Michael Brendan Dougherty
January 3, 2017
Barack Obama came into the White House in a cloud of glory and optimism.
He defined the problems that the nation faced in his first inaugural address. First, the nation was at war with a network of violence and hatred. Second, our economy was badly weakened. Homes were lost, and businesses shuttered. Health care was too expensive. Schools failed their students. And finally, "less measurable, but no less profound, is a sapping of confidence across our land; a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable." Obama promised that he and the country would meet these challenges head on.
Eight years later, as Obama prepares to depart the White House, he leaves the nation in a cloud of disappointment, recrimination, and even paranoia. None of the wars Obama inherited are truly over, and he has started or joined America to several more. If anything, the sense of America's decline is even more palpable than before.
For a sense of that decline, look at the pathetic tantrums that the Obama administration is throwing in its last days. After the White House received some criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others in the media for letting a non-binding resolution condemning Israeli settlements pass at the U.N., Secretary of State John Kerry let fly with a speech on Israel and its settlements at a bewildering length. He scolded Israel for having the "most right-wing [government] in Israeli history, with an agenda driven by the most extreme elements." It was petty and unnecessary. Letting the resolution pass said everything that the administration hoped to express. Nattering on just evidenced the impotent frustration of the administration, particularly since it will not ratchet down foreign aid or military aid to Israel.
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http://theweek.com/articles/670479/pathetic-end-obama-era
