Charles Blow/NYT: "Trump can't hold a candle to Obama-so he's taking a tiki torch to Obamas legacy"

[kpete]

Trump, Chieftain of Spite
Charles M. Blow OCT. 15, 2017




It must be cold and miserable standing in the shadow of someone greater and smarter, more loved and more admired. It must be infuriating to have risen on the wings of your derision of that person’s every decision, and even his very existence, and yet not be able to measure up — in either stratagem or efficacy — when you sit where that person once sat.

.................

This is the existence of Donald Trump in the wake of President Barack Obama. Trump can’t hold a candle to Obama, so he’s taking a tiki torch to Obama’s legacy. Trump can’t get his bad ideas through Congress, but he can use the power of the presidency to sabotage or even sink Obama’s signature deeds.

In fact, if there’s a defining feature of Trump as “president,” is that in all ways he is the anti-Obama — not only on policy but also on matters of propriety and polish. While Obama was erudite, Trump is ignorant. Obama was civil, Trump is churlish. Obama was tactful, Trump is tacky.

There is a thing present in Obama and absent from Trump that no amount of money or power can alter: a sense of elegant intellectualism and taste.

............

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/15/opinion/columnists/trump-spite-obama-legacy.html?_r=0

[madokie]

1. Spot on

"There is a thing present in Obama and absent from Trump that no amount of money or power can alter: a sense of elegant intellectualism and taste."

[Scarsdale]

7. Perfectly stated.

Polar opposites. One has CLASS, the other is CRASS.

[Fritz Walter]

10. And Drumpf panders to the anti-intellectuals in his base

Despite his campaign messages that he is smart, uses the best words, etc. he and his followers are the school yard bullies who delight in beating up the smart kids. And his pin-up bride #3 had the nerve to claim she's working against bullying.

[flakey_foont]

2. Excellent!

Thanks for posting this.

[TexasProgresive]

3. K & R

Obama was erudite, Trump is ignorant. Obama was civil, Trump is churlish. Obama was tactful, Trump is tacky.

[yuiyoshida]

4. I have been hearing this for a long time

glad there was confirmation.

[Butterflylady]

5. He is so, so jealous of Obama.

[handmade34]

6. let me add

while Obama maintains a sense of morality in life and speech, Trump is morally bankrupted...

Trump violates a basic protocol of human communication: Be sure of it before you say it. His way is to say something wrong, then bend reality to make it appear right. This is why the age of Trump is so maddening and stupefying: He is warping reality.

[spicysista]

8. BOOM!

Mr. Charles Blow has been on fire for minute, now! I hope has security protection of some sort.

[Alice11111]

26. !!!

[world wide wally]

9. If this was a movie, everyone could see who is good and who is evil...

But this isn't a movie so we need to deal with the derangeables.

[mcar]

11. Government by vindictiveness

[Alice11111]

24. Yes, he needs an exorcism.He is beyond the pale of diagnosis

and treatment. He is Just obsessed vindictive, beyond any impulse control.

[malaise]

12. Beautifully stated

Rec

[whathehell]

13. Damned Right!!

Obama has more brains, class and decency in his small toe than

Chump has in his entire bloated body.

[lark]

14. More than that.

Obama cared about everyone, he wasn't just president for the liberals. Drumpf is only president of the racist haters and 1% and actively & maliciously tries to hurt everyone and every state that didn't vote for him. That's why he doesn't mention CA, he's probably gleeful in private, that's the kind of orange assface that he is. He doesn't mention the solider dying in Nigeria because it brings no glory to him so he doesn't give a fuck. In fact it shows his disregard for the military and this NFL schtick is just that, a trick to chum his base.

[Control-Z]

15. I wish this could be pinned

at the top of General Discussion page.

[yurbud]

16. It always gets me that people who believe in white supremacy are the worst evidence for it.

When Trump stands next to Obama it's like that evolution chart with Trump somewhere between Obama and pond scum.

[True Dough]

30. Much closer

to the pond scum!

[murielm99]

17. If 45 was smart,

and trying to do his best, no one would care about his churlishness and tackiness. We have had Presidents who were rough around the edges, but determined to do the right thing. Even when we disagreed with them, on the whole they were there for the right reasons.

[Mopar151]

22. LBJ

Nixon, too. They were crooks, but their vision of the future had a good deal of mercy in it. Even Reagan was playing the part of a good president, whatever ideas the screenwriters had on

[murielm99]

23. Truman.

Not educated, but very smart. And for the most part, honest.

[yurbud]

33. yes. draft dodgers, adulterers, poor businessmen...

I give them a pass if they made people's lives better.

On adultery alone, there doesn't seem to be much correlation with how they do their job.

[calimary]

18. Charles M Blow is one of my favorites.

And he sure proves it here. Once again.

[BadGimp]

19. Spot ON Mr Blow, Spot ON indeed!!

[alfredo]

20. Damnatio Memoriae

[calimary]

21. Money don't buy you class, donald.

[Alice11111]

25. ...or brains.

[SHRED]

27. It started at the press corp dinner

Dump got humiliated by Obama.

[Alice11111]

29. I do think he cares. He knows.he was never accepted by

NY society. BFD, but it was very important to him. He.practically begged & made the Clintons promise to be at.his wedding. For show...I have a former Prez.

He should have stuck to what he was good at, reality TV, a cut above Jerry Springer maybe.

[JI7]

32. He cares about being seen as more popular and just better

That's why things like crowd sizes and ratings are so important to him.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

31. That's a great title.

Love Charles Blow's pieces.