Barack Obama, just shut the fuck up

Barack Obama

I really can’t add anything to Arwa Mahdawi’s op-ed on Barack Obama’s suggestion that “for two years if every nation on earth was run by women, you would see a significant improvement across the board on just about everything,”[1] as she contrasts New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern with Burma’s head civilian Aung San Suu Kyi and points to discrepancies—I would have to quote too much of the article to do it justice—in our expectations of women and of men and in how each respond to those expectations.[2]

Donald Trump, while setting out to entirely reverse Obama’s legacy, has benefited from the so-called economic expansion that Obama’s policies started. And Obama has reaffirmed[3] his unforgivable so-called “centrism,”[4] really neoconservatism, for which neoliberalism is a moral imperative.[5] It’s no wonder Joe Biden was his vice president.

Yes, Trump is worse than Obama. That’s damnation only by comparison to a presidency that did enough damage already and that I can’t condemn strongly enough.

But on top of all that, Obama has to say stupid shit about women. He’s starting to remind me of Hillary Clinton.

Arwa Mahdawi, “You’re not helping, Obama – just reinforcing myths about men v women,” Guardian, December 21, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/21/barack-obama-women-better-than-men-myths-leaders


  1. [1]Barack Obama, quoted in Arwa Mahdawi, “You’re not helping, Obama – just reinforcing myths about men v women,” Guardian, December 21, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/21/barack-obama-women-better-than-men-myths-leaders
  2. [2]Arwa Mahdawi, “You’re not helping, Obama – just reinforcing myths about men v women,” Guardian, December 21, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/21/barack-obama-women-better-than-men-myths-leaders
  3. [3]Justine Coleman, “Obama privately said he would speak up to stop Sanders: report,” Hill, November 26, 2019, https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/472090-obama-privately-said-he-would-speak-up-to-stop-sanders-report; Ryan Lizza, “Waiting for Obama,” Politico, November 26, 2019, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2019/11/26/barack-obama-2020-democrats-candidates-biden-073025
  4. [4]David Benfell, “A most consequential president,” Not Housebroken, July 15, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2015/07/15/a-most-consequential-president/
  5. [5]David Benfell, “Conservative Views on Undocumented Migration” (doctoral dissertation, Saybrook, 2016). ProQuest (1765416126).

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