What can Obama do?

[kentuck]

Last edited Fri Dec 2, 2016, 10:30 AM - Edit history (1)

To try and bring the country together, as the new President-elect continues to divide and to shock the common senses of many Americans?

Whose responsibility is it to be gracious? Who's responsibility is it to unite our country toward a common purpose?

Donald Trump is not a uniter. Donald Trump is a divider. That is who he is. That is the environment in which we must work and live for the next four years? He is not going to change.

We will probably survive but we will be a lesser nation, weakened by the division and hatred and the threats of punishment and revenge. It is difficult to see how we come out of this election in a better place?

Is there anything President Obama can do to improve the present situation? Can he give a speech? Can he talk with our allies and re-assure them that we are still by their side? Can he convince the majority of Americans that we will survive this crisis and come out stronger than ever before?

We are in a constitutional crisis and the new President-elect continues to ignore it. Meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking...

[handmade34]

1. "We are in a constitutional crisis"

I believe this to be true and it seems as if nobody is doing anything about it... it feels as if we are in some really bad movie

[BigBadDem]

14. What is the crisis that we are in

Trump won the election according to the constitution and he hasn't passed a single law yet so what is the crisis

[Abouttime]

2. Obama blew it

He could have stopped trump. He knew the Russians were going to hack our election. His DOJ could have charged trump with a crime, that would have handed the election to Hillary.
The election of trump unfortunately will stain Obamas legacy and I'm sure it will be his biggest regret. He could have, should have stopped trump by any means necessary.

[EffieBlack]

3. Riiight

Because sitting presidents should indict their preferred candidate's opponent during a campaign.

Yes, that would work out nicely.

Or maybe . . . Democrats should have protected our OWN interests and fought like hell to make sure that Hillary Clinton got as many votes as possible - you know, by working to get out the vote, fighting voter suppression like our lives depended on it, not whining about how "uninspiring" our candidate supposedly was, not swallowing and regurgitating Republican talking points about her, etc. - rather than expecting the President of the United States to ride to our rescue by injecting his Justice Department into the presidential election.

Yes - THAT would actually have worked.

And one more thing - There is absolutely NOTHING that Trump - or anyone else - can do to stain President Obama's legacy. His legacy will forever shine.

[mcar]

4. This!

[NWCorona]

5. Agreed! IMHO Obama played more than his part to elect Hillary

[global1]

8. Hillary, The Dems, The Obamas, Biden And Even Bill....

Last edited Fri Dec 2, 2016, 11:12 AM - Edit history (1)

campaigned against the man named Trump. They didn't attack the root cause of all our problems - the Repug Party - that thanks to BushCo left this country in a shambles due to unnecessary wars, excessive spending and economic ruin. They also did everything they possibly could over the last eight years to sandbag and gridlock most all attempts by Obama and the Dems to get us out of this mess. To make matters worse - they blamed the Dems and Obama.

We needed to shout this out over the campaign and let the American People see the real villians here.

Instead - they fell prey to the same thing the Repug Clown Car did. They attacked Trump who used those attacks to con enough vulnerable people to win him the Repug nomination and then the presidency.

The rest is history. Read about it in the book - The Making of a President 2016.

The real 'deplorables' are those Repugs that serve in Congress and run the States.

[EffieBlack]

33. They didn't run against the Republican Party? Apparently you missed much of the campaign

And you're damned right that they ran against the man named Trump. That's who was running against Hillary...

[global1]

35. Then How Do You Explain How The Repugs Hit The....

trifecta?

The Dems & Hillary spent more time discrediting Trump and very little time telling the American People who really was the cause of all their problems.

I was pretty connected listening to all the debates, campaign speeches and the Dem talking heads on the cable news channels.

Very little time was taken to really explain how the Repugs screwed us over. In fact I remember reading here on DU that the Hillary campaign wanted to court the anti-Trump Repugs and didn't want to piss them off by dissing the Repug Party.

Sorry - but that's my Monday a.m. quarterbacking of why we lost so big.

If we really took on the Repugs - why would voting Americans reward them the House, Senate & the presidency?

[EffieBlack]

36. We took on the Republicans

But voters in key states LIKE them for many of the reasons I've already expressed - such as the fact that the Republicans appeal to their basest instincts.

Other reasons:

1. Hillary took on the Republicans, but she also had to spend a lot of her time and breath fighting off Bernie Sanders and many of his supporters her were yelling very loudly for a very long time that SHE was as bad as they were.
2. She also had to fight off the media and Comey;
3. Voter suppression

And, by the way, she didn't lose "so big." She actually won the popular vote by millions and only lost the key swing states by razor thin margins - and probably would have won those handily had minority voters been prevented from voting or having their votes counted.

[global1]

37. She Did Win The Popular Vote - But We Dems Lost Big....

the Repugs are in control of the whole enchilada.

We didn't do a very good job at illustrating how the Repugs screwed us over - through the BushCo administration and the last eight years.

As for blaming Bernie - I can't buy that. Hillary won the nomination and Bernie threw his support to her. The primaries were over. We're talking about the presidential campaign here.

Voter suppression - hmmmm - but Hillary won big in the popular vote. That's what you said.

Comey's shots came late in the game and maybe caused some undecideds to finally make their decision.

But if we were as relentless on the Repugs as the Repugs were on e-mails and Obamacare we should have been able to win more states.

We really had the better message - that of the Repugs stonewalling and not letting anything get thru Congress - no progress - hell they wouldn't even let Obama have his SCOTUS nominee approved.

We needed to hammer all that home - over and over - until it sank in that the Repugs are the enemy.

We didn't do a good job of that. We called some American voters 'deplorable' when the real DEPLORABLES were and are the Repug Congress.

[Afromania]

31. yup

137% on the money with an extra 3% just for fun.

[libtodeath]

6. You are accusing President Obama of commiting treason

[kentuck]

7. In hindsight, did you believe this after the election...?

...or did you believe this even before the election?

[Joe941]

9. Obama should have indicted Trump for something. We know he is a criminal!

[kentuck]

10. I would agree that the present Justice Department has been very quiet...

on all fronts.

[MineralMan]

12. Presidents cannot indict anyone. That is not in their power.

I do wish people understood better how this all works. Federal indictments require a grand jury hearing. The DOJ handles that, not the President. Presidential powers are limited by the Constitution. I recommend reading that document from time to time.

[Joe941]

24. I'm sure he could have pulled some strings under the table and got the job done!

[MineralMan]

25. Actually, no, he couldn't.

In the first place, there would have to be an investigation. Then, a grand jury would have to hear that evidence. You see, only a grand jury can indict. The President can only suggest to his Attorney General that an investigation should take place. Beyond that, his role is nil. There's a reason for that, actually. The President has to maintain distance from federal prosecutions. That has been established for a very long time.

So, President Obama could say, "Maybe you should investigate Donald Trump in the following areas." That would be the extent of his participation, and the Attorney General would push back hard at any further participation.

Again, I don't think you understand how these things work.

[MFM008]

28. Now most of us haven't read the constitution?

[TwilightZone]

30. Is that a trick question?

Polls put the number of people who've read the Constitution at 20%-30%. The numbers increase slightly with the age of the respondent, perhaps because it doesn't seem to be taught in schools as much as it previously was, though that's just a guess.

So, yeah, I'm pretty sure most of us haven't read it, assuming "us" is voters or the American public. Or even DUers. DUers pretty routinely ascribe traits to the federal government, such as being able to pass universal voting regulations applicable to all jurisdictions, that run counter to Constitutional requirements.

[EffieBlack]

34. And then he would have been Trump.

No, thank you.

[Txbluedog]

13. Barack Obama is President of the United States

Not the tin pot dictator of some African nation. There was nothing he could do legally to harm Donald Trump. He did his best on the campaign trail for Clinton. That was and should have been the extent of his contribution to the election process. He is now going to do his job and ensure a peaceful transition of power.

[RoccoR2]

21. not well thought out n/t

n/t

[Afromania]

32. ok

Yea right, and the Republican horde would have tried to burn him at the fucking stake, and then burned the stake and then burn the fire that burned the stake. They are still crucifying Bill Clinton by proxy via Hillary for having sexual relations with a WILLING adult woman. God help Obama if he did something so blatantly Banana Republic as what you're suggesting.

[beachbum bob]

11. obama has nothing he can do...conservatives intent is to destroy the name obama the same way they

did to carter and clinton....

[sarisataka]

15. What "Constitutional crisis"?

[kentuck]

16. If he is not adhering to our Constitution?

Do you think that is not a "crisis"? That the laws to not apply to him? That the "checks and balances" vote as a partisan lot and will probably agree with his divisive, anti-American viewpoints? If not a "crisis", what would we call it?

[sarisataka]

17. How is he not adhering

to the Constitution? He hasn't done anything yet because he isn't President yet.

Please point out some clause he or any branch of government is currently ignoring.

[kentuck]

18. You cannot wait until you are President to refuse to follow the laws...

You are sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution - not to disavow and ignore the Constitution.
(The "emolument clause" in the Constitution is quite clear)

[sarisataka]

19. OK then

How is he ignoring anything

Don't be an ass isn't in the Constitution

[jalan48]

20. Release the classified information about the Trump-Russian connection that the Democratic

Senators on the Intelligence Committee have asked him to do.

[DeminPennswoods]

22. This and

the Patriot Act gives the president plenty of power to deal with threats to the US.

But last night on Rachel Maddow's show, she reported Obama didn't want to appear to be putting his thumb on the scale by providing all the info on the Russia hacking/interference in the election during election season. I. Was. Stunned. The president evidently thought it was more important not to appear "partisan" than to be President and inform the nation of what was happening behind the scenes regarding Russian.

[Dems to Win]

23. Could Obama somehow disable / eliminate the nuclear button before the handover?

Stand down the nuclear forces, disable the weapons so they would take time to bring back on line. Eliminate the hair trigger.

Would this even be possible?

Sincere question

[yeoman6987]

26. Screwing with a nuclear code will give you life in jail

Thank god president obama is in charge.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

27. take a nap? has the man not already done enough?

although as he said, he is going to work on voting issues.

[Afromania]

29. nothing

There is not a single thing he can do to bring this country back together. His mere fact he was elected was enough to make a strong, STRONG chunk of this country so insane with rage that they willingly elected a man that at would have trouble being voted in as chief county dog catcher.

The only way I could possibly see something working is if Obama walked out of the White House to a full gathering of the press and explain how we as a country, and a world, blew it and there there are number of asteroids that would be arriving "shortly". Then he and his family fly the hell away surrounded by a host of angels. Then and only then would there be a 3.33% chance people would believe what he said enough to toss aside the stupid hate.