President Obama’s Legacies

By Rick Blumenberg @rickblumenberg 

President Obama, as with most U.S. presidents, according to the news pundits, is concerned about his legacy as POTUS. I think his legacy is two-fold: one positive and one negative.

The negative legacy was his arrogance in regards to his relationship with congress and especially the Republican Party. He began his first term with a democratic house and senate and seemed to think this made him king of the hill. He refused to even listen or talk to republicans and ran rough-shod over their experience and expertise, doing what was right in his own eyes. My first impression of the early days of his presidency was that his arrogance knew no bounds. This attitude softened a bit when he lost some of that support in later elections, but arrogance was the hallmark of his administration to the detriment of our nation.

The republicans on the other hand, instead of trying to build a relationship with him, responded in anger and fought him for the remaining years of his two terms. They were more concerned about their hurt feelings than the good of the nation and as a result they accomplished very little even when they did have some clout.

The other, very positive legacy of President Obama was the nature of his family relationships. He was, by all appearances, a loving husband and a devoted father. This may be the most important thing he did as president. He made it clear that Michelle was the love of his life, and that he respected and admired her for the strong and capable woman she is. He has been a good example for all of us husbands as to the relationship we should have with our wives.

As a father, I thought he was superb. I don’t think anything matters more to him than the well-being of his two beautiful daughters. He was an example of loving, quality fatherhood to us all. I believe one of the greatest reasons for the overwhelming poverty of so many of our inner-city African-American communities is the prevalence of single parent homes and the absence of fathers in the home. Generations of African-American young men grew up with no good father figure to teach them how to be good fathers. President Obama was the father-figure they needed and he used his “bully pulpit” to encourage black youth to man up and be the fathers their children needed. I am convinced this is his greatest legacy. It is the most important thing he did as president. Its value is immeasurable and I hope he builds on it in the years to come.

The sad thing is that the republicans never recognized these qualities nor gave him credit for the awesome thing he was doing just by being a good Dad and encouraging all other dads—red and yellow, black and white—to be the best dads we could be. Question his policies, decisions and actions in politics all you want to, but give him credit for what he did right. It will have a lasting positive effect on our nation.

President-elect Trump will begin in the same position President Obama was in his first term—with both houses of congress in his party. In Trump’s victory speech he said he will work with everyone, including those who didn’t support him in both parties, to lead our nation. I sincerely hope he follows through on that commitment.

I'm Rick Blumenberg and that's

 My View from Tanner Creek.

     

Liberal is not a Dirty Word….

But neither is Conservative.

By Rick Blumenberg @rickblumenberg

Recently two pictures have been posted side-by-side on Facebook. The word EQUALITY was above the pictures in bold type and big enough to spread over both. Each individual picture had a heading. The heading of one picture said “Equality to a conservative”. This picture showed three young people watching a ball game, all standing on boxes to see over the fence. Sounds good so far, but one youth was tall and stood high above the fence, the second was mid-size so his head was not so high, but above the fence—both having good views of the game. However the third one, although he was standing on a box the same size as the others, was so short all he could see was the board fence.

The “Equality to a liberal” pictured the tall young man standing on the ground, the mid-size one in the same position, with the short one standing on two boxes. The result was that all three could see could see the game.

My comment; “I don't think you understand true conservatism.”

A true conservative is glad to help and wants everyone to do better and have success in life. We just don’t believe the government is the one to make it happen. It should happen when people people are free to help themselves progress. When they truly cannot help themselves we need to be there to help them. The government should do the work of protecting everyone so they have freedom to live, work, love, etc. Government taxing workers to support people who could work but won't makes conservatives very unhappy and causes said workers to lose incentive and they may just give up.

I am not really a conservative or a liberal. I fall somewhere in between. On some issues I like the liberal stance and in other issues I support the conservative viewpoint. And I have good friends in both camps. Probably they all question my wisdom or intelligence, but for different issues. For the most part they are also friends with each other. Most liberals believe it is our responsibility to help the poor and down-trodden so they have better lives—so do conservatives. The two camps differ most in the methods they use to accomplish what are often very similar goals.

Liberal is not a dirty word…. but neither is conservative.

The primary attitude of some people in both camps (liberal and conservative) is hatred and anger toward those in the opposing camp. Neither of these types are genuine liberals, nor conservatives. Maybe they're just haters as each refuses to consider that the opposing camp could ever be right.

I think both are sometimes right.....and sometimes wrong

For the most part, the good people in both camps are just trying to make the world a better place using methods they are most comfortable with. Their ultimate goals are often quite similar.

Maybe God made both?

Being the armchair theologian I am, I think it is possible God calls different people with different personalities to different camps because it fits their individual make-up. If we all love each other and respect each other and work together when we can, the world should continue to be a better and better place.

I’m Rick Blumenberg and that’s 

My View from Tanner Creek.

                           

Good Questions, Good Answers

By Rick Blumenberg @rickblumenberg

That’s my view of the Republican Debate tonight. I nominate John Dickerson as "Moderator of the Year". He handled the Republican Debate with expertise & skill, together with a great sense of humor. He was patient with the candidates to a point, but knew when and how to draw the line and call them back on target.

As for the candidates, I call Dr Ben Carson & Gov John Kasich as the clear winners. Both of them concentrated on communicating their message without disparaging any of their opponents. They even challenged their opponents to do the same. Both had excellent closing statements. Come on South Carolina! Make them one and two in your primary election. I’m sure you’ll make the right choice about who should be # 1 and who # 2.

Actually I thought all did pretty well except for Mr. Trump who was obviously struggling. I did appreciate that he agreed to cut the profanity out of his future speeches. I’m not sure he can do it but he swears (ooops! Is that a Freudian slip?). He swears he can cut out the swearing. We’ll see. But in my opinion he came in 7th of only 6 debaters.

I know some get tired of the many debates, but I like them. We get to see the candidates up close and personal (as much as we can by TV) and hear their view what a president should be. I know of no other way we could get to know them so well.

I watched the Democratic Debate also. I thought Senator Bernie Sanders clearly won, but that's a little scary. I like him as a person and appreciate his passion, but practically speaking...he isn't.

I’m Rick Blumenberg

and that’s

My View from Tanner Creek.