.

military news

This ceremony is worth watching … over and over

July 19, 2016 kanelis2012

President Barack Obama took a few minutes out of his busy day this week to hang a medal around the neck of an 86-year-old hero.

The hero’s name is Charles Kettles. Nearly 50 years ago — yes, 50 years — Kettles found himself in the middle of an intense fire fight in Vietnam.

Kettles, an Army pilot, already had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his effort to rescue his fellow soldiers, flying them out of the landing zone to safety.

But someone in Ypsilanti, Mich., where Kettles lives, heard about the story and worked for five years to ensure that Kettles received the nation’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor.

This video tells the story. It’s moving. It speaks to one man’s humility, which as I’ve long believed speaks to the fundamental character that all true heroes share.

The event also enables us, as the president noted, to honor the “basic goodness” of Americans. “It’s been a tough couple of weeks,” the president said.

Indeed it has … which helps make this presentation so meaningful.

Thank you, Lt. Col. Kettles.

national news

Now it’s Baton Rouge PD under fire … literally!

July 17, 2016 kanelis2012

I am going to pray that we haven’t started another list of communities where we attach them immediately to random acts of unspeakable violence.

We have places like Newtown, Charleston, Aurora, Blacksburg, Killeen, Littleton, Springfield, Orlando, you name it, where violence has broken out, claiming the lives of innocent people at the hands of hideous monsters.

Just two weeks ago, another such monster opened fire in Dallas, killing five police officers. Today? It happened again … in Baton Rouge.

Three officers are dead; several others are wounded.

What I haven’t yet been able to read is anything that starts to explain the motive behind this latest attack on law enforcement.

The big question? Is it race-related?

Baton Rouge police, you must recall, were involved in the shooting death of an African-American man. The officers, who are white, have been put on leave. Demonstrations have broken out.

It’s reasonable, I reckon, to believe that today’s shooting was in response to that earlier incident. But we don’t know.

One gunman is dead. Police today have said he is dressed in black, but no one is identifying him, either by name or by his ethnicity.

No matter the motivation, this kind of attack on law enforcement must not stand.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/breakingnews/3-baton-rouge-police-killed-in-shooting-1-suspect-dead/ar-BBuq8lz?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

President Obama has condemned it. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has as well. So has the leader of the Black Lives Matter movement that has led the demonstrations.

Let us all pray for an immediate end to this kind of tragedy.

I don’t know how we’re ever going to repair hearts that keep getting broken by this kind of cruel senselessness.

International news, national news, political news

Trump, Pence ignore a key element in ISIS’s creation

July 16, 2016 kanelis2012

Did I hear this correctly?

That Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are responsible for the horror that the Islamic State is bringing to the world? Did Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump assert such a thing today? And did I hear his vice-presidential running mate, Mike Pence, echo such rubbish?

I believe that’s the case.

So, I think it’s time to set the record straight. Wish me luck.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/trump-pence-vp-225652

The responsibility for ISIS belongs primarily with former President George W. Bush, who in March 2003 decided to topple Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq. We invaded Iraq with phony “evidence” that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction. We got him and his Sunni government tossed out.

Oh, and what happened then?

A whole lot of Sunni Muslims became angry with our invasion and decided to strike back at the Iraqi government.

The Islamic State then came into being.

For Trump and Pence and other vocal critics of President Obama and Hillary Clinton to suggest that their policies have given rise to ISIS is a malicious lie.

The president inherited the troubles brought about by the Iraq War. They didn’t create them.

What can we expect, though. A presidential campaign is going to produce vastly overheated rhetoric from both sides.

Trump, with his penchant for attaching epithets such as “Lyin’ Ted” on his foes, is sure to hurl far more than his fair share of lies at Hillary Clinton.

He and his running mate did so again today.

national news, State news

President makes point about his support of cops

July 16, 2016 kanelis2012

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick went to the White House to take part in a town hall meeting with President Barack Obama.

The subject: police relations with communities that might not always believe police officers are their friends.

Patrick stood up and asked Obama to express his support for the police in a way that conveys such support for the men and women who protect us.

I believe the president answered Patrick appropriately by telling him that he — Obama — has been “unequivocal” in his stated support of law enforcement.

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/07/15/brief-july-15-2016/?mc_cid=398044d66b&mc_eid=c01508274f

Lt. Gov. Patrick did not distinguish himself — or the state — when he derided the Black Lives Matter marchers as “hypocrites” when they fled the gunfire that erupted in Dallas the other evening. They were marching to protest police activities in other communities but then sought protection when the gunman opened fire. Thus, according to Patrick, they behaved hypocritically.

As the Texas Tribune reported: “In response to Patrick’s question at the discussion on Thursday, Obama countered that he had ‘been unequivocal in condemning any rhetoric directed at police officers’ and offered to send Patrick examples of him expressing the sentiment ‘in case you missed it.’”

Indeed, I have heard our head of state say repeatedly that he condemns those who have struck out against police officers. I am not sure what Lt. Gov. Patrick actually wants the president to say that he hasn’t said already.

Perhaps it’s that President Obama has talked openly about the incidents in which the police at times have treated African-Americans and other racial minorities differently than they way they react to others.

Obama also said that “data shows there are disparities in how police treated people of different races, and that pointing out those disparities should not be viewed as anti-police.”

We all know the police have difficult and profoundly stressful jobs. Barack Obama knows it as well as does Dan Patrick.

The president said so — yet again! — at the White House town hall.

International news, military news

Newt proposes going to war against Islam

July 15, 2016 kanelis2012

President George W. Bush stood firm and resolute in the days after 9/11 and declared — without equivocation — that America would not go to war “against Islam.”

Our enemy, he told a grief-stricken nation, are the religious perverts who acted in the name of a mainstream religion.

Then we went to war against terrorists.

President Barack Obama came into office eight years later and said the same thing. He has followed through on President Bush’s declaration. Yet those who condemn Barack Obama’s strategy choose to ignore the war policies enacted by his immediate predecessor in the White House.

So, what does a one-time congressional leader and former candidate for president of the United States want to do? He wants to go to war against Islam. Newt Gingrich said last night the nation needs to apply “tests” to Muslims to determine if they believe in Sharia law, which he said is incompatible with “western civilization.”

The former speaker of the House has given the radical Islamists a lead-pipe-cinch recruitment tool. He has just delivered to them all the evidence many of the terrorists need to justify their jihad against the United States and our many allies around the world.

Two presidents — one Republican and one Democrat — who’ve been up to their armpits in this on-going war against radical Islamic terrorists have laid down an important marker that Newt Gingrich has declared no longer matters.

Suffice to say, at least, that Newt no longer is in a position to turn his shrill rhetoric into public policy.

Thank goodness, at least, for that reality.

local news, national news, political news

This is what you call ‘outreach’

July 14, 2016 kanelis2012

I hereby crown Barack Obama as the King of Political Outreach.

The president is convening a town hall meeting at the White House to discuss racism in the nation.

Who do you think he’s invited to take part? None other than Texas Lt. Gov. Dan “They Are Hypocrites!” Patrick.

This is awesome, man!

Patrick popped off right after the shooting erupted in Dallas that killed five police officers. He appeared on “Fox and Friends” to criticize the Black Lives Matter protesters for fleeing the gunfire and seeking help from the very police whose conduct they were protesting.

Thus, came the “hypocrites!” charge.

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/07/13/patrick-attend-town-hall-obama/

It’s good that Lt. Gov. Patrick will attend this event. It will be televised on ESPN and ABC. The White House is seeking to assemble a diverse group of participants to get as many different points of view as possible.

This, I submit, is the real beauty of town hall meetings, which shouldn’t be used as political echo chambers where everyone applauds the views of everyone else.

As the Texas Tribune reports, quoting White House press secretary Josh Earnest: “I think the president is hopeful that those kinds of interactions will both illuminate a variety of perspectives for the American people to see,” Earnest said, according to a transcript of his daily briefing with reporters. “I also think he’s hopeful that it will illustrate what can happen when people open up their hearts to a different perspective.”

The catalyst for all this, of course, is the shooting of the two young men in Baton Rouge and suburban St. Paul, as well as the Dallas march and the shooting that erupted there. Two young black men died after being shot by white police officers and the shooter — another young black man — opened fire in Dallas in an act of revenge against white police officers.

It’s good that the White House is playing host to this town hall.

It’s even better that the president of the United States has invited an outspoken critic — Dan Patrick — to take part.

You want outreach? This is it.

High Plains Blogger