![\"480px-BarackObamaportrait\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2015\/02\/480px-BarackObamaportrait.jpg\")
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Just to be perfectly clear: \u00a0I remember Bill Clinton. \u00a0I remember that many Americans thought very highly of him, and considered his presidency to have been an unqualified success, and deemed criticism of the man to have been unjust and a partisan witch hunt.<\/p>\n
But I just don\u2019t remember him being the recipient of the sort of adulation that President Obama is currently receiving. \u00a0The farewells. \u00a0The tearfulness. \u00a0The praise that he\u2019s a shining example of a father, a husband, that he has worked tirelessly and unselfishly for the American people, and has shown his love for each and every American \u2014 and besides which is exceptionally intelligent, exceptionally cool, professorial in a good way, and so on. \u00a0It seems to go beyond, far beyond, a satisfaction with favorable developments that occurred during Obama\u2019s presidency, and, to be honest, creeps me out as being just a bit too close to that sort of adoration that we\u2019re used to seeing, well, in those sorts of places where the Great Leader\u2019s photograph is in every home.<\/p>\n
Links? \u00a0No, I don\u2019t have links. \u00a0It comes across my twitter feed from pundits, and my facebook feed, as facebook friends sharing something from Vox.com or another left\/progressive outlet, or a link to Obama\u2019s speech, and talking about how teary-eyed it made them and how sad they are that he\u2019s leaving.<\/p>\n
Even when it was reported that Obama\u00a0gave\u00a0Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which seemed to me to be cronyism and an abuse of the meaning of the award (even though apparently it has precedent, it still shouldn\u2019t happen \u2014 this award should be for a greater achievement than managing to be re-elected a sufficient number of times, and shouldn\u2019t be given to someone with whom the giver has a close relationship), a facebook friend praised him for this as an act of generosity.<\/p>\n
Now, maybe here I simply am too young. \u00a0Maybe Republicans got teary-eyed over Ronald Reagan as well. \u00a0Or maybe this is as much about Trump, and worry about what he does, as Obama. \u00a0Or maybe this is a matter of facebook and the echo chamber that it produces, and the fact that facebook makes its money off people getting teary-eyed, though typically over Upworthy or other inspirational videos; maybe that\u2019s conditioned people to be teary-eyed over inspirational things.<\/p>\n
But \u2014 having said all that: \u00a0if you\u2019re in the category of those who are teary-eyed, please tell me why. \u00a0I\u2019m serious \u2014 I\u2019m not going to reply back in comments about why I disagree. \u00a0OK, I may reply back pressing for more specifics, asking you for things that he has concretely done that a generic Democrat wouldn\u2019t have done anyway: \u00a0it was a given that he would sign the stimulus bill, and Obamacare, despite his name being on it, was something developed by House and Senate leaders. \u00a0Do you think \u2014 and for what reasons \u2014 that there was something truly special about President Obama?<\/p>\n
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image: \u00a0from Wikimedia Commons, public domain<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just to be perfectly clear: \u00a0I remember Bill Clinton. \u00a0I remember that many Americans thought very highly of him, and considered his presidency to have been an unqualified success, and deemed criticism of the man to have been unjust and a partisan witch hunt. But I just don\u2019t remember him being the recipient of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":1387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-5841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-obama"],"yoast_head":"\n