Now He Tells Us

In the old days, some Jews called it "chutzpah" while other people called it "gall" or "nerve." A more accurate noun might be arrogance, given that the Singaporean "Today" has reported

“There would be less war, kids would be better taken care of, and there would be a general improvement in living standards and outcomes,” added the 44th US president to loud applause from the 4,500-strong audience at the Singapore Expo Convention Hall and Exhibition Centre.

Calling women “pretty indisputably” better than men, Mr Obama said that after two years of leading the world, everybody would realise (sic) that women should run things all the time.

In the interests of full disclosure: I'm not convinced. However, if Mr. Obama really believes it, this would be a propitious time to endorse Elizabeth Warren for President, who if elected would substantiate Obama's theory.

It's highly unlikely, however, that Obama's first choice is Senator Warren, who challenged the President on his appointees, on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and on virtually everything that characterized the former President's commitment to maintaining the power of financial industry executives over the American economy.

"Today" added "Mr Obama, who served in office from 2009 to 2017, is also the first African-American president of the US."  As with American news sources, it neglected to mention that Obama became the first African-American President by defeating Hillary Clinton who, rumor has it, is a woman, thus among those who are "pretty indisputably" better than men.

We cannot know for certain what kind of President Hillary Clinton would have been, though she probably would not have overseen what was permitted by Barack Obama who, Matt Stoller explained (in discussing another article)

was a really important president at a pivotal moment in history, when a financial crisis gave him wide latitude to restructure our social obligations. And he screwed it up. Some 10 million foreclosures and no Wall Street felons. There are a lot of other ways he restructured society to make it less free and more unequal. For example, because of the way bailouts were structured, black-owned banks were a tenth as likely to get bailout money as other banks. Obama’s antitrust officials allowed mergers in telecoms, pharmaceuticals, airlines, and tech platforms, concentrating power in radical ways. Obama negotiated a bill to hand over Puerto Rico to hedge funds. And what did Obama do about opioids in rural America? A friend of mine in the administration told me that when the White House finally noticed the AIDS-level epidemic death toll, the suggestions proffered were . . . roundtables....

The gist is that Obama reorganized our markets to push wealth and power upward, and to subvert our liberties.

Does Barack Obama believe that not only are women superior but that blacks- or perhaps whites- are superior? No one knows, but his eight years provide support for his theory about men and women. He's only about twelve years late in acknowledging it.

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