President Obama spoke during his final news conference in the White House briefing room on Wednesday. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
New York Times: Obama Vows to Speak Out on ‘Core Values’ After Office
WASHINGTON — President Obama made clear on Wednesday that he would not go silent after leaving office this week, promising to speak out whenever he feels America’s “core values” are threatened.
While he said he was looking forward to taking a break from politics, Mr. Obama said at the final news conference of his presidency that certain major issues would be important enough to draw him out of retirement and back into the national conversation after President-elect Donald J. Trump takes over on Friday.
“There’s a difference between that normal functioning of politics and certain issues or certain moments where I think our core values may be at stake,” he said. “I put in that category if I saw systematic discrimination being ratified in some fashion. I put in that category explicit or functional obstacles to people being able to vote, to exercise their franchise. I put in that category institutional efforts to silence dissent or the press. And for me at least, I would put in that category efforts to round up kids who have grown up here and for all practical purposes are American kids and send them somewhere else, when they love this country.”
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WNU Editor: He will have his friends and allies in the media giving him a voice .... but it is not the same if you are President .... a fact that I suspect is going to hit him hard a few months from now.
1 comment:
Barack Obama is generally well liked by the American people even if they aren't enamoured with and in many cases opposed to his policies. As such, his personal popularity didn't translate into electoral gains for the Democrats.
It remains to be seen how the American people will respond to him continuing to speak on public policy after he leaves office. I think allot of that will depend upon how much improvement Americans experience after Mr. Trump takes office.
If things improve under DJT, patience with BHO continuing to push for various policies may run out with the American people. If things don't improve, BHO may find a supportive audience.
Unfortunately this may be the case even though the power of POTUS to actually do anything is quite limited regardless who holds the office. Some do not understand this and the tendency will be to credit POTUS when things go well and to blame POTUS when they don't whether POTUS is at fault or is responsible for the good.
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