I could not care less then or now about Obama’s foreignness or race or any of that. I care that he’s a leftist and an Alinskyite and community organizer, very good at tactics for the left (one of his specialties going way back has always been “voting rights” to expand the Democrats’ voting base). See this, just to take one small example out of very many. Also see this, this, this, this, this, and this.

I could go on and on and on linking old posts, but you get the idea.

The only reason Obama didn’t go as far left as Biden has is that he had to do it in steps that the public could tolerate at the time. Once he paved the way it could be ratcheted up.

Obama understood that he was president of half the country and saw his job as pleasing his half of the country and taking verbal jabs at the other half of the country. Sometimes he went further, but there weren’t many opponents of the regime languishing in prison or political opponents submitted to constant legal harassment.

In policy, Obama didn’t take things as far as Biden. A big reason was the Republican Congress. Another reason was that Democrats didn’t realize how far the could go or how far they wanted to go. There was still a little Clinton era caution around. I never voted for Obama, but my vote for Trump was less about dissatisfaction with Obama and more about the mistakes both parties had made over decades (and about Hillary Clinton).

I understand that Obama was arrogant and definitely not a uniter. If I’m not as hard on him as I could be, one reason is that there was definitely an Obama Derangement Syndrome. To be sure, the man’s mysterious origins and rise invited speculation, but some things were just made up. I couldn’t see joining in the mudfest. Another reason is that the paradox that the guy with a foreign name and foreign ideas was less radical in practice than the grandfatherly, old, All-American fellow who’d been in Congress forever was intriguing and also somehow rang true for me. Fools rush in where cunning, yet circumspect, men don’t go.

he did have a patina of charisma, which can’t be said of biden, who was substandard even in the best of times, he was entrusted various portfolios that had varying degrees of failure,

I could not disagree with you more about Obama. I have never understand the point of view you espouse, although I’ve read it quite a few times from other people. I see Obama very differently; I’ve written about him a lot, so I will be brief here. He is highly intelligent and a good tactician and a wholly dedicated leftist who was smart enough to calibrate his moves to the left very carefully. He’s not a sole dictator of the left or of Biden, but he is a large factor.

Is there a master plan? Some people, like Klaus Schwab, draw up master plans, but separate ideas and partial plans percolate through the system and are picked up piecemeal. There are an array of goals and aims in different policy areas, but the main preoccupation of the regime is staying in power.

And, no, Obama isn’t running things. He was a figurehead himself, more of a time-server or dilettante than a fanatic with a clear vision of what he wanted. The whole Democrat party is behind Biden’s policies. There isn’t a need for an external string-puller. If there is one, it isn’t Barry.

BTW, Biden was older when he took office than Brezhnev was when he died. Are we now a “gerontocracy”? Probably not but one could have come to that conclusion when Pelosi was still speaker.

https://notthebee.com/article/not-a-single-jeopardy-contestant-got-this-clue-last-night

This was the question:
Matthew 6:9 says: “Our Father which art in heaven,” THIS “be thy name.”

Perhaps in some future constitutional convention we can create a fourth branch of government for the media, and then allow only the media personnel that we elect to actually provide information of a political nature for our consideration. The Framers left implicit that which might better have been made explicit as part of our checks and balances.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/video/2016/may/03/damian-lewis-antony-julius-caesar-friends-romans-countrymen-shakespeare-video