Sitting on the edge of my bed the night of the first Tuesday in November of 2008 with a phone in each hand, speaking with friends and campaign colleagues, in hushed tones that could be construed as prayers; CNN’s Wolf Blitzer finally said it out loud “Barack Obama has been elected the 44th President of the United States,” I cried.
As most black-Americans, particularly one of my age would have told you, those were words we hoped our great-great-great-grandchildren would hear someday. My tears served two purposes, first thankful that I lived long enough to see a ‘dream deferred’ and secondly tears for Mr. Obama because I knew what “being the first” meant. His road would be filled with doubts, covert and overt racism, fear and inequity. One of the favorite ploys used by the Republicans was to tie former President Obama to his Muslim father and therefore label him a traitor. Their obsession with his not labeling every Muslim a terrorist drove the narrative. “Radical Islamic Terrorism” was certainly repeated much more than “very fine people on both sides” by conservatives.
In the case of Mr. Obama, he was castigated for what he would not say as opposed to Mr. Trump who is constantly excused by his segment of society that agrees wholeheartedly with what he does say. When conservatives are not dancing between the snowflakes and insulting liberals with the bastardized word “lib-tards” they tell us that ‘grabbing, racial epithets, and addressing Boy Scouts with stories using sexual innuendo as the subject matter is just “ locker room talk.” I think I would feel safer having my grandson spend a day with Mr. Obama rather than Mr. Trump.
Mr. Obama was caught in a hot mic moment telling Russian President Medvedev that he would have more maneuvering ["more flexibility"] room to negotiate following the 2012 election. The loud boom you heard following that statement was every opinion anchor on Fox News having a Howard Beale meltdown. Yet Rudy Giuliani, who bills himself as the President’s personal lawyer, flew to Ukraine today to openly ask a foreign government to help him win the next election for Mr. Trump. The fact that the new Ukrainian President is a reality TV host and comedian is an irony that no Hollywood scriptwriter would touch.
The committing of crime in public is a strategy that works with his base, when will real America stand and grab our country back. Trump all but told NBC reporter Lester Holt he obstructed justice when he fired former FBI Director James Comey. He confirmed it by telling Russian envoys later, “I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Mr. Trump said. He went on to confirm his obstructive behavior when during that same meeting with no American press in the room, “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”
Republicans tried their best to either manufacture or over blow their wishes for an Obama scandal. As I said before it is hard being the first but Mr. Obama wore his tan suit, enjoyed his beer summit, and ate arugula with style.
Vote in 2020 for Change.