Barack Obama was president of the United States for eight years without a single scandal. None of his aides were arrested and jailed. I disagreed with his education policies but I respect him as a man of integrity and a patriot.
This is the speech he delivered to the virtual Democratic National Convention.
Please watch. It was riveting.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Some called him out for his open criticism another president, but when almost every republican is too afraid to stand to stand up to Trump, we need someone brave enough to step up and stand for truth and our country before it’s too late.
LikeLike
If ANYONE has the right to openly criticize Trump, it is Barack Obama.
Trump spent years leading the birther movement. Trump went so far as to claim he had proof that Obama had lied about his birth because Obama was born in Kenya and had no legitimacy as president.
Compared to the many years of Donald Trump lying — not criticizing, but LYING — to encourage his followers to hate and threaten Obama and his family, Obama’s criticism of Trump seems almost mild.
LikeLike
Open criticism of another president at a convention is called unprecedented, yet 3-1/2 yrs of a sitting president blatantly lambasting and insulting his predecessor, HRC et al, incessantly & w/abandon was hardly “precedented.” In the current context, Obama’s remarks seemed simply measured & factual.
LikeLike
Trump has ridiculed anyone who dared to criticize him. He deserves to be criticized.
LikeLike
WHERE is George W. Bush in all of this? HE should come forward and do what’s right.
LikeLike
Cindy is right. No republican has the character to rebuke Trump.
After the election of Joe Biden, they will all go into the Shitless Protection Program.
LikeLike
“No republican has the character to rebuke Trump.”
WRONG and I am not a Republican.
Romney did.
George W. Bush has criticized Trump more than once.
The Republicans behind The Lincoln Project do it with every video they produce.
And those examples are not the only ones.
LikeLike
Point taken. See your foregiveness for hyperbole. But most Rep electeds will soon seek refuge in the above-mentioned SPP—Susan Collins waving the Shitless banner.
LikeLike
But where was Bush at the DNC convention? Was he there?
LikeLike
Being a character and having character are two completely different things.
LikeLike
I get it, Dienne.
You hate Obama.
You hate Biden.
You hate Harris.
You hate the Democratic Party.
No need to repeat yourself.
I’m not posting any more of your rants against the only opposition to Trump.
Why don’t you just write about how much you adore Trump and Pence.
I’ll post that.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse and commented:
VOTE like your life and this planet depends on it, and do NOT vote for Donald Trump and any Republicans.
LikeLike
When he was president, I had no real love for Obama. His Race to the Top has justifiably been vilified in this blog, with good reason. The nature of the teaching experience got no boost from his administration. His health care plan seemed to make insurance companies more in charge of my health care, and I have thankfully stayed out of that loop. Even with my differences, I judged him to be a person whom I had differences with, albeit a decent person.
My conservative friends did not agree. Even now you can see lists of his supposed transgressions passing through facebook, given thumbs up for things like Bengazi, fast and furious, and on and on. It is fascinating to see the American right wing accepting false equivalency to suggest that the things trump has done are somehow business as usual. I am constantly told that a voter cannot accept Biden because he is a socialist. Meanwhile, McConnell can state on every media there is in the first days of the Obama administration that he intends to obstruct the Obama agenda without criticism. If Obama does not agree with McConnell, he is fomenting disunity. My way or the highway.
The final straw came when the McConnel Senate refused to even consider Merrick Garland. The election of Trump then led to the appointing of two extremist judges who will haunt the Supreme Court for years. My way or the highway
Sooner or later, the highway will win. It might be in November, but I doubt it. When the opponents of the present conservative minority finally garner enough votes to overwhelm the system, conservatives will have placed the United States in a dangerous position. They will be giving up their power to an opposition that has no regard for the balance of power, never having experienced it. I would never want a dictatorship on the right. But one on the left could be just as devastating.
If my friends on the political right do not begin to see the wisdom of compromise and egalitarian approach to government, they could see their kind walking to the guillotine. They would have no one to blame but themselves and their failed leadership.
LikeLike
“It is fascinating to see the American right wing accepting false equivalency to suggest that the things trump has done are somehow business as usual.”
I see this especially among Joe Q Trumpistas w/ regard to the verbal element. Most of them are not savvy enough to understand the relative import/ comparison of Obama v Trump govtl actions & are just parroting Fox analysis. But they actually seem to see
Trump’s continual barrage of over-the-top insults against liberal Americans in general & unstatesmanlike, personal insults for Dem leaders & any other public figure who disagrees with him– including foreign heads of state– as “business as usual.” Even though we have never seen this before from a president. And are shocked and insulted by the hostile reaction of press and Dems.
All I can figure is that the Trumpista core [the 30%] has been feeling continually shat upon, ignored, left out of the public conversation & looked down on for their whole lives. They identify with a guy who seems to come from the same place, as illustrated by his continual, revengeful stream of invective, convinced everybody’s against him even when he’s holding all the cards. This seems to me to be a cultural issue we’re going to have to figure out how to deal with.
LikeLike
Obama was president of the United States. That’s all you have to say. He was the president of the United States of America, not the president of the blue states of America. Trump is the president of the united misanthropists of America and no one else.
LikeLike
United Snakes of America
LikeLike
Better, thank you. Also, Confederate States of America 2.0.
LikeLike
Inconsiderate States of America
LikeLike
Unhinged States of America
LikeLike
Blighted States of America,
Shortsighted States of America,
The Whited States of America.
LikeLike
Unwitted States of America
Nitwitted States of America
The Lone Neuron State
LikeLike
The Lone Neuron State of mind
https://youtu.be/0HETJr-G5F0
LikeLike
The Bone Spur State of mind
LikeLike
Can–Twitter-it States of America
LikeLike
He makes tweet it in the new phone it in.
LikeLike
Obama reminded us of what a thoughtful, intelligent leader sounds like. He was eloquent and coherent. He spoke to us from The Constitution Center to remind us of our ideals and how far #45 has veered from defending and following the rule of law. Obama and other speakers reinforced the importance of voting in this election. Nobody can afford to miss this one. Our democracy is on the line.
I hope tonight’s closer states clearly so that all working people will understand that Trump intends to destroy Social Security and Medicare if he is given four more years. Voters need to understand how devastating this would be for working families. This issue alone should be enough galvanize a good percentage of voters.
LikeLike
Amen, retired teacher!
LikeLike
Like others, I disagreed with Obama’s education office led by Duncan.
But, I think Obama is one of the most decent and moral persons to be potus. He sure is on the other side of the yardstick compared to that traitorous dump.
Obama was NOT a national embarrassment like that dump. What a difference there is between Obama and “that dumpster.”
I loved Obama’s Speech. Is much needed, given where America is now because of that dumpster.
LikeLike
Yes. What you just posted seems so obvious that it is incomprehensible that anyone can disagree.
One can vehemently disagree and oppose Obama’s education policies. But most of us understand that it isn’t just that Trump is wrong on policy that makes Trump so dangerous. It is that Trump has absolutely no consideration for anything but his own interests and believes he should be given absolute power to punish his enemies and reward his friends. That isn’t a president. That is someone who will act without any consideration of who is harmed.
LBJ was wrong about a lot of things. So were Truman and FDR and Eisenhower. But despite being politicians, with political interests, they also understood that they had a responsibility to their citizens and tried to meet that.
Trump is incapable of doing that or even thinking that way. It is the reason he has run every single business he ever controlled into bankruptcy. He is constitutionally incapable of thinking about anything except his own short term interests and acting on them. And that is scary. Even if Trump was promoting progressive views, he would be a very dangerous and scary president if he was willing to hurt anyone he saw as an “enemy” to get his way. And I like to think most of us would not trade democracy in exchange for “Medicare for All”.
LikeLike
Former President Barack Obama identified how President Trump’s rejection of constitutional division of powers, his disregard for democracies, his coziness with dictators and his alliance with billionaires to defund social security, affordable care and Medicare have undermined our democracy and reduced the respect people of the world have for the USA.
LikeLike
I think many Americans don’t care if we’re headed towards dictatorship. Dems take it for granted that people value democracy. I’m afraid our teachers and politicians have failed to make the case for it.
LikeLike
First sentence: OK, I’m with you. Second sentence: I can quibble. Third sentence: WTF? Teachers and politicians have the burden “to make the case for it”? What burden do citizens and actual human beings who should be informing themselves about their world have? According to your illogic, I would assume none? I don’t need teachers or politicians to inform me about my civic duties and virtue.
LikeLike
When Donald Trump spoke at his inauguration of “American carnage,” I assumed that was ______, not a campaign promise. –Julia Louis-Dreyfus
I missed a word there. But his nails it.
LikeLike
Joe is absolutely killing it tonight. Honest. True. Profound.
LikeLike
Biden was eloquent, filled with warmth and humility and honesty. Whenever he mentions Beau, I fill up with tears. He is the right man for the moment. He is a man of wisdom, kindness, compassion. I believe in Joe.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I thought of you, Diane, listening to him. Love to you and yours.
LikeLike
There were so many incredible moments tonight even before the Biden speech — especially hearing young Braden Harrington talking about stuttering and Joe Biden speaking with him about it. I didn’t know how Joe could possibly live up to that.
But Biden really nailed it. I read a great post — “If I ever get dementia I hope it is as bad as Biden`s…”
(My other favorite part was most of the other candidates in the primary in their zoom call about Biden. Love Bernie so much, but I also liked Mayor Pete and even Cory Booker tonight).
Even the despicable Bloomberg was spot on in reminding people that Trump is, was, and always will be a fraud.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right on. Very moving to hear how Joe reached out to the boy with a stutter. Many stories of acts of simple kindness.
LikeLike
Great post, NYC parent!
LikeLike
Thanks!
LikeLike
Good evening, and welcome to the 2020 Repugnican Convention. But first, a word from our sponsors, Vladimir Putin and Goya Beans.
We are brought together this evening to show that it can happen here in America. This is not about politics. This is about a man. Donald J. Trump, Dear Leader Who Shines More Orange than the Sun. Because as all real Americans agree, what matters, what really matters, is Trump.
An inspiration to us all, Donald Trump has shown, by the life he has led, that in America, one can rise above adversity. If you just pay someone to take your SAT and go to work for Daddy keeping black people out of your slum landlord apartments, if you just inherit three quarters of a billion dollars from Daddy and blow it all on parties at Jeffrey’s and on casinos designed to rip off ordinary people, and if you go bankrupt through sheer incompetence, you can dig deep and launder money for Russian kleptocrats and start a fake university and pretend to be a businessman on TV, you can appeal to the worst instincts of the most racist Americans, and emerge a winner. You can put your ignorant spawn in high office, you can surround yourself by people dedicated to destroy the agencies and departments they lead, you can alienate and abandon every ally, you can pander and genuflect to dictators, you can betray our troops and those who fought alongside them, you can wreck the environment, you can take lunches away from poor school children, you can pretend to be a Christian, you can praise Nazis, you can pay off porn stars, you can take from the poor and give to the rich, you can do nothing about a pandemic that kills 170,000 Americans—you do all this and so much, much more, and not lose a single vote.
We’ve got quite a lineup for you over the next few days. Bill Barr will play taps on the bagpipes over the shreds of the Constitution. Don Jr. and Eric will show off the tails they’ve cut off the endangered animals they’ve serially slaughtered. We’ll have an inspiring torchlight parade of Aryan skinheads for Trump. We’ll honor the Confederate leaders who fought for the right of people to own others and massacred African-American soldiers. We’ll make fun of disabled people and talk about ourselves and how great we are to grieving widows of fallen soldiers. But first, a word about the magic cure for Covid, oleander, from the My Pillow guy and the Demon Seed Doc.
LikeLike
Brilliant, Bob!
Your parodies are too close to the truth!
LikeLike
I know that we’re all looking forward to hearing the president talk about the importance of family and all his wives and those he’s groped and what great legs his daughter has.
LikeLike
And, of course, the roundtable on law and order featuring all the convicted and indicted felons from his administration.
LikeLike
By stealing from them, Bannon and his co-conspirators showed Trump supporters for what they are: gullible, dupes of con men.
LikeLike
Robbin’ Hoods
Robbing from their mother
And robbing from their brother
The Robbin’ hoods of world
Will rob from little girl
LikeLike
Yeah, they robbed all the ‘hoods and they robbed all the hovels
And they robbed from tiny holes where a rat can only go
They robbed so fast that the public couldn’t catch ’em
From Atlantic to Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent!!!
LikeLike
bethtree
What a blast from the past. Nice. Apologies to Johnny Horton.
LikeLike
“Robbin The Hood”
Robbin the hood
Of public money
Fillin’ with flood
Of Milken honey
Oout of the wood
With his Merry Men
Robbin The Hood
Has struck again
LikeLike
Bannon the Hood
Has struck again
Also works. Funny that.
LikeLike