Barack Obama: ‘The American Dream is something no wall will ever contain’

‘Our strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump’


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PHILADELPHIA — President Barack Obama found himself in the unenviable position of having to defend presidential nominee Hillary Clinton after a fractious Democratic Convention.

And he had to focus on what is arguably her biggest weakness: national security.

In her four years serving as Secretary of State, her critics argue, Clinton effectively created a power vacuum for ISIS, thanks to her insistence on military intervention in the relatively stable Libya, and she jeopardized highly classified intelligence information through her usage of private, unsecured servers.

However, Clinton has a — somewhat — easy out from all of this. If she just chalked up her State record to a rookie mistake, one which was a learning opportunity for her, preparing her for the leadership stage, just perhaps she could actually be forgiven. If Clinton, who’s currently trusted by just 32 percent, under one-third of the population, could show a sliver of humility and personal responsibility, maybe she could be wholeheartedly embraced in the fight against a race-baiting strongman who has no knowledge or respect of the Constitution.

Despite seven in 10 Americans thinking that this country is moving in the wrong direction, the audience still unilaterally adores him, shouting “Yes we can!” even though eight years of the Obama administration has proven that we couldn’t.

“I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as president to tell you I have more optimistic than ever before,” Obama said. Obama cited shutting down Iran’s nuclear program (sure!), signing the Paris Climate accords (which have literally no Congressional impact) and delivering just to Osama Bin Laden (alright, I’ll give him that one).

Obama gave a projection of the speech the First Lady gave on Monday, one woven with a beautiful web of platitudes and fake bones thrown to conservatives. Donald Trump’s despicability and utter lack of principles made this easy, if not inevitable.

“It’s precisely this contest of ideas that pushed this country forward. But what we heard in Cleveland last week wasn’t particularly Republican – and it sure wasn’t conservative,” Obama started, an accurate reflection of Trump’s failure as a candidate. But then Obama proceeded to fall in the Democratic trap of defending his shoddy international record: “What we heard was a deeply pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against each other, and turn away from the rest of the world. There were no serious solutions to pressing problems – just the fanning of resentment, and blame, and anger, and hate.”

The fact is that no matter how much faith Obama has in America, his foreign policy still, still gave rise to a genocidal, evil, international terrorist organization. Trump’s message may have been negative, but the overwhelming majority of Americans found the mere fact that Trump recognized the very real, tangible problems our country faces somewhat comforting. At least comforting enough that Trump now carries an actual lead over Clinton in post-convention polls.

And as far as that “contest of ideas” goes, the rest of Obama’s speech lambasted them. “Ronald Reagan called America ‘a shining city on a hill,'” he said. “Donald Trump calls it ‘a divided crime scene’ that only he can fix.”

The city on a hill represents American principles, enshrining legal equality for all, transcendent of time, even when people were wrongly enslaved or denied the right to vote. The divided crime scene is the only honest diagnosis Trump has made, one which is a product of the Obama administration’s uniquely divided rhetoric. But as usual, Obama sold it, with impeccable oration condemning an egregious, un-American opposition.

“The American Dream is something no wall will ever contain,” Obama correctly assessed. The roaring audience seemed to agree. In a convention riddled with inter-party feuds, only a single “No TPP!” interrupted the president. Of course none of this is counting the continuous Yes we cans which littered the Obama doctrine.

Obama didn’t take the true steps to exonerate Clinton from his messy doctrinal legacy. Although he asserted: “There has never ever been, not me, not Bill, anyone more qualified to serve as the president of the United States,” he did not do the truly American thing, to ask for forgiveness, to ask for mercy from his constituents. Instead he said: “Anyone who threatens our values, whether fascists or communists or jihadists or homegrown demagogues, will always fail in the end.”

“America is already great. America is already strong,” Obama added. “And I promise you, our strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump.”