The overweening arrogance of Barack Obama cursed his party for the last eight years, and led to the rise of Donald Trump. After spending nearly a decade acting as a political celebrity, Obama has been replaced by an actual political celebrity; after spending a decade decrying Americans as racists and bigots, Obama has been replaced by a man who tells Americans they need not be ashamed of disagreeing with Obama. Obama, more than any other single personality but Hillary Clinton, felt the wrath of the voters on November 9.
But there’s good news, according to Obama: the election wasn’t about him. He explained on a conference call with other Democrats:
Let me tell you something: We got more done than any administration in the last who-knows-how-many decades….Look, one of the challenges that I’ve discovered being president is I’d like to be organizer-in-chief, but it’s hard. You got Syria, and you got NATO, and you have summit meetings and economic issues that you have to deal with on ongoing basis. You try to get legislation done.
This morning, Obama added that there’s a “mismatch between frustration and anger” because “people seem to think I did a pretty good job.”
This has been a running theme with Obama: the only reason all Americans don’t bow to his superior wisdom is that they have been dramatically misinformed. If only the Great Sage Of Our Age had the time to speak to Americans – you know, between the rounds of golf and the appearances on Jimmy Kimmel – he would have won! Hillary would have won!
But it doesn’t matter – after all, he’s really popular, so clearly this had nothing to do with him.
Now, if that sounds like a switch, that’s because it is. Obama spent most of the campaign explaining that his legacy was inextricably intertwined with Hillary Clinton’s election. In a video he cut weeks before the election, he stated, “if you want to give Michelle and me a good sendoff…get people registered to vote. If you care about our legacy, realize everything we stand for is at stake.” Obama even called it a “personal insult” to his legacy if black voters didn’t show up for Hillary.
But that’s the wonderful thing about being a narcissist like Obama. If something wonderful happens, it’s solely due to you – just look at Obama’s self-glorifying announcement of the killing of Osama Bin Laden. If something terrible happens, it’s not your fault – it’s everybody else’s fault.
It’s this sort of narcissism that lies at the root of Democrats’ defeat.
They think that their losses have nothing to do with their behavior – it’s just because of Republican malfeasance and cruelty. And so they don’t change their behavior.
Thank God for that. The more they insist they’re impeccable, the more they double down on losing strategy.
Thanks, Obama.