Obama's Exit: Definition of No Class

Judging from his performance these past few days, the last of his hideous reign, President Obama clearly thinks of himself as Hernan Cortes confronting the events of June 30, 1520. Mexico history buffs--and it is a genuinely remarkable history, well worth studying--will recognize that date as the infamous La Noche Triste (The Night of Sorrow) during which Cortes and his army of Spaniards and Tlaxcala allies fought their way out of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan. Cortes barely escaped with his life when the Aztecs, at last, grew wise to Spanish intentions, deposed the ineffectual Moctezuma, and went into full revolt captained by their new King, Cuitláhuac. Cortes, having survived the bloody escape from Tenochtitlan, lived to fight another day, and eventually exacted a brutal revenge on the Aztec civilization, including King Cuitláhuac and the Aztec capital (read Victor Hanson Davis's account of the battle in his masterful Carnage and Culture.) Obama apparently thinks he, too, will lead the counter attack to take back the capital city which has fallen to the illegitimate tlahtoani Donald "Call Me Cuitláhuac" Trump.

Far fetched? Maybe, but Obama is certainly not going out quietly and with class. He will not replicate George W. Bush's graceful exit and subsequent political silence. At his FINAL (?) press conference, Obama's lack of class, grace, and reflection, and the absence of any sense of personal responsibility shone brightly. He performed before the pet journalists of the White House press corpse as though he were taking a victory lap. He proved full of praise for himself, and brimming with "sage" advice for his successor and for the press in dealing with the new President. He wanted them to be as tough on Trump as they had been on him . . . low bar, insert jokes here . . . He could not admit that nearly everything he touched has turned to disaster for America and, ironically, for his own political party which has become irrelevant in huge swathes of the country. He vowed, a la Cortes, to come storming back if he saw his values under attack! Unlike other ex-presidents, he will remain in DC, just so he can try (Good Luck With That!) to steal the spotlight from President Trump. In other words, this final press conference will not be the final press conference from the biggest disaster ever to occupy the White House.

Worse, however, than the evident narcissism and delusion on display at the presser, and in his even more pompous "farewell" address, Obama has taken actions in his last days in power to make life much more difficult for President Trump and for America, including his outrageous commutation of Manning's 35-year prison sentence. Manning should have been left to rot.

While Trump will quickly dismantle most if not all of Obama's absurd Presidential Directives, Obama has set down IED's for the new administration in foreign affairs. Obama's last minute discovery, for example, that Russia has interests of its own and that they do not necessarily coincide with ours will create long-term problems. The dispatch of US troops, for example, to Poland in the waning days of this horrid misadministration sets up a dilemma for Trump. If he leaves the troops there, the job of reaching out to Russia becomes all the more difficult. If he pulls them out, he will be accused of being a Putin puppet, out to destroy NATO. This is not a problem without resolution, but it is an unnecessary one. Likewise, the Obama/Kerry/ Powers last-minute blitz on the Middle East in which the US has sided openly with the corruptocrats and terrorists of the so-called Palestine Authority, and placed Israel's core interests at risk in exchange for, well, nothing, sets up Trump for an immediate clash with the Arabs, the UN, and, potentially, our ally Israel who feels betrayed. Israel and our own interests have been betrayed not only by Obama's actions at the UN but by the fake Iran deal, (go here, here and here, for example) that legitimizes and helps fund terrorist Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons. Trump will now have to deal with a surging Iran. In East Asia, of course, the Obama misadministration has so mishandled relations with our allies there, including Philippines, that the new administration will have an even more difficult time than necessary in dealing with the growing threat from China. In the Americas, Obama has up-ended decades of US policy towards the Castro regime, again, in exchange for nothing, and at the price of making America seem weak. I am sure you can spot many more Obama IEDs.

Anyhow, tomorrow we will have a new President, one that actually seems to want America to do well. What a change from the past eight years . . .